WARNING: THIS CARRD CONTAINS SPOILERS
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Welcome! I'm Clonehub (same on tumblr). I'm Black, 23, and use they/them pronouns.You're probably here because you asked about the #UnwhitewashTBB movement and wanted to learn more.Unwhitewashing the Bad Batch had been a concept since the story reels for The Bad Batch were released. However, the hashtag didn't come into existence until March 30, 2021 (by me) after the release of the official Bad Batch series trailer, where I and others noticed just how white most of the team was.If you would like to learn more, please read the first link, which will take you through the issues with each of the members of the Bad Batch. Then you can read the Debunking, Other Issues, and FAQ pages. The How-To and Concept pages are optional but strongly encouraged.While you're here, please consider donating to any of the groups listed below in the "Māori People, Culture, and Current Issues" section, which has links to things such as a language learning website for Te Reo Māori and social services for Māori inhabitants of Aotearoa (New Zealand).⊱ ──────────── ⊰What's Wrong with Star Wars: The Bad Batch?Our GoalDebunking Fan TheoriesOther Issues in Star Wars: The Bad BatchFAQConcept ArtHow to draw the members of The Bad Batch⊱ ──────────── ⊰How to HelpSign the petitionOur Open Letter⊱ ──────────── ⊰Māori People, Culture, and Current IssuesSign and Donate:PETITION: AID DECOLONISATION, CHANGE THE NAME OF NEW ZEALAND TO AOTEAROAPETITION FOR NZ #StopCorrectionsCensorshipDonate to MāoriLanguage.net, a language learning site that hopes to teach people how to speak MāoriDONATE: MĀORI INDIGENOUS EDUCATION FUNDSupport PuraPura Whetu, a charitable trust that provides social services to support Māori health and wellbeing
Donate to Kākāpō RecoveryVarious funding opportunities for Māori organisationsBecome aware:Māori are trying to save their language from Big TechKupu Taea and Media and Te Tiriti Project: 14 Anti-Māori Themes to Watch out for In News and Media⊱ ──────────── ⊰Articles about #UnwhitewashTBBGizmodo: Why Star Wars Fans are Concerned About Whitewashing and The Bad BatchProject Stardust: UnwhitewashTBBStar Wars: A Tale of Racism

Sergeant Hunter is the leader of the Bad Batch and sports straight brown hair and light skin. His design is similar to that of Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone (a white man).From his Star Wars site profile:A Republic sergeant with shaggy hair and a distinct tattoo that makes half his face resemble a skull, Hunter is the leader of Clone Force 99, also known as the Bad Batch. Compared to the other members of the elite group of clone soldiers, Hunter's appearance is quite close to the other clone troopers. But as part of a team that is the result of genetic experimentation, Hunter's combat prowess and heightened senses make him more effective on the battlefield than most.

Hunter is a specially enhanced clone. When his squad members antagonize and pick petty fights with the regular clones, he rarely steps in to stop them. He and his team doubt Echo's loyalty for the full length of their arc together.What fans are asking is, why not base hunter off of a Māori warrior or other famous Māori historical/pop cultural figure? This would have been an amazing opportunity to include an aspect of the culture that the clones all share with Jango Fett, a Mandalorian (especially seeing as Temuera Morrison, who plays Boba Fett, is already doing so in The Mandalorian and has done so in The Book of Boba Fett).The team chose to design Hunter's features after a white man's rather than a Māori man's, and then they made him the leader. Was someone who actually resembled the average Māori not fit for the team's definition of "leader"?Some have argued that Hunter actually looks both the brownest and the closest to a typical Māori man, besides Wrecker. Here is what Hunter looks like without his tattoo:

(Image is a screenshot of a GIF made by Pieklalat on Tumblr. Visit their page for more creative GIFsets of The Bad Batch.)Whatever his eye color is, it isn't brown. Some will make the argument that this must be Hunter's true skin tone and thus "proof" that he hasn't been whitewashed. First, look at the facial features and compare them to that of Rambo's/Stallone's up above. Next, consider the fact that this is a GIF of Hunter in a dark area. While this is the darkest he'll be, and while Kamino is the lightest he'll be, it's most likely that his actual tone is closer to that of what we see on Kamino.Crosshair | Wrecker | Tech | Echo | Omega | HomeFan Theories | Photo Gallery | Art Tutorial | Other Issues | FAQ | Goal

Wrecker is exactly what his name implies: big, destructive, aggressive, and prone to physical violence at the slightest provocation. He's the only member of Bad Batch who doesn't appear to have been directly modeled after a white man. He also inexplicably had an American accent (which has changed to fake-Māori since the premier of the series). Wrecker's role in the team is that of The Big Guy, and, by extension, the Boisterous Bruiser. As much was clear in his behavior in Season 7 and the premiere of the series itself. He was inspired by The Hulk. As the series continued, he moved away from being The Brute and into being the Boisterous Bruiser mentioned above (he also is the comic relief of the group). This trope in and of itself is not wrong, but its execution is concerning.The team created a character that is a racist stereotype by making a brown man a large, slow, and violent person. Māori are often assumed to be violent, and this same stereotype can be seen in racist portrayals of the men in practically every nonwhite ethnic group. The first episode of the series has Wrecker talk loudly about wanting to be violent. He has difficulty with some words and he refuses to learn the basic things he is meant to know as a soldier. In the premiere, Wrecker complains loudly about hand signs, and it is made clear he's refused repeatedly to learn them (1).In addition to his aggression, Wrecker is infantilized by the creative team. Although less common in popular media, another stereotype for men of color is for them to be written as friendly or goofy in a childlike manner. Multiple times, Brad Rau, Supervising Director of The Bad Batch, and Dee Bradley Baker have described Wrecker as a "big child", a "little boy", and a "big kid". If they'd written Wrecker to be the positive and playful member of the group, this description would not be such an issue--but as this is in conjunction with everything else about Wrecker's characterization, this only compounds the racist writing.Of course, as of episode 7 of The Bad Batch, Wrecker is also the first to turn and fall victim to the chip's effects. The build up had been throughout the series up to this point. Fans have pointed out the general lack of creativity surrounding Wrecker's being the one to turn violent first, along with the way in which he does it; every other chip-controlled trooper pulled their gun, but Wrecker goes to physically choking and throwing everyone. His turn is much more violent than anyone else's.Some disabled fans have also noticed a worrying connection to ableism in The Bad Batch that surrounds Wrecker's character. Often, visual cues are given in a character's design that hint at or explain some of their backstory or who they are as a person. Wrecker has one eye and a large scar on the side of this head, clearly from a massive head trauma. People who have suffered head injuries are stereotyped as being intellectually slow and/or aggressive in both media and real life. While the connection has not directly been made, these fans are worried that this visual cue to a traumatic head injury, facial deformity, and Wrecker's personality traits is a continuation of deeply ableist tropes that have yet to leave Star Wars.While it's good the show has slowly started to adjust his character to one that is more well-rounded and three-dimensional, this character development does not change Wrecker's primary introduction to the audience as that of a racial stereotype.Now that Season 2 of the series is here, fans were hopeful that Wrecker would get some development outside of the stereotypes and cliches he's been written into. Unfortunately, in episode ten of the second season, Wrecker growls almost more than he speaks in order to intimidate a child. Wrecker has yet to get meaningful character development.From his Star Wars site profile:The boisterous bruiser of Clone Force 99, a group of elite Republic soldiers known as the Bad Batch, Wrecker has the brute strength that makes him capable of lifting a clone gunship without any help. Wrecker’s muscle and size are matched only by his temper, which can boil over easily, and an equally pronounced sense of humor even in the most dire circumstances.From his Wookieepedia page:
Matt and Brent worked with Dave to flesh out the characters and their story where Wrecker would be based on something akin to the Hulk from Marvel Comics. Directors Steward Lee and Bosco Ng who are big Marvel fans likes to direct Wrecker the most, like in scenes where he gets to rampage like the Hulk. Dee Bradley improvised Wrecker's voice the most and inserted gung-ho things like loud grunts and shouts.(1) This also is a continuity issue. Fans have noted that in the Season 7 arc, he uses them just fine. Not only this, he would not be able to do his job as an elite soldier without hand signs.Hunter | Crosshair | Tech | Echo | Omega | HomeFan Theories | Photo Gallery | Art Tutorial | Other Issues | FAQ | Goal

Tech is the technology and computers expert of the Bad Batch, and his design is farthest removed from Jango's: white skin, European features, straight, brown hair, and an unfortunate hairline make up the cognitive genius of The Bad Batch. His appearance and writing fall in line with The Smart Guy member of the team.Fans are worried about the story behind Tech's appearance: a series of "desirable mutations" and "genetic enhancements" have produced a clone that's come out with pale skin, brown hair, and a European face. The message this sends--that physical appearance has some connection to genetic enhancements--is a painful one that makes the impression to many fans of The Bad Batch that whiteness and genetic superiority are linked.Tech is unsurprisingly also the least likely to fight. Besides some sarcastic comments here and there, he's very docile and calm, with DBB describing him as "breezy". Contrast this with Wrecker, who's the complete opposite in both personality and appearance. This goes even further when Wrecker's chip takes control and he attacks Tech; Tech does not fight back and is the only one besides Omega not to make an effort to stop him. In fact, Tech and Wrecker's interactions in the first episode and rest of the series compound the racism in both their writing: Tech, the (white) Brains mocks or belittles what Wrecker, the (brown) Brawn, says.Even his voice has been removed from the typical Māori accent that all clones are meant to sport. Dee Bradley Baker himself said "Tech is a little more British in his sound". Why does the genius need to sound British? Not only does this ignore the fact that they all grew up in the same environment and so should have the same accents, Tech's deviation is worrying in its implications on what a smart person is "supposed" to sound like, versus what those who aren't geniuses sound like.DBB also says about Tech: "He's almost like someone who's on the spectrum (1), almost (time stamp 16:05) Some autistic fans of The Bad Batch enjoy Tech's character, while others have noted that Tech is a cliche of geniuses in general and a stereotype of autistic people in particular. First, many autistic people portrayed in media are geniuses or savants (section 4) with little awareness/replication of the emotions of those around them. They're often portrayed in varying degrees as socially awkward with a tendency to infodump. This is not to say that Tech's infodumping is in any way wrong or detrimental to his character, and this is also not to say it's wrong that he's been coded as autistic. This is also not to say that there is any "right" or "wrong" way to be autistic.However, other autistic fans are upset that Tech is a common Hollywood stereotype of autism: a white male savant, especially one whose special interest is useful to the neurotypical people around him. This specific character type can be found in other media, like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory/Young Sheldon, Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds, and Shaun Murphy from The Good Doctor. Disability activist and YouTuber Jessica Kellgren-Fozard talks about autism tropes in media and why they can be harmful. While there are autistic people who share the same traits as these characters, there are other autistic people who would like to see their own traits represented. For instance, many autistic people stim, but many more allistic (non-autistic) writers of autistic characters do not give their autistic characters this trait. They also leave out sensory issues, like food pickiness or textural and noise sensitivities. Here is an article that explains the farther-reaching results of poor portrayals of autism in Hollywood, such as cis white males being disproportionately represented over gender minorities and people of color.The fact that he is a white-presenting autistic-coded genius adds more problematic layers to his character. There are exceedingly few brown autistic characters in media, and certainly none who can take the role of co-protagonist the way Tech does. Why is it that Tech couldn't be both brown and autistic? Why make him a two-fold stereotype? What does it mean when creators, in keeping with Hollywood Autism, default to an appearance and voice that is so far removed from the original actor to portray smartness while simultaneously playing into stereotypes about certain kinds of intelligence?Season two of The Bad Batch confirmed Tech's autism. Many autistic fans celebrated, as this was considered by them to be a milestone in Star Wars. However, Tech ends up dying in the season finale, leaving many autistic fans upset at the loss of representation. At the same time, for the combination of racism and stereotyping mentioned above, there are also autistic fans who don't feel anything has been lost. According to them (many of whom are people of color), Tech was such a narrow and racist portrayal of autism that he was doing more harm than good.From his Star Wars site profile:He may not look like a typical clone, but Tech is a valuable soldier in the Republic army. The result of genetic manipulation like the rest of his special unit, Clone Force 99 (or the Bad Batch), Tech's aptitude for science and technology are unmatched by man or machine.From his Wookieepedia page:His appearance differed from that of normal clones of Jango Fett in that he appeared younger, leaner, and fairer than his genetic template.
Tech was also very non-confrontational. When his squadmates would argue with each other, he would frequently walk away and not participate. Much like Hunter and unlike his other two teammates, Tech was mostly civil and respectful to his fellow clones.The page also inexplicably describes Tech's skin color as tan.(1) Please note that "on the spectrum" is a phrase used to specifically avoid calling someone autistic. It's level of offense varies from autistic person to autistic person, but it is generally seen as outdated.Hunter | Crosshair | Wrecker | Echo | Omega | HomeFan Theories | Photo Gallery | Art Tutorial | Other Issues | FAQ | Goal

Probably the most egregious whitewashing offense out of all is Echo (1). Compare how he looks now to what he used to look like:

After being frozen for roughly a year, he's lost all of his melanin. Many fans believe a year without sunlight while locked in a freezer will burn away every last drop of melanin someone has. This is not how melanin works. Those of us who share a skin tone equal to or darker than Echo's know that even years indoors won't lighten our skin to such a drastic shade like this--and no amount of nutritional deficiency and lack of sunlight will drain someone's melanin in such a manner. While certain environmental or traumatic factors can affect one's melanin output and lead to things like vitiligo, this is not the case with Echo, and as much as not been confirmed by the team (2). Echo's appearance in the series is actually lighter than he appeared in the season 7 arc of The Clone Wars.This is a result of a group of designers who do not know how melanin works, who assumed that people of colors' skin changes the same way white people's does, and who then rendered something extremely unlikely for the sake of "storytelling".Many dissenters of #UnwhitewashTBB cite "narrative/visual storytelling" as a justification for the gross amount of whitewashing that has happened with the Bad Batch. This argument is weak because Echo's being pale serves no real purpose to the plot or characterization of himself or anyone else in the series. Echo's missing limbs do--he uses his probe to hack into computers, for instance. Some have said that Echo is pale for the same reasons that Darth Vader is pale: damage done to the body, an assumed lack of blood, and his being "more machine than man" and somehow less/inhuman because of it. Besides this being grossly ableist, Vader and Echo have only their prosthetics in common. In every other way, they're completely different. Why should Vader and Echo have a narrative connection via visual storytelling like this? Is that the type of story that should be told about Echo: that he is less than or inhuman because of his disabilities? Should we use ableism as a justification for racism? And why assume the creators intended to do something that makes no sense when the much more plausible answer is right there: they do not know how melanin works and defaulted to how white skin behaves under extreme conditions.Beyond this, as of this carrd update (7/29/2021, after the release of episode seven) Echo has basically been ignored by both The Bad Batch and the plot. Fans have begun to think that his presence is for nostalgia and nothing else, because his treatment in the series has been subpar to a worrying degree.Many disabled fans are concerned about the ableism surrounding Echo. The Bad Batch is introduced to us by insulting regs and establishing their superiority complex. They harass Ehco's brothers and doubt his loyalty to his family for the entire arc. When we see Echo again, it's revealed that he's disabled: multiple amputations and various devices are needed to keep him alive. Even when he's saving their lives, the Bad Batch don't trust him. At the end, Rex says that if Echo no longer "fits in" with clones like him, he can go with the Bad Batch.There are multiple issues with this, the largest being that Echo is disabled, not a criminal, and not an outsider. There is absolutely no reason as to why the 501st that he's fought beside for most of the war beforehand would suddenly reject him now that he relies on prosthetics and implants to keep him alive. There was never a point in TCW where clones were shown to collectively be ableist. Why wouldn't he have been accepted? Would Jesse or Kix have mistreated him for being tortured and abused by the separatists? Would Anakin have?Combine this with the continued narrative coddling of the Bad Batch. They have genetic superiority-fueled egos, never saw Echo as their equal, but have him join their team anyways, proving once again that this team of whitewashed superiors are better than the brown "regs" they despise because they "accept" Echo and his disabilities. The message that the team is sending just with that decision at the end of that arc is dually racist and ableist one.The issues do not end there. Echo is new to the team, so it's understandable that he doesn't have a wall-set bed on Kamino, but he also doesn't have a seat on the Marauder. Despite being a double amputee, he's made to stand in many of the scenes we see him in, while the rest of The Bad Batch reclines in some way. One example is in episode seven, when everyone is asleep waiting for Wrecker to wake up and Echo is the only one standing.His lack of an arm is another example--he's still made to climb and carry things literally one handed, while the probe attachment only occasionally serves a purpose. Why not give Echo a hand that opens up with a probe inside it? Disabled fans have noted that it's like the team refuses to acknowledge Echo's status as a disabled character, instead either choosing to put him in extremely uncomfortable situations that an able bodied person would be fine with, or ignoring him entirely.Echo is referred to as "more machine than man" by Tech in the premiere, and then Crosshair makes a comment about how Echo has been "turned into that", regarding the prosthetics and implants keeping him alive. The worst offense is when he gets sold, and it's played off for laughs that the mostly-metal disabled man is now being treated as actually metal and inhuman. The Clone Wars already had issues with acknowledging the clones' status as slaves (Slick is villainized, the Kadavo arc makes no mention of how Rex feels being sold into slavery), so it's disappointing to see that these issues have continued into The Bad Batch. Fans are hoping that Echo doesn't keep being put into dehumanizing or otherwise dangerous situations for a disabled person, like when he got thrown and stunned in episode seven.(1) Echo does not appear to have a specific place in the Five-Man Band trope.
(2) If the team wanted to show damage to his skin without completely bleaching him, they could have designed him with patchiness, vitiligo, and/or other skin tone variations that show that damage has been done. Fans of color have also noted that this change seems to be permanent, as Echo does not seem to be regaining his melanin.Hunter | Crosshair | Wrecker | Tech | Omega | HomeFan Theories | Photo Gallery | Art Tutorial | Other Issues | FAQ | Goal

Omega is a direct genetic copy of Jango Fett. She plays the role of The Chick in the group's Five Man Band set up. She is also the "emotional mediator" between Crosshair and Hunter, as per the FMB/Two Guys and a Girl Trope.She's 100% Jango, lacking the genetic modifications that all other clones have. She has an ability (1) similar to Hunter's in that she can sense the presence of other people before they're visible. Omega has light skin and blonde hair, although the team didn't go the standard route and give her blue eyes like they have done with some clones. If she is a perfect clone of Jango, why is she blonde? What does it mean that this blonde child is genetically "pure" despite sharing the same genes as a brown-skinned, black-haired man?Surprisingly enough, she actually has a proper New Zealand accent, which many consider an improvement over what the rest of the Bad Batch has. However, this does not erase the fact that she has been designed to look like a white girl, and that she isn't even the first clone child to be given lightened skin and hair (Boba in prison in the Rako Hardeen arc of The Clone Wars comes to mind).In addition to this, we can contrast Omega with Wrecker the same way we do Tech. It's common in Western media to make an "epitome of innocence" character--that is, a character who is meant to be understood as angelic, kind, naive, pure, or any other word one can come up with when the Tough Man/Soft Kid trope is used. More often than not, this child will be white or light skinned and/or blonde. This isn't to say that Omega can't be innocent--she's roughly ten years old by fan estimations. Nobody is expecting her to be a hardened warrior.But this begs the question about why "innocence" here must be embodied by features and appearances that are commonly achievable by white people. Very rarely do children of color ever fulfill this role. Why not have a Māori child take on the role of the innocent contrast to the main protagonists?(1) this ability has not appeared in recent episodes.Hunter | Crosshair | Wrecker | Tech | Echo | HomeFan Theories | Photo Gallery | Art Tutorial | Other Issues | FAQ | Goal

First: absolutely no in-universe explanation excuses real life racism.The issue is not the internal justifications for character motivations and actions, or the mechanics of Star Wars science and genetics (and even those can be blamed on the creators). The issue is the real-world human decision to take a group of men who should be brown, make them white, make them genetically more desirable and enhanced than their brown counterparts, and then have them be bullied for these traits by "regular" brown men. The issue is the implications and impacts of this decision, regardless of whether it makes sense in the Star Wars universe.Every single aspect of the Bad Batch's physical appearance is a choice.According to the Thermian Argument (Folding Ideas, 2015), fans of a given media will provide an in-universe justification to shut down criticism of certain aspects of the story or writing. However, "Criticism of a creative work is ultimately criticism of the decisions that people made when they were putting it together." (Folding Ideas, 2015). Every decision you see regarding the Bad Batch is a deliberate one that could have easily been avoided. The "genetic mutations" could have gone in literally any other direction, but the team decided to make genetic enhancements comorbid with Eurocentric features and lightened skin (barring the character who is the Brute/comic relief). Thus, watchers are well within their rights to criticize the whitewashing in the Bad Batch, as well as the actions and attitudes of each of the Batch members as reflections of internally consistent but ultimately racist ideals because they were made by human beings, and because of the impact that these sentiments have in real life.Besides this, this is not how DNA works (Nibs, 2021) (Special Issue: The Threat of Human Cloning Ethics, Recent Developments, and the Case for Action, 2015, p. 11). This theory implies that white is the default in any set of DNA. The clones' "concentrated" Jango DNA gives them the brown skin and Polynesian features, but when it gets "stretched" (in this case, diluted or reduced in some way) everything else about them is "reduced" as well: their faces and noses from broad to narrow, the depth of their skin from dark to light, and their hair color from black to brown (or white in Crosshair's case). Within this theory is the assumption that the defining features of a person of color are all just add ons or extensions to that of white people.Many insist that their differences are "visual storytelling"--that the Bad Batch are "supposed to look different".This is an example of the Thermian Argument. Their difference is a form of visual storytelling that doesn't make sense in- or out-of-universe. The Bad Batch could have all been brown skinned with different facial features commonly associated with Polynesians, making them look similar to regular clones, but not exactly like them. When one takes how DNA actually functions into consideration, and when one seriously considers the myriad directions the creative team could have gone in regarding their appearances beyond just making them shaped like their careers, the problematic nature of the Bad Batch's whitewashing comes to light.Some say that Crosshair and Echo may have vitiligo or albinism, but neither of these explains Eurocentric features, which do not result from genetic skin conditions. More on that here and here.Sources:Folding Ideas (2015, 17th September) Minisode – The Thermian Argument. Retrieved from URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxV8gAGmbtkNibs (2021, 3rd April) Not a geneticist or anything BUT I am learning Forensics!... [Tumblr post] Retrieved from https://nibeul.tumblr.com/post/647464773471076353/not-a-geneticist-or-anything-but-i-am-learning (support 1, support 2)Special Issue: The Threat of Human Cloning Ethics, Recent Developments, and the Case for Action. (2015). The New Atlantis,(46), 9-146. Retrieved July 10, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43551612Hunter | Crosshair | Tech | Wrecker | Echo | Omega | HomePhoto Gallery | Art Tutorial | Other Issues | FAQ | Goal

This is a photogallery of comparisons between the regular clones (Phase I and Phase II models) and the Bad Batch to showcase skin tone and facial structure white washing.Many fans claim that lighting is simply the issue, but concept art and base models show otherwise.

Thread of side-by-side images by @FireSprayProto
Thread explaining why TBB is racist by @Clonehub7567
Tumblr post going into detail about their designs by @lilhawkeye3Thread comparing the Phase I clone troopers to TBB in standard armor by @Firejet_mechaHunter | Crosshair | Tech | Wrecker | Echo | Omega | HomeFan Theories | Art Tutorial | Other Issues | FAQ | Goal

Some of you may be wondering how you're supposed to draw the Bad Batch now that you've learned how racist their design is. Some others of you may have an idea of what to do, but no real guidelines as to drawing Māori people like the clones, whose designs don't really match what Temuera Morrison looks like.This page is for art resources regarding how to unwhitewash the clones in your fanart. As more resources become available, more will be added here.Hair, Face Shape, and Skin Tone Tutorial Thread by @luu_stuff on Twitter
Unwhitewashed edit of Echo by @thatfunkyopposum
Unwhitewashed edit of Hunter by @thatfunkyopposum
Tumblr fanart/rewrite of the Bad Batch by @nibeulHunter | Crosshair | Tech | Wrecker | Echo | Omega | HomeFan Theories | Photo Gallery | Other Issues | FAQ | Goal

As the show has progressed, fans have noticed more and more issues with The Bad Batch beyond just the white washing and ableism. One such issue is Cid, the broker that the team works with.AntisemitismCid is a Trandoshan, which is a lizard species in Star Wars. She's greedy and manipulative, and she uses a distinct accent commonly associated with New York Jewish people ("You Talkin' to Me?" by EJ White). Jewish fans have pointed out that Cid is an antisemitic stereotype of Jewish people, specifically the "Jewish Mother" stereotype, and the stereotype that Jewish people control all the money in the world/are very greedy and stingy. The conspiracy theory that links Jewish people with lizard people is an old one that continues to crop up even in today's media (all links refer both to the conspiracy theory and its use in current politics and media).To add insult to injury, Cid is voiced by Rhea Perlman, a Jewish woman.This would not be the first instance of antisemitism in an animated Star Wars show. Star Wars: The Clone Wars, most notable for its heavily stylized facial structures, gave Palpatine an exaggeratedly hooked nose that doesn't remotely resemble his live action actor's--and, interestingly enough, Anakin Skywalker has a button nose despite Hayden Christensen himself not sporting one. Even the Muun Banking Clan wasn't safe--they appear in animation with large noses that did not exist in their live action appearance.Some may say that this is typical in villain design--writers and creators often given some kind of visual cue as to the moral alignments of their characters. Villains will get hooked noses--or dark curly hair, or narrower eyes, or darker skin, or some kind of accent or queer-coded flair to their behavior. This is called racialization (or queer coding, depending) and these and more are stereotypes of various minority groups that have been placed onto villains in order to further demonize those people.Further WhitewashingThe white washing did not start or stop with the Bad Batch, and was actually something that many fans were upset with from the premiere. For instance, take Caleb Dume (later Kanan Jarrus). In The Bad Batch, Dume/Jarrus had blue eyes, pale skin, and reddish hair. In Rebels, he looked like a man of color, albeit with green eyes--which fans still took issue with.And lastly we have Saw Gerrera, noted rebel leader from The Clone Wars. Although there have only been glimpses of Saw since the series premiere, the freedom fighter no longer has his black textured hair from The Clone Wars--instead it's been lightened and straightened. Saw and Steela Gerrera had blue eyes in The Clone Wars when they both should have had brown. Even now, Saw's eyes are green instead of brown.Villains as People of Color, SinophobiaBeyond just design, The Bad Batch has a notable lack of characters of color that are written to be protagonists or morally good. Take the squad of recruits that Crosshair works with early in the season. Three out of the four of them are people of color: an ambiguous man (not on screen long enough to tell), a Black woman with properly rendered textured hair (which only calls Saw's design further into question) and a blue-eyed Asian woman (not the only one in the series). One is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white man. Crosshair and his death squad are ordered to kill civilians, and the only one who speaks up is the white man. The others offer some hesitation but no protest, and the only member of the team with a moral backbone is killed for disobeying orders. Crosshair later kills all but one of the members of his Death Squad (the Black woman is still alive because she went after Omega and later got off Kamino).Episode 10 of the series, titled "Common Ground", left many Chinese and Eastern Asian fans with a sour taste in their mouths when the trauma of Tiananmen Square was reenacted in The Bad Batch. In Common Ground, a Separatist Senator is about to cede control of his planet to the Empire. An Eastern Asian woman (with blue eyes) who is working for the Empire orders AT-AT walkers to march in on the peacefully protesting civilians. Not only is the allegory of the Empire being a Nazi regime totally lost by using a person of color, the scene came across as tone deaf at best, and intentionally malicious at worst to fans who immediately drew the connection to the real-life massacre in Tiananmen Square. Many fans pointed out that that massacre is a source of generational and still-living trauma for them and their family members. The Bad Batch uses it as an excuse to have their whitewashed group of heroes save the day.Hunter | Crosshair | Tech | Wrecker | Echo | Omega | HomeFan Theories | Photo Gallery | Art Tutorial | FAQ | Goal

Frequently Asked Questions1. What is #UnwhitewashTBB about?#UnwhitewashTBB is a movement started by fans of color in order to raise awareness about the various ways we, disabled/neurodivergent fans, and Jewish fans have been harmfully portrayed in Star Wars: The Bad Batch.2. What are the origins of #UnwhitewashTBB?This hashtag started on Twitter, and was later posted on Tumblr. The hashtag term itself was coined by clonehub (Tumblr; Twitter is @clonehub7567) although the sentiments expressed have existed since the Bad Batch were first introduced.3. Why can’t we accept the in-universe explanation?This is because no aspect of Star Wars--and no aspect of media in general--exists in a bubble. Star Wars in particular is inspired by real-world events and ideologies, and it’s had a great cultural impact since it came out in the 1970s. Unfortunately, Star Wars has also recreated some incredibly harmful racial stereotypes (seen in the Other Issues, Watto, the Tusken Raiders, and Jabba). These stereotypes reinforce already standing bigotry and oppression that marginalized people face in real life. The stereotypes we see in Star Wars: The Bad Batch have-real life impacts and reflect real-life bigotry.4. What can Disney do about it?We have a Goals Page set up to list out our demands!5. What can I do to help?We’re located on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, although we are most active on the first two sites. You can give us a follow and keep up to date on our events and announcements! You can sign our petition, take our survey (only once, please), and help spread the word!Another way to help is to support Māori financially and with your voice: our home page has a series of petitions to sign and groups/efforts to donate to.A third way to help is to contact Disney yourself, either via sending an email or writing a letter and emailing them.Common Arguments1. "It's a cartoon!"Cartoons can be racist, and animated forms of discrimination are exempt from neither harmful impacts nor criticism.2. Why don't you focus on real racism?This bad-faith question ignores the fact that racism comes in many forms, and therefore must be tackled in many ways. This also ignores the Thermian Argument.3. The show says why they've all been "whitewashed".Please refer to the Fan Theory Debunking page if you are still confused.4. It's the lighting/art style.This response is normally accompanied by an image of The Bad Batch and Echo on Anaxes. This ignores the difference between base tones and affective lighting, and takes the latter for the former. This also conveniently ignores how dark Cody looks in the exact same lighting. And finally, this argument does not address the fact that no matter what lighting the Bad Batch appears in, a) they are too light, and b) their features are still European (and for Tech, his accent is still British).This same answer applies to claims that the art style is why they look different. If one's art style makes characters of color much lighter and more European-appearing than they are meant to be, then the "art style" is whitewashing. The two are not mutually exclusive.5. This movement is stupid. You're stupid. And a moron.Please actually respond to any of the myriad arguments made throughout this carrd.6. You're overreacting. They all look exactly the same.Please refer to the concept art depicting otherwise. Please also refer to all of the screenshots heading each character profile.7. This is all recent. How come nobody said anything about any of this with the clones in The Clone Wars?The timing of this campaign and the fans' reactions to the whitewashing and other racism in The Bad Batch is irrelevant. But, for the sake of argument, let us also bear in mind that most of the people who are speaking about it now were in elementary and middle school when The Clone Wars first came out. Not only this, social media back then was not what it is now.Fans are complaining about the whitewashing and overall design of the clones in The Clone Wars, and they have been doing so for years now.8. How do you know the team whitewashed everything on purpose?We do not, and it was never the claim of the #UnwhitewashTBB campaign that everything we see in the series is a deliberate act of conscious racism. Whether the whitewashing was by accident or not, this does not erase the fact that real harm has been and is being done to people of color in the portrayals of each member of The Bad Batch. This harm must be remedied.9. You're just a bunch of white performative activists.As stated on the home page, every single page of this carrd was directly informed by the voices of Star Wars fans who had the lived experiences needed to give a nuanced view of the issues within The Bad Batch--meaning that, for instance, the explanation of sinophobia in the Other Issues page was informed by Eastern Asian watchers of the series who had noticed and been harmed by the parallel. Everything that was written about ableism was brought up by disabled and neurodivergent watchers of The Bad Batch. The antisemitism was pointed out by Jewish fans, and the whitewashing by Polynesian fans (linked is a thread featuring multiple Tumblr posts by a good friend of mine regarding representation and whitewashing).10. You just want them to be Black!Nowhere in any part of this carrd has it been explicitly stated or implied that the clone troopers, including The Bad Batch, are anything but Māori. A desire by fans to see brown skin and non-European features is not "blackwashing". This term creates a harmful dichotomy for people of color by pushing the narrative that characters of color presented in media are either white or Black, creating the idea that those who do not fit in this binary are "Blackwashed". This fundamentally misunderstands the definition of whitewashing and poses the whitewashed character as the standard; any desired changes to a whitewashed character are automatically a deviation from the norm, and thus cast as harmful to the original-yet-poor representation.Hunter | Crosshair | Tech | Wrecker | Echo | Omega | HomeFan Theories | Photo Gallery | Art Tutorial | Other Issues | Goal

What is Our Goal?Why start this campaign, why spend all this time on a carrd and other informational posts, and why take the time out of our day to let Disney know we're upset?Members of the #UnwhitewashTBB campaign have a list of changes that we want to see in Star Wars: The Bad Batch in particular, but in Star Wars in general. While we don't all see eye-to-eye on the exact position of the Bad Batch series, we have a general consensus on these things:In Star Wars: The Bad Batch1. An end to the racism, whitewashing, and colorism/featurism. We all want to see a group of clones who share the skin tone of the man they are copies of. While some of us want complete model rehauls that make the Bad Batch look Māori in general, others of us would prefer it if the clones all shared the standard clone model. Regardless of the specificities, we are demanding an end to the racism in Star Wars: The Bad Batch that has prevented so many of us from fully enjoying this series. We want to be able to see ourselves, our features, and our racial and ethnic identities on screen without them being lightened, narrowed, straightened, or villainized once we hit the screen.Fixing these means not placing the only representation fans of color have on screen in the Empire, and having people who look like us be heroes rather than supporters of a metaphor for a Nazi regime.2. An end to the ableism in Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Disabled and neurodivergent fans have expressed continued dismay at the treatment of Echo in the series, from his being sold as a droid to his near nonexistence within the plot. Lots of autistic fans see themselves in Tech and enjoy his character for that reason, but they feel his representation is leaning heavily into stereotypes. Echo must be a full member of the team, and Tech must stop being a stereotype.3. An end to the antisemitism. Cid is a gross stereotype of Jewish people, who have suffered enough over the centuries and to this day without having to see themselves dehumanized as a mean, greedy lizard person on screen. The antisemitic traits in Cid--whether they be the voice/accent, the personality, the species, or all three--must go.4. An acknowledgement and apology from Disney and the Star Wars: The Bad Batch team. Fans of color, Jewish fans, disabled fans, and neurodivergent fans have been hurt and alienated by the actions of Disney and the writing/design team for The Bad Batch. Disney has made posts standing up for Black and other marginalized people before. They can do it again.In Star Wars1. An end to the racism. Star Wars has a long and upsetting history of racism, from the inspiration and portrayal of the Tusken Raiders, to sinophobic racism and cultural appropriation, to more antisemitism in Watto, to much, much more. Fans of color are getting tired. We are noticing a trend that when our cultures are not being mocked, we're being made the enemy in the Empire or the First Order, while the heroes remain largely white (or alien when they're not human).2. An end to the ableism. The Star Wars franchise also has a long and painful history with ableism. Disabled Star Wars fans deserve to see themselves as both disabled and still heroic and valuable regardless of how many limbs they have, or their other physical abilities/disabilities. Just as examples, Vader and Sidious are disfigured and evil, and the heroes who can be construed as disabled are often not written to be.3. A promise and an actual committment to doing better. Any time Disney attempts to celebrate its fans and characters of color, fans rightfully point out the treatment of actors like John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran, and the characters they played. Words are not enough. We demand proof that change is coming.To this end, one sign of proof of change would be the inclusion of Māori/Polynesian, disabled, neurodivergent, and altogether more diverse voices in both Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Star Wars in general.Star Wars is for everyone. We, as people of color, disabled and neurodivergent people, and people of religious minorities, demand to be included in that "everyone".Home