There are plenty of folks who'll want to dismiss me right off the bat because I'm not taking the mainstream . If you'd like to do that, have at it.
Much hay has been made of late of the whitewashing in the program, without once addressing the source material, the 'Karate Kid' film franchise.
Written and produced in the 1980's, the first Karate Kid movie was made during a time when Americans were culturally fascinated with martial arts and Asian cinema. Does that make it morally or ethically okay to whitewash the cast? Likely not. I ask you to consider the following, however:
1- where is the film/show set? Is the casting representative of the demographics of that area?
2- Is interest and involvement in the practices of another culture other than one's own automatically nefarious, as seems to be implied by a lot of articles discussing this situation?
3- Did the film or show do what was intended by its creators, which is to create a program that garners attention and either entertains or informs?
4- If changes are implemented to attempt to ease concerns or tensions from those unhappy with the film/show, will it ever be enough to totally satisfy?
5- What degree of editorial control does anyone not directly involved in the production have over the person(s) CREATING THE MATERIAL?! These storytellers don't owe anyone their work or efforts, just as nobody owes the creator an audience. Voice your disapproval, sure, and then make your own version of the story.
We all want entertainment options, and one surefire way to make sure we have fewer and fewer of them is to do what people have been doing with increasing fervor and frequency in the last few years; just keep cancelling creators. Eventually, we'll all be so fed up with being told what story we're allowed to tell or how we're allowed to tell it that we just decide to either completely give up, or stop listening to the audience altogether, permanently.