History Main / MonoChromeCasting

* ''{{Wrestling/Wrestlicious}}'' featured a rather huge proportion of white women wrestlers compared to women of colour, despite picking a mixture of women on the indies and actresses and models trained for the show. The only prominent woman of colour was Lil' Slamm - although the 2010 reshoots added in Coco Montegro (played by Josette Bynum). There were two Latinas in Bandita and Maria Toro but that was about it. Wrestling/MiaYim did work live events but never appeared on TV, and a one-shot BellyDancer character called Aziza had a cameo in one episode.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has only a few characters of color and all of them are minor - Angelina Johnson, Lee Jordan and Dean Thomas are the only Black students, and Dean was in fact supposed to have a larger role that just went to Neville, and so his only function is to date Ginny briefly before she ends up with Harry. Cho Chang (East Asian) and Parvati Patil (South Asian) function as {{Romantic False Lead}}s for Harry but both lose any story relevance by the sixth book, and Parvati's twin sister Padma only appears in a handful of chapters. Lavender Brown was seemingly portrayed as Black in the first few films, where she was just a featured extra, but her expanded role in the ''Half Blood Prince'' movie saw the white Jessie Cave playing her. Kingsley Shackelbolt is the only named Black person in the Order of the Phoenix, who at least gets to be made Minister for Magic at the end, but never has a story of his own. JK Rowling backtracked when ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'' cast a Black actress as Hermione (and therefore her daughter as well), insisting that she'd never specified Hermione's race, aside from one line describing "Hermione's white face" in reference to her getting scared, but of course she'd been played by a white actress in the films and drawn as white in all the illustrations and tie-in media before the adaptations.

* ''Film/TheNorthman'': Like the previous two films directed by Creator/RobertEggers, this movie features an all-white cast of characters. This is not surprising considering that it is set in Viking Age Scandinavia and based on Norse mythology.

* A very famous example is WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons. The Springfield inhabitants are yellow if white, tan if nationally from a country with mixed-race, and brown if black. In fact, Matt Groening made The Simpson family and Springfield's white inhabitants yellow because he thought they would be eye-catching and unique for people switching through channels.

* A very famous example is WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons. The Springfield inhabitants are yellow if white, tan if nationally from a country with mixed-race, and brown if black. In fact, Matt Groening made The Simpson family and Springfield's white inhabitants yellow because he though they would be eye-catching and unique for people switching through channels.

* In general, most anime and manga have predominantly Japanese casts, [[{{Mukokuseki}} whether the characters really look Japanese or not]]. If a non-Japanese character does show up, they'll likely be a GorgeousGaijin of European descent with other ethnicities and races rarely making an appearance.

* At the very beginning of ''Series/TheWestWing'', all the main characters were cast as white. When the NAACP criticized the show, the show's creators agreed with them -- so they revived the character of Charlie Young (who was cut from the pilot somewhere between script and screen) and introduced him in the third episode. The characters on the show actually lampshade the situation by being seriously concerned with how it will look for the one visible Black staff member to be the President's errand boy. This episode also introduces John Amos as the Black Admiral Percy Fitzwallace Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and would go on to add several Black Congresspeople and a Black National Security Advisor.

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Although the show's lack of black characters is somewhat fitting for Seattle, given that the Black population of Seattle is very small and highly concentrated in an area far from the characters' affluent hangouts. [[note]]The Winton family who live on the floor above - but the mother and son are atypical[[/note]] the show does drop the ball when it comes to Asians, who do make up a significant percentage of Seattle's population (about 1/8th) but are largely absent from the series.[[note]]Frasier once inadvertently burns down an Asian newsagent's kiosk, and in one episode he flirts with an obviously Far Eastern potential girlfriend 9he fails miserably) but that's it. In over 200 episodes.[[/note]]

* ''Series/OneTreeHill'' is somewhat seen as this. Although from the beginning, they have had Black male characters and even had one in the opening credits by season four, there were no ''female'' Black characters unless they were only in the background with little to no lines. There was an episode where Lucas ran into an old friend of his who was a Black female, BUT viewers never heard of her prior to the episode and they only reunited outside of Tree Hill.
* Happens InUniverse in ''Series/{{Psych}}'': In "Psych the Musical", Gus complains about the [[ShowWithinAShow cast members of a musical production]] being all white. They point out that being an adaption of the UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper story, it takes place in 19th century London, to which he responds "So what are you saying, Black people hadn't been invented yet?" He also points out that it wouldn't be unreasonable to at least have some of the minor characters be played by actors of other races.

* ''Series/NormalPeople'', another Irish-set series, justifies this in the early episodes. The story begins in rural Sligo, with only the occasional person of colour in the background. Once things move to Dublin in the fourth episode, more minorities show up. It's further used to highlight the differences between the two locations

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' takes place in the suburbs of Woodcrest, Marilyn, and the main and recurring cast consists almost entirely Black people. Aside from Sarah, Gin, Cindy, and The Wuncler Family, the only white people to make prominent recurring appearances are either white-passing or mixed-race like Jazmine.

* ''Shuffle Along'', ''Cabin in the Sky'', ''Theatre/PorgyAndBess'', ''Theatre/TheWiz'', and ''Literature/TheColorPurple'' are some of the Broadway musicals with an all-Black cast.[[note]]For a longer list, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:All-Black_cast_Broadway_shows go here.]][[/note]] Considering the heavy cultural scripts and backgrounds of said works, these plays could not experience RaceLifting.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In an [[InvertedTrope inversion]] of the usual application of this trope in 1960, all of the actors with speaking roles in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E27TheBigTallWish The Big Tall Wish]]", with the exception of Walter Burke, are African-Americans. It is especially notable as the episode did not concern racial issues.

* Creator/{{UPN}} was infamous for having entire blocks of programming with overwhelmingly Black casts. But most of those shows were made to be an alternative to the all-white shows. Noticeably, several of the shows on the network included a main cast member that was not Black, if not a TokenWhite including ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris'', ''Series/TheParkers'', ''Series/Eve2003'' and later seasons of ''Series/OneOnOne''.

* In ''Franchise/SpiderMan,'' the non-white population of New York City seems to consist of... Robbie. (Okay, sometimes we see his wife and son, too.) They've had other minority characters, but none of them stood the test of time. To avoid this in adaptations, ''[[WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan Spectacular]]'' and ''[[Film/SpiderManHomecoming Homecoming]]'' [[RaceLift race-lifted]] half the cast, and ''{{WesternAnimation/Ultimate|SpiderMan2012}}'' uses mostly minority heroes like ComicBook/LukeCage and ComicBook/WhiteTiger as part of the team.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld]], it is established early on that Howondaland is the FantasyCounterpartCulture for Africa. Ankh-Morpork is implicitly a fantasy version of London and has corresponding ethnic communities, although only two incidental characters are clearly stated to be black: policewoman Precious Jolson and her father, who runs a catering business.

* ''Series/EastEnders'' - Sweet Baby Jesus. The show takes place in one of the most ethnically diverse parts of one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world and somehow manages to be 90 percent white. Worse yet, this is a fairly recent development. When the show started in 1985, the area's demographics were roughly the same and you could count the non-white actors on one hand. It's like the producers hadn't visited the area since the Fifties.[[note]]They probably hadn't. The [=BBC=] remains a tough employer to get into if you aren't ethnically white and socio-economically ''at least'' middle-class. People who get [=BBC=] staff jobs in production and management aspire to live in ''better'' parts of London and wouldn't be seen dead in an area like "Walford". The issue here isn't so much one of race, as one of social class and Establishment values. Why do you think so many of its BritComs centre on nice middle-class white families living in nice sought-after areas?[[/note]] (Heck, ''Series/CallTheMidwife'', which actually ''is'' set in the Fifties in the same part of London, might have had more minority guest appearances on average.)

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Although the show's lack of black characters is somewhat fitting for Seattle, given that the Black population of Seattle is very small and highly concentrated in an area far from the characters' affluent hangouts. the show does drop the ball when it comes to Asians, who do make up a significant percentage of Seattle's population (about 1/8th) but are largely absent from the series.

* ''Series/EastEnders'' - Sweet Baby Jesus. The show takes place in one of the most ethnically diverse parts of one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world and somehow manages to be 90 percent white. Worse yet, this is a fairly recent development. When the show started in 1985, the area's demographics were roughly the same and you could count the non-white actors on one hand. It's like the producers hadn't visited the area since the Fifties. (Heck, ''Series/CallTheMidwife'', which actually ''is'' set in the Fifties in the same part of London, might have had more minority guest appearances on average.)

* ''Series/ILoveLucy'' is an interesting case since, during this time, Desi Arnaz and the actors playing his friends and relatives from Cuba were not seen as non-whites, like they would be today, but more along the lines of a FunnyForeigner troupe.

* ''Series/{{Earthsea}}'', the Sci-Fi Channel adaptation of Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's Literature/{{Earthsea}} novels. Le Guin intentionally created a fantasy world where a variety of dark-skinned people make up the majority of the populace (she even makes a point of distinguishing between the different shades of brown), with the only white people being barbarians... and the movie starred a bunch of white people and a MagicalNegro. Le Guin has some [[https://slate.com/culture/2004/12/ursula-k-le-guin-on-the-tv-earthsea.html choice things]] to say about the production.
* The US version of ''Series/QueerAsFolk'' is somewhat disappointing since the show is about gay life in UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, which has a healthy Black population, yet one has to keep one's eye's peeled to even see non-white ''extras.'' Justin does have a TokenBlackFriend, but she's so light-skinned that you wouldn't notice until she mentions it herself.

Contrast PeopleOfHairColor. Compare HumansAreWhite, a similar phenomenon in unrealistic works. Contrast the FiveTokenBand, where it seems the writers were trying too hard in the opposite direction. Compare to WhiteMaleLead in which, while the cast is ethnically diverse, the main character and AudienceSurrogate is still white. May overlap with PopCultureIsolation. Compare PlentyOfBlondes. Compare ChromosomeCasting, the equivalent of this trope in sex (when characters of only one sex appear in a work).

* ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'' exploits this as a satire on 2000s horror movies, where the college kids selected for the ritual are all white, save for Holden (who is still [[ButNotTooBlack very light-skinned]]); acknowledging that 2000s slashers would often have one TokenMinority in there. The lab by contrast has far more people of colour working there, although even then Truman is the only one with a major speaking part.

* The US version of ''Series/QueerAsFolk'' is somewhat disappointing since the show is about gay life in UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, which has a healthy Black population, yet one has to keep one's eye's peeled to even see non-white ''extras.'' Justin does have a TokenBlackFriend, but she's [[ButNotTooBlack so light skinned that you wouldn't notice]] until she mentions it herself.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' takes place in the suburbs of Woodcrest, Marilyn, and the main and recurring cast consists almost entirely Black people. Aside from Sarah, Gin, Cindy, and The Wuncler Family, the only white people to make prominent recurring appearances are either white-passing, mixed-race mullatoes such as Jazmine.

* ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' has a contest for kids all over the world and yet all five of the winners are white and either American or European. Granted, [[Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory the 1964 source novel]] and [[Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory 1971 film version]] went the same way, but the 2005 version makes it clear that the ticket contest is worldwide, so the lack of racial diversity is more conspicuous. Creator/TimBurton admitted that his team had considered doing a RaceLift for some of the characters in the 2005 version, but since the kids (other than Charlie) are ''major brats'' with negative personality traits, the idea was dropped to avoid UnfortunateImplications. Tim Burton's concerns turned out to be accurate when the [[Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory 2013 stage musical]] created racial controversy by making Violet and her parents black. (It should be noted the book was an invoked example as well: Dahl had originally wanted to make Charlie black, but the editors forced him to change it.)
* ''Film/TheTreeOfLife''. Granted, it is set in a small, middle-class suburban town in the 1950s, providing some justification.

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' faces such criticism. Despite the SettingUpdate, London is almost as white as if it was in the Victorian era. While the second episode has [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs a Chinese criminal organization as antagonists]], all other main characters are white. Detective Sally Donovan and Watson's therapist are the only recurring characters of colors and they're very minors.

* While ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' only suffers from this trope due to the very limited cast (and also being shot in Minnesota, a state whose population at the time was 98% white and has not changed very much since then), the show is not above mocking the films they watch having very few minorities. ''Film/CatalinaCaper'' gets quite pointed about this.