By now you’ve probably heard about the whitewashed casting of Ridley Scott’s upcoming biblical epic, Exodus: Gods and Kings, which stars pale Brit Christian Bale as Moses and pasty Aussie Joel Edgerton—in an awful lot of bronzer—as pharaoh-to-be Ramses II. Some defenders have argued that the decision to cast non-Egyptian/Arab/Semitic/African actors in these roles is less about race than about money. You get films made with movie stars, and most movie stars are white. Still others have explained that we don’t have enough evidence to make a definitive judgment about the skin color of the pharaohs and other historical Bible characters. But the fact remains that there are many troubling racial aspects to the film’s casting, not least of which is that while all the leads are Caucasian, as David Dennis Jr. points out, many of its servants, thieves, and assassins are played by black men.
But the problem goes deeper than simply one blockbuster. Blackface, yellowface, and whatever is happening in Exodus (brownface?) has a history in Hollywood as old as the movies. You’d think by 2014, we’d be in a different, better place, but as these 10 racist casting decisions prove—and I must say, it was hard to limit it to 10—the film industry’s preference for white actors, even when a part calls for a person of color, continues unabated.