race lift
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.40 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The changing of the race of a character, protagonist, etc., in a work of art, literature, etc.
verb
To change the race of a fictional character.
Example Sentences
- "Characters who are ethnic minorities in original works are recast as Caucasians in adaptations so frequently that the phenomenon has its own nickname: it’s called a race lift."
- "But here's what gets me: They did do a "race lift" of a martial arts-oriented character. They took Elektra Natchios, who, if you couldn't tell from her name, is supposed to be Greek, and cast the French-Cambodian actress Elodie Yung to play her."
- "2017 Rangers' "gritty" teaser trailer sees five stroppy teenagers (all smooth enough to have come from the High School Musical set) glower at one another in clothes most of us probably can't afford (styled to look almost-crap), get CGI powersuits, and fight a villain that's had a Hollywood "race-lift" for no reason other than I-don't-know."
- "No, I'm not just jumping on the bandwagon in the wake of Marvel Comics' announcement of a black Captain America and a female Thor—although if there were ever a politically opportune moment to give the Hulk a Race Lift, this is it."
- "The movie industry has supposedly cleaned up this particularly shameful act, but it has been replaced by a subtler form of race-lifting: rather than hiring actors of the same ethnicity to play non-Caucasian characters, Hollywood often simply changes the ethnicity of the characters themselves. Instead of hiring a black actor to play Othello, you just make Othello white."
- ""This is not the first instance of race lifting in Hollywood. In the past, Idris Elba has played the Norse God Heimdall. Will Smith's character from I am Legend was originally white, as was Shawshank Redemption's Red (played by Morgan Freeman)," says movie buff Vinu S"