Presented By: National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID)
Whitewashing Anime Adaptations: Ghost in the Shell and Dragonball Evolution

In David Oh’s presentation “Whitewashing Anime Remakes: Ghost in the Shell and Dragonball Evolution,” he makes a theoretical argument for “whitewashing” as an erasure of difference that centers and makes visible White subjectivity. Specifically, he argues that because of contemporary racial politics, Asian and Asian Americans are vulnerable to filmic erasure. He argues that whitewashing is among many strategies of White supremacy and that whitewashing operates by extending whiteness’s boundaries. For the talk, he focuses on his chapter on anime adaptations, including Dragonball Evolution and Ghost in the Shell to describe the ways Asianness is distorted and minimized in order to subjectify the White hero.