How to make Anansi White?

A man as brilliant as his hair is strange.

In reading a recent interview with Neil Gaiman something interesting popped out at me:

"I don’t like it when black characters become white in movies, or things like that. That was something I found deeply problematic with the attempt by some people who had a lot of money and a lot of clout, and who wanted the rights to Anansi Boys, at one point. Somewhere in there, they made the fatal mistake of saying to me, “And, of course, the characters won’t be black in the movie because black people don’t like fantasy.” They were suddenly very surprised that we were no longer interested in selling them the book."

What in the world? Why on Earth would anyone want to re-cast Anansi Boys as not Black (pressumably White)? How? What? Why?

Spoilers ahead. If you haven't read the book, immediately go to your bookseller of choice and buy it. There's also a very good audiobook recording of it floating around the internet. It is brilliant. One of my favorite books.

Get it. Read it. Love it.

Ok, let's dig into this.

This is a story about Afican gods and the son/sons of one African god in particular - Anansi, the spider. The story is steeped in African mythology and modern African American culture. While it is written by a white Englishman, it gives what feels like a very authentic and respectful nod to the mysticism of African American culture, particularly in the South East.

(Note: There is some debate as to whether or not Anansi is really considered a god or just a character in a number of fables. As the book takes the god perspective, I'm going to refer to him as such.)

Anansi is the spider out of a number of West African folk tales, presented in the book as a trickster god and the keeper of stories. The stories he is in often focus around his sly ways of fooling others for the benefit of himself:

I remember hearing stories of Anansi and others as a child, even though I was fairly culturally separated from their origin. While not incredibly common in the US, these stories are still told widely through West Africa and Jamaica. (If they're common elsewhere, I'd love to know more.)

That's one of the beauties of Anansi Boys. While it is told from the perspective of a modern day African American man who seems to have a bit of a disliking for his past (particularly because of his father's antics), it is deeply rooted in the stories and mythos of the "Old World" as it were.

So how on Earth could you recast the main characters as anything but Black?

Anansi is the father of the main character and his "brother". If you recast these brothers as not black, then would Anansi himself not be African? Were the movie makers intending on making Anansi any race they wanted to because he wasn't human and therefore could take any form? What about the friends and family, whose characterizations are very closely tied to their cultural and racial identities?

And would these movie makers not consider the implications of taking an African god and casting him or his children as not African?

I'm generally in support of color blind casting. For example, having a mix of races representing the gods in Thor was a pleasant surprise for me. While those characters should, in the purest sense of the mythos they are based on, be Nordic, having a mixed-race cast gave it an interesting diversity that didn't bother me in the slightest or take me out of the film.

I loved this guy. Seriously. Awesome casting, as far as I'm concerned.

 There are grey areas in color blind casting, like the issue over the "racist" casting for extras in the Hobbit. I still don't really know where I stand on that one. Did Tolkein specify the skin color of the hobbits? No. But he was writing an alternative mythology for the peoples of Western Europe, particularly England - ethnically, white. And he specified that the people to the South who fought under Sauron were dark skinned. So, is it wrong to cast light skinned people as hobbits? In fitting with how the racial makeup was presented in the Lord of the Rings series, it would make sense to keep them pale. But is it racism?

Pic Barely Related

And if it is racism to cast only white people because of the cultural setting, would it have been racist to cast only Asian actors in the Avatar: The Last Airbender film? After all, that film should be cast as all Asian due to it's cultural inspirations. (Personally, I would have preferred that. However, a shitty film is still a shitty film despite the race of the actors involved.)

That's part of a store-bought Aang costume. Nightmare fuel.

So yes, there are grey areas when it comes to racial casting, and there always will be. But when the race of the characters is so ingrained in who and what they are...

Let's just say, I'm glad someone was dumb enough to tell Gaiman of their casting choices before they got the rights to the book.

PS - Just a note about strange book cover designs:

I found that under the listing for a Japanese copy of Anansi Boys. Um, what? Why is there a chubby white angel on the cover? Does that really describe a book about African folklore that has nothing to do with angels or Judeo-Christian mythology?

All I can say: Oy.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know! As long as we keep things civil, I'm happy to host some debate and discussion.