I had about 4 different chapters lined up to be written before this, but I'm irritated and this needs to be addressed.
(Before we begin, I'd like to note that I am changing this book's format so that there are proper capitals from now on. It got annoying to read my own work. I won't change the past chapters because I think there are some useful comments, but this is how the rest of the book will be.)
PLEASE RESEARCH YOUR FACECLAIM'S ETHNICITY BEFORE YOU USE THEM!! PLEASE LOOK UP AN ACTOR'S FROM THE SHOW IF YOU ARE NOT SURE!!
Too many times I have seen countless faceclaims whitewashed because they may have lighter skin tones. This goes for Cody Christian, Hailee Steinfeld, Chloe Bennet, Camila Mendes, and more. It usually isn't hard to find out where these people's descent comes from. Casting them with all-white families is disrespectful to their heritages.
Just because a person has light skin or is white-passing does not necessarily mean they are white. Take Halsey for example. Her father is African-American and yet she has pale skin. It doesn't erase the fact that she is mixed and it shows in some of her other physical characteristics rather than her complexion, such as her natural hair. The case was the same for Cameron Boyce— he was pale-skinned but his father is also African-American.
Here are some photos. I couldn't find recent one of Halsey with her father on Google, but I did find an old one.
I've seen Cody being cast in quite a few fanfics now and almost none of them pay homage to the fact that he is half Native American. His mother's side is full-blooded Native American and belongs to the Penobscot Tribe. He is often white-washed in everything he's cast in and it's sad to see his mother's heritage erased because of his skin.
And this is his brother, Josh. It shows how genetics are weird and even if Cody is white-passing, his brother looks much more biracial than Cody does if you don't know his ethnicity.
I made a list of frequently white-washed faceclaims across all fandoms, or ones that I have seen white-washed before. I haven't immersed myself in others' fanfiction for a while, so please comment any that I miss.
1. Cody Christian
2. Hailee Steinfeld
3. Chloe Bennet
4. Camila Mendes
5. Froy Gutierrez
6. Courtney Eaton
7. Naomi Scott
8. Shay Mitchell
9. Tyler Posey
10. Vanessa Hudgens
11. Selena Gomez
12. Emeraude Toubia
This has also been an issue within the cast of The 100 itself. For example, Henry Ian Cusick was born in Peru. He's half Peruvian. And yet most people who cast his children make them completely white! IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE YOUR OC A CHILD OF KANE'S, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE THEM PARTIALLY PERUVIAN OR SOMETHING.
It has been brought to my attention that people are also white-washing Sinclair by casting white faceclaims for his children even though he is of dual Italian and Chinese ancestry. Please cast a Chinese faceclaim if you want your OC to be his kid!
Bob Morley also faced issues of racism within the fandom, particularly in 2016. Many people (unfortunately, mainly the Clexa fandom) have called him a "useless white boy" when he is half Filipino. This news reached Bob and it hurt him. He has expressed his struggles with racism growing up in a mostly-white neighborhood in Australia, so dismissing his ethnicity also dismisses the hardships he faced (and continues to face, because I've seen some people calling him a monkey as recently as 2018. Now I just filter all of the hate out of my Tumblr dashboard).
Please look up your faceclaims' ethnicities before you use them and make sure you are casting them accordingly. I know resources are scarce for some in terms of people to cast, but it is still important to do your best. I will admit that I overlooked this when I was an early teen and was just starting to use faceclaims, so I'm not perfect either and there are things I have to change in my slightly older stories. The best we can do is learn from our mistakes and try not to make them again in the future.