More Words, Deeper Hole

I was surprised they cast a White Brit as Khan but I do appreciate the quandary they probably found themselves in. Once the Race Card is played, every move you can make is wrong. To wit:

- Cast a White person as Khan? You're insulting South Asians by "whiting" them out.
- Cast a South Asian actor as Khan? Now you're portraying South Asians as villains.
- Cast a South Asian actor as the villain and add a heroic South Asian character to balance it out? That's obvious pandering.
- Change Khan's last name to Smith so it makes sense cast a White European and no member of an ethnic minority is a villain? Now you're erasing the participation of other cultures from your story.

It's hard to parse out which of these is least bad. That said, I would have preferred the second one. At least it would have aligned with the existing backstory they used.