Several people have asked me about my thoughts on Scarlett Johansson's casting in Ghost in the Shell, Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange, and Emma Stone in Aloha...and I'm honestly conflicted between respecting a director's creative vision for a role and the desire for fair representation of minorities in power in America.

I'm Asian and work in Hollywood, so it's surprising to some people that I don't automatically desire all roles to be #StarringJohnCho or can't understand why I am more upset about Emma Stone than I am about ScarJo.

Emily Yoshida's article in The Verge does a better job of explaining why I can see ScarJo as Maj Kusanagi before Emma Stone as a hapa-haole. Obviously ALOHA had bigger problems than just the casting decisions, but if Bradley Cooper, Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin, and Cameron Crowe alone can't open a film, who's to say that replacing Emma would of helped or hurt?

As stated by Yoshida, anime has a troubled history with representation. I remember a discussion with the late Osamu Tezuka I attended as a child, when he stated that he made a conscious decision to draw his characters with exaggerated round eyes because when he started in the 1950's, Japanese audiences looked to the west as the inspiration for modern technology and that at the time, it was more believable that a robot boy would have western features.

American soldiers and businessmen stationed in Japan would bring these toys back home to their kids where they helped project a positive Japanese image overseas at a time when most westerners still considered Asia to be backwards and untrustworthy following World War II, and slowly laid the groundwork for a generation of kids who looked to the East for a future that they could see themselves a part and a partner to.

Indeed, not only does the Japanese publisher who owns the rights to Ghost in the Shell believe 'Scarlett Johansson is well cast', Yoshida refers to on-the-street interviews in Japan where the responses are predictably not that of objection, as they don't necessiarly view anime characters as particularly ethnic Japanese, but embody the concept of mukokuseki, or "statelessness".  

The difference lies in how Asian born Asians and Asians born in America view the world and how to best integrate their culture with those around them. Asians are the majority in Asia so they don't fully understand the discrimination Asian-Americans have experienced, and tend to view change through the subtle use of soft power, slowly over time by influencing non-Asian countries to think in a more Asian way. American-Asians want change in a bold and American way, and believe that the more Americans see Asians on screen, the more likely it will provide opportunities behind the scenes.

When viewed from that context, you can see how the roles have slowly reversed over the years from America's projection of the 'American Dream' during the 50's and 60's through the perceived happy prosperity shown in American film and television that influenced the technological boom in Asia. Western kids of the 80's and 90's then looked to Asia as modern and technologically superior. Now that both the Asian-American and Caucasian-American kids of the 80's are adults, they feel as if they have a sense of ownership of the cyberpunk anime of their youth and wish to appropriate that content for themselves.

Personally, I'm more interested in the long term acceptance of Asian stories by Asian content creators rather than the short term casting of an Asian actor playing a part written or directed by a Caucasian simply because diversity is currently the politically correct thing to do with out-of-touch filmmakers shamelessly pairing white stars with token minorities.  

It's not just about who's on screen, but who's making the creative decisions crafting the characters behind the scenes. Realistic representation of minority characters doesn't just come from more minority actors but from minority and diversity-sensitive writers, directors, producers, and production executives. Until we see significant change behind the scenes, all the hashtags in the world will only result in short term Oriental slipcovers on the western furniture instead of actually rebuilding the house to suit the environment.

Although ScarJo is playing a character that was originally conceived as being an ethnically ambiguous cyborg with a manufactured body, the fact is that as a whitewashed appropriation, it still maintains its Asian roots. Emma Stone playing a character specifically defined as quarter Chinese, quarter Hawaiian, half Swedish, and self-conscious about her cultural identity is a caricature and comparable to Mickey Rooney's yellow faced Mr. Yunioshi.

If anyone can play a cyborg questioning whether what she perceives as humanity is real or memorex, it's ScarJo. As for a girl self conscious about her ethnic privilege because she's multiracial and passes for Caucasian, I doubt Emma Stone or Cameron Crowe can ever truly understand that experience, so if you're going to write it, make sure you consult with and cast someone who does understand it.

What it all boils down to is that if we want change, we need to work for it. Our parents worked for it, and yes, our kids will still probably have to continue the fight. Simply tweeting about it or telling kids they can do anything doesn't help, all you're doing is preaching to the choir and alienating those intrenched in power.

We need to show that diverse content is actually viable by going to the theater and paying full price to watch movies that look the way we want. Talk to your friends in the majority about why it's important to you that a movie or television show is representative of America. Stay for the credits and support the studios that promote diversity behind the scenes instead of just the shows that throw in token stereotypical minority characters. 

Most importantly, don't just support your own minority cause and ignore the rest, but in order to enact real change, replace "minority" with "female", "disabled", "LGBT", "veteran", or "Muslim" and repeat. Replace "writers and directors" with "local businesses", "city council", "congress", or "president" and repeat.

The idea isn't to take over the theaters with our own minority causes, that's not diversity, diversity is promoting a representative view of all ethnicities, religions, and sub-cultures that make up America as a whole and incorporating them fully.

Use the golden rule of "do onto others..." when trying to write for or direct other minorities.  Ask yourself "if I were a character in this story", would you be ok with others creating caricature of your race, appropriating your religion, or using your culture as a punch line? If you don't know, take the time to consult with representatives of that culture/religion/race to insure you've presented a fair depiction of them.

Until America as a whole begins to see and accept that those of us in the minority are really more like them than we are different, that all we want is to simply be treated the same as they would treat anyone else from their church or neighborhood, we'll always be viewed as different, and different is a threat.

The short answer for those of you who just skimmed through this post...diversity is more than just casting an minority in a token role or even an producing a minority property that deals exclusively with a minority subject matter and doesn't translate into popular culture. It's about the respectful integration of minority culture with popular culture in front of and behind the camera. 

If Scarlett Johansson and Rupert Sanders can bring the audiences in with a successful adaptation of an Asian property that will introduce a new audience to anime, I say by all means, go for it. There's been a long history of adapting properties going both ways from Akira Kurosawa's interpretations of Shakespeare, to Hollywood's long infatuation with Kurosawa himself.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely agree that there should be more roles for Asians and minorities in Hollywood so we don't end up with 20 caucasian faces up on the screen come Oscar season again next year, but I'd prefer that it's not simply for the sake of window dressing and done with a sincere attempt to accurately reflect Asian culture and character, preferably with Asian writers, directors, or consultants involved in the development.

If you're going to whitewash a property, go all the way and make it your own as Marty did with 'The Departed' instead of simply dumbing it down and replacing the characters like Spike Lee did with 'Old Boy'.