The day I first noticed the incorrect representations of real people directly relates to the most tragic day in modern American history: September 11th, 2001. The horrific events of that day shaped the modern America in which we live, yet from within the televised images of destruction, three men, all white, raised Old Glory and silently expressed the resolve every citizen felt that day. It was a moment of resistance eternally frozen in time, preserved for the ages thanks to a plethora of nearby media personnel. So why, then, did the proposed statue of the male firefighters present them as black, Latino, and white? Was the photo of the three white firemen not clear enough? Was there some valid reason why their races were changed in the artwork? Unfortunately, not one rational answer to any of the preceding was ever provided, and public outcries forced the creator of the planned statue to fashion an accurate representation of the event, white firemen and all.

Before I continue, I must stress the following: Our world is increasingly diverse, and it should be reflected as such where reasonable. This is not to mean that presentations of predominantly black or Latino areas are to be filled with Caucasian residents or that white neighborhoods are to be seen with a plethora of brown faces. Ours are largely segregated living areas, and that's just a plain, brutal fact of longstanding social norms. However, when reflecting the greater American society in a setting other than a given home, particular care should be taken to reflect that the nation is now a veritable rainbow in many regards. Moreover, particular care must be taken to ensure the faithful depictions of modern America as a more varied nation in which real individuals and the events surrounding them are faithfully represented.

Accordingly, it would be unrealistic to write of New York City subway cars filled with nothing but Caucasians when describing a train ride through the Bronx. Or as another example, it would be incorrect to reflect San Francisco's "Chinatown" as an area rife with Egyptian, Norwegian, and Inuit people. Unfortunately, some would apply the term "multiculturalism" to the proposed race-altered statue of the firemen, the false depictions of the subway passengers, and the Chinatown residents, but isn't multiculturalism—when used to deny others based on race, ethnicity, or other identifiable traits—just another form of bias? I argue that offering an unrealistic presentation of real people, common situations, and actual events wherein the unreality concerns the gross misrepresentations of certain known personal identifiers is certainly evidence of prejudice. With that said, I return to the horror of September 11th and the depiction of a hero named Jason Thomas in film.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Twin Towers, responders mounted frantic search-and-rescue efforts that resulted in some 20 people saved from the rubble. One of those credited with saving the lives of victims trapped in the debris was the obviously black Jason Thomas, the clearly melanated person seen above. Mr. Thomas is a former member of the United States Marine Corps, and it was as a Marine that he found himself in search of trapped survivors. It was he and fellow U.S. Marine Dave Karnes who found a pair of Port Authority Police Officers, not firefighters, buried in the rubble of the fallen World Trade Center. The story of the rescue was the basis for the 2006 movie, World Trade Center, a film in which Mr. Thomas was portrayed by actor William Mapother, the obviously not melanated individual pictured above.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Oliver Stone, the director who once stood on Hollywood's shoulders and shouted his belief that former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison had the goods on a vast conspiracy responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, cast the melanin-challenged Mr. Mapother as the melanin-rich Mr. Thomas. Then again, perhaps the poor casting choice was part of some mysterious conspiracy. Mr. Stone certainly pounded his conspiracy theories home via his film JFK (1991) and in personal appearances, and he chose to cast the role of Mr. Thomas in a manner that was not only inaccurate, it was also another egregious example of his tendency to revise history to his liking. Please note that I have absolutely nothing against Mr. Mapother. He was simply offered the role of a dedicated searcher and he took it, end of story. The issue is not with him, but with the American film industry's apparent need to portray real people and events in wholly unrealistic or inaccurate ways.

Directly above this text is a picture of the obviously Asian mechanical engineer Jeffrey Ma as he appeared during his time as a key member of the real-life MIT Blackjack Team. To recap, the MIT Blackjack Team was a collection of extremely skilled mathematicians who applied probability calculations to take on America's money-laden casinos. Mr. Ma was the basis for the main character of the corresponding book about the team's gambling exploits, Bringing Down the House, and its related film, 21 (2008). In reality, the MIT Blackjack Team was a series of multi-racial enterprises that plagued casinos for over 20 years, with a membership that varied over time. Within the book, however, the majority of the MIT Blackjack Team was composed of Asian men, but the American film industry apparently felt the need to express its disdain for the real team and the altered reality of the novel by hiring a mostly Caucasian cast to portray the team members and complete the distortion of true events. Actor Jim Sturgess, the obviously non-Asian man pictured above, was cast as the analogue to Jeffrey Ma in a stunningly inaccurate hiring move that confounds to this day.​ 

There are other examples besides the above, of course, and I'm not including such fare as Inglorious Basterds (2009), Overlord (2019), and others that use dramatic license to present tales of alternate or inaccurately presented history. The purpose of this article isn't to list every example of misrepresentation, but to inform via a few glaring examples. Some may decry the cinematic depictions of Mr. Thomas and Mr. Ma as so-called "whitewashing," but that term would not apply to the attempt to needlessly alter the races of the men in the proposed statue of raising the flag at Ground Zero or swap the gender and the very character of pioneering balloonist Henry Coxwell. Call it what you will, but as long as the American film industry proffers skewed visions of America and the world through the cracked lenses of inaccurate social identifiers, we will never enjoy true and consistent reflections of reality in cinemas. To quote the character Morpheus from The Matrix (1999), "What is real? How do you define real?" The answer to that is an unfortunate one as our perception of "real" is often just another person's expression of prejudice masquerading as truth.

What do you think? Send a message and let me know!

-TechRider