History Main / RaceLift

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!!Examples of Diversifying a Cast

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* While most of OsamuTezuka's "Star System" rely on {{Mukokuseki}} when playing explicitly non-Japanese characters, his recurring schoolboy character Kenichi (or simply Ken) has had ''two'' Race Lifts. While usually portrayed as a dark-haired Japanese kid, in a few anime produced by Tezuka's company in the 1980s (most notably the second ''Anime/AstroBoy'' series), he was redrawn as a brown-haired, blue-eyed white kid. This was somewhat reversed in the ''Anime/{{Metropolis}}'' film, but in the 2003 ''Anime/AstroBoy'' anime series he has brown skin.
* In ''Anime/RidingBean'', [[MadeOfIron Bean Bandit's]] partner [[TheGunslinger Rally Vincent]] is blonde and appears white. When she became the main character in ''GunsmithCats'', she was dark-skinned with black hair, and her father is East-Asian Indian, making Rally biracial with an English mother.
* In a very subtle and tricky one, the ''{{Appleseed}} 3D'' animation's secondary protagonist, the full-body cyborg Briareos Hecatonchires is shown in the original manga to have been African-American before [[WeCanRebuildHim becoming a]] {{Cyborg}}, while in the second Appleseed film he appears to be turned into a generic Japanese-looking {{bishonen}}. Even in the manga you can only tell through some certain artwork pieces Shirow did: Briareos doesn't really have much of a face most of the time. In the new anime series, he's black again.
* In-universe example in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00: [[TheMovie A Wakening of the Trailblazer]]'', the StylisticSuck [[ShowWithinAShow film within a film]] which is a fictional adaptation of the main character's battle in the main series, took the cast of predominantly {{bishounen}} Gundam pilots and made them into an ensemble team. [[TallDarkAndHandsome Setsuna]] was played by a generic looking guy with clearer skin and a scar, [[CoolBigBro Lockon]] was turned into a [[{{Megane}} bespectacled stoic]], [[BadassAngster Allelujah]] became a [[GenderFlip pre-teen pink-haired girl]] and [[DudeLooksLikeALady Tieria]] was adapted into a ScaryBlackMan.
* As with the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse and numerous Western Animation projects mentioned below, ComicBook/NickFury is depicted as a black man in ''Anime/IronManRiseOfTechnovore'' and ''Anime/AvengersConfidentialBlackWidowAndPunisher''.
* In ''SonicAdventure2'' and ''ShadowTheHedgehog'', the President's secretary was a white blonde woman. When she appeared in the ''{{Sonic X}}'' anime, she was changed to an African-American woman with dark hair.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* The UltimateMarvel incarnation of Nick Fury is black. Or rather, deliberately styled after Creator/SamuelLJackson. This was to lead up to Jackson having a role in the ''Film/IronMan'' movie as the man himself (he allowed the usage, having it written into the deal he would play the part when/if a movie(s) were ever made). Within the series, this has undergone some {{lampshad|ehanging}}ing with a conversation with Nick being asked who he would like to see in a biopic about himself. The answer? Samuel L. Jackson.
* While the Franchise/MarvelUniverse [[TheWasp Wasp]] is white, her Ultimate counterpoint became Asian-American. She even mutters about ''Lucy Liu'' being suggested to play her, as they look nothing alike. Later, though, the new artist started drawing her as white in a rather {{egregious}} case of artistic license. Alas, it will never be known if she would have stayed white or not, as soon thereafter she was [[ImAHumanitarian eaten]] by [[FatBastard the Blob]].
* The Ultimate version of [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] changes his mother Maria into a Hispanic woman, making ''Antonio'' Stark half-Hispanic. The ''Ultimate Iron Man'' mini-series that came up with the "Antonio Stark" name has effectively been rendered CanonDiscontinuity.
* [[ComicBook/AlphaFlight Snowbird]] is an Inuit demigoddess with [[ButNotTooBlack white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes]]. The Ultimate version of Snowbird looks closer to a realistic depiction of an Inuit woman, sporting brown skin and black hair.
* Ultimate versions of the Abomination and Crimson Dynamo are Chinese (the originals were both Russians), Hurricane is a North Korean woman (the original was a white [[GenderFlip male]]), and Swarm is a woman (the original was male).
* The second iteration of ComicBook/TheVision is a black man.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' features ''several'' race-lifts.
** Ox, a minor {{mook|s}} in the mainstream continuity, is a black man in the revamp, and given more of a personality (the other one was known for being a SilentAntagonist). He's even shown to consider reforming at the end of his first arc (but doesn't, in favor of becoming a GoldfishPoopGang).
** The Ultimate version of [[Comicbook/ScarletSpider Ben Reilly]] is a young, African American lab assistant, rather than a clone of Peter Parker.
** The second Scorpion is Maximus Gargan, a Mexican version of Mac Gargan, who was the original Scorpion in the 616 universe. This also makes him an AffirmativeActionLegacy of sorts since the first Scorpion in the Ultimate universe was a clone of Peter Parker.
** {{Taskmaster}} is black.
** More an Ethnicity Lift, but regular Marvel Universe Kraven is Russian, while his Ultimate counterpart is Australian (and a Steve Irwin {{Expy}}).
* In 2004 ''Comicbook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}'' reboot, Star Boy was changed from white to black, with this incarnation being used in the short-lived ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' cartoon. Sadly, black Star Boy also suffered from having ''every'' defining characteristic of the character stripped from him (right down to having his girlfriend Dream Girl reassigned to be Brainiac 5's love interest).
* Karate Kid (no connection to the movies) has also been {{Race Lift}}ed back and forth to and from Asian a couple of times.
* In the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' universe, ComicBook/{{X 23}} is half-Japanese due to being the daughter of ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and Mariko Yashida, rather than simply a clone of Wolverine like in the main continuity. Accordingly, her civilian name is Kirika rather than Laura.
* The Batman foe Killer Croc had his origin told in one of his first appearances, Batman 359, which showed that young "Waylon Jones" was African American before his severe skin condition left him looking like a monster. But since he was a green crocodile man in all his appearances in "the present," some people assumed he was originally white (including at least one colorist doing a flashback). More recent interpretations (including some AlternateUniverse stories such as ''ComicBook/{{Joker}}'') have undone this unintentional racelift and correctly portrayed Waylon as an African American.
* The publisher of ''Comicstrip/{{Dilbert}}'' (not cartoonist Scott Adams) colorizes the Sunday strips and picks the race of minor characters. This results in UnfortunateImplications as when they made a corrupt security officer black (he's white in later reprintings). This happens because there isn't ''anyone'' in ''Dilbert'' who isn't either corrupt, an idiot or severely flawed in some other way.
* Nighthawk and Blur are both black in ''ComicBook/SupremePower'', a modern day update of the original ''SquadronSupreme'' series.
* In the {{Multiverse}} of [[Franchise/TheDCU the DC Universe]], there are several worlds where normally-white heroes have their races changed. Earth-D, a retroactive addition to the pre-''Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' Multiverse, sported an Asian version of Franchise/TheFlash, black versions of Franchise/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, and an Arab Franchise/WonderWoman. In the post-''Comicbook/FiftyTwo'' Multiverse, Earth-23 features a black Superman and Wonder Woman [[note]]Superman's rocket was found by the black Ellises rather than the white Kents in this world[[/note]], while another unidentified Earth from ''[[ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis Countdown]]'' had Korean American reporter Linda Park as her world's Flash.
* ''ComicBook/JustImagineStanLeeCreatingTheDCUniverse'' has Batman as a black teenager and Wonder Woman coming from Peru rather than Paradise Island.
* Greg Pak's ''X-Treme Comicbook/XMen'' featured a black version of Comicbook/{{Cyclops}}.
* ComicBook/PowerGirl is Chinese in the ''Creator/TangentComics'' universe, while Superman is black.
* The Comicbook/GreenLantern's daughter Jade is Chinese in the ''Toys/AmeComiGirls'' universe. Her civilian name is changed from Jennifer-Lynn Hayden to Jade Yifei.
* [[ComicBook/AlphaFlight Heather Hudson]] is changed from a [[SignificantGreenEyedRedhead white redhead]] to a black woman in ''Comicbook/{{Exiles}}''.
* The hardcover edition of ''Comicbook/KingdomCome'' identifies Angela Margolin (white) as the mother of Irey West, the new Kid Flash and daughter of Franchise/TheFlash. When Irey was made canon in the DCU years later, her mother was changed to Linda Park (Korean American), making her half-Asian.
* In the Batman[=/=]Franchise/DocSavage crossover, this is done to Doc, who is of mixed-race in this continuity. Rather cleverly, this explains his old school nickname of "The Man of Bronze", as his unique skin tone is now a result of his mixed European/Asian ancestry.
** The sketchbook at the back of the one-shot suggests that if DC's whole "First Wave" line of TwoFistedTales hadn't collapsed, their version of ComicBook/BlackCanary would have been non-Caucasian (probably Indian-American, but possibly of Korean or Middle Eastern origin).
* In the MarvelMangaverse, Comicbook/ThePunisher is Japanese. [[GenderFlip And a woman]].
* When first introduced, the minor ComicBook/XMen supporting character Cartier St. Croix was a white, but was changed to a black Frenchman in later appearances. This retroactively made his daughter Monet (of ComicBook/XFactor) half-black as well. Not too much of a stretch since she was already AmbiguouslyBrown.
* Obscure comic book character Marie Thirteen (the wife of Doctor Thirteen) was pretty consistently portrayed as a blonde white woman in most of her appearances. After several decades in limbo, Doctor Thirteen returned to the DCU with a half-Asian daughter named Traci, with references made to Marie having passed away. This would count as something of an offscreen race lift since Marie was retroactively established as having been an Asian woman.
* In the SilverAge, Rick Jones (the KidSidekick of CaptainAmerica and Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk) belonged to a group of youths who called themselves the Teen Brigade. The more recent ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers: The Origin]]'' limited series {{Retcon}}ned two of the boys into being black and Asian-American respectively.
* One of the {{Alternate Universe}}s shown in ''Comicbook/SpiderVerse'' is a world where "Spider-Man" is a 14-year old Japanese girl named Peni Parker, who was adopted by Aunt May and Uncle Ben. She also pilots a HumongousMecha.
** Other alternate Spider-Men include a MaskedLuchador from Mexico, and an African-American punk rocker from a {{Dystopia}}n PoliceState.
** Spider-Man has a lot of these. There's Pavitr Prabhakar from ''Spider-Man India'', as well as Izumi (Japanese) and Anansi (African) from the ''[[Comicbook/MarvelFairyTales Spider-Man: Fairy Tales]]'' anthology.
* In ''ComicBook/SupermanSecretIdentity'', ComicBook/LoisLane is modernized as the Indian American reporter Lois Chaudhari. She ends up marrying Superman and producing two mixed-race daughters who become their Earth's equivalents of ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}.
* ''[[ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX Punisher Max]]'' made ComicBook/{{Elektra}} an actual Japanese woman, rather than a white lady who dressed up like a ninja.
* In the Creator/DCComics ComicBook/{{New 52}}:
** Franchise/{{Superman}} villain Morgan Edge is black.
** More of an Ethnicity lift, but the reboot version of [[ComicBook/{{Firestorm}} Firehawk]] is French.
** ComicBook/CaptainAtom antagonist General Eiling is black.
** Franchise/WonderWoman's friend Etta Candy is now a black woman.
** Franchise/TheFlash's enemy Weather Wizard is now Guatemalan.
*** This also holds true for his brother Clyde, now changed to "Claudio".
** Turbine, the modernized version of the Top, is a black man.
** The Earth-2 version of Hawkgirl remains half-Latina, but now has a much darker skin tone.
** The original Crimson Avenger is a black woman, similar to the [[AffirmativeActionLegacy second Crimson Avenger]].
** According to WordOfGod, ComicBook/BlackOrchid is Latina.
** ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}}'s manservant Wintergreen is black.
** ComicBook/DoctorFate is now actually Egyptian (rather than a white guy using ancient Egyptian artifacts).
** [[Comicbook/FreedomFighters Uncle Sam]] is black.
** [[ComicBook/{{Steel}} Captain Steel]] is Filipino (and born in the Philippines)
** More of an 'Ethnicity Lift' but Silver Banshee is now explicitly Irish rather than being from a fictional half-Irish, half-Scottish island (though her accent is still a little... out there.) Oddly her surname was changed to the rather un-Irish 'Smythe'.
** As of May 2014, ginger-haired [[Franchise/TheFlash Wally West]] has been reintroduced as an African-American. (Iris is still white and Wally has blue eyes, so he might be mixed-race.)
** The Comicbook/GreenArrow villain Clock King is now black.
** Serafina, the {{Gender Flip}}ped version of the blond Serifan from ''[[Comicbook/NewGods The Forever People]]'', is black, because she's [[RelatedInTheAdaptation now Vykin's sister]].
** Mercy Graves is now Asian-American, much like she is in ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' and ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''.
* In ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity Mastermen #1]]'', Earth-10's Comicbook/FreedomFighters represent ethnic, sexual, and religious minorities targeted by the Nazi Party. The Ray is homosexual, Doll Man is a Jehovah's Witness, Phantom Lady is Romani, and Black Condor is African.
* An in-universe example took place in an issue of ''Comicbook/{{Catwoman}}'' where ComicBook/HarleyQuinn tried to pitch a movie based off the exploits of the ''ComicBook/GothamCitySirens''. For the sake of diversity, one of the studio execs suggested making Harley an Asian American teenager for the film, despite the "real" Harley being a white adult with blonde hair and blue eyes([[spoiler:ironically enough since there were [[LegacyCharacter multiple Harley Quinns according to the Joker]] there's a slight possiblity that at least one is Asian American]]).
* There were plans to make [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl 2009}} Stephanie Brown]] into a black teenager in the ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' comic book, which the artist felt would better fit the character's working-class background. This plan fell apart, and Stephanie herself would then wind up completely taken out of the book by [[ExecutiveMeddling editorial interference]].
* In the "new look" [[Franchise/ArchieComics Archie stories]], Midge is depicted as being Asian. This at least makes some sort of sense, as [[DependingOnTheArtist the only really consistent things the artists have kept about Midge's appearance over the decades]] have been "petite" and "black-haired", so making her Asian doesn't alter her look too much. She still keeps her decidedly not-Asian last name of Klump, however.
* Annabel from "KWYNK en zijn zusje Annabel", the byline character and sister of the Dutch digital comic magazine Kwynk's title character, was changed from a fair skinned curly redhead to Afro-Surinamese, [[WordofGod Word of God]] has it that this was to improve the balance, which makes sense in context.
* Isis from the original ''Series/TheSecretsOfIsis'' TV show (as well as the [[RecursiveAdaptation tie-in comics]]) was a white woman named Andrea Thomas. When Isis was [[CanonImmigrant imported to the DC Universe]] some 30 years later during ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', she was depicted as an Egyptian woman named Adrianna Tomaz.
* In ''NewMutants'' and ''Comicbook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'', the Norse hero Siguard is a black man.
* Super-obscure Earth-One ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' supporting character Batman Jones reappeared in ''Battle for the Cowl'' as a "renowned Batman and organised crime expert" in a ski-mask and Batman hoodie. The Earth-One version was a blond Caucasian, the New Earth version, even with the ski-mask, is visibly African-American.
* When Janice Lincoln, the new Beetle, first appeared in ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' as a foe of [[ComicBook/BuckyBarnes Cap]] and Comicbook/BlackWidow, she was very clearly white. She suddenly became AmbiguouslyBrown in the pages of ''Comicbook/TheSuperiorFoesOfSpiderMan'', which served as a bit of foreshadowing for the eventual [[TheReveal Reveal]] that [[spoiler: she's the daughter of [[ScaryBlackMan Tombstone]]]].
* ''Batman 66'', the official continuation of the 60's AdamWest ''Series/{{Batman}}'' show, has Warden Crichton (a white man played by David Lewis in the original series) depicted as an African-American woman.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' series from IDW makes Jetta from the Misfits black. This is actually a DevelopmentGag, as she was originally going to be black in the animated series before ExecutiveMeddling resulted in her being a white British girl instead.
* ''Comicbook/TeenTitansEarthOne'' has Comicbook/{{Raven}} depicted as a Native American girl.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In ''FanFic/AeonNatumEngel'' several characters were lifted into Nazzadi and Xenomixes (Nazzadi/Human Halfbreeds). In various [[ShowWithinAShow Shows Within a Show]] previously human characters were lifted to Nazzadi, for example in the [[AllThereInTheManual thread]] where the story is posted, The Nerv BridgeBunnies are watching the Sci-Fi marathon MST3K style, and argue about this trope (Film/BladeRunner with Nazzadi, anyone?).
* The [[http://odditycollector.livejournal.com/tag/everyone%20makes%20it%20to%20the%2031st%20century Everyone Makes It to the 31st Century project]] race lifted many characters from the [[Comicbook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}} Legion Of Super-Heroes threeboot]], backlashing against how [[HumansAreWhite very white the future was]].
* Several characters in ''FanFic/UndocumentedFeatures'' are of races that don't ''exist'' in the character's original source material. The most common race to get more representation this way are [[ComicBooks/NinjaHighSchool Salusians]] ([[{{Series/CSI}} Gil Grissom]], [[Manga/MagicKnightRayearth Hikari Shidou]], and [[{{VideoGame/Halo}} Master Chief]], among others), but [[Manga/MagicKnightRayearth Umi Ryuuzaki]] is [[VideoGame/LegendOfZelda Hyeruulian]], [[Series/MythBusters Adam Savage]] is [[{{ComicBooks/Superman}} Kryptonian]], [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Bastilla Shan]] is [[Franchise/StarTrek Bajoran]], etc.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* The Muses are a black Gospel chior in ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'', in a film where all of the humans are white (of Mediterranean origin) and the gods/spirits tend to be from an AmazingTechnicolorPopulation. Considering, though, that there's only a sea between Egypt and Greece, and there was lots of trade between the two people (they even had gods and myths in common), it's not too far-fetched.
* Like in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDoom'' made the Martian Manhunter's "John Jones" identity African-American. Like ComicBook/NickFury, this version seems to be catching on to the point that the original comics character is becoming the black sheep. Only time will tell if being a shapeshifter, the Manhunter in the comics will have something happen that requires him to need to change his disguise, and choose one that looks a lot like Phil Morris.
* The ''Disney/BigHero6'' cast was entirely Japanese in the original comic, but the Disney film makes Fred white, Wasabi (ethnically [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people Ainu]] in the comics) African-American, Honey Lemon Hispanic, [=GoGo=] Tomago Korean,and Hiro half-Japanese instead of fully Japanese.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/FantasticFour'': The Thing's girlfriend, Alicia Masters, was cast as a black character. This means the same extends to her father, the Puppet Master.
** The Human Torch will be played by African-American actor Creator/MichaelBJordan in the 2015 ''[[Film/FantasticFour2015 Fantastic Four]]'' reboot. Reg E. Cathey of ''Series/TheWire'' and ''[[Series/HouseOfCardsUS House of Cards]]'' fame will play his father, Franklin Storm, who of course is also white in the comics. However, his sister, the Invisible Woman, will be played by Creator/KateMara, who is white, implying adoption.
* ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'' villain ComicBook/TheKingpin is a black man in the movie version.
* Red, in ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'', is played by MorganFreeman; the character is a white man in the novella. In both versions, he tells Andy he got his nickname because he's Irish, but in the movie it's a clever joke. Both start out in 1940s Maine.
* Freeman's character in ''Film/GoneBabyGone'' was, in the original novel -- you guessed it -- Irish.
* Morgan Freeman also plays Colonel "Curtis" in the adaptation of Creator/StephenKing's ''Dreamcatcher'', taking the place of the extremely Irish Colonel Kurtz from the novel.
* CIA agent Felix Leiter (a blond Texan in the ''Literature/JamesBond'' novels) is black in the 2006 film ''Film/CasinoRoyale'' and ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' as well as the 1983 non-canon Bond film ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain''.
* Miss Moneypenny is played by black actress Naomie Harris in ''Film/{{Skyfall}}''. The character was white in the original novels and each of the prior films she appeared in.
* Despite being primarily inspired by the classic Marvel continuity, ''Film/IronMan1'', ''Film/IronMan2'', ''Film/{{Thor}}'', ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' and ''Film/TheAvengers'' all have the originally-white NickFury played by Creator/SamuelLJackson. This is understandable though as mentioned above, the AlternateContinuity ''TheUltimates'' series portrayed Fury as a black man with Jackson's likeness. The right of first refusal to play the character in any future movies was actually part of the deal for allowing Ultimate Fury to look just like him.
* In the ''Film/{{Thor}}'' movies, several roles changed race.
** Heimdall is played by Black-British actor Idris Elba, despite being based on a white Marvel character.
*** This is particularly ironic given that Heimdallr is described in the Eddas as being "the whitest of the gods". The word might also be translated as "brightest", however; there is argument about what the line actually means. On the other hand, the original Norse tales were written by white people about gods who looked a lot like them, so looking at original source material isn't going to produce many brown faces.
** Some have also criticized casting Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano as Hogun for this reason. Although Hogun is an Asian character in the original Marvel comics, he's more Mongolian than Japanese.
** Jasper Sitwell, an Anglo blond in the comics, is played by a dark Latino actor in the movies.
* A large portion of the race changes in ''Thor'' are attributable to the director of the first film in the series: Sir Creator/KennethBranagh. Branagh's main philosophy of casting seems to be that he doesn't particularly care what you look like; if you give the best audition, he'll give you the part. This has ended up with a lot of cast diversification in his other films, particularly his famous adaptations of Shakespeare, and most particularly his adaptation of ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'' (which features Creator/DenzelWashington as Don Pedro and Creator/KeanuReeves as Don John--who, recall, are supposed to be ''half brothers'').
* In Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/{{Batman}}'' film, Harvey Dent (Two-Face's original identity), who is white in the original comics, is played by Billy Dee Williams. Williams campaigned for the role specifically to be Two-Face in the sequel, but the role eventually went to Tommy Lee Jones, averting the trope.
* In a rather famous ''[[WhatCouldHaveBeen almost]]'' example, Marlon Wayans from ''Series/InLivingColor'' was cast as {{Robin}} in ''Film/BatmanReturns'', but was cut at the last minute due to the film having LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. They were far enough along in the process that Wayans even went in for a costume fitting and had an action figure made in his likeness.
* Wesley Snipes was cast as SeanConnery's ''kouhai'' in the movie adaptation of ''Film/RisingSun'', which led to a disagreement over which the script writers Creator/MichaelCrichton (whose novel it was based on) and Michael Backes quit the project. This is noticeable because, especially in the 80s, the Japanese characters were ''not'' likely to treat a black man the same as they treat the protagonist of the story.
* The film version of ''[[Series/ThePhilSilversShow Sgt. Bilko]]'' has a black actor play Cpl Henshaw. (Bilko's other sidekick, Cpl Barbella, gets a GenderFlip).
* According to Sylvia Anderson, one piece of ExecutiveMeddling during the early days of the ''Film/{{Thunderbirds}}'' movie was "Could the main cast be more ethnically diverse?" Since they're all brothers, the answer was "No."
* Bolivar Trask is played by an African American actor in ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', while his original comic book incarnation was a white guy. Kid Omega also becomes Asian American, though this is definitely a case of InNameOnly since he has almost nothing in common with his comic counterpart. However, regarding Trask, the version seen in ''The Last Stand'' was later made into a separate into a different character thanks to ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' opting to redo the character.
** Kid Omega had much more in common with Quill, and is even referred to as such [[AllThereInTheManual the director's commentary]]. This would still make this a race lift, since Quill was white too.
** Callisto is also played by a dark-skinned Latina actress.
* Agent Zero is a white guy of East German descent in the ''X-Men'' comics, but is played by Korean actor Daniel Henney in ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine''.
* The 2005 film adaptation of ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' has the Oompa-Loompas played by Indian actor Deep Roy, while the book has the Oompa-Loompas as Caucasians (after a {{Bowdlerisation}} from their original description as black African pygmies!).
* In the third ''Film/HarryPotter'' film, a black extra was identified in the credits as having played Lavender Brown. When Lavender appeared again in the sixth movie (with actual lines this time), blonde, white British Jessie Cave was cast in an open audition. While one of the novels released after that film ''did'' mention that Lavender had the same skin tone as white Ron Weasley, there's no indication that the recast was an attempt to "correct" the original casting or even that the producers noticed the one minor mention of that fact.
* The ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' movies diversified the entire pure-human cast. In the book, all of them are assumed white and the ones Bella interacts with the most are all blond or brunette white people. The movie makes Angela Hispanic, Eric Asian, and Tyler black.
** Even more notably, in the movie one of the vampires is black, but in the books it's made perfectly clear that when you become a vampire you become white.
* The movie adaptation of ''Literature/HarrietTheSpy'' made Janie black, and also made Rachel Hennessey and a family that plays a minor role Asian (the latter was originally VERY stereotypically Italian).
* Ripcord is played by a black actor in ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra''. (The original character ''and'' action figure is a red-headed white male.) Supposedly the original plan was for him to be Stalker but the name had UnfortunateImplications and it was felt the more comedic turn the character underwent wouldn't be well-received as Lonzo Wilkinson, so they went with a more obscure Joe name.
** Likewise, to diversify the origins of the character (to avoid the film becoming some sort of played-depressingly-straight version of ''TeamAmericaWorldPolice''), Heavy Duty became a black British man (rather than a black American man) and Breaker became French Moroccan (rather than a white guy with a southern accent).
** ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'' continues this trend by casting Hispanic actor D.J. Cotrona as Flint, and [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]] (half-black/half-Pacific Islander) as Roadblock.
* In the book ''Literature/HighFidelity'', we are led to picture Marie De Salle as white after Dick describes her as "kind of Sheryl Crow-ish crossed with a post-''[[Series/ThePartridgeFamily Partridge Family]]'' pre-''Series/LALaw'' Susan Dey kind of thing." In the movie she was played by Lisa Bonet; Dick now describes her as "kind of Sheryl Crow-ish crossed with a post-''Partridge Family'' pre-''L.A. Law'' Susan Dey kind of thing, but, you know, black."
* An in-universe example: In ''Film/TheSpecials'', the Minute Man action figure is made black, in the interest of taking a "multi-cultural approach".
* The unproduced live-action ''{{Voltron}}'' script made Lance into a young black guy.
* In the film version of ''Film/MysticRiver'', Sean Devine (Creator/KevinBacon)'s partner is played by Creator/LaurenceFishburne. In the novel, he is white and supposedly looks a little like Brian Dennehy. However, after casting Fishburne they did not change the character's name: Whitey Powers. Creator/DennisLehane, author of the original book, admits that the character's name was a pun in the book, but that it actually became ''funnier'' when Fishburne was cast.
* In ''Film/{{Carrie 2002}}'', the character of Sue Snell, who was white in the book and movie, was played by black South African-Canadian actress Kandyse [=McClure=]. This seems to have been more a case of colorblind casting than a deliberate RaceLift; her race is never brought up over the course of the film.
* The first ''Carrie'' remake wasn't the last time that Kandyse [=McClure=] would do a RaceLift on a character from a Creator/StephenKing movie remake; in ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCorn2009'', she played Vicky, who was originally played by the white Linda Hamilton.
* When ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' was adapted to a movie in 1999, Jim West, played by white Robert Conrad in the original TV show, was played by black WillSmith in [[Film/WildWildWest the movie]].
** This also resulted in many racist remarks, as much of the film takes place in the Southern states shortly after the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar.
--->'''Artemus Gordon:''' ''(picking out disguises'') How about this? You could come as my manservant.\\
'''Jim West:''' ''(excited stereotype Negro accent)'' Why, yessuh, Masah Gordon, Why I swears, I'd be delighted, I'll sing, I'll dance for ya sir and I swear, none of the other white folks'll know that (''in normal voice'') I'd rather shoot myself than play your damn manservant.
* Joseph's brothers in the film version of ''Theatre/JosephAndTheAmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat'' include two black brothers. Um...sorry 'bout that, Jacob. The two brothers involved were Judah (son of Leah) and Benjamin (son of Rachel). Both women had also, in this version, produced quite light-skinned and otherwise "white"-looking sons, and the twelve brothers in that cast covered a wide range of apparent ethnicities.
* Franchise/{{Superman}}'s boss Perry White was played by African American actor Creator/LaurenceFishburne in Creator/ZackSnyder's ''Film/ManOfSteel'' movie.
* The Baz Luhrmann big budget adaptation of ''TheGreatGatsby'' has Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan playing Meyer Wolfsheim, who was a white Jew in the original novel.
* ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'':
** The [[{{Film/Annie1999}} 1999 TV-movie remake]] had Grace (the social worker who brings Annie to Daddy Warbucks's mansion) be played by a black actress - which raises eyebrows at the very end, when Daddy proposes marriage to Grace. (Interracial marriage was not illegal in New York in the 1930s, but it is ''extremely'' far-fetched to suppose that [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory such a rich and powerful character would publicly attempt it]].)
** The [[{{Film/Annie2014}} 2014 remake]] has African American actress Quvenzhané Wallis playing the title role, likewise Jamie Foxx plays Will Stacks the film's analogue to Daddy Warbucks.
* ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' is an interesting case. Ford Prefect is played by rapper/actor Mos Def (An American playing an [[HumanAlien extraterrestrial]] living in England and speaking English to British people who don't have a ''BabelFish'' in their ears). It doesn't really come up in the original radio series, though since Arthur evidently lived in a quite rural part of the UK in the 1970s one can draw certain inferences, but the books describe Ford as white -somewhat [[UncannyValley unnaturally so]] even- with wiry ginger hair. The TV series, incidentally, completely ignored this in favour of casting as many of the original voice actors as possible. Of course, Mos Def's portrayal of Ford was InNameOnly ''anyway''...
* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'': Sally Avril (white in the comics) is played by Kelsey Chow, who is half-Taiwanese. [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2 Its sequel]] sees African-American actor Jamie Foxx play Electro.
* In the 2000 film adaptation of ''Film/CharliesAngels'', one of the angels is Asian (portrayed by Creator/LucyLiu).
** Justified in that Liu played an original character, with the three heroines just being the latest in a long line of Angels.
* ''Film/OzTheGreatAndPowerful'' is a prequel to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''; while Oscar the "wizard" and Witches of Oz are white the people of Oz are much more diverse.
* The 2010 film adaptation of ''Literature/WutheringHeights'' had a black actor play Heathcliff.
** This actually makes some sense; he's described as AmbiguouslyBrown in the novel, and it's implied that either [[UnfortunateImplications he's villainous because he's nonwhite]] or [[FreudianExcuse he's villainous because people treat him like crap because he's nonwhite]].
* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' sees Korath the Pursuer is played by Djimon Hounsou, and is depicted with black skin rather than blue. This is notable since in the comics, Kree are explicitly stated to all have either blue or pink (resembling white humans) complexions. [[Wrestling/{{Batista}} Dave Bautista]] also played Drax, but given the movie reworked his origin to be that of an actual alien and not a resurrected human whose real name was Arthur Douglas, that is more AdaptationSpeciesChange.
* Blink, a white Bahamanian in the comics, is played by Chinese actress Fan Bingbing in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''. Not too much of a stretch, since Blink is ''purple'' in the comics despite her white ancestry.
* In the Marvel short film ''[[Film/MarvelOneShots All Hail The King]]'', the ComicBook/IronMan villain Fletcher Heggs (AKA the Knight) makes a {{Cameo}} as a black prison inmate.
* ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' and the subsequent ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]'' movie:
** Japanese actress Tao Okamoto will be playing Mercy Graves, who is traditionally depicted as a white blonde woman.
* ''Film/SuicideSquad'' has Deadshot portrayed by WillSmith.
* The Cloud Ten Pictures' 2000-2005 ''Literature/LeftBehind'' films have Clarence Gilyard and Arnold Pinnock playing Bruce Barnes, T.D. Jakes playing Vernon Billings, and Louis Gosset Jr. playing Gerald Fitzhugh. Verna Zee, who is given a RaceLift, also doubles as a CompositeCharacter, with her being a combination of herself and Lucinda Washington, the African-American editor-in-chief of the Global Weekly office in Chicago.
* In ''Film/GridironGang'', the real Sean Porter is white (as shown in the credits), but is played by Wrestling/TheRock. Now Dwayne has light enough skin to pull it off, but there is a seen where Sean visits his dying mom, who is much darker.
* ''Film/RoboCop2014'' sees Anne Lewis become an African-American [[GenderFlip man]] named [[AdaptationNameChange Jack]].
* The upcoming ''Literature/PeterPan'' reboot, ''Pan'', will have black actress Leni Zieglmeier as Wendy and Adeel Akhtar as Smee.
* In ''Film/WhatDreamsMayCome'', Albert is played by black actor Cuba Gooding, Jr.,and Leona is played by Chinese-American actress Rosalind Chao. While the book never explicitly identifies either character's race, the most logical assumption is that both are white, since Chris himself is white, Albert is his cousin in the book, and there's one scene where he remarks that he hardly ever saw people of "other races as well as my own" when he was alive.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}''
** Pete Ross was changed from white to {{black| best friend}}. So was poor doomed Dr. Hamilton.
** Lana Lang, who is a white redhead in the comics, is portrayed on the show by Kristin Kreuk, who has Dutch, Chinese, and Indonesian heritage.
** Roulette is a weird one; in the comics she's a white girl who ''wants'' to be a DragonLady; in ''Smallville'' she's really Asian. It's hard to escape the suspicion that the writers just didn't get the joke...
** The MartianManhunter's "John Jones" identity is made into an African-American. However, the character is actually a green-skinned alien to begin with.
** Plastique is a white Canadian in the comic books. In the show she was played by the half-black, half-white [[Series/TheSecretCircle Jessica Parker Kennedy]].
** Neutron, a white Superman villain, was played by an Asian-American actor.
** Lashina of the [[NewGods Female Furies]] is depicted as black in the show.
* In ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} is played by Māori actor Manu Bennett. (This is a legal technicality, as in New Zealand anyone with less than 1/16th Māori ancestry is considered Māori for legal purposes and will identify as such, but he's actually half White Australian on his mothers side and 1/4 Irish from fathers side. He's mostly a white fella.)
** Yes you can argue that Bennett is mostly white, but physically, he generally looks Polynesian.
** Brother Blood is depicted as Latino.
** Walter Steele is depicted as Black.
** Ted Grant is played by a Latino actor.
** [[EvilCounterpart Komodo]], a white guy in the comics, is played by black actor Matt Ward.
* ''[[Series/TheFlash2014 The Flash]]'' has Iris West as an African-American woman played by Candice Patton rather than a [[SignificantGreenEyedRedhead redhead]]. Her father Joe is likewise African-American, portrayed by Jesse L. Martin.
* Sarah Essen, a white woman in the comics, is portrayed by Latina actress Zabryna Guevara in ''Series/{{Gotham}}''.
* Mary "Zed" Martin, a white Englishwoman in the ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' comics, is portrayed by Mexican-American actress Angélica Celaya in ''Series/{{Constantine}}''.
* The upcoming ''Series/{{Supergirl 2015}}'' TV series will have JimmyOlsen played by African-American actor Mehcad Brooks. Hank Henshaw will be played by Afro-British actor David Harewood.
* In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', [[spoiler: Daisy Johnson from ''ComicBook/SecretWarriors'']] appears as one of the main characters [[AdaptationNameChange under the name "Skye"]]. While she is white in the comics, in the show she's a biracial girl from Hunan province in China, and is played by half-white, half-Chinese actress Chloe Bennett.
** Alphonso "Mack" [=MacKenzie=] is a white Texan in the comics, but in the show he's played by African-American actor Henry Simmons.
** Agent 33 is a white blonde in the comics, but in the show she's played by Maya Stojan, who is half-Sri Lankan and half-Czech.
* ''Series/{{Daredevil 2015}}'' has Ben Urich portrayed by African-American actor Vondie Curtis-Hall.
** Night Nurse, a white woman in the comics named Linda Carter, is made into a CompositeCharacter with Claire Temple, an African-American woman from the LukeCage comics.
* ''Series/AKAJessicaJones'' has Malcolm, a white redhead from the ''Comicbook/{{Alias}}'' books, played by Jamaican-Australian actor Eka Darville.
* ''Series/AgentCarter'' has Happy Sam Sawyer, a white guy in the comics, played by African-American actor Leonard Roberts.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined''
** Boomer, who had been played in [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic the original]] by black actor Herb Jefferson Jr., was changed into Korean-Canadian actress Grace Park (also a GenderFlip). As Boomer is a ManchurianAgent [[ArtificialHuman Cylon]] in the new series, this one also counts as a Species Lift.
** Commander Adama, originally played by white Canadian Lorne Greene, was recast as half-Hispanic with Edward James Olmos in the role. Or Colonel Tigh, who in the original series was black, played by Irish-Canadian actor Michael Hogan, who is (of course) white-- [[spoiler:and, like Boomer, Tigh is a Cylon.]] In the case of Tigh, this might have been to avoid UnfortunateImplications, given that the re-imagined Tigh begins as an alcoholic who isn't very good at his job.
* The 2007 BBC adaptation of ''Literature/OliverTwist'' features Creator/SophieOkonedo as Nancy.
** And the BBC adaptation of ''Little Dorrit'' features Creator/FreemaAgyeman as Tattycoram, only described in the book as "a handsome girl with lustrous dark hair and eyes, and very neatly dressed".
* The KingArthur BBC series ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' has cast multiracial actress Angel Coulby as Guinevere (or Gwen as she is initially known). Perhaps to make the casting more plausible, the traditional background of Guinevere (as the daughter of a king) is dropped in favour of making her a commoner and a servant. The character of Sir Elyan, one of the Knights of the Round Table, is made into Guinevere's brother and is portrayed by a black actor - ironically, the character was often known in the legends as "Elyan the White."
** There are several Black background characters as well, including various one-off knights and nobles, particularly during feast scenes (non-white characters are NOT all servants.) Also, Gwen was written as a servant ''before'' Angel was cast when (presumably) a white actress was expected to take the role. Also also, according to WordOfGod, Angel Coulby was cast because of AbilityOverAppearance, not specifically to fulfill some sort of diversity requirement.
** Lancelot is also played by Hispanic Santiago Cabrera.
* The BBC ''Series/RobinHood'' series has a black Friar Tuck. And he's not the easy-going tubbo associated with the name, either.
** ''Robin Hood'' has several other black characters in supporting roles over the course of the series. Interestingly, this isn't just a politically correct anachronism. There's archaeological and historical evidence of at least a few Africans living in England as far back as the Roman Empire, and also in the Middle Ages. They would've been rare, and thus perhaps not as easily accepted as they're shown to be in ''Robin Hood'' and ''Merlin'', but they were there.
* In the books TrueBlood is based on, the character Tara is described as having olive skin and a pageboy haircut. In the show she's African American. As her exact ethnicity in the books is never spelled out it's not certain if it's this variation of the trope or "Minority into another Minority" below.
* In L.J. Smith's ''TheVampireDiaries'' books, Bonnie was a petite redhead of Scottish descent. In the CW show she's played by a black actress.
** In the show, her character has a corresponding downward bump of personality and involvement, now an airhead there to egg on the romance and give exposition-style psychic predictions as opposed to being practically more of a main character than the love interest, and hugely involved in the plot.
** Elena, from the same series, to a lesser degree. The books describe her as your typical blue-eyed blond, but the actress who plays her is a tan, brown-eyed brunette. This may be more of an AdaptationDyeJob, though.
* The English language ''LazyTown'' turned the Icelandic Latibær plays' [[EvilRedhead red-headed hellion]] Halla and pale computer {{geek}} Goggi into Asian (and slightly less wild) Trixie and black (and possibly ''more'' computer-obsessed) Pixel. The mayor's skin also darkened several shades, but given he's closely related to a character who stayed white, and not ''very'' dark (and a puppet, so actor race gives no clues), it's unclear if he too had his race changed, or if he's just meant to be tanned.
** In the original play, Goggi was a ''white baldling wearing green glasses and pyjamas''!
** And Sportacus was an Elf, so it's a species-lift as well.
* In the ''Series/GossipGirl'' novels, Kati and Isabel are both white. The actresses who play them are Chinese and black, respectively.
* The unaired pilot for the proposed 2004 ''Series/DarkShadows'' revival had longtime character Dr. Julia Hoffman played by Asian American actress Creator/KellyHu.
* In the Creator/{{CBBC}} series ''Series/{{Leonardo}}'', one of teen {{Leo|nardoDaVinci}}'s friends is a streetwise black kid called Mac. Short for [[Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli Machiavelli]].
* The ''Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot'' had Etta Candy, Diana's blonde and blue-eyed best friend from the comics, played by African American actress Traci Thoms.
** Carried over into the {{New 52}}, see above.
* On ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Xaro Xhoan Daxos is played by Nonso Anozie, a Black British actor. In the books, Xaro is a native Qartheen "Milk Man", who are described as being incredibly pale. He described himself as being from the Summer Isles, where the other Black characters in the series are from. He is the first such character seen on the series. Xaro's name even fits the naming conventions of Summer Isles characters. In his first appearance, Xaro seemed more enigmatic than his book counterpart, who was more of a SmugSnake. Other non-white characters can be seen in the background scenes in Qarth, possibly indicating that the city is a more cosmopolitan setting in the series.
* The 2012 Sherlock Holmes update ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' has John Watson both race-lifted and [[GenderFlip gender-flipped]] into the Asian American surgeon "Joan Watson", played by Creator/LucyLiu.
** The cop in the pilot who corresponded roughly to Inspector Lestrade, Detective Abreu, was Latino. In the second episode, he was replaced by the African-American Detective Bell (named for the real-life surgeon who was the inspiration for Holmes), who swiftly became less Lestrade-like than his predecessor.
* African American actor Sinqua Walls (of ''Series/TeenWolf'' and ''Series/{{Power}}'' fame) plays Sir Lancelot in Season 2 of ''Series/OnceUponATime''.
** Similar, Yvette Nicole Brown from ''Series/{{Community}}'' plays {{Goldilocks}} in a series of DVD extras.
** {{Rapunzel}} is played by the half-black, half-white Alexandra Metz.
** Ursula the Sea Witch from ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'' is played by African-American actress Merrin Dungey.
* In the TV adaptation of ''PrettyLittleLiars'', Emily and her father are half-Asian and Asian respectively. In the original novels, they were both white, with Emily being described as a [[SignificantGreenEyedRedhead redhead]].
* Jack Crawford is white in ''Film/RedDragon'', as well as the various [[Film/{{Manhunter}} film]] [[TheSilenceOfTheLambs adaptations]]. In ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'', he's depicted as a black man and portrayed by Creator/LaurenceFishburne.
** In the novel and film adaptations, Dr. Beverly Katz was white, presumably of Jewish descent. In ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'', she's portrayed by Asian-American actress Hettienne Park.
** In the novel and film adaptations, Dr. Frederick Chilton is white, but in ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'', he's played by Hispanic actor Raul Esparza.
* The 2012 remake of ''Series/BeautyAndTheBeast'' has Kristin Kreuk playing the role originated by Linda Hamilton in the original series. Her partner was also originally written as an Irish-American, [[AbilityOverAppearance but ended up being played by a Latina actress]].
* ''Series/TheBible2013'' portrays Samson and his mother as black, unlike most Israelites who look stereotypically middle-eastern (brown hair, olive skin).
** The three angels who appear to Abraham are nicely varied: one white, one black, one east Asian.
* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' and ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' cast black actresses (including Creator/GinaTorres) as Cleopatra, presumably on the principle that Egypt is in Africa. However, not only are Egyptians not black, but Cleopatra was the last of the highly inbred Ptolemaic line of rulers, so she was pure Greek.
** Actually, historians are pretty split on her racial identity. Yes, she was the last of the Ptolemies, and the original was Macedonian Greek. And you are correct that the Ptolemaic dynasty was very inbred. However, Cleopatra was born ~300 years AFTER him, and there's a fairly even split of archaeologists/historians on that question. Half of the split believes her mother to have been a high-ranked black concubine in the palace. Also, Egypt's earlier name is Kemet ("the black land", also possibly referring to the fertility of the soil of the Nile Delta), and Egypt took a Nubian kingdom (Kush) into itself. Many Black scholars have pointed out similarities in the facial features of Egyptian statues and their Black neighbors. Egypatians are not necessarily Black, but that population is in there.
* ''[[Series/WaltDisneyPresents The Wonderful World of Disney]]'' made liberal use of this, especially in musical adaptations from TheNineties.
** ''Polly'' and ''Polly: Comin' Home!'' retell ''Literature/{{Pollyanna}}'' with a with a mostly-African-American cast, and with the location and time period changed from Vermont in the 1900s to segregated Alabama in TheFifties.
** Their take on ''Film/{{Cinderella}}'' stars Music/{{Brandy}} as Cinderella. Additionally, Music/WhitneyHouston plays the fairy godmother, African-American Natalie Desselle plays stepsister Joy, Paolo Montalban, a Filipino actor, plays Prince Christopher, black actress Creator/WhoopiGoldberg plays his mother Queen Constantina, and Canadian Victor Garber plays his father King Maxamillian.
** Their version of ''Film/{{Annie|1999}}'' features Audra [=McDonald=] as Miss Grace Farrell, as mentioned above, and also adds girls of other races to the orphanage.
* ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic Live!'' had a Audra [=McDonald=] as a black Mother Abbess.
* ''Series/LoisAndClark'' starred Dean Cain, who is one fourth Japanese. Deborah Joy LeVine stated Cain's unique look was part of the reason she cast him as Clark/Superman.
* In the TV adaptation of ''Comicbook/{{Powers}}'', Deena Pilgrim, a white blonde in the comics, will be played by Susan Heyward, who is African-American.
** Likeswise, Zora, another white blonde from the comics, is played by African-American actress Logan Browning.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* An interesting example in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Creator/StephenSchwartz's musical ''Theatre/ChildrenOfEden'': Adam was white and Eve was black, apparently also allowing them to have children of different skintones. However, this also had possible, unintended UnfortunateImplications (see that trope entry).
* The musical version of ''Jekyll and Hyde'' almost always casts Utterson as a black man.
* Aside from race-specific roles and shows like ''Theatre/{{Aida}}'' or ''MissSaigon'', Broadway's casting is remarkably color-blind. Black/non-white actors have had major roles in nearly every Broadway show around. For example, ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' (Velma/Billy Flynn), ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' (Javert, Mme Thenardier, Fantine, Cosette, Eponine), ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' (Fiyiero), ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' (Belle), ''MissSaigon'' (John) and most notably Robert Guillaume (on tour) and Norm Lewis (on Broadway) as the titular ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. Even applies when such casting would be implausible--like a black/Asian Eponine playing the daughter of the white Thenardiers in ''Theatre/LesMiserables''. There have even been some cases where a white actress has played Young Eponine or Young Cosette and a non-white actress has played the older versions of those characters, or vice versa.
** ''Les Mis''[='s=] 10th anniversary concert had [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGx_z4v4484 Lea Salonga, a Filipina]], as Eponine, plus [[IronChef "Chairman Kaga"]] as one of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPpkTgMbhRU the international Valjeans]] and the 25th anniversary concert featured [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41CVDOqcQ5Q a black Javert (Norm Lewis) and Filipina singer (Lea Salonga again) as Fantine]].
** Elphaba from "Wicked" can be played by any actress, no matter her race, considering that she has to be painted green anyway. Actually, [[DumbBlonde Glinda]] is the only character from Theatre/{{Wicked}} explicitly required by the plot to be white. [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpj4gn0gqM1qbj784o1_250.jpg Not that it stopped Japan...]]
* MissSaigon's Ellen (the American wife of Chris) was always played by a white actress, especially a blonde or redhead. However, towards the end of the show's Broadway run, Ellen was cast with an Asian actress, which added a new dimension to the show. Rather than moving on with his life, as Chris insisted that he had, it now seemed very likely that Chris only married Ellen because she reminded him of his lost love Kim.
* A 1994 production of Creator/{{Shakespeare}}'s ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' by noted director Peter Sellars (not to be confused with the film actor) implied the location to be multi-racial Venice Beach, California. A clip of Shylock's speech is available on Website/YouTube.
** Shylock and his compatriots were played by Black actors.
** Portia and her retinue were actresses of Asian ancestry.
** the titular merchant was Latino.
** The only significant characters played by Anglo actors were the clown Gobbo and his son (played by a pre-stardom Philip Seymour Hoffman).
* Collins, from ''{{RENT}}'', was intended to be a "kind of Tom Waits" character, but the playwright changed his mind once JesseL.Martin auditioned. Similarly, at least half the cast ended up being played by non-white actors; this has varied from production to production.
* In Freehold Engagement Theatre's 2012 production of ''Theatre/KingLear'', Edgar, the Fool(a puppet held by a white actress), and one of the ensemblists were black, and Edmund and Cordelia were Hispanic. In the 2010 Donmar Warehouse production, the Afro-British actress Pippa Bennett-Warner played Cordelia.
* Theatrical adaptations of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' are often multiracial, such as a black actor playing Christmas Present(as in the forementioned [[Film/AChristmasCarolTheMusical film of the Broadway musical]]) or Fred(god forbid), and an Asian actress playing Belle and/or Fred's wife.
* In the 2001 Broadway revival of ''Main/TheRockyHorrorShow'', Magenta was played by Panamanian-born Daphne Rubin-Vega, Columbia was played by Aiko Nakasone (who's Japanese), and Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Eddie, and Dr. Scott were, at one point, played by African-American actor James Stovall.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Two of the bosses in ''VideoGame/PokemonBattleRevolution'' were changed from Japanese to black. This was because the Japanese version didn't have different skin tone options for the characters, and they wanted to show them off.
* Several characters from ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire]]'' became AmbiguouslyBrown, most notably the entirely of Team Aqua.
* Birdie from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha'' -- he originally appeared in the very first ''VideoGame/{{Street Fighter|I}}'' game as white, but when his character underwent a complete visual overhaul, he became black. One of his victory quotes is a LampshadeHanging: "You mean before? I was pale because I was sick!"
* In MortalKombat, the character of Jade has been portrayed as every race under the sun. In her original MK II & Ultimate MK 3 appearances, she and Jax were the [[TokenMinority token black characters]]. On the port for MK II to the Sega Genesis and the Amiga, she became white (this might have something to do with the fact that, skin tone augmentation aside, she was portrayed by the same actress as Mileena and Kitana). However, in ''Annihilation'' she was played by the pale, [[TheFarEast asian]] Irina Pantaeva (who is ethnically Buryat, i.e. Russian Mongol). Over time, her appearance has shifted to just being AmbiguouslyBrown.
* Bolivar Trask (a white man in the original comics) is depicted as a black man in the ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' video game.
** The game also heavily implies that Nightcrawler's father is the African American character John Wraith. Of course it'd be difficult to tell anyway since Nightcrawler's skin is depicted as blue due to his mutation.
* ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' is primarily based on the Marvel 616 continuity, but uses the black version of NickFury.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In ''WebVideo/TheLizzieBennetDiaries'', several main characters have been racelifted. Considering [[Literature/PrideAndPrejudice the original]] took place in 18th century England, and the adaptation in the modern-day United States, this makes sense.
** The Bingleys become Asian, likely Chinese, with Charles Bingley becoming Bing Lee. Caroline Bingley is Caroline Lee.
** Charlotte and Maria Lucas become Charlotte and Maria Lu, also of Asian descent.
** Colonel Fitzwilliam becomes Fitz Williams, who is ''[[BlackBestFriend African American]]'' (and gay).
* ''WebVideo/TheAutobiographyOfJaneEyre'' is a SettingUpdate vlog of ''Literature/JaneEyre'', inspired by ''The Lizzie Bennet Diaries''. It's set in present day Canada.
** Adele Varens was a French girl in the book, while Adele Rochester has light brown skin, and her father Mr Rochester doesn't. It adds mystery as to who Adele's mother might be and whether Mr Rochester is her biological father.
** Grace Poole, a CompositeCharacter of scary and mysterious Grace Poole and kind Mrs. Fairfax, looks as if she was of Asian origin.
* ''WebVideo/EmmaApproved'', made by the same team behind ''The Lizzie Bennet Diaries'', has several cases of this too:
** Emma Woodhouse is played by a half-Japanese and half-German actress.
** Izzy Knightley, Emma's married sister, is played by a Hawaiian actress.
** Mrs. Bates becomes the African-American Maddy Bates and her niece Jane Fairfax becomes African-American too.
** Frank Churchill becomes Asian and Ryan Weston's stepbrother instead of his son to justify their different races.
* ''WebAnimation/SuperFckers'': Ultra-Richard goes from white in the original comics to black in the animation. He also went from having nearly no personality in the comics to basically being a vaguely-super powered [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Chef]] {{expy}}.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' did this to a large portion of the cast. [[LovableAlphaBitch Liz Allan]] is now Hispanic, as is her brother (stepbrother in the comics) [[AntiVillain Mark]]. Likewise, police officer [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Jean [=DeWolff=]]] is Native American (according to WordOfGod). [[IntrepidReporter Ned Leeds]] and [[DumbMuscle Kenny "King Kong" [=McFarland=]]] also go from white to Asian (with names changed to Ned ''Lee'' and Kenny "King" ''Kong''), while [[CoolTeacher Raymond]] and [[MadScientist Miles Warren]] are both Indian. Fancy Dan, [[TheVoiceless Debra Whitman]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Roderick Kingsley]], all white in the comics, are now black.
* ''SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' has Angela Chen, who is essentially an Asian {{Expy}} of the comic book character Cat Grant. Her role as the Daily Planet's gossip columnist and rivalry with Lois Lane are all directly lifted from Grant.
* Puff was a white blonde in the original ''Comicbook/{{Static}}'' comics, but was depicted as an African American in ''StaticShock''.
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' does this more than once, with originally blonde and very white Amanda Sefton becoming possibly Middle Eastern (or [[AmbiguouslyBrown a brown-skinned ethnicity]], anyway; it isn't apparent from dialogue or appearance, though she doesn't look quite like the series' black characters) for the series. The Lift is extended to her parents, naturally.
** Also, Magma goes from white to Brazilian (in the comics, she was disguised as a Brazilian when she was first seen, but proved to be a blonde from a Romanesque society hidden in a remote area of Brazil). Which doesn't really make much sense, since 50% of Brazil's population is white. The southern states have large amounts of blondes.
** Amanda Sefton in the comics is a UsefulNotes/{{Roma|ni}}. A pale, blonde Roma. Her mother, Margali, has a more "traditional" Roma appearance. Amanda is adopted in the comics, but there are blond Roma.
** Mystique receives a ''mid-series'' version of this trope. In the first season, Mystique had light blue skin, white eyes with gray pupils, dark red hair, and violet lips. From the second season onwards, her skin is a dark bluish-green, her eyes are yellow with black pupils, her hair is a lighter shade of reddish-orange, her lips are dark blue, and her facial structure is also different in shape.
*** Mystique's an interesting case, and doesn't really change in the show. It's worth explaining fully anyway, because many fans and even the comic artists don't catch this: Mystique's day-one outfit, the white dress with the skulls, actually has a bodysuit, or it did in early appearances. This makes her face more green and her arms and legs more blue. Artists since have forgotten it was there, and now make her entire body whichever color they feel she should be - [[DependingOnTheArtist sometimes the color of her face, sometimes the color of the rest of her]]. By now, ''any'' shade of green or blue goes. ''X-Men: Evolution'' gave Mystique a fairly faithful representation of her day-one outfit, remembering the bodysuit. Eventually, she changed to her second, black outfit, which lacked the bodysuit, so later seasons have her entire body the color that was once reserved for her face. [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mystique_white_6145.jpg Before]]. [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mystique_black_1194.jpg After]].
* Lady Jaye was white in the original GIJoe cartoon. In ''GIJoeRenegades'', she has since become a Latina.
** Also Ripcord, following in the movie and IDW comic's footsteps, is now black.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow'', ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'', ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}'' all use the Ultimate version of Nick Fury.
** ''Earth's Mightiest Heroes'' splits the difference, making him a black man with hair more like the original Fury in Season 1. Season 2 made him more Ultimate-like by shaving his head and growing a beard.
** Additionally, it has Kang's lover Ravonna changed from a white woman with red hair to an AmbiguouslyBrown woman with jet black hair. Maria Hill also becomes ambiguously brown.
*** This led to a minor controversy when Cobie Smulders was cast as Maria Hill in ''Film/TheAvengers''. Some fans who were only familiar with Maria from the cartoon complained about a pale-skinned, blue-eyed actress being cast to portray the character in the film, even though that's how she usually looks in the actual comics.
* Corresponding to the above-mentioned Race Lift of his brother Nick Fury, Scorpio is depicted as an African American man in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}''.
** Rather than being a white guy, the Scorpion is from K'un-L'un, the hidden Tibetan city where [[ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist Iron Fist]] received his training.
** Arcade also goes from being a white adult to an Asian teenager.
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' does this with Artemis and her mother Paula, both of whom were blue-eyed white women in the original comics. Here, Paula is Vietnamese, while Artemis is biracial. Artemis keeps her blonde hair from the comics, but is given brown eyes, darker skin and Asian facial features to highlight her mixed heritage.
** Variant with Aqualad: the original holder of the title from the comics, Garth, is white, but [[SidekickGraduationsStick hasn't been Aqualad]] for a long time anyway. In this continuity they [[CanonForeigner created a new character]], Kaldur'ahm, whose father, [[spoiler:Black Manta]] is African-American.
** Martian Manhunter might count as well. In the comics his human guise is usually a white man; in the show he adopts the appearance of a black man, though it probably is a ShoutOut to his ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' appearance.
** More likely, Manhunter's being black is because his voice actor, Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson, is black and it would simply make sense to make him the same race as his actor. He's a shapeshifter, so why NOT be a black man? Chances are the creators of ''Young Justice'' couldn't care one way or another about how he was portrayed on ''Smallville''. In fact, Manhunter has been played by black voice actors several times, such as ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague the Animated Series'' and ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDoom'' where he was played by the same actor, and portraying him as black both diversifies the cast and avoids whitewashing the actor portraying him.
*** This also leads into an interesting visual pun and bit of foreshadowing with [[spoiler: M'Gann. Her guise is as a white teenage girl. Meaning she's white, and a Martian. She really is a White Martian.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' reimagined Lex Luthor's [[BodyguardBabes female bodyguard]] [[CanonImmigrant Mercy Graves]] as an Asian woman. The Chinese American police officer Ellen Yin was also a race-swapped (and [[AdaptationalAttractiveness younger and prettier]]) version of Ellen Yindel, the female police commissioner from ''TheDarkKnightReturns''.
* The Royal Flush Gang that appeared in the 80's ''SuperFriends'' cartoon had Ten changed from a grown white woman to a black teenager.
* Taking a page from ''TheUltimates'', TheWasp is Asian American in both of the ''UltimateAvengers'' movies.
* As the name would imply, the ''Bat Man of Shanghai'' shorts from WesternAnimation/DCNation have ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} changed to a Chinese thief operating out of Shanghai in the 1930's. Batman and Bane become Chinese as well, though Bane is Latino in the comics.
* The Halloween special ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory of Terror'' changes Combat Carl, briefly seen in the original film as a generic white "Little Green Man"-type soldier, into a black G.I. Joe {{Expy}} with a mustache. It's not unheard of for toy lines to RetCon characters into being more diverse, so it comes off as a bit of a {{Meta}} joke.
* ''WesternAnimation/BewareTheBatman'''s version of Marion Grange changed the character from Caucasian to African-American.
[[/folder]]

!!Examples of Minority to Majority

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* The two latest ''{{Appleseed}}'' anime have Briareos as a white man before his conversion into a cyborg (especially obvious in ''Ex Machina'' with Tereus, Bri's clone). [[AllThereInTheManual The manga's supplemental materials]] showed him as a black man.
** Based on his skin tone and facial structure, it's debatable whether movie Briareos was technically "white" before becoming a cyborg, though he certainly wasn't black.
** As mentioned in the first block of examples, the new anime series thankfully restored his black heritage.
* In ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'', Seychelles is AmbiguouslyBrown in the manga (with Himaruya being unable to decide just how dark or light her skin is), but the anime gives her the same pale pink skin tone as all the European and Asian characters.
** Any character in the manga with darker skin was given white skin in the anime (Cuba being the ONE exception).
*** The characters' original skin tones are restored in season 5.
* In the ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' manga Revy is clearly Asian. Not only does she have narrow eyes and other typical facial features, her skin also has a tanned yellowish tone. In the anime however, she doesn't differ much from the white cast. Meanwhile other asian characters such as the yakuza or Taiwanese Shenhua, actually look asian.
* The ''Manga/DeathNote'' adaptations vary between depicting Rodd Loss as black or white. In the black and white manga pages, his skin is light though his exaggerated facial features are similar to a few other darker-skinned gang members, suggesting that he could possibly be biracial. In the anime, he definitely appears more on the white side.
** The DS game goes in the opposite direction and depicts him as an unambiguously dark-skinned black man.
* In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Rose is given dark skin, whereas in the manga she had light skin (''Brotherhood'' restored lighter complexions to her and the other residents of Liore)
** In the 2003 anime, Liore was believed to be a desert town, when it was actually somewhere in the mountains. This can be explained why the residents of Liore aren't supposed to have dark skin.
*** The Liorians in the 2003 anime are their own ethnic group, just like the Ishvalans; unlike in the manga, they all have dark skin and hair, in contrast to the Anglo-Saxon Amestrians.
** The manga has her with no shadowing like the dark skinned characters so it's presumed she is of the lighter complexion, much to the dismay of fans of the first series.
* Averted originally in the first English dub for ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross''. In Carl Macek's original treatment (preserved in the first issue of what would become the ''{{Robotech}}'' comic adaptation), Hikaru Ichijyo was to be renamed "Rick Yamada", acknowedging that the character was of Japanese ancestry (although the "Rick" part implies him being a ''nisei'', ''sansei'' or ''yonsei'' American). When the second dub came around, for whatever reason, the name was changed to the completely Anglo "Rick Hunter", and the trope came into full effect.
* ''ArmoredTrooperVotoms'' has Vanilla Vartla, who has a darker complexion in the original anime and [=OVAs=], but became incredibly light-skinned in color artwork for Minoru Nonaka's manga adaptation of the series.
* FourKidsEntertainment some minor black characters from ''OnePiece'' into white people, since they were originally drawn in an offensive Sambo caricature style.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* In [[Comicbook/{{Spawn}} the comic book]] that inspired the movie ''Film/{{Spawn}}'', the titular protagonist, his best friend, his former wife and her daughter, and the assassin who killed him were all black. The studio, afraid of having too many black leads, made the best friend white. The assassin was also changed from a black man to a white woman, but this change seems to have been driven by a falling out between Spawn's creator and the [[RobLiefeld creator of the original assassin]], rather than ExecutiveMeddling.
** The comic version had a RaceLift as a minor plot element. Spawn could change his appearance into a normal man -- a ''white'' man with blonde hair and blue eyes. But not into a black man. Since he couldn't be a black man, he voluntarily decided to remain at his default appearance -- a decayed corpse.
*** In fact, the scene was how the revelation was made in the comics. Al and Wanda were only shown originally in Al's dreams, with great care taken to not show any real hints of ethnicity. When Spawn first tries to use his powers to make himself look human, you see the white face, then the next page suddenly has Al saying "What the ''hell'' is this? I'm a BLACK man, damnit!" Only afterwards do we actually get to see Wanda and Al's true faces.
* Around the time ''UltimateXMen'' was starting up, Creator/MarkMillar introduced the Ultimate version of Kestrel, real name John Wraith, who had ties to the Weapon X project. However, his real name and having a connection to to Weapon X are the only thing he has in common with the classic version, as Millar made Wraith, an African-American mutant with teleporting powers who was a test subject of Weapon X in the classic Marvel universe into a white human who was in charge of the project.
* The Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} villain Lady Bullseye is depicted as Caucasian in the Marvel Noir universe. She's Japanese in the mainstream universe.
* In ''Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}'', April O'Neil's race seems to vacillate in early Eastman & Laird issues, even from page to page, but she was pretty definitively non-white and Baxter Stockman was unquestionably African-American. This was ... not retained in most adaptations.
** This could be forgiven with April O'Neil (as the above says, her race wasn't consistent, and the 80s cartoon adaptation makes her Irish in appearance, to go with her surname), but Baxter Stockman comes off like PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad. While Stockman is very much a bad guy who was black, Eastman & Laird had him be a thin, evil geek and April's boss in a time when black characters, even positive ones, were typically either athletes or overweight.
** April's early physical appearance could best be described as AmbiguouslyBrown, and not unlike that of Jennifer Beals, in fact (which may have been what the artist was going for). Her EightiesHair doesn't help (she even mentions getting it done at a "New Wave place", and Raphael silently mocks her for it), nor do her unusually thick lips or her sorta-dark-blue eyes. The best guess is probably that she's supposed to be an "ethnic" white woman.
* According to TheOtherWiki, famous ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' villain Flattop is often considered to have been a light-skinned black man, making every appearance of him in any given adaptation this.
** Well, Flattop's last name is "Jones", which is more disproportionate among African-Americans than European-Americans. And since most "mob" characters (in ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' and elsewhere) tend to be either Italian or Irish, the name "Jones" would otherwise stand out pretty glaringly. Then we have Flattop's unusually thick lips. So we just might be on to something here....
** The Staton/Curtis creative team has been clearly depicting Flattop's widow Stiletta Jones as a black woman. That doesn't necessarily mean he was Af-Am, but it shows an awareness that people have wondered about it.
* When the comic book ''Model By Day'', featuring a black protagonist, was made into a television movie, Dutch actress Creator/FamkeJanssen was cast in the lead.
* Happened without adaptation in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Carlos Ezquerra originally drew Dredd as part-Hispanic, but subsequent artists drew him as a very white man.
* Similar to the Spawn example above is a DC Comics character named Mister Bones. While the name is a dead giveaway to anyone familiar with [[MinstrelShows its origin]], Bones' soft tissues are invisible, making him look like an ambulatory skeleton. On the rare occasions he wears make-up to "pass", however, people are typically surprised to find out that he's black. One character even taunts him with the notion that Bones forgets this himself, [[spoiler:which turns out to be a BerserkButton -- Bones remembers, and it logically pisses him off that people treat him differently after they find out that he's not white.]]
* When he was first introduced, Connor Hawke, the second GreenArrow, was initially drawn in a way that highlighted his heritage. Born to a white father and a mixed race (half African American, half Korean) mother, Connor had an Asian-looking face, with dark skin, a broad nose and lips (from his African side) and finally blonde hair and green eyes (from his father's side). Today, very few artists draw him with Asian or African features, and fewer colorists even remember to give him his dark skin. For example, a flashback scene in a recent issue showed a young Connor with his clearly-black mother, and he was drawn with white skin and no noticeable African features.
* A probably accidental example happened in a preview for [[TheDCU DC Comic's]] ''Flashpoint'' event, where the biracial [[http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/jenni.html Jenni Ognats]], aka XS, was drawn [[http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/5334269625/wwjenni as white with blond hair]] and with an incorrect costume. Someone at DC evidently noticed and this was corrected in the version of the same page that appeared in an online version of USA Today.
* In a Belgian comic named ''ComicBook/BillyTheCat'', a black friend of the title character (who couldn't pronounce the letter "r" in the original French) is made into a white boy in the TV series based on the comic. Interesting enough, in the Dutch translation, the black boy had no trouble at all, pronouncing the "r", making that a partial race lift.
* Marie Laveau, a light skinned black woman, has been portrayed as white in many Marvel comics. Other times they make her a little too dark but at least that could be excused as her (possibly)darker daughter, who took up her name and position.
* An issue of ''TheFlash'' featured a [[RecursiveAdaptation film about the hero]] being produced. The Flash's Asian American girlfriend Linda Park was reimagined as the blonde "Linda Parker", a change which understandably enraged the real Linda.
* The comic book adaptation of Patricia Briggs' ''Moon Called'' depicts the half-Native American, brown-skinned, black-haired Mercy Thompson as a lily-white redhead. To make it even more bizarre, the comic features Charles (who has the exact same ancestry and coloration) who is drawn with black hair and brown skin.
* The {{New 52}} is mentioned above, but it features this version; Comicbook/TeenTitans supporting characters Thunder and Lightning, originally Vietnamese-American (born and raised in Vietnam to a Vietnamese mother and an American father), are now Russian-born (and therefore identifiably European). Incidentally, Lightning is now [[GenderFlip female]].
* Mike [=McMahon=] drew ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' as a black man for a while during his early years. Because the comic was in black and white, nobody noticed and [[AbortedArc he abandoned the idea after a while]]. Judge Guthrie is a more straight example, starting off as AmbiguouslyBrown DependingOnTheArtist (Carlos Ezquerra drew him as out and out black). In more recent years, he's been unambiguously white.
* ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}': In ''The Crab with the Golden Claws'', one of the henchmen who were beating up Captain Haddock in the storeroom was originally black, but the English edition made him white. Bizarrely, Captain Haddock still says, "Arrest that negro!"
* Mici Shabandar, one of the heroes in the somewhat obscure ''ComicBook/MarvelStarWars'' story ''World of Fire'', which only exists in black and white. It was originally serialized in Marvel's UK ''Star Wars'' magazine, and when Mici made a cover she was depicted with dark skin. A couple of years later, ''World of Fire'' was finally published in America, but the entirely new cover art gave Mici light skin.
* Rose Wilson of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' and the '90s ''Deathstroke'' series was introduced as the illegitimate daughter of Slade Wilson and a Cambodian woman named Lillian Worth. While most artists didn't really reflect Rose's Cambodian heritage as much, she was still meant to be mixed-race, albeit with pure white hair and blue (or green) eyes. In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths'', Rose became a red-haired Caucasian girl (although she was basically an InNameOnly incarnation) who had Adeline Kane as her mother. In post-Flashpoint comics continuity, Rose is now also entirely Caucasian with Adeline Kane as her mother, although as said before, since Rose's ethnicity was barely drawn consistently, there is little visual difference and she retains her white hair.
* In the original ''Comicbook/SquadronSupreme'' series Redstone was a Native American superhero. In ''Comicbook/SupremePower'' ContinuityReboot he was turned into white superpowered SerialKiller.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Ming the Merciless, a FuManchu-style YellowPeril villain in the original ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon'' comics and serials, was played by Creator/MaxVonSydow in [[Film/FlashGordon the 1980 movie]], although he was still obviously meant to be Asian (or rather a HumanAlien with a European-looking daughter). They attempted to distance Ming from his roots by casting the white, non-mustachioed, full-haired John Ralston in [[Series/FlashGordon the 2007 TV series]]. It ''really'' [[DorkAge doesn't work]].
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein had Juan "Johnnie" Rico in ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' being a Filipino. Paul Verhoeven turned him into pretty white boy Caspar Van Dien, with the same ironic sensibility that made him cast actors pushing 30 as the supposedly high school age leads. There was all of one line mentioning his race, so book covers and adaptations- including anime adaptation by Sunrise- nearly always get it wrong. Heinlein liked making minority characters with all of one line mentioning their race in general, including ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'', ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', ''Literature/PodkayneOfMars'', ''Literature/{{Friday}}'', and ''Literature/TunnelInTheSky''.
** Heinlein is extremely prone to this trope when he does get adapted, as he rarely includes much physical description of characters (barring busty redheaded women, who occupy his work much like they occupied his love life).
* Creator/StevenSpielberg's AnimatedAdaptation, ''SinbadLegendOfTheSevenSeas'', turns one of the most recognized characters of Arabian folklore, whose Ray Harryhausen-directed adventures were one of the few positive portrayals of Islamic culture ever to have an impact on pop culture, and makes him a Greek sailor interacting with characters from Greek mythology.
* The book ''Bringing Down the House'' is about how the mostly Asian-American MIT Blackjack Team counted cards to rack in big cash at casinos. Its film adaptation ''Film/TwentyOne'' couldn't have minority leads, so producers made four of the team members white and cast only two Asians in the least important team roles, which was heavily criticized for racism. The real MIT blackjack team actually brought in a white girl as an attempt to make the team more "diverse".
* [[http://veejane.livejournal.com/385338.html Brit Johnson]], a famous black scout in the old west was in many Westerns in the 40s and 50s... played exclusively by white men. Many of "hanging judge" Parker's "catchers" were black (often with some Cherokee blood too), including the most famous. One movie version gave him a black bailiff, that was as close as Hollywood got.
* The [[DevelopmentHell long-stalled]] film adaptation of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' would reportedly have the mostly-Japanese cast of the original series changed to white people. For instance, official concept art had Asuka Soryu and Misato Katsuragi changed to "Kate Rose" and "Susan Whitnall" respectively.
* In ''A Mighty Heart'', Angelina Jolie plays the role of real-life Afro-Chinese-Cuban/Dutch-Jew reporter Mariane Pearl. The casting was criticized in some circles, though the character's race wasn't changed for the film and Jolie's skin tone actually does resemble the real person.
* Creator/AngelinaJolie plays Fox in ''Film/{{Wanted}}'', a character visually modeled after Halle Berry.
* The ''Film/DragonballEvolution'' movie got a lot of flak by casting white Justin Chatwin as Goku, with fans claiming that Goku is supposed to be Asian. Most defenders noted that race in ''Dragonball'' is more along the lines of human/demon/alien (and Goku is an alien). Bulma is played by the white Emmy Rossum, and Creator/JamesMarsters' Piccolo is under so much makeup it doesn't really matter. Besides that, all of supporting characters (Master Roshi, Chi Chi, Yamcha, Mai, Grandpa Gohan) ''are'' played by Asian actors.
* ''13'', the English-language remake of French thriller ''13 Tzameti'' changes the location from France to England and changes the main character from an ethnic minority for his homeland (Georgian) to a standard Englishman. This is a rare case of a Caucasian character (from the Caucasus) being changed to a Caucasian (white) character.
* When the movie ''Film/PayItForward'' was adapted from the book of the same name, the hideously scarred black teacher Reuben St. Clair becomes hideously scarred white teacher Eugene Simonet (played by Creator/KevinSpacey). They couldn't get Denzel Washington for the part, so they had to change the character.
* In the recent movie adaptation of ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic[=/=]Discworld/TheLightFantastic''. the character of Twoflower, who hails from the Discworld's Far East analogue country, played by American actor Sean Astin. This may have been an effort to avoid "Asian tourist" stereotypes and instead stick with the safer [[AcceptableTargets ''American'' tourist stereotype]].
* The Western ''Ulzana's Raid'' originally intended a Native American scout, Ke-Ni-Tay, to be the main character, albeit played by a "blacked-up" Jorge Luke. In a case of ExecutiveMeddling, a white scout played by Burt Lanchaster became the lead and Ke-Ni-Tay was grudgingly reduced to a support character.
* A LiveActionAdaptation of the indie comic book ''TheWeapon'' has recently been announced, and the hero of the book named Tommy Zhou has been cast. The actor they chose? David Henrie. Yes, ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' David Henrie.
* In Arthur C. Clarke's novel ''2010'', the scientist responsible for the HAL 9000, Dr. Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai -- or Dr. Chandra -- is from India. In the film version, he's Bob Balaban. But still named Dr. Chandra.
* The movie ''Stuck'' was based on the [[http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/27/windshield.death/index.html?iref=allsearch horrific incident of Chante Mallard hitting a homeless man with her car, and leaving him to die trapped in her windshield.]] The movie casts white Mena Suvari as Chante, despite Chante being African-American. What's worse is that they give her cornrows in order portray her better. You could say that this is a case of PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad as to not portray a black woman in a negative light, but ''cornrows?!''
* In the film version of GeorgeRRMartin's short story "Nightflyers", Melantha Jhirl (renamed Miranda in the film), who is described as having coal-black skin, is played by [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829252/ Catherine Mary Stewart]].
* All of {{Disney}}'s ''Witch Mountain'' movies demonstrate a rather subtle form of this trope. In the original novel ''EscapeToWitchMountain'' by Alexander Key, Tony and Tia are described as appearing Latin or Mediterranean, with olive skin, dark eyes and dark hair. However, in all of the films Disney has made using this property, the aliens (children and adults alike) have been turned into blonde, blue-eyed Aryan stereotypes.
** This could have possibly been a riff on TheMidwichCuckoos.
* Averted with Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle. Director Danny Leiner was well aware of Hollywood's tendency to shy away from Asian leads and originally feared that "Harold and Kumar" would turn into "Joe and Dave Go To [=McDonald=]'s".
* While the American version of ''TheGrudge'' is still set in Tokyo, it changes most of the main characters into white people.
** This creates an interesting connotation for the film as, aside from two characters, every single VICTIM is also white, leading to the darkly humorous interpretation that the titular Grudge is against Americans.
* The live-action ''KingOfFighters'' movie isn't very good for a whole host of reasons, but one of the most jarring issues is that Kyo Kusanagi - the most popular character in the series in Japan - is played by a guy who is as white as the driven snow. His father - explicitly his ''biological father'' - is played by a Japanese guy. It's made even worse by the fact that all the flashbacks have the character being played by a young Asian boy. A half-hearted attempt is made to explain this with Iori insulting Kyo as a "half-breed", which WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment mocked with "yeah, half white and the other half white!".
* The live-action ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' film had Brazilian Christie played by white Kelly Overton. When she was cast, cue dozens of internet arguments claiming that Christie was really black, Hispanic or even Asian ethnicity. In what may count as an inversion, the Irish Anna Williams was played by a Spanish actress but Anna's background is never stated.
* The film ''ExtraordinaryMeasures'' stars Creator/HarrisonFord as Dr. Robert Stonehill, who cured Pompe disease. The scientist who actually cured the disease was Dr. Yuan-Tsong Chen. The real Dr. Chen did not wish to be fictionalized, but that still doesn't explain why they needed to change the character's race.
* Creator/BenAffleck played real-life mixed-race CIA agent Tony Mendez in ''{{Film/Argo}}'', his film about the Iranian hostage crisis. A picture of the real Tony Mendez meeting Pres. Carter appears in the credits.
* In ''Film/MortalKombat'', Rayden is curiously white for an Asian deity. Likewise, Kano went from half-Japanese to Australian background. Trevor Goddard's performance eventually caused Midway to {{Retcon}} him into being Australian.
* The film adaptation of ''[[Film/DOADeadOrAlive Dead or Alive]]'' had the Japanese Kasumi and Ayane played by the half-Japanese Devon Aoki and the white Natassia Malthe respectively. Strangely, this applied only to them: Ryu Hayabusa and Hayate were played by the half-Japanese half-Chinese Kane Kosugi and the Taiwanese Collin Chou.
** Malthe is in fact half-Malaysian. It's just very hard to tell, especially with her very European-sounding name.
* ''Hachi: A Dog's Story'' is an American remake of ''Hachikō Monogatari'', in turn based on the story of [[UsefulNotes/{{Hachiko}} the real Akita dog named Hachiko]]. The movie is moved from 1920's Japan to 2000's America--with the Japanese dog being left in an American train station as a puppy--and the role of Hidesaburō Ueno, the dog's original owner played by Richard Gere, who is given the new name of Parker Wilson. In fact the only things Japanese at all in the movie are Hachikō, whose name was shorted to "Hachi", and one of Parker's co-workers, Ken. They do however, in a closing title, mention all the true--and Japanese--details of the story.
* In the film adaption of ''{{Spawn}}'' in 1997, the man Al Simmons' (Spawn) wife remarried was changed from a black man to a white man. Apparently it was felt that there were far too many African Americans in the original comic, and on screen it would turn the film into a "black movie".
* In ''Film/RisingSun'', Wesley Snipes's character is white in the books. The murderer is [[spoiler:changed from Japanese to white.]]
* In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', BigBad Bane, half-British and half-Hispanic[[note]]British father and Santa Priscan mother, born and raised in a ''high-security prison'' in Santa Prisca, a Spanish-colonized Caribbean island. The trait is important to the character but not established in his first appearance.[[/note]] in the comics, is played by Brit Tom Hardy. Hardy's features and accent are ambiguous and distorted, so his race could go any which way. Except as it turns out, he's from a Chinese\Arabic prison instead of a South American one, [[spoiler: and the protector from [[BigBadDuumvirate fellow villain]] and example of this trope [=Talia Al Ghul/Miranda Tate=]. Her father, Ra's al Ghul, who in the comics is Chinese and/or Arabic, is played by Irish actor Liam Neeson and Talia is played by Marion Cotillard, who is French]].
** Bane was also played by white wrestler Robert Swenson in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'', but as a stereotypical DumbMuscle character. The less said about it, the better.
* In the process of adapting ''ComicBook/ThirtyDaysOfNight'', not only were the paunchy, late-thirties, happily married main couple made buff, mid-twenties, and sexily divorced; the Native American Eben Olemaun became the white Eben Oleson.
* In [[http://www.bigwowo.com/2011/11/reverse-racebending/ this short film]], a real-life Asian murderer is turned into a white guy. His victims remain Asian.
* 2008's ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', sort of. In the film, white actor Martin Starr plays "computer nerd." In the novelization, his character is named Amadeus Cho.
* Creator/JohnWayne as GenghisKhan. Yes, ''John Wayne'' as '''Genghis Khan'''. It's tempting to say ''Film/TheConqueror'' is cinematic cancer, but considering they shot it on an old nuclear test site and half the cast and crew, including Wayne, got cancer, it'd be in incredibly poor taste....
* In the early ''Film/HarryPotter'' films, Lavender Brown was played by black actresses Kathleen Cauley and Jennifer Smith. In the 6th movie (when Lavender [[AscendedExtra became an important character and love interest to Ron)]] she was changed into a white actress, JessieCave.
* In ''Film/IronMan3'', the Mandarin, who is half-English and half-Chinese in the comics, is played by BenKingsley, who is half-English and half-Gujurati Indian. [[spoiler: It's revealed that the "Mandarin" Kingsley is really actually Trevor Slattery, a British actor playing a decoy for Aldrich Killian, who according to WordOfGod and his BadassBoast is the true Mandarin, which means the MCU Mandarin (by virtue of [[CompositeCharacter being combined with Killian]]) is white]]. Firepower ([[ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames who went by his real name, Jack Taggert]]) also went from being African-American to Caucasian.
** Marvel later released the short film ''[[Film/MarvelOneShots All Hail The King]]'', which confirmed that [[spoiler: neither Slattery nor Killian were the actual Mandarin, and that the ''real'' Mandarin is out there somewhere as the leader of the Ten Rings. So presumably, the [[MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] Mandarin could still be Chinese]].
* In ''Literature/TheHost'' Melanie Stryder is described as having tanned skin and is part Latina on her mother's side; in [[TheFilmOfTheBook the Movie]] she is played by Irish actress Creator/SaoirseRonan.
* In ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', Creator/BenedictCumberbatch's character is revealed to be Khan, who was an Indian Sikh [[FakeNationality (albeit played by a Latino)]] in [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original series]]. Needless to say this has caused a bit of a stir. [[spoiler:A tie-in comic reveals that ''[[MagicPlasticSurgery literal]]'' whitewashing turned Khan from an Indian boy into a Caucasian man.]]
* In the live action film adaptation of FistOfTheNorthStar, Kenshiro and possibly Shin as well since that is also an Asian name despite the fact that in the anime he was depicted as a blond bishonen type. Creator/MalcolmMcDowell being cast as wise old martial arts master Ryuken was very odd indeed.
* This was one of the more derided aspects of the movie adaptation of Creator/JackKerouac's ''The Subterraneans''. Since the novel was a ''roman a clef'' about Kerouac's relationship with the African-American Alene Lee, changing her character to a French girl played by Leslie Caron took away most of the point.
* ''TheHungerGames'' provides an example that may be borderline, but has certainly sparked a lot of anger. Katniss's colour in the books is ambiguous; she's described as dark-haired and olive-skinned, which many interpret as making her a person of colour, but her mother and sister and blonde, so that sounds more like she is a dark complected White person. What's fairly inarguable is that race and racial appearance is a big part of Katniss's story, and one that a lot of POC fans found gratifying. The whitewashing comes in when the film was cast: it was not just that they cast the very white Jennifer Lawrence, it was the the casting call specified that only white actresses need apply.
** In fact, Katniss' first person narration describes herself (and most typical inhabitants of "The Seam") as grey eyed (her mother was from a different area) which makes it unlikely Suzanne Collins intended her to be taken as a person of colour. It's pretty obvious that Thresh and Rue were people of colour however, and the movie casting got this just right. Cinna's racial appearance is not really stated, and obviously the "whites only" rule didn't apply in casting this one.
* It was initially suggested that the Caucasian Eric Sacks from ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'', was a new incarnation of The Shredder/Oroku Saki. [[spoiler: However, this proves to have been a RedHerring, as Sacks is seen speaking to a man shrouded in shadows, evidently Oroku Saki himself, about developing a new suit of armor for him. Interestingly, Sacks is the Shredder [[http://turtlepedia.wikia.com/wiki/Eric_Sacks_(2014_video_games) in the 3DS version of the movie]], as well as [[http://www.cinemablend.com/new/William-Fichtner-Confirmed-Play-Shredder-Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-38188.html earlier comments]] by Fincher himself, leading some to speculate that Sacks was originally Shredder but was changed to avoid any further fan backlash.]]
* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'', which stars Creator/TomCruise as "Bill Cage", is based on a Japanese LightNovel called ''LightNovel/AllYouNeedIsKill'', where Cruise's counterpart is named Keiji Kiriya.
* The upcoming DarkerAndEdgier PeterPan prequel ''Pan'' will have Irish-American actress Rooney Mara playing Tiger Lily, who is Native American in the original story and most of the subsequent adaptations. [[http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/03/13/rooney-mara-tiger-lily-controversy/ This has already become the subject of controversy]].
* In the book ''Literature/TheHouseOfTheSpirits'', the novel centers around a Latin-American family through four generations. By the time the movie was made, the Trueba family were played by white actors Creator/MerylStreep, Creator/JeremyIrons, Creator/GlennClose and Creator/WinonaRyder.
* Sunspot is Afro-Brazilian in the ''ComicBook/XMen'' comics but is played by a white Mexican in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''.
* Rose Hathaway from ''Literature/VampireAcademy'' is half-Turkish, but played by the decidedly white Zoey Deutch in [[Film/VampireAcademy The Movie]].
* ''Film/ExodusGodsAndKings'' came under fire for casting white folks as the Egyptian and Israelite lead characters, including Creator/ChristianBale as Moses and Creator/JoelEdgerton as Ramses II. For added UnfortunateImplications, servants, assassins, workers and so on are portrayed by actors of colour.
* ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' movie portrays Trillian (real name Trisha MacMillan) as pale skinned and blue-eyed. ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' book describes her thus:
--->Trillian was a girl that Zaphod had picked up recently whilst visiting a planet, just for fun, incognito. She was slim, darkish, humanoid, with long waves of black hair, a full mouth, an odd little nob of a nose and ridiculously brown eyes. With her red head scarf knotted in that particular way and her long flowing silky brown dress she looked vaguely Arabic.
* Controversy erupted over [[MarvelCinematicUniverse Marvel]]'s planned film adaptation of ''Comicbook/{{Runaways}}'' after the casting call revealed that the studio was not actively seeking Asian actresses for the role of Nico Minoru (who is Japanese-American in the comics). Marvel subsequently claimed the whole thing was a misunderstanding, [[http://io9.com/5623776/marvel-responds-to-pressure-says-theyll-cast-runaways-hero-nico-as-asian-american-in-the-film and rewrote the casting call to specify an Asian actress]].
* White American actress Creator/ScarlettJohansson has been announced as playing Japanese cyborg Motoko Kusanagi in the upcoming live-action Hollywood adaptation of ''Manga/GhostInTheShell''. Fan reactions have been [[BrokenBase split]] between outrage against and defensive of the choice.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In an example of [[FantasticRacism fantastic race-lift]], [[TheLegendOfDrizzt Drizzt Do'Urden]] in R.A. Salvatore's ''Dark Elf'' novels is a drow elf, which as the term "dark elf" would imply, has dark gray or black skin. However, for the longest time his "official" depiction in the cover art showed him to be as pale-skinned as any surface elf. This has been fixed in later covers.
* Executives wanted to cast white leads for a film adaptation of ''Literature/AnansiBoys'', completely ignoring the fact that the Anansi myths originated in Africa, that all the main characters except Rosie's mother are explicitly stated to be black, and that at least one character's Afro-Caribbean heritage is a plot point. Fortunately, NeilGaiman shot them down.
* The American cover of Justine Larbalestier's book ''Liar'' caused a controversy. [[http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/07/23/aint-that-a-shame/ The heroine is a black teenage girl with short hair...and a long-haired white girl is on the cover.]] This certainly confused the American readers, and the publisher's response was decidedly...lacking. They claimed that a book with a black girl on it [[ViewersAreMorons would not sell to white readers]]. They also tried to claim that since the book was first-person and the character was, [[UnreliableNarrator after all, a liar]], maybe she ''was'' really white, [[DeathOfTheAuthor regardless of Larbalestier's opinion]]. The publishing company finally replaced it with what looks to be either [[http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/08/06/the-new-cover/ a really light Black girl or a biracial girl.]] The company had this to say:
-->"We regret that our original creative direction for ''Liar'' -- which was intended to symbolically reflect the narrator's complex psychological makeup -- has been interpreted by some as a calculated decision to mask the character's ethnicity."
** The fact that the girl on the final cover looks biracial isn't a bad thing, as the character she represents is biracial.
* On the first paperback edition of Octavia Butler's ''[[Literature/LilithsBrood Dawn]]'': the cover is a detailed and accurate depiction of a scene from the book, with a character who's described as platinum blonde drawn that way... ''but'' the African-American protagonist, whose race is important to the story, is drawn very, very white.
* Several editions of Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/ThePaladin'', including the current Creator/BaenBooks paperback, depict the heroine and her mentor in the cover art as very white despite the FantasyCounterpartCulture being very obviously Asian (mostly Chinese, with some Japanese elements).
* The cover of Creator/PatriciaAMcKillip's ''Alphabet of Thorn'' greatly lightened a dark-skinned character.
* The protagonist of Jay Lake's ''Green'' is supposed to be South Asian; not so on [[http://www.ferretbrain.com/images/library/098ac4fb0ca1c7752a72fa9266271dba.jpg the cover.]]
* In the Literature/ArtemisFowl books, Holly Short and Elves in general are described as brown-skinned and, except for the pointy ears, able to pass as short humans, but the graphic novels give her skin as fair as Artemis's, and some of the other elves seem to be pale ''green''. (Sprites and Goblins have green skin, but not Elves -- see above about passing as short humans.) She's also fallen victim to CoversAlwaysLie Race Lift in the newest American cover designs and in every translation that didn't use relettered versions of the classic English Language covers (on which characters, if shown at all, were silhouettes).
* The cover of ''[[Literature/{{Xanth}} Harpy Thyme]]'' by Piers Anthony shows a sweet, beautiful winged girl who is obviously supposed to be the protagonist, Gloha Goblin-Harpy. The girl on the cover has a peaches-and-cream complexion and blond hair. Gloha is dark-skinned with blue-black hair. Since the details of her appearance aren't described until a fair way through the book, readers who took the cover at face value may find themselves flipping to the cover, reading the description again, and thinking "Wait, who the hell is this chick on the cover?"
* The cover of ''[[Literature/{{Xanth}} Zombie Lover]]'' is just as bad, with Breanna of the Black Wave (whose blackness is referred to repeatedly throughout the book) appearing as extremely fair-skinned. At least they got her black hair right.
* In ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', while in prison, Dantes famously meets Faria, an Italian priest who is the TropeCodifier for TheOldConvict. Faria was a real person, but was actually Goan Indian (and culturally Portuguese). The major commonality between the real guy and the fictional character is that both were well-read priests and both were imprisoned in the Chateau d'If, but other than that, the fictional Faria is quite different than the real one.
* Despite the casting of Creator/RalphFiennes and LaurenceOlivier (and others) in various film adaptations of ''Literature/WutheringHeights'', Heathcliff is of uncertain racial origins. His race is never specified (he is only described as being "as dark as if 'it' came from the devil" and as a "gipsy brat"). Some critics have speculated that he might be part Black or part Asiatic Indian (Making him the only non-white character in a film these days would have UnfortunateImplications, since Heathcliff is kind of the BigBad of the story. But it's still in the book.)
** The 2011 film adaptation did, in fact, cast a black actor in the role of Heathcliff.
* In another instance of a fanastic race lift: the demons from MercedesLackey's [[TheObsidianTrilogy Obsidian Trilogy]] are described as having red skin. The cover for the second book, ''ToLightACandle'', which features one of the demons on the cover, shows her with mostly white skin that darkens to red between her elbow and hand and has some red around her face and neck.
* Yelena from the [[Literature/IxiaAndSitia Poison/Magic/Fire Study books]] is explicitly described as having light brown skin and black hair, becuase this is exceptional in northern Ixia, whereas when she goes south to Sitia there are many people with the same and darker skin tones. However, on every cover of the book, Yelena is portrayed as a pale-skinned , usually with light brown hair. On occasion, her skin might shown as a light tanned colour.
* The novelization of ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' identified the young computer geek Banner bribes with a pizza as Amadeus Cho. Unfortunately, Cho is Korean American in the comics, while the computer geek in the film is extremely white.
* The Black hero of David Gerrold's ''Dingilliad'' trilogy is depicted on all three covers as a blond white man. This also happened with the principal guest character in at least one edition of Gerrold's Franchise/StarTrek novel ''The Galactic Whirlpool''.
* Maurissa Meyer has said that the title character of ''[[Literature/LunarChronicles Cinder]]'' was [[ComicBookFantasyCasting modeled after]] Japanese actress Mew Azama, and that she would like her to be played by Shay Mitchell (who is of Filipino descent) in a hypothetical film adaptation. Despite this, the TV ad for the book depicts Cinder as a [=WASPy=] white girl with light hair and eyes.
* Creator/JulesVerne originally intended to reveal Captain Nemo to be a displaced Polish nobleman with a grudge against Russia, but the fact that this would hurt his Russian book sales persuaded him to change him to a displaced Indian prince with a grudge against the British in "The Mysterious Island".
** The movies just make him white. The 1972 French TV series (also released as a movie in 1973) "The Mysterious Island" starring Omar Sharif and ''LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' (the original comic, and the film version thereof) are among the few adaptations that kept the Indian prince thing.
* There is the anime ''NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'', where Nemo has a dark skin tone, though here he is actually ''Atlantean'' rather than Indian, with both alien (the royal family -- Nemo and his kids) and earthling (Electra and the rest of the crew of the Nautilus, as well as Gorgon and his followers) Atlanteans having skin tone dark enough to pass as Indian or even African (his daughter Nadia originally thought that she was actually from Africa before she discovered her true origins).
** The whole point of Nemo's portrayal in the original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is that nearly everything about him -- accent, appearance, etc. -- is highly ambiguous. TheReveal that he's supposed to be Indian only occurs in TheMysteriousIsland, a somewhat less well-received sequel. Verne clearly wrote the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with the Polish origin in mind and there are actually several moments that make the Hindu origin seem out-of-place (would a Hindu really cry out to "Almighty God" in English in his moment of deepest anguish?) though these can be explained as [[FridgeLogic Nemo being fanatically devoted to concealing his true identity and origin at all times]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Franchise/BattlestarGalactica'': Colonel Tigh was an African-American in the [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic original series]]; in the [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined reboot]], they made him caucasian.
* ''{{Series/Bonanza}}'' and ''{{Gunsmoke}}'' showed the American West as peopled mainly by whites, with a few stereotypical American Indians, Chinese, and Mexicans as local color. (In reality, Anglo whites made up a small minority of the residents of both territories at the times the shows were set.) Neither show depicted the massive migration of freedmen to the West that happened during the time these shows were set; in the first six years of its run, ''Bonanza'' never showed a black character despite Virginia City being a popular destination for freedmen. Pernell Roberts left the show in part because he disapproved of the whitewashing.
** A ''{{Series/Bonanza}}'' episode featured William Marshall as Thomas Bowers (an actual historical figure). It dealt with racial exclusion, the Fugitive Slave Act, and featured black Virginia City residents. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0529554/
* There are several documentaries whitewashing non-white conquerors, the worst easily being one about AttilaTheHun... with an ''all-Scottish cast''.
** The opposite happens to Hannibal, who seems to be in the middle of a competition to make him as dark and West-African looking as possible in television despite being part of a Mid-eastern ethnic group established in Tunis. His blonde wife Himilce will simply be ignored.
* In the television miniseries adaptation of ''SamuraiGirl'', several roles which were Asian in the books were played by white actors.
** At least the main characters were still Asian.
* The television miniseries ''Series/{{Earthsea}}'', very loosely based on Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's novels ''A Wizard of Earthsea'' and ''Tombs of Atuan'', whitewashes the entire cast (they're all brown or black) except for Ogion, who is brown in the novel and Danny Glover in the miniseries, and Arha/Tenar, who is white-skinned in the novel and played by the multiracial Kristin Kreuk in the miniseries.
* The American adaptation of ''Series/RedDwarf'' intended to change both Lister's and the Cat's race from black to white, among other things. However, the adaptation never got past a pilot.
** Not entirely accurate. While Lister's actor was a white guy who was also good looking and well poised (thus eliminating the show's entire premise that the last human alive was a complete bum), the Cat was played by a black man. A second pilot did indeed recast the Cat as a white woman but at this point they were desperately throwing out ideas to keep the show from sinking. It didn't work.
* In the episode "Mountain of Youth" of ''Series/MacGyver'', which takes place in an ostensibly Asian country, most, if not all, of the Asians are played by white folks.
* The TV movie about Creator/MarcoPolo had the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan being played by Brian Dennehy.
* One Life To Live's Blair Daimler was originally played by an Asian actress, and her heritage was incorporated into the show--when a character was traveling to Japan, she offered to go with him because her Japanese language skills would be useful. Blair fled town in early 1993... and returned at the end of the year being played by a blond-haired, blue-eyed actress with a Southern accent. Needless to say, no mention of her previous ethnicity was ever mentioned, except for a hilarious incident where the blond Blair flashed back to the ASIAN Blair exchanging vows with Asa; when it cut back to the blond Blair, she looked very confused and whipped out a pocket mirror to double-check what she looked like.
* In TheVampireDiaries books, the two male vampire characters are Italian, and in flashbacks described specifically as having 'dark good looks'. The actors both whiter than white in the new show.
** Which is why [[AdaptationDistillation they changed the backstory of the two vampire brothers to be Italian-American]]; however, neither of them have Southern accents.
* The 1997 made-for-TV movie ''Bad To The Bone'' was all about a promiscuous teenage girl and her weak-willed younger brother who hatched a plot to murder the girl's boyfriend so that they could take over his fancy nightclub - after having previously bumped off their mother so they wouldn't have to wait too long for an inheritance. The movie was based on a real-life incident, and the sister, brother, and mother were all Korean-Americans. The people casting the film awarded these roles to three white actors (including ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' actress Kristy Swanson as the bad girl and ''Series/PartyOfFive'' star Jeremy London as her brother) and gave their characters a ''very'' Anglo-Saxon name - which is very strange in context, because one (albeit minor) reason the girl wanted her mother dead is because the [[MalignedMixedMarriage mother disapproved of mixed ethnic marriages]] and would not allow her to choose a non-Korean type (let alone a non-Asian, which made the mother all the more furious upon learning that her prospective son-in-law was of ''Irish'' descent) as her love interest (and in the movie, the boyfriend is played by ''{{Baywatch}}'' star David Chokachi - who, despite the Japanese-sounding last name, is Polish-American, so the racial angle was sidestepped there, too). The change was probably made in order to avoid damaging the reputation of the Korean-American community, which is after all a minority. Frankly, though, [[HumansAreBastards you'll be ashamed to be in the same]] ''[[HumansAreBastards species]]'' [[HumansAreBastards as these two murderous brats]].
* In WorldWarII, half-Chinese half-Anglo-Australian Billy Sing was Australia's deadliest sniper with [[AwesomeAussie 201 confirmed kills]] which estimates often place much higher, and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. ''The Legend of Billy Sing'' miniseries had director Geoff Davis cast his son (who is of course white), Josh Davis, in the role. He also cast fair-haired white guy Tony Bonner as the father, who was a ethnic-Chinese fellow from China in RealLife.
* The 90's live-action ''GenerationX'' TV movie had Jubilee played by a white actress, even though she's Chinese-American in the comic books.
* It is no secret that the character of Rodney [[=McKay=]] was not originally intended to become a regular cast member on ''Series/StargateAtlantis''. Instead, they planned to create a new black scientist character. However, someone decided that the [[=McKay=]] character was interesting enough to add to the show, with some slight modifications to his extremely abrasive personality. Unlike most examples, this is not a result of trying to whiten a cast, as the show started with 1/2 of Sheppard's team played by mixed race actors who looked black. The character of Ronan starting in Season 2 appears to maintain the team's diversity as he is AmbiguouslyBrown, though Jason Momoa is Caucasian and Hawaiian.
* The live-action ''DoctorStrange'' pilot from the 70's had the Ancient One, a MagicalAsian, replaced by a British CanonForeigner named Thomas Lindmer (played by Sir John Mills). It's rumored that the change was [[FollowTheLeader influenced by the then-recent success of]] ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'', with the producers wanting the mentor role to fit the mold of Sir Creator/AlecGuinness' Obi-Wan Kenobi.
* Paul Mooney joked about this in a segment on ''Series/ChappellesShow'', citing the high number of Hollywood movies that either had whitewashed protagonists or [[WhiteMansBurden white savior protagonists]], in particular bringing up ''The Mexican'' starring Brad Pitt, and ''Film/TheLastSamurai'' starring Tom Cruise. He jokingly claimed that the way this trend was going, Hollywood was likely to produce his movie ''The Last Nigga On Earth''...and cast Creator/TomHanks as the title character.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* In the past, white American musicians have covered songs in genres popularized by African-Americans, often enjoying much more success than the original performers. "Blue-Eyed Soul" is a term specifically devoted to white performers singing soul music, whether or not they're covering black musicians.
** Pat Boone did covers of black musicians such as Music/FatsDomino and Music/LittleRichard. He usually put the songs through {{Bowdlerization}} to make them fit for mainstream consumption.
** Dominic La Rocca, the first Jazz musician to get his songs recorded, insisted his whole life that whites had invented Jazz and that blacks were only imitating them.
** ElvisPresley gained perhaps the most fame for singing African-American music. While some people claim he "stole" all his music, Presley actually had a great respect for the original artists and their musical traditions. It has been claimed that Elvis ''cried'' when he realised his skin colour meant people would rather listen to him than Music/FatsDomino.
** Harry Belafonte was deliberately airbrushed to look whiter in photos so that he would be popular in the US. Also, his versions of calypso songs were produced in an easy listening manner as was popular with white listeners at the time. Belafonte chose to take these compromises because he wanted to raise awareness of Caribbean music in a culture that was often hostile towards it.
** "Blue-eyed soul" came into prominence in the early 1970s, starting with the band Rare Earth, a predominantly white band signed to Motown Records who performed very Motown-esque songs. It's had varying degrees of success ever since, ranging from Dan Hartman (whom most people were surprised to find out was actually white) to Hall & Oates (who are really well respected in the black community) to Simply Red's Mick Hucknall (the less said the better).
** This whole phenomenon was discussed in {{Hairspray}}, when Velma angrily confronts Maybelle for having her girls sing the same song on the show as her white cast.
--->'''Maybelle:''' But they ''wrote'' it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pinball]]
* In Creator/DataEast's ''[[Pinball/StarTrekDataEast Star Trek]]'' pinball, Lt. Uhura is noticeably lightened to the point where she looks like someone with a mild tan.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Religion/Mythology]]
* Andromeda from ClassicalMythology, Perseus's girlfriend, was princess of Ethiopia. Creator/{{Ovid}}, in ''Ars Amatoria'', talks about her dark skin. But about any adaptation, from Renaissance paintings to modern movies, makes her white. A most amusing (or jarring) example is ''Aethiopica'', a romance novel about Ethiopia, which seemed to forget Andromeda was Ethiopian herself.
** The [[http://www.animator.ru/db/?p=show_film&fid=2626 Soviet Cartoon]] is a notable exception, perhaps even a bit overdone.
* This Race Lift extended to other members of the Holy Family and to some degree became WordOfDante; there was an account of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_apparitions Marian apparition]] -- possibly that of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe the Virgin of Guadalupe]] -- in which the witness of the vision was rebuked by a priest at least in part because he described her as having dark skin.
** Most of the older Christian denominations tends to depict the Holy Family as whatever race lives in the neighborhood: Ethiopian Christians tend to depict the entire Biblical cast as black, and Nestorian churches in China and Central Asia show them as Asian.
*** Which got lampshaded in the song "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" in ''Theatre/AvenueQ''. (Though Princeton used the argument "Jesus was ''Jewish''.")
*** Also lampshaded in the movie ''Film/{{Saved}}'' when the students create an enormous wooden image of Jesus and wheelchair-bound Roland protests "I still don't think he's supposed to be white", to which his HolierThanThou sister replies "Of COURSE Jesus was white! God, sometimes I think my brother's retarded, too."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Written descriptions of dwarves in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' usually say they're ruddy to deeply-tanned in complexion (How a race that mostly lives underground is "tanned" is anyone's guess), yet the artwork almost always ignores this and makes them look Northern European.
** The dwarves were forged from the stone and earth by Moradin the Soul Forger, the ruddy hue is a left over trait from that process, though some varieties have lost their original complexion over time by separating themselves from the deep earth. It's most visible amongst the Gold dwarves who rarely leave the underground compared to the more common dwarves who come and go and interact more often with surfacers. Though as with any magical race, trying to bring science into it generally won't work.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* In order to fulfill a lifelong dream of his, Creator/PatrickStewart once financed a production of Creator/{{Shakespeare}}'s ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' in which he played the (traditionally dark-skinned) title character. To maintain the spirit of the original, every other role in the show was played by a black actor. This production is commonly called the "Photonegative Othello", and it was staged at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C. in 1997.
* Somewhat similar: any production of ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' tends to be flexible with the ethnicity of performers portraying the explicitly Latino Sharks and their girlfriends, often due to actor availability. This can get very confusing in the opening scenes if the respective street gangs [[GangOfHats aren't given a clear costumed identity]].
* TropesAreNotBad: This was averted in the Laurence Olivier production of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F96DlM3N5KQ blackface]]. It doesn't work.
* George and Ira Gershwin's estate insists all productions of ''Porgy & Bess'' must have an all-black cast, as stipulated in their wills, undoubtedly because of this trope. This has made casting productions in some parts of the world difficult or impossible. In addition, many African-American scholars and actors are critical of the opera's portrayal of black Americans.
* Fiyero, a dark skinned and tattooed prince from the ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'' book series, is often depicted as tattoo-less and white in the plays. (Although the lack of tattoos are mostly due to it being very difficult to do well as stage make-up).
* ''PacificOvertures'' is traditionally performed with an all-asian cast. When the English National Opera did it, however, they ignored this.
* When the La Jolla Playhouse produced a musical version of Creator/HansChristianAndersen's ''The Nightingale'' in 2012, they cast nearly all parts with non-Asians even though the original story took place in China. It caused a bit of a [[http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-heated-exchanges-at-la-jolla-playhouse-over-nightingale-casting-20120722,0,6438118.story controversy]].
* In ''{{RENT}}'', Angel is traditionally a Latino, and Collins an Afro-American, but the 5th Avenue Theater's production made both characters white. Mimi, a Latina, is often played by a non-Latina black or white actress.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Online game ''AirRivals'': Michel Sevastienne Atelier, the game's GentleGiant ScaryBlackMan is now...less black, IN JAPAN!
* GuildWars: There are a surprising amount of light skinned player characters from the Nightfall campaign, despite the fact that most NPC's in the campaign are dark skinned. (Not a perfect example, but seems to sort of fit.)
** In the original game, Kryta was a "foreign" country filled with dark-skinned people, while Ascalon was the "home" country filled with very European-looking white people. Fast forward to GuildWars 2, set 250 years later: Ascalon has long since been destroyed, and Kryta is the new "home" country. Guess which skin colour is suddenly the most common in Kryta?
* The North American version of ''Shutokou Battle 0'', ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero'', renames many opponents from Japanese names to Western names. The result? [[FridgeLogic Hundreds of apparently-Western street racers]] ''[[FridgeLogic in Tokyo's street racing scene]]''. The sequel, ''Kaido Battle: Nikko, Haruna, Rokko, Hakone'' / ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Drift'', on the other hand, averts this and goes back to Japanese names.
* For the North American release of ''VideoGame/DisasterReport'', an earthquake-survival game, the main cast are all given blonde hair and American names. Their in-game models were not changed at all, however, so you're playing a game full of Japanese people with American names and accents struggling to escape a Japanese city -- complete with at least one visible Japanese-style restroom.
* ''Quartet'' was a {{Sega}} arcade game released in 1986 notable for being one of the earliest four-player party games. One of the main characters, Mary, a distinctively Asian female with straight black hair and anime-esque eyes. While Mary retained her Asian features in the Japanese MasterSystem port (titled ''Double Target''), in the American and European ones she was redesigned to look more Caucasian (i.e. wavy brown hair, full lips and smaller blue eyes). Meanwhile, player 2 character Edgar's skin tone was considerably lightened and his African features were removed in the Master System version, turning him from black to AmbiguouslyBrown.
* Unfortunately, the most popular mod for ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' seems to be one that turns dark-skinned, dark-haired Isabela into a white-skinned, blonde, and blue-eyed woman. Aside from the fact that Isabela is a sailor/pirate so her skin should at least be tanned if she were white, she comes from the country of Rivain, whose population are of the dark-skinned/dark-haired variety. This mod may have gained popularity through the incorrect belief that Isabela was white in the first game; the truth is, she wasn't white, just a casualty of bad lighting.
** To clarify, Isabela looks like [[http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110212163831/dragonage/images/8/89/IsabelaDAO.png this]] in the first game. Even if she was somehow mistaken for white, there is no way anybody could mistake her for ''blonde''.
* The original ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'' localization did this to a cast of Japanese teenagers. The characters were given American names and some of the tanner students had whiter skin and several had hair color changes. The main character has a completely different face, hairdo, and hair style. The PSP port and localization has been a more faithful adaptation, leaving these out.
* M. Bison/General Vega made his first appearance in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' as a dictator from Thailand who looked very appropriately Asian in his character portrait. In every subsequent appearance, including [[CapcomSequelStagnation the game's numerous prequels]], he instead looks Caucasoid. Given his in-story desire to transfer his conciousness into different bodies, this at least has a built-in HandWave.
* Master Miller, FOX HOUND's drill instructor in the Franchise/MetalGear series, had a distinctively Asian appearance in his debut in the [=MSX2=] version of ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake''. When he "returned" in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', he was turned into a blond haired Caucasoid with a Japanese heritage [[spoiler:making it easier for Liquid Snake to impersonate Miller by simply giving himself a ponytail and sunglasses.]]
* In the PC version of the first ''FarCry'' game, your MissionControl is a black scientist named Doyle. In the console version of the game, ''Far Cry Instincts'', Doyle is a white CIA agent. Granted, other than sharing the same name, the two are completely different characters.
* The protagonist of the ''CondemnedCriminalOrigins'' games went from being AmbiguouslyBrown in the first game to a very Grunge white guy in the second game.
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'' doesn't change the PlayerCharacter's appearance, though he's noted to be an American in the North American version rather than Japanese. Since ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games are meant to [[HelloInsertNameHere put the player in the shoes of the protagonist]] of whatever game they're playing, it [[JustifiedTrope makes sense]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* This is a ''plot point'' in the ''WebComic/AndShineHeavenNow'' story arc "Shine or Die". [[spoiler: TimeTravel abuse causes the accidental death of Integra's Indian grandfather, turning her from a {{Badass}} {{Bifauxnen}} half-Indian half-English woman to an airheaded girly [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASP]]. Then the universe succumbs to a RealityBreakingParadox.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* "Make Them American, Even if They're Not" is #3 of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19183_6-tricks-movies-use-to-make-sure-you-root-right-guy.html 6 Tricks Movies Use to Make Sure You Root for the Right Guy]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/ToonMakersSailorMoon'''s [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=358ewVY2nko pitchreel]] for their version of ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' would've had the show set in America, with Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury depicted as white. Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus would've also have had their races changed; see below.
* Perhaps for fear of the series' only black character being villainous not going over too well, the old ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'' series made Baxter Stockman white. (At first. Then it made him a [[WasOnceAMan giant fly monster]].) He's restored to being black in the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 2000s series]], though he eventually becomes more [[CyberneticsWillEatYourSoul silver]] than black due to [[YouHaveFailedMe losing body parts]].
** It's not certain what race April O'Neil is in the original comic series, but it's definitely not white. (The character portrait drawn by the original creators for the roleplaying game is clearly black.)
* Smithers was black when he first appeared in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', but had changed to white (well, yellow) by the next week. The creators say his colour in the first episode was just a mistake.
* When ''TomAndJerryTales'' came out in 2006, much of the cast from the original MGM shorts was brought back too. To prevent an outcry, Mammy Two-Shoes--a [[UncleTomfoolery broad, fairly racist caricature of a Black American servant in the mid-20th century]]--was changed to the white Mrs. Two-Shoes
** The {{Bowdlerized}} versions of the cartoon that are often aired today also make Mammy white, and recast her voice. This likely happened before the movie.
* A vocal example can be found in ''TheAmazingChanAndTheChanClan''; while it was notable for being the first to have an actor of Asian descent portray Charlie Chan, all of the children except Henry (Robert Ito) and Alan (Brian Tochi) had their voices redubbed with American actors, as the producers thought the original actors' Chinese dialects were too thick for American audiences to understand.
* A somewhat minor example can be found in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''. In the comics, Bruce Wayne has a child, Damian, with Talia al-Ghul, who had an Asian mother and a [[AmbiguouslyBrown racially ambiguous]] father. In the cartoon, Damian's mother was changed to [[ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} Selina Kyle]], and Damian looks white. (Talia, notably, is only a teenager in this continuity, but to the show's credit they are the first adaptation to give her quasi Asian facial features.) Damian's race in this show is arguably a moot point anyway, since [[spoiler:[[AllJustADream he only exists in Alfred's book]]]].
** The spatiotemporally displaced "real" Damian appears in the tie-in comic. [[http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3421787.html?thread=116855643 Judge his apparent race for yourself]].
* Expanding upon this, despite having an Asian mother and usually being drawn to look "exotic" in the comics, Talia has always been voiced by white actresses, and looked very white in her appearances in the 90's Batman show. The Brave and the Bold seems to have an odd compromise: She has Asian facial features and dark hair and eyes, but has pale, almost grayish skin, and is voiced by a white actress using a British accent.
** This extends to her father, Ra's Al-Ghul, as well. Despite being described in the comics as hailing from some unidentified country in Asia, he has always been depicted with either green or blue eyes and in the '90s animated series was voiced by British actor David Warner. Furthering the confusion, Ra's is also hinted to be at least culturally Muslim (he does not drink alcohol, just like Bruce Wayne, which may be one reason for Ra's's constant admiration of Batman) and Talia (at least in her earliest appearances in each medium) is given character traits that are quite Old World and exotic, often meek and submissive to her father (though she can be an ActionGirl when she has to be) and speaking in [[YouNoTakeCandle stilted (though otherwise impeccable) English]]; in addition, she also has earmarks of TheChiefsDaughter.
* An interesting and entirely unintentional example of this exists in the [[SupermanTheAnimatedSeries 90's Superman show]]. The show did an episode about Kyle Rayner, the then-lead character in the Green Lantern series in the 90's, but for pacing reasons, gave him the origin of the 50's Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. To further the homage, the creators gave him Hal's costume and physical appearance, even making Kyle's trademark black hair brownish-blonde. Years later in the comics, it was established that Kyle's biological father was a Mexican American CIA agent, thus making Kyle half Mexican by extension. While the cartoon was obviously done years before this retcon, it's still somewhat funny, as it is hard to look at the Kyle shown in the cartoon and think anything other than "white guy".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' featured a villainess named [[DarkMagicalGirl Charmcaster]] who was AmbiguouslyBrown. In the sequel, ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', she has pale white skin instead.
* The DragonLady Jezebel Jade became a red-haired Caucasian woman in the first ''JonnyQuest'' telefilm, "Jonny's Golden Quest". Subsequent writers of the franchise [[CanonDiscontinuity proceeded to ignore this]], however, since this Jade had married Race and they couldn't buy that she'd settle down that easily.
* In-universe example in ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman''. A [[ShowWithinAShow movie is made based off the lives of the cast]], and Diane Nguyen (who is Vietnamese-American) ends up being played by the white, blond Creator/NaomiWatts. Given the meta nature of the humor, this was likely deliberate commentary on the issue of whitewashing in Hollywood.
* ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'' has two examples: Forge, canonically Cheyenne in the comics, is light brown in his first few appearances but fades to the same color as the white characters later on (he keeps his fringed boots, though).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Real-life examples of this being ''attempted'' include Creator/AlexandreDumas Sr. and Creator/AleksandrPushkin. Dumas once replied to a man who insulted him about his mixed-race: ''"My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends."''
* Siddhārtha Gautama also seems to get similar treatment. His features more often than not distinctly Chinese or Indian depending on who are the Buddhist practitioners, but the iconic image of the Buddha seated in his meditative pose seems to be present the world over. Nobody knows what the Buddha looked like, since early Buddhist art forbade iconographic depictions of the Buddha. The Greco-Indian Gandhara school of art began to model the Buddha's image in part on images of Apollo seen in Greek temples, with the very peculiar result that an Indian prince landed up being modeled after a Greek God. Exactly what the Buddha looked like is anyone's guess.
* There's still ongoing debate as to whether or not the ancient Egyptians (most especially their royalty) were closer to Africans or Europeans in heritage. This sometimes results in Egyptians often being depicted as strictly European, or strictly African. Accurately speaking, they were very close to today's Arabs in terms of spoken language, if not necessarily physical appearance.
* Crazy Horse fits this trope. Some believe he was full-blooded, while others believe he was half white.
* The scandal over [[http://ll-media.tmz.com/2008/08/06/0806_beyonce_side2side-1.jpg L'Oreal's lightening the already relatively fair-skinned]] BeyonceKnowles' skin colour. Needless to say, the public was not amused.
* When the Transcontinental Railroad was finished, the final photo of the celebration showed only white people even though the railroad was built by a heavily Chinese workforce.
* In 2009, Microsoft [[http://www.debito.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/microsoftraceretouch.jpg poorly photoshopped]] a black guy into a white guy for the Polish version of their website.
[[/folder]]

!!Examples of Majority to Minority

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/MarvelAnime: Anime/XMen'' reimagines Dr. Moira Mactaggert as Dr. Yui Sasaki, with her country of origin changed from Scotland to Japan. Her physical appearance, backstory, characterization and relationship with Professor Xavier all remain intact however. Her formerly-white son Kevin is also changed to a Japanese boy named Takeo. Part of it is that fans would ''not'' want Moira to turn out [[spoiler: to have done what we find out Sasaki did.]]
* ''Ganota no Onna'' is a bizarre comedy that takes the cast of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' and reimagines them as part of a Japanese corporate struggle in the present day. The heroine, Utsuki Ganota, is a race-swapped and GenderFlipped version of Char Aznable, the White antagonist of the original series. Other characters who are both race-swapped and gender-flipped are Sayla Mass ("Seiya Ganota") and Bright Noa ("Noa Furuido").
* ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis: Hard Metal Guardians'', the 2012 HighSchoolAU LightNovel adaptation of the anime originally released in 1987, gives all of the main characters Japanese surnames and black hair: Sylia Stingray becomes Sylia Sakakibara (probably a ShoutOut to [[Creator/YoshikoSakakibara her original voice actress]]), Nene Romanova becomes Nene Rokuhara, and Leon [=McNichol=] is now Nene's big brother Leon Rokuhara.
* In an inversion of what is usually the case with anime-based movies, the primarily Germanic cast of ''[[Manga/AttackOnTitan Shingeki no Kyojin]]'' are going to [[http://www.mangahere.co/news/shingeki-no-kyojin-live-action-movie-cast-revealed/ be played by Japanese actors]] in the upcoming Japanese live action movie, creating a plot hole since the character Mikasa is explicitly stated to be the last known person of Asian descent alive.
* The {{shoujo}} {{manga}} ''Bronze Angel'', which is based loosely on Pushkin's life. There the famous poet, who was at most a little more tan than other Russians, is depicted as deeply brown-skinned. Could be some kind of [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience Japanese color symbolism]], though.
* The ''Comicbook/SpiderMan'' manga changed Peter Parker into a Japanese boy named Yu Komori.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Creator/DCComics has a history hitting lower-tier superheroes with a weird combination of this and LegacyCharacter. Examples include ComicBook/{{Azrael}} (killed, replaced by a {{black|vikings}} man); ComicBook/TheQuestion (died of cancer, replaced by [[TwoferTokenMinority Hispanic lesbian]]); DoctorFate (ascended to another plane of existence, replaced by a Jew); Batgirl (crippled, replaced by an Asian girl), Mr Terrific (killed, replaced by a black man); ComicBook/TheAtom (transferred to alternate universe, replaced by Asian man), Doctor Mid-Nite (died, replaced by black woman); ComicBook/{{Batwoman}} (retconned away, revived as [[TwoferTokenMinority lesbian Jew]]); etc, etc. See AffirmativeActionLegacy.
* There is a trio of obscure female Batman villains from back in the 1960's named Tiger Moth, Silken Spider, and Dragon Fly. In their first (and for several decades, ONLY) appearance, all three women were white. When they finally reappeared 40 years later during the 2008 ''Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul'' storyline, Silken Spider was now shown to be black, while Dragon Fly was Asian American.
* The all-ages ''Thor: The Mighty Avenger'' series portrayed the Norse God Heimdall as a black man in order to correspond with the popular live-action film Thor film, which had Afro-British actor Idris Elba cast as the character in question.
* A {{Retcon}} change more than anything, but Lian Harper originally had curly, red hair and looked more like her dad. She was later changed to having straight black hair and looking more Asian, which seems more accurate considering her mom is the half-Asian villainess Cheshire.
* The ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strips featuring the Eighth Doctor included a black incarnation of the TV show's most famous recurring villain, the Master, who has been white in all his TV incarnations before and since.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' Kyle Rayner was established for a long time in his origin as being the son of a single mother and of Irish descent. Eventually, one story had him finally track down his dad and discover he was half-Hispanic. The retcon was never referenced all that much by later writers and the way of drawing Kyle was never changed too much. It was eventually forgotten about in the New 52 continuity, and Kyle's dad was made into a white guy.
* ''ComicBook/TheMultiversity''
** The Earth-7 version of the Thunderer is Aboriginal. Which actually makes sense, since Wandjina (DC's original CaptainErsatz of Comicbook/TheMightyThor, which the character is based on) was named after was an Aboriginal spirit. Or it would if he was still called Wandjina, anyway. (Earth-8's Wundajin, meanwhile, is still white.)
** The Justice League of Earth-23 consists of black versions of the mainstream DCU heroes.
** In ''Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World #1'', Doc Fate, the ComicBook/DoctorFate of Earth-20, is a black gunslinger.
* In-Verse example: In ''Camelot 3000'', Sir Gawain's reincarnation is African, and Sir Galahad's is Japanese. Both were Britons in their previous lives.
* ComicBook/{{Raven}} is Caucasian in the main continuity, but is portrayed as a Native American in ''ComicBook/TeenTitansEarthOne''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* This is the entire point of the [[http://dark-agenda.dreamwidth.org/7371.html Racebending Revenge Ficathon]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* The 2014 remake of ''Film/AboutLastNight'' changes the four leads to African-Americans, including Creator/KevinHart.
* The 1998 film adaptation of ''Film/DrDolittle'' cast Creator/EddieMurphy in the originally white title role. [[InNameOnly The movie didn't have anything to do with the books anyway]], save for featuring a doctor named Dolittle who talks to animals.
* WillSmith's appealing personality (and ability to record hit songs) has led to a career of being inserted into Race Lifts, such as ''Film/MenInBlack'' (Agent J was white in the [[ComicBook/MenInBlack comics]] upon which the movie is based, and either Christian Slater or Chris O'Donnell was the original choice to play Will's character); ''Film/WildWildWest'', in which he plays Jim West, an army captain (though ''no'' version of ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' [[AnachronismStew cared about that kind of thing]]); and ''Film/IAmLegend'', in which Robert Neville was white in RichardMatheson's original story.
* ''Guess Who'' ('s Coming to Dinner) and ''TheHoneymooners'' are both race-switching remakes.
* Ford Prefect in the ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' movie was played by Mos Def. Most of the other major characters were played by Americans, which was rather jarring to many who'd expected British actors as in the radio and TV versions, but most of the other characters were aliens anyway, and WordOfGod stated that Arthur Dent is the only ''necessarily'' British character in the story. (Also, Trillian - the only other major Earth character - was played by a British actress on radio but by an American in the TV version.)
** Though it is quite the ReverseFunnyAneurysm hearing Mos Def say the line "What if I told you I wasn't from Guildford?"
** Also: Arthur: "So you're not from Guilford, but from a planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, [[LampshadeHanging which I suppose explains the accent]]."
* Eddie Murphy also starred in the remake of ''TheNuttyProfessor'', which also changed the premise from being AppliedPhlebotinum making a nerd cool into making an extremely ''fat'' nerd thin (and cool).
* KennethBranagh's Shakespeare films:
** ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'' cast Denzel Washington as Prince Don Pedro of Aragon. Amusingly, his villainous half-brother is played by Keanu Reeves.
** ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt'' features two black actors (David Oyelowo Adrian Lester) as Orlando and Oliver De Boys.
** Carmen Ejogo and Adrian Lester in ''Theatre/LovesLaboursLost''.
* The novel ''ThePelicanBrief'' had the character of Gray Grantham as (a) white, and (b) eventually getting involved with Darby Shaw. In the movie, Gray was played by Denzel Washington, and he ''doesn't'' get involved with Julia Roberts. Julia Roberts, in an interview, said she was on board with making out with Denzel at any time, and it was a case of ExecutiveMeddling.
* The [[DevelopmentHell long rumored, much troubled]] ''{{Dallas}}'' movie reboot was going to see Jennifer Lopez play Sue Ellen Ewing, but she ended up quitting the production (currently Julie Benz is the leading candidate for the part).
* Another in-film example: in ''Film/TropicThunder'', the white character actor dons blackface and stereotypical mannerisms to become a black sergeant.
** He also uses his method acting to portray an East Asian of indeterminate ethnicity briefly (using a hat and robes to cover hide his skin color. Well, his skin color at the time).
** In fact, the inability of Kirk Lazarus (the white Australian actor who plays both roles mentioned above) to get a firm sense of who he really is becomes a RunningGag throughout the film. He ''seems'' to realize that he's not black, making casual references to his status as an actor and his past roles, but does so in a stereotypical "ghetto" accent, as he refuses to break character at any time during production. In addition, and while speaking in that same accent, Lazarus steadfastly refuses to exercise NWordPrivileges and won't let anyone else do so, either - even if they really are black. ("For 400 years, that word has kept ''us'' [emphasis added] down.") He eventually cannot keep up the charade any longer, and in a climactic scene strips off his curly black wig and starts to rub off some of his brown makeup, [[ShapeshifterSwanSong vocally imitating various past movie characters]] before finally returning to his everyday Australian accent.
* The part of Lincoln Rhyme was played by Denzel Washington in the film version of ''Film/TheBoneCollector'', despite the fact that in [[Literature/LincolnRhyme the books]] Rhyme being white is mentioned several times.
* In the Creator/StephenKing short novel ''Literature/FourteenOhEight'', Gerald Olin is a white middle aged British man. In the [[Film/FourteenOhEight film adaptation]], he is played by Creator/SamuelLJackson, [[CaptainObvious who is not]].
* ''KaneAndLynch'' movie starred Jamie Foxx as the latter, who was a white guy in the games.
** Foxx also played formerly white villain Electro in ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2''.
* ''Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging'', the film adaptation of the Literature/ConfessionsOfGeorgiaNicolson series, cast an Indian girl as Ellen (described as blonde in the books). This is probably because the character was originally a CompositeCharacter that did not appear in the books, but re-dubbed as Ellen after protests from fans.
* CIA agent Felix Leiter, from the Film/JamesBond films, is usually white. However, he's been portrayed by African-American actors in three films: Bernie Casey in ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'', Jeffrey Wright in ''Film/CasinoRoyale'' and ''Film/QuantumOfSolace''.
* In the comic book movie version of Film/{{Daredevil}}, the normally white mobster, Kingpin/Wilson Fisk is played by African-American actor Michael Clarke Duncan, since the studio couldn't find anyone who was white, of sufficient size, and could actually act. This change was generally well received. He was still big, scary and intimidating like in the comics, and Duncan even gained weight in order to better look the part.
* ''Film/{{Thor}}''
** Idris Elba plays the Asgardian Heimdall, who is white in the comics. Because the Asgardians are based on the real life Norse gods, who obviously all look like Norse people, this casting caused a bit of a kerfuffle. This is especially jarring since the mythology explicitly refers to Heimdall as "the whitest of the gods". Ultimately, the books are based on the comics, which started as an InNameOnly interpretation of myth, so racial casting is just the tip of the iceberg.
** ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} agent Jasper Sitwell was played by a Mexican-American actor.
* This happened to Grover Underwood in the film adaptation of ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''. The books actually described him as ''pale'', but in the movie he was black. Also, [[DivineRaceLift Hephaestus and Persephone]].
* The [[Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Disney version]] of ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' apparently changed Esmeralda from a white woman raised by Gypsies to a full-blooded Gypsy woman. With GreenEyes.
* The Muppets' version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' not only changed Dorothy from being an 11-year old white girl to a young black woman, they also made her dream of becoming a singer. This is, ironically, one of the most faithful adaptations of ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' to date.
* In the movie adaptation of ''GirlInterrupted'' Valerie is played by WhoopiGoldberg. In the book (and therefore in RealLife, as the book is a memoir), she is white.
* In the movie adaptation of ''Film/{{Matilda}}'', Lavender is black; in the book she is white.
* In ''Film/WilliamShakespearesRomeoandJuliet'', Mercutio and the Prince, who are relatives, are both played by black actors. Since the setting is moved from the Italian city of Verona to "Verona Beach," California, this doesn't cause any strangeness.
** Peculiarly, though, Paris, who is also supposed to be related to Mercutio and the Prince in the original script, is still white.
* In ''TheSearchers'' novel Martin was originally fully white but was made into 1/8 Cherokee in the film to give Ethan a bit of CharacterDevelopment
* In ''Film/AChristmasCarolTheMusical'', the Ghost of Christmas Present is played by the aforementioned African-American Jesse L. Martin.
* ''Film/LesMiserables1998'' has a black Enjolras, plus a lot of black background characters.
* The British film ''DeathAtAFuneral'' was remade as an American movie with mostly black actors.
* In the original episodes of ''PoliceSquad'' Nordberg was played by Peter Lupus, while in the ''NakedGun'' films he was played by O.J. Simpson.
* An in-universe example in ''Film/{{RIPD}}''. To everyone except other R.I.P.D. officers, Nick appears to be an elderly Chinese man.
* The character of Conn [=MacCleary=] in the ''Literature/TheDestroyer'' novels by Sapir and Murphy is a red haired Irishman, but in the movie ''Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins'', he is played by J.A. Preston, a black man.
* The ''DeathNote'' movies had to deal with the fact that it's difficult to find non-Japanese actors in Japan, so any significant white characters had to be cast as Japanese instead. Specifically:
** Raye Penber in the manga becomes Raye Iwamatsu in the movie.
** Though L's ethnicity is unclear in the manga, WordOfGod says he's supposed to be multiracial and mostly white. In the movies he's fully Japanese.
* Likewise, the upcoming ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' movie has an entirely Japanese cast, even though the manga is set in the remains of post-apocalyptic Europe and the only explicitly Asian character is Mikasa.
* In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'', April's boss Burne Thompson is now an African American. Also an example of GenderFlip, since Thompson is now a woman and her first name is Bernadette.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In the Adam West ''Series/{{Batman}}'' series, not only did Catwoman get [[TheOtherDarrin Other Darrined]], she received a Race Lift in the process. No one (except the audience) seemed to notice that Catwoman suddenly changed from being the very white Julie Newmar to the not-so white Eartha Kitt, and got about a foot shorter in the process.
* Salli Richardson-Whitfield has stated in interviews that the original script for ''{{Eureka}}'' called for her character, Alison Blake, to be a blonde, blue-eyed white woman.
* ''TheGruenTransfer'' featured an ad to appeal to rich parents to give their children ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOA2UR8CYLI Race Lifts.]]''
* The twins in the ''T* witches'' books are white, but the Disney Channel Original Movie cast the biracial twins Tia and Tamera Mowry of ''Series/SisterSister'' fame. This may be mere [[PragmaticAdaptation pragmatic casting]]: If you need identical twins, there's only a few with proven acting experience, moreso if you need a certain age (or [[DawsonCasting at least look like it]], and the Mowrys were already friendly with Disney.
* Happens to two characters in ''LegendOfTheSeeker''. In the [[SwordOfTruth book series]] it's based on, [[{{Badass}} Chase]] is white, while he's a Maori in the show. And General Trimack, a full-blooded D'Haran[[note]]Full blooded D'harans typically being white with blond hair and blue eyes[[/note]] who is noted in every appearance for his fiery red hair, is made black.
** The fans of the book care more about such things as Kahlan's eyes being blue instead of green (the show just has to rub it in, though, with every Confession shot focusing on her eyes) and [[BigBad Darken Rahl]] not having white hair (they did give his father Panis Rahl white hair in the flashbacks, though), even though CraigParker previously played the blond Haldir in ''Film/LordOfTheRings: The Two Towers''.
* In the TV adaptation of ''GirlsInLove'' by Creator/JacquelineWilson, Magda, originally a white woman, is played by a black actress.
* In the television series based on the ''PrettyLittleLiars'' books, white Emily is changed to an AmbiguouslyBrown character(played by Shay Mitchell, who is white/Filipino). This is especially obvious because Emily's parents in the books were racists.
* The short lived 2005 revival of {{Kojak}} cast VingRhames in the role. The series seemed more like {{Shaft}} than {{Kojak}}.
* The television adaptation of ''TheMiddleman'' starred Cuban Natalie Morales playing Wendy Watson who had originally been a fair-skinned redhead.
* "The Blind Banker", the second episode of BBC's ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', used Chinese YellowPeril gangsters as the villains. In the ''[[SherlockHolmes original story]]'' the episode was based on, the villains were American gangsters from Chicago.
* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', pirate Salladhor Saan, merchant prince Xaro Xhoan Daxos and bodyguard Areo Hotah are changed into emigrants from the Summer Isles and cast with actors of African descent. This was probably done to make them more visibly foreign and to diversify the cast. In the books, all these characters come from cultures with light skin: Xaro is a milky-skinned Qartheen, Salladhor is from Lys (vaguely Southern Europe), and Areo is from Norvos (vaguely Eastern Europe).
* The infamous live-action Toei ''[[Series/SpiderManJapan Spider-Man]]'' TV series was set in Japan and had Peter Parker changed to "Takuya Yamashiro".
* In [[Film/{{Nikita}} the film]] and series ''Series/LaFemmeNikita'', the title character is white. In the 2010 series ''Series/{{Nikita}}'' she is played by Maggie Q, who is part Vietnamese.
* ''SpartacusBloodAndSand'' cast [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0579795/ Peter Mensah]], originally from Ghana, as the Gaulish gladiator Oenomaus. They also cast Manu Bennett, a half-Maori New Zealander, as Crixus, also a Gaul; this was a little less egregious, though.
* In Creator/TheBBC's ''Series/TheMusketeers'', Porthos is played by mixed-race actor Howard Charles. WordOfGod is that this is a nod to Dumas himself, whose grandmother was of African origin.
** Which is appropriate, since many of the events in ''TheThreeMusketeers'' are based on events in the life of Dumas' father, Thomas-Alexandre "Alex" Dumas, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas-Alexandre_Dumas a general in Revolutionary France and the highest ranking person of color in any European army EVER]]. Alex's father, Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, later legitimized him (though not his three siblings, who remained enslaved), but after a falling out with his father, Alex adopted the last name of his mother, Marie Cessette Dumas, a slave in Saint-Domingue (later Haiti).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Obviously, this is already more common in theatre than it is elsewhere due to its universality - in most theater companies, unless a part is specifically ''needed'' to be played by an actor of a particular race, it's usually fair game for anyone who qualifies for it in terms of acting or vocal skill. However, sometimes it takes a more traditional form, when the work in question is an adaptation of something that starred white characters or is a new staging of an older work. Then, often, the OriginalCastPrecedent settles in. Notable examples include:
** Utterson in ''Theatre/JekyllAndHyde'' (usually played by a black man)
** Hélène in ''Theatre/NatashaPierreAndTheGreatCometOf1812'' (adapted from ''Literature/WarAndPeace''; the character, originally a white Russian woman, was created by a black actress in the musical)
** Judas in ''Theatre/JesusChristSuperstar'' (often played by a black man after the original Broadway production and the 1972 film; this is, however, not ''always'' the case)
** Martha in ''Theatre/SpringAwakening'' (presumably white in the original play, created by a black actress in the musical)
** The restaged 25th Anniversary Tour version of ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' featured a black actress as Carlotta Giudicelli.
** ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' is cast completely color-blind, so this is a frequent occurrence, and the opening Eponines in both the 25th Anniversary Broadway and UK Tour casts were black, suggesting a particular inclination toward black Eponines in the new version.
** ''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' (the 2013 musical) changed Violet Beauregarde, who is specifically described as a redhead in [[Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory the novel]], and her parents from Caucasian to black and initially considered only black performers for Violet, whose role is rotated among 3 child actresses at a time. After complaints that the bratty character, whose IAmSong is a BoastfulRap, was overly stereotypical, the creators allowed non-black performers to be considered for the role too. Another adaptation of the novel, the opera ''Theatre/TheGoldenTicket'', went with AbilityOverAppearance in its Atlanta Opera staging in 2012 when doublecasting the lead role of Charlie Bucket -- one of the two child actors alternating in the role, Reuben Roy, was black even though all four actors playing his grandparents were white! (Charlie's parents are AdaptedOut in that version.)
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'' had two {{NPC}} characters, Bebhinn and Manus, changed from Caucasian to Black for Western localization. Manus' description wasn't altered, however, and mentions his Korean portrait's hairstyle.
* The Demoman of ''VideoGame/TeamFortressClassic'' is white, but the Demoman of ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is African-Scottish. WordOfGod is that [[http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1783 this was a deliberate choice]] they made after they had decided to cast him as Scottish, mostly to not stick completely to the generic, archetypal cliche in its entirety and to differentiate him somewhat from other characters fitting the ViolentGlaswegian stereotype (more specifically, to make him less like [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Groundskeeper Willie]]).
* All citizens of {{Tropico}} speak fluent Spanish and have skin colours indicative of Latin American heritage. Fair enough, since the setting is a BananaRepublic somewhere in the Caribbean. However, this applies to ''all'' citizens, even recent immigrants who just got off the boat from London or Moscow.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* As [[Webcomics/WalkyVerse Billie]] was often confused for Asian (black hair and very pale skin in a black-and-white comic) by fans of ''Roomies!'', David Willis just rolled with it and made her ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'' counterpart half-Asian.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The second season of ''MortalKombatLegacy'' has the half-white, half-Asian Creator/DavidLeeMcInnis as Raiden. In the last season and the feature films, Raiden was played by white actors.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The Creator/PBSKids series ''WesternAnimation/TheCatInTheHatKnowsALotAboutThat'' is based on a series of books known as ''The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library''. In the books, the male child character was white, but he has been changed to black for the TV series. Additionally, the new books being released under the banner of ''The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That'' depict him as black.
* On ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated, Luna of the Hex Girls is now African-American (or, at the least, AmbiguouslyBrown). It should probably be noted that her voice actress is also African American, although whether the change was due to that is uncertain.
** In fact, in the character's original appearance in ''Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost'', she was AmbiguouslyBrown, but had lighter skin in her subsequent appearances. The ''Mystery Incorporated'' version is thus undoing the previous RaceLift.
* The animated film ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' depicted the Israelites of the Exodus as being [[AmbiguouslyBrown much darker-skinned]] than typical RealLife Jews. Here, for example, is [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mblts0jAXi1rxpoxko1_400.jpg Yocheved as depicted in the film]], and [[http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/ofra-haza-shaun-higson.jpg here is Ofra Haza, the Yemenite-Israeli Jewish actress]] who did her voice. Granted, there are Jews of just about every race, including plenty who are darker-skinned than the Israelites in ''WesternAnimation/PrinceOfEgypt'', but the average Jew is not anywhere near as dark-skinned as depicted in the film.
* Meta-example: when ''TotalDrama'' switched to a new cast they released early character designs on their blog. [[BubbleBoy Cameron]] and [[HollywoodPersonalityDisorders Mike]] were initially both white, but when designs were finalized became [[BlackAndNerdy black]] and AmbiguouslyBrown, respectively.
* Cheetah's brief appearance in ''SuperBestFriendsForever''. Traditionally, the character is white, or at least used to be before making herself a cheetah-girl, but in the short, she's brown-skinned with catlike eyes and powers as well as the cheetah suit.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* The latest edition of the Parker Brothers ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'' board-game depicts Mr Green as a suave looking black guy, rather than the white and dumpy Reverend Green of yester-year.
* The 5th Avenue Theatre's 2012 production of ''{{Oklahoma}}'' made Jud Fry an [[TokenMinority African-American]], sparking a fair amount of negative criticism for "racial stereotyping".
* In his 2011 ComedyCentral special ''Weirdo'', Donald Glover (aka Music/ChildishGambino) discusses the Twitter campaign to get him cast as Peter Parker in ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'', which would obviously be a race lift. He says that one angry fan compared his possible role as Peter Parker to casting Creator/MichaelCera as ''{{Shaft}}''.
* It was a trend among bootleggers in the 1990s to depict [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]] as [[http://www.uproxx.com/tv/2012/12/a-gallery-of-unfortunate-black-bart-simpson-merchandise-from-the-1990s/?showall=true black on unofficial merchandise.]]
* It's a little subculture on ''Website/{{Tumblr}}'' to be "Transethnic", where some posters feel they were born in the wrong ethnicity. Most people in this trend tend to fit into this category of RaceLift, however given that [[PoesLaw Tumblr is very vulnerable to the line between parody and non-parody becoming blurred]], it's usually best to be careful with your responses to this tag. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that's all we'll say on the matter.]]
[[/folder]]

!!Examples of Minority to Different Minority

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Manga/DragonBall: The Path to Power'', some of the characters have went through race lift. [[TheAhnold Major Metallitron]] is now black and Staff Officer Black who was black now appears to be Native American.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* The original ''{{Literature/Aladdin}}'' takes place in China, though [[WeAllLiveInAmerica everyone is a Muslim (except for one Jew), everyone has an Arabic name, and the government is Islamic in structure]]. So it's not surprising that [[{{Disney/Aladdin}} the Disney version]] as well as every other adaptation in existence sets the story in the Middle East.
* The French film ''The Crimson Rivers'' (''Les rivières pourpres'') changed the Moroccan-French detective from the novel to an Armenian-French detective played by white actor Vincent Cassell. Cassell claims this was because he was talking with the director which Arab- or black French actor could best portray the role, and upon hearing the description of the character, insisted that he had to play it. The character was made Armenian to maintain the backstory of a marginalized minority "from the streets".
** Having a white actor play a half-Armenian character is scarcely a race lift because Armenians are, you know, white. Some Moroccans can be quite Caucasian too.
* In the comics, {{Thor}} supporting character the Hogun the Grim is generally drawn as decidedly non-Nordic, and the only thing revealed about his origin is that he's not an Aesir like his fellow Asgardian warriors. Therefore, why ''not'' cast an Asian actor to portray him in the [[Film/{{Thor}} movie]]?
** For the past years, the comic Hogun has been drawn as kinda Mongolian.
* This has become something of a trend for the ''Film/IronMan'' movie adaptations:
** In the comics, Iron Man's origin comes from being captured during the TheVietnamWar. The film, however, updates the war being fought to the conflict in [[TheWarOnTerror Afghanistan.]] So villainous Viet Cong soldiers became multiethnic terrorists. Notably, Tony Stark's doomed helper Yinsen keeps his name despite his origin being Afghan.
** Ben Kingsley portarys the Mandarin in ''Film/IronMan3''. The Mandarin, as his name implies, is a half-white, half-Chinese YellowPeril villain, while Kingsley is half-white and half-Indian. Rumor has it the character's race was changed to make him less offensive to Asian audiences, especially in light of the Chinese government contributing a sizable amount to the costs of producing the film.
* ''Film/EndersGame'' has half-Indian Ben Kingsley as half-Maori Mazer Rackham.
* In the ''Film/GreenLantern'' film, Hal's sidkick Tom Kalmaku, who is Inuit in the comic, is played by a Maori actor.
* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', Batroc's lieutenant Machete is changed from South American to Somalian.
* In the Japanese version of ''Disney/WreckItRalph'', the AmbiguouslyBrown Minty Zaki was changed to a Japanese racer, Minty Sakura. Certain scenes in the film were reanimated to showcase the new Minty design, such as the start of the Random Roster Race, but other scenes left the original Minty Zaki model intact, creating confusion. Nevertheless, Minty Sakura is featured prominently in the Japanese film poster and even has a small bio on the site, referring to her as "the Japanese girl racer".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In-universe example: In ''Sewer, Gas & Electric'', set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture after a racist-engineered plague wiped out nearly everyone of black African descent, Australian aborigines find plenty of work in Hollywood filling black roles in period pieces. One elderly aboriginal woman makes a career of playing Rosa Parks in commemorative ceremonies.
* Practically every recent adaptation of the story of Literature/{{Aladdin}} depicts him as Middle Eastern, even though he's Chinese in the ''Literature/ThousandAndOneNights'' version, because the original author and his contemporaries had no real idea what Chinese people looked or acted like besides vague accounts.
* The character Friday in ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'' is identified as a Carib Indian (the tribe the Caribbean was named after) in the original text, but various illustrators and film adaptations over the centuries have portrayed him just about anything ''but'' Native (South) American. The most common one is black African, but he's also been New Guinean (the 1997 FilmOfTheBook with PierceBrosnan).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In the Creator/CartoonNetwork film ''Film/ReAnimated'', the main character Jimmy's best friend Craig and his sister Robin were Asian, then when the film was {{recycled|TheSeries}} into the show ''Series/OutOfJimmysHead'' their new actors were African-American.
* The [[WesternAnimation/ToonMakersSailorMoon proposed American remake]] of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' would've had the Japanese cast reimagined in America, with Sailor Jupiter becoming African American and Sailor Venus becoming Latina. Sailor Mars is the only one who would've actually remained Asian.
* In ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined'', Boomer, who was played by African-American actor Herbert Jefferson Jr. in ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic'', is given a RaceLift and a GenderFlip and played by Korean-Canadian actress Grace Park. Since this version of Boomer is a Cylon, another iteration of her takes the role of Lieutenant Athena (white to non-white).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* MissSaigon: the titular character herself, the Vietnamese Kim, was originally played by Lea Salonga (a Filipina) in a case of AbilityOverAppearance.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* A rare in story example, In [[Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja Dr. McNinja]] Doc changes race whenever he puts on his [[spoiler: Dr. Mcluchador disguise.]] This was promptly {{lampshaded}} by the alt text.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/CommentaryTheMusical'' alludes to this in "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNmzegQUtFA Nobody's Asian in the Movies]]"
-->"''Who do they want before they want an Asian?\\
A Persian, or a Cajun, or an Indian,\\
or an American-Indian, played by a Mexican...''"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The Western port of ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'' made most of the characters Caucasian, but had Masao changed into a black teenager named Mark.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* As cited above, Bane is Chinese rather than Latino in the ''Bat Man of Shanghai'' shorts from the ''WesternAnimation/DCNation'' block.
* 1940s superhero Black Marvel was Native American in his original comic, but became African-American when he appeared in ''Westeranimation/{{Spider-Man the Animated Series}}''. As he put it,
--> Why do you think I called myself ''Black'' Marvel?
* The Chinese-American [[WesternAnimation/TheAmazingChanAndTheChanClan Chan Clan]] became the Japanese band Shoyu Weenie when they were brought over to ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw''.
[[/folder]]

!!Examples of Unknown Race

[[folder:Comics]]
* Carlos Ezquerra originally designed ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' to be hispanic; other artists drew him as either white or black in early issues. Since these issues were black and white, nobody noticed. After the series began appearing in color, Dredd was consistently drawn as a white man.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* There's some controversy in the ''Series/{{Glee}}'' fandom regarding how to portray Blaine in fanfiction since his race has never been mentioned in {{canon}}. Some fans think that since Creator/DarrenCriss, who plays Blaine, is half-Filipino and nothing has been said to the contrary, one should assume that Blaine is too and write him accordingly to avoid UnfortunateImplications. Others think that since Blaine hasn't been expressively stated to be biracial, ArtisticLicense dictates it's fine to portray him however you want, whether that be biracial, Filipino, or Caucasian.
* Similarly, this tends to crop up in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fandom whenever fan artists draw humanized versions of the cast. Controversy rages over whether their skin color/ethnicity should be derived from their visual designs, their personalities, or whether the artist can draw them however they want. The only thing even remotely approaching canon on the matter is that ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' went with AmazingTechnicolorPopulation for their human versions.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Oliver Stone's ''World Trade Center'' includes, among other real life people, a minor character based mostly off a real man who happened to be black. Unfortunately, when they were doing research, no one in the production thought to check this man's race, and they cast a white actor. After the movie came out they were informed about it, and Stone apologized.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Religion and Mythology]]
* JesusChrist is mostly portrayed as a white European though many believe he would be darker-skinned as he was from the Middle East. Jesus has been given different races depending on the congregation, including African and Asian.
[[/folder]]

!!Miscellaneous or Mixed Race Examples

[[folder:Comics]]
* ''FinalCrisis'' managed to do this twice to two different characters completely by accident. In the original comic run, Mister Miracle (the second one, a black man) was accidentally colored as white in one issue. DC acknowledged the error and corrected it in the trade paperback - resulting in Sonny Sumo (an Asian sumo wrestler whose skin tone happened to be the same as the botched color scheme for Miracle) appearing as black in those same panels. None of this had anything to do with the story.
** While we're on the subject, the lead-in series ''Mister Miracle'' performed a major RaceLift on the New Gods by forcing them into human bodies. Most of the evil gods ended up black, which has UnfortunateImplications until you consider that Shilo Norman is himself black, and having a large white man named ''Boss Dark Side'' putting him through nine layers of {{Hell}} would have been unfortunate in a completely different way. (The Black Racer, incidentally, became white, and a lot closer to evil than Kirby's "death as inevitability" version.)
*** And then in ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' Glorious Godfrey, originally a red head, became G. Gordon Godfrey, a combination of Al Sharpton and Don King. And he was ''much'' more fun to read this way.
** ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' used a lot of [[BodySurf body surfing]] that ended up subverting this. Darkseid went from a large black man to the white [[spoiler: Dan Turpin]], who he ended up remaking into his old gray-skinned self. Then Desaad swapped out for a pink-haired Mary Marvel and Granny Goodness traded up for a blue-skinned alien cyborg. None of this is the weirdest thing that happened in that series.
* The wizard {{Shazam}}'s back story has long established him as being from ancient Canaan, and he was drawn white up until the {{New 52}}; however, now his ethnicity seems to have been changed to Aborigine.
* Before the {{New 52}} reboot, {{ComicBook/Huntress}}, Helena Bertinelli, was Sicilian-American and was drawn as being white. When she was reintroduced post-reboot, her appearance had changed dramatically, probably to make her more visually distinct from the other Huntress, Helena Wayne; her last name was still Bertinelli, suggesting Sicilian ancestry, but her skin tone was much darker, possibly suggesting a mixed-race background. It's not clear, however, because the comics have so far revealed very little about her in the new continuity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Spike Lee tried to call Clint Eastwood out on this, accusing him of not casting any black Marines in ''Flags of Our Fathers''. Irritated, Eastwood responded that his film was about the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima in WorldWarII, and he cast them with the races they actually were. The only black US soldiers on Iwo Jima were in support units ([[ShownTheirWork which the film shows briefly]]). Eastwood also replied that for the film ''Bird'' (his 1988 film on jazz legend Charlie Parker) where 90% of the characters are black, he cast 90% black actors.
* Actor VinDiesel had difficulty getting roles at the beginning of his career due to his very mixed ethnic background. His semi-autobiographical short film ''{{Multi-Facial}}'' is about this problem. He doesn't seem to have a problem getting cast anymore.
* The ScoobyDoo made-for-tv movie ''Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins'' has an actress named Hayley Kiyoko, who is obviously Japanese, playing Velma Dinkley. Ironically, she does look the part with the glasses and hair.
* ''Film/TheLastAirbender'': While the races in the show are fantasy, this film adaptation has lesser and greater examples of the trope, all defended by the filmmakers as AbilityOverAppearance.
** In the original series, [[http://www.musogato.com/avatar/official/katara05.jpg Katara]] and [[http://haha-animes.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/255px-sokka_the_thinker.png Sokka]] are from a culture resembling Inuits, but have [[{{Mukokuseki}} tan skin, vaguely Eurasian features, brown hair and blue eyes]]. In the film, [[http://gossipteen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/nicola-peltz-1mn-237x300.jpg Katara]] and [[http://www.freewebs.com/edwardandisabellacullen/702591.jpg Sokka]] are played by white actors with brown hair. Some fans accused the adaptation of Race Lift, preferring Asian or Inuit actors to fit the cultural inspiration. Most of the background extras appear Inuit, with Asian-looking features, black hair and brown eyes.
** [[http://caspar.maakjestart.nl/images/mijn_favoriete_tv_serie.jpg Aang]] comes from a culture based on Tibet. He has light skin and grey (but occasionally brown in some shots) eyes. He's played in the film by a light-skinned American Indian with brown eyes.
** The villainous Fire Nation is based on East Asian cultures in the series, with members sporting light skin and black hair. The film cast dark-complexioned actors, including Indians, a Maori, and various brunettes in the background. Many fans considered it UnfortunateImplications to cast dark-skinned actors instead of East Asian actors as villains. Notably, the director M. Night Shyamalan is of Indian descent and has a cameo as a Fire Nation guard.
** The Monk Gyatso, a fantasy Expy of the Tibetan Dalai Lama, is black in the film.
* ''GIJoeRetaliation'':
** Elodie Yung portrays Jinx. The character is normally depicted as a full-blooded Japanese woman while Yung is half-Cambodian and half-French. Still Asian, but the French features are very obvious.
** African-American soldier Roadblock is portrayed by the half-black, half-Samoan [[DwayneJohnson Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]].
* The film ''Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom'' portrays all of the defendants at the Rivonia Trial as being black except Ahmed Kathrada (who was Asian/Indian). In actuality, another of the defendants (Billy Nair) was also Asian/Indian, and another three (Lionel Bernstein, James Kantor, and Denis Goldberg) were white men of Jewish descent (although Bernstein and Kantor were acquitted).
* While ComicBook/{{Blade}} and Deacon Frost were still respectively of African descent and Caucasian, [[Film/{{Blade}} the film]] changes their nationalies from English and German to both being American.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''GreysAnatomy'': Creator Shonda Rhimes deliberately did not assign races to any of her characters, allowing for "color-blind casting" in which the best actors to get the roles no matter what their ethnicity.
* A rare ''double'' RaceLift (crossed with SuddenlyEthnicity) is executed in ''SavedByTheBell'' and its spinoff, ''Saved by the Bell: The College Years''. Originally, the character of Slater was intended to be Anglo, but then Latino actor Mario Lopez was cast in the role. His ethnicity was never referred to in the first series, but in ''The College Years'' Slater's father appeared and confessed that he changed his name (from Sanchez) to pass as Anglo and get into West Point.
** Also, the character of Lisa Turtle (played by African American actress Lark Voorhies) was originally written as a white Jewish girl.
* An interesting example from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', where an episode with [[UnfortunateImplications racist undertones]] would have benefited from a face-lift: In "Code of Honor", the [[MonsterOfTheWeek aliens of the week]] are a group of [[HumanAliens black people]] -- no [[RubberForeheadAliens elaborate makeup]]. Now, there's anything wrong with an alien race of black people; what's alarmingly racist is that in the episode's depiction of them, they "are also descended directly from a 1940s pulp novel set in deepest, darkest Africa", as Wil Wheaton describes [[http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/04/28/star-trek-the-next-generation-code-of-honor/ in a review of the episode]]. Wheaton goes onto describe how it was the episode's director who had the bright idea of casting and portraying the aliens in this manner (the script over suggesting a ScaryBlackMan or two as guards, but nothing about the accents). The director was eventually fired for his poor choices and for being a major {{Jerkass}} to the cast during shooting.
** Dialogue in the episode compares the planet's culture and customs to Ming China and Native Americans, and most of the costumes are like metallic versions of something you'd see in ''The King and I'' or a Sinbad movie. The scriptwriters are on record as intending to base them on Japanese culture. As written, it's a melange of all sorts of Orientalist and ethnic stereotypes. But the casting and the "African" accents the characters use tend to overshadow the rest in the audience's eyes.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' in the early stages were planning on having Spock have the ears and ''red'' skin, to further his alien presence. But this was a time when most households did not have color television sets, so his red skin would instead appear to be black. With all the other issues surrounding the show and ExecutiveMeddling, they decided it would avoid a lot of headaches and especially avoid problems with the show airing in the South.
** Fan favorite Star Trek villain Khan Noonien Singh is an [[{{India}} Indian]] Sikh. He is portrayed by the overtly Mexican Ricardo Montalban in the original series and ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', and by the overtly British Benedict Cumberbatch in ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness''.
*** Given that the name "Khan Noonien Singh" is itself an ethnic muddle (Khan is generally a Muslim surname with Turkic-Mongolian roots, and "Noonien" was a nod to an old Chinese/Indian friend of Roddenberry's), it's conceivable that Khan might have some mixed ancestry (since he's genetically altered/engineered).
**** The ''Star Trek: Khan'' comic reveals, however, that Khan is indeed of fully Indian heritage, originally an impoverished orphan from a slum in New Delhi, {{India}}, before he became a test subject for genetic engineering research. It reveals he only became white later on in his life due to ''literal'' white-washing.
* Inspector William Henderson was white when he first appeared in ''TheAdventuresOfSuperman'', and when he was later introduced into the comics, but was black in his early appearances in ''LoisAndClark'' (first played by Mel Winkler, [[TheOtherDarrin then]] by Brett Jennings). Then he was white in later episodes, played by Creator/RichardBelzer. He was also black in ''WEsternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. Eventually, the comicbook Bill Henderson having been promoted to Comissioner, the comics introduced a new Inspector ''Mike'' Henderson, who was African-American.
* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[spoiler:Melody Pond aka River Song [[TheNthDoctor regenerates]] from a little white girl (Sydney Wade) to a little black girl who grows up into a woman (Maya Glace-Green, Nina Toussaint-White) to a white woman (Alex Kingston). This was complicated by the fact that the final Alex Kingston form was actually the first to appear in the show, due to time-travel.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* An unusual example is the Broadway musical ''TheWiz'', an adaptation of ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz''. It was originally written for and performed by an all-black cast, and this holds for the film adaptation and many subsequent stagings. However, probably because race isn't an issue in the story itself, it's not uncommon to see it mounted with color blind casting, particularly in school productions.
* The play ''Golden Boy'' (in which the protagonist was an Italian-American) was musicalized as a star vehicle for Sammy Davis, Jr.
* When Pearl Bailey assumed the role of Dolly in ''Theatre/HelloDolly'', black actors and actresses filled the supporting cast.
* There's a lot of debate over what the title character in ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' is supposed to look like. Does he look like a light-skinned North African, as the Moors historically appeared, or is he supposed to look like the more dark-skinned Africans that were brought to Europe as slaves? The characters frequently call him "black", but "black" to a Englishman of Shakespeare's time was a much more inclusive term. Ultimately the part is usually played by dark-skinned actors of African descent, or white actors in {{blackface}} attempting to appear as such. In one instance, Creator/PatrickStewart financed and starred in a production of the play where he played Othello, and all the other roles were filled by black actors.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Earl from ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' had this within the course of a single series. He was quite inconsistently colored in early episodes, switching between white and black skintones, ''sometimes within a single episode'', before they finally settled on a pale white-looking coloration, probably for fears of being seen as a racist caricature (this is the guy who infamously got into a shootout during class, then had the gun calmly confiscated by Mr. Van Dreissen). However, he does still have some slightly African-looking features, particularly the shape of his nose, and a very deep, black-ish sounding voice. It's possible he's mixed, which would be consistent with his earlier coloring weirdness as the skin color of biracial people in RealLife can vary wildly depending on sun exposure and other factors.
* Many viewers of the [=DCAU=] probably thought this happened to Lex Luthor of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. That he was [[PigeonholedVoiceActor voiced by Clancy Brown]] (who is white, but his voice gives a ScaryBlackMan vibe) probably aided in this perception. His skin tone is identical to Superman (although not always consistent), but he was often framed in shadow (giving a darker appearance) and had fuller lips because he's meant to look like Telly Savalas, who's Greek.
** The reason he's so dark is that the show had two basic skin palettes for white characters; one for females, which defaulted as light pink, and one for males, which was supposed to be only a shade or two away from the female mix, but ended up with a lot more red than planned, making most of the show's male characters look deeply tanned. By the time the producers became aware of it, it was too late to do anything about it and they just said "screw it" and stuck with that coloring.
*** This becomes absurdly noted, of all places, in ''WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}'': In the "Lewis and Clark" sketch, William Clark is deliberately drawn to look like [[ClarkKenting Superman]], and looks even redder than Sacajawea.
** By ''JusticeLeague'', the same incarnation of Luthor was drawn noticeably whiter.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''' Jinx: she's Indian (i.e., from India) in the comics, while on the show she was considerably whiter (and we mean ''white'') than her comic counterpart.
** In the cartoon she has a head full of bright pink hair -- in the comics, she's bald from leukemia.
** Actually, in a really strange way (and DependingOnTheArtist for both the comic and cartoon it seems), Jinx can be darker than her comic counter-part since her skin isn't so much white as it a ''slate gray''.
** It's probably easier to say that this Jinx is an InNameOnly adaptation anyway; her powers and costume are also radically different. ([[TropesAreNotBad Though she's still]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse quite popular]].)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* John Howard Griffin took pills to make himself look black for a few months, during which time he got kicked around in the DeepSouth. And then he wrote ''Black Like Me'' (TropeNamer for BlackLikeMe) about it. James Whitmore played Griffin in a film adaptation.
* Many medieval illustrators depicted famous historical figures as white instead of "less popular" ethnicities such as African and Arab. In TheRenaissance, fashions changed and painters were more eager to depict "exotic" people realistically. Compare [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Aesopnurembergchronicle.jpg this 1493 picture of]] Creator/{{Aesop}} (who was said to be of African origin in late Antiquity) to [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Diego_Velasquez%2C_Aesop.jpg this one]] from 17th century painter Velázquez.
* The New York Fire Dept. caught flack for trying to RaceLift [[http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2002/01/18/2002-01-18_fdny_cancels_9_11_statue_com.html a statue]] of three firefighters raising a flag among the wreckage of the World Trade Center after 9/11. The real guys were white, the statue depicted a white guy, a black guy, and a Latino.
* Music/MichaelJackson was often accused of having used numerous plastic surgery operations to try and make himself look more white. He claimed that he'd only had two operations, affecting his nose and chin (the latter had a cleft added), and that he bleached his skin to even out blotches caused by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitiligo vitiligo]]. There's plenty of proof online that he had vitiligo.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Film/WilliamShakespearesRomeoandJuliet'', Mercutio and the Prince, who are relatives, are both played by black actors. Since the setting is moved from the Italian city of Verona to "Verona Beach," California, this doesn't cause any strangeness.

* The wizard {{Shazam}}'s back story has long established him as being from ancient Canaan, but he was drawn white up until the {{New 52}}; however, now his ethnicity seems to have been changed to Aborigine.

*** This lead to a minor controversy when Cobie Smulders was cast as Maria Hill in ''Film/TheAvengers''. Some fans who were only familiar with Maria from the cartoon complained about a pale-skinned, blue-eyed actress being cast to portray the character in the film, even though that's how she usually looks in the actual comics.

** Other alternate Spider-Men include a MaskedLuchador from Mexico, and an African-American punk rocker from a {{Dystopia}}an PoliceState.

* According to one interview, in ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity Mastermen #1]]'', Earth-10's Freedom Fighters will represent ethnic, sexual, and religious minorities targeted by the Nazi Party. The Ray is homosexual, Doll Man is a Jehovah's Witness, Phantom Lady is Romani, and Black Condor is African.

* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'': Sally Avril (white in the comics) is played by Kelsey Chow, who is half-Taiwanese. [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2 Its seuqel]] sees African-American actor Jamie Foxx play Electro.

* A large portion of the race changes in ''Thor'' are attributable to the director of the first film in the series: Sir Creator/KennethBranagh. Branagh's main philosophy of casting seems to be that he doesn't particularly care what you look like; if you give the best audition, he'll give you the part. This has ended up with a lot of cast diversification in his other films, particularly his famous adaptations of Shakespeare, and most particularly his adaptation of ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'' (which features Creator/DenzelWashington as Don Pedro and Creator/KeanuReaves as Don John--who, recall, are supposed to be ''half brothers'').

* The upcoming Biblical adaptation ExodusGodsAndKings has come under fire for casting white folks as the Egyptian and Israelite lead characters, including ChristianBale as Moses and JoelEdgerton as Ramses II. For added UnfortunateImplications, servants, assassins, workers and so on are portrayed by actors of colour.

* In ''[[Film/{{Carrie 2002}} Carrie (2002)]]'', the character of Sue Snell, who was white in the book and movie, was played by black South African-Canadian actress Kandyse [=McClure=]. This seems to have been more a case of colorblind casting than a deliberate RaceLift; her race is never brought up over the course of the film.

** Martian Manhunter might count as well. In the comics his human guise is usually a white man; in the show he adopts the appearance of a black man, though it probably is a ShoutOut to his Smallville appearance.
** More likely, Manhunter's being black is because his voice actor, Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson, is black and it would simply make sense to make him the same race as his actor. He's a shapeshifter, so why NOT be a black man? Chances are the creators of Young Justice couldn't care one way or another about how he was portrayed on Smallville. In fact, Manhunter has been played by black voice actors several times, such as Justice League the Animated Series and Justice League: Doom where he was played by the same actor, and portraying him as black both diversifies the cast and avoids whitewashing the actor portraying him.

* When the movie ''Film/PayItForward'' was adapted from the book of the same name, the hideously scarred black teacher Reuben St. Clair becomes hideously scarred white teacher Eugene Simonet (played by Kevin Spacey). They couldn't get Denzel Washington for the part, so they had to change the character.

* The 2014 remake of AboutLastNight changes the four leads to African-Americans, including KevinHart
* The 1998 film adaptation of ''Film/DrDolittle'' cast Eddie Murphy in the originally white title role. [[InNameOnly The movie didn't have anything to do with the books anyway]], save for featuring a doctor named Dolittle who talks to animals.
* WillSmith's appealing personality (and ability to record hit songs) has led to a career of being inserted into Race Lifts, such as ''Film/MenInBlack'' (Agent J was white in the [[Comicbook/MenInBlack comics]] upon which the movie is based, and either Christian Slater or Chris O'Donnell was the original choice to play Will's character); ''Film/WildWildWest'', in which he plays Jim West, an army captain (though ''no'' version of ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' [[AnachronismStew cared about that kind of thing]]); and ''Film/IAmLegend'', in which Robert Neville was white in RichardMatheson's original story.

* In the Creator/StephenKing short novel ''Literature/FourteenOhEight'', Gerald Olin is a white middle aged British man. In the [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]], he is played by Creator/SamuelLJackson, [[CaptainObvious who is not]].

* ''Guess Who'' ('s Coming to Dinner) and ''TheHoneymooners'' are both race-switching remakes. And he's going to play Deadshot in the Suicide Squad movie.

* ''Guess Who'' ('s Coming to Dinner) and ''TheHoneymooners'' are both race-switching remakes.

* ComicBook/{{Raven}} is a Caucasian girl in the main continuity, but is portrayed as a Native American in ''ComicBook/TeenTitansEarthOne''.

* The upcoming ''Series/{{Supergirl 2015}}'' TV series will have JimmyOlsen played by African-American actor Mehcad Brooks.

* African American actor Sinqua Walls (of ''Series/TeenWolf'' fame) plays Sir Lancelot in Season 2 of ''Series/OnceUponATime''.

* Inspector William Henderson was white when he first appeared in ''TheAdventuresOfSuperman'', and when he was later introduced into the comics, but was black in his early appearances in ''LoisAndClark'' (first played by Mel Winkler, [[TheOtherDarrin then]] by Brett Jennings). Then he was white in later episodes, played by Creator/RichardBelzer. He was also black in ''SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. Eventually, the comicbook Bill Henderson having been promoted to Comissioner, the comics introduced a new Inspector ''Mike'' Henderson, who was African-American.

* When Pearl Bailey assumed the role of Dolly in ''HelloDolly'', black actors and actresses filled the supporting cast.

* Earl from ''BeavisAndButthead'' had this within the course of a single series. He was quite inconsistently colored in early episodes, switching between white and black skintones, ''sometimes within a single episode'', before they finally settled on a pale white-looking coloration, probably for fears of being seen as a racist caricature (this is the guy who infamously got into a shootout during class, then had the gun calmly confiscated by Mr. Van Dreissen). However, he does still have some slightly African-looking features, particularly the shape of his nose, and a very deep, black-ish sounding voice. It's possible he's mixed, which would be consistent with his earlier coloring weirdness as the skin color of biracial people in RealLife can vary wildly depending on sun exposure and other factors.

* In the TV adaptation of ''GirlsInLove'' by JacquelineWilson, Magda, originally a white woman, is played by a black actress.

** The new version of the Thunderer is Aboriginal.

* According to one interview, in ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity Mastermen #1]]'', Earth-10's Freedom Fighters will represent ethnic, sexual, and religious minorities targeted by the Nazi Party. The Ray is homosexual, Doll Man is a Jehovah's Witness, Phantom Lady is Romani, and Black Condor is going to be African.

** {{SHIELD}} agent Jasper Sitwell was played by a Mexican-American actor.

* In-Verse example: In ''Comicbook/Camelot3000'', Sir Gawain's reincarnation is African, and Sir Galahad's is Japanese. Both were Britons in their previous lives.

* In-Verse example: In ''ComicBook/Camelot3000'', Sir Gawain's reincarnation is African, and Sir Galahad's is Japanese. Both were Britons in their previous lives.

* In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', [[spoiler: Daisy Johnson from SecretWarriors]] appears as one of the main characters [[AdaptationNameChange under the name "Skye"]]. While she is white in the comics, in the show she's a biracial girl from Hunan province in China, and is played by half-white, half-Chinese actress Chloe Bennett.

** Jason Momoa, who is half-white and half-Hawaiian, will be playing ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}.