theokkindofpossessed:

The differences should go without saying.

To whitewash is to lighten a character or person’s skin or make a character more eurocentric, and is incredibly common. Artists, casters, and magazine editors whitewash because they or their readers  have (sub)conscious, eurocentric ideals of beauty, as in believing that only white or light people can be beautiful.

In other words, whitewashing in the modern world (which suffers from white supremacy and European colonialism which has caused many horrors and is still very strong although denied by those that can afford to) is both caused by and upholds racism and shadism, two beliefs that have and do literally kill. Yes, even in the 1st world.

To racebend, when not used as a synonym for whitewashing, is to change a character’s race or shade to a more brown, oppressed, and/or unsatisfyingly represented group. Artists and on rare occasions casters racebend because they are sick of the whitewashing they have seen and chose racebending as a retaliation or racebend in an attempt to include a wider demographic of viewers. Racebending because of beauty ideals is not too common this day and age due to media favoring white and light people.

In other words, racebending in the modern world (which suffers from white supremacy and European colonialism, which has caused many horrors and is still very strong) is a sort of comeback (but NOT by any stretch an equivalent) to whitewashing or done by casters to represent an audience who were previously ignored. Racebending does not uphold a prominent evil, and it does not contribute to or uphold anything that kills. Those that see racebending in action won’t walk away with lifelong complexes validated. 

See the difference?

(Source: thatcrazyassnewb, via crankycritic-deactivated2012061)