George Takei Slams Marvel for What He Sees as Marvel's Doctor Strange Whitewashing

George Takei initially picked apart Marvel for what he claims was blatant backpedaling on their part, when Marvel blamed the casting selection on the Chinese market as their reason for avoiding being associated with Tibet.



Then in the comments section Takei went off on what he views as a deep-seeded systematic problem of casting actors in movies for Asian roles.

"To those who say, "She an actress, this is fiction," remember that Hollywood has been casting white actors in Asian roles for decades now, and we can't keep pretending there isn't something deeper at work here. If it were true that actors of Asian descent were being offered choice roles in films, these arguments might prevail. But there has been a long standing practice of taking roles that were originally Asian and rewriting them for white actors to play, leaving Asians invisible on the screen and underemployed as actors. This is a very real problem, not an abstract one. It is not about political correctness, it is about correcting systemic exclusion. Do you see the difference?"