The 1949 film "Pinky" is currently praised for its relatively progressive stance on social justice issues pertaining to race, as well its portrayal of one's racial identity as less than just a superficial manifestation of color. The main character, Pinky Johnson, is an African American woman who, through previously passing as white, comes into her own identity and realizes the importance of her African American roots. Aside from this, the film also differs from the standard in that most of the main characters within the film are women who are not defined by their love interests, but rather their ambitions. For their performances, the actresses for Pinky, Miss Em, and Aunt Dicy received Academy Award nominations. But viewing the film from a more modern standpoint reveals a prominent issue within the film: Pinky is white. Now of course, the character of Pinky is intended to be a light-skinned African American, but the actress Jeanne Crain is very much of completely "white" descent. Even upon seeing the film in class today, I was shocked at how out of place she looked as someone intended to be African American. Upon researching a bit more, I found that the director actually considered two other actresses at the time who performed the role just as good as, if not better, than Jeanne Crain, who were actually light-skinned African American. However, for fear of racial backlash over the film, the director chose the white actress instead. While some may argue that this does not affect the film at all, this simply disregards the character dynamics presented within the film. In regards to the scene where Pinky is nearly sexually harassed, the two men attempting to commit the act only become violent when they realize she is African American. But the fact that the actress for the Pinky seems just as white as theses two men takes away from the emotional weight of the scene, which is intended to represent the history of white men raping African American women within America. Even further, when Pinky reveals herself as African American to Tom and he "beautifully" accepts this to maintain their love, the emotional weight is weakened. While we can never be sure of Tom's mindset at the time, it does not seem powerful for Tom to disregard race when Pinky's African-American descent is not manifested at all in her appearance. Ultimately, the film "Pinky" suffers from a longstanding issue in Hollywood of miscasting and "whitewashing." But what makes this case distinguishing is how much the miscast contradicts the themes of the movie.