b'T3 Journal - Student Writing in Drama, University of Exeter 2018-19We can appreciate the good intentions of colour-blind casting which aims to provide people of colour, both dark and light-skinned equally, the opportunity of playing a wide range of roles. In theory it creates an environment where actors, as the black American civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King Jr. said: are not judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character (King Jr., 1963). However, it would be naive to think that people can switch off their human brain from seeing colour and disconnecting from their unconscious bias that categorises people in socially-constructed boxes regarding colour, race, gender, etc. As a result, colourist ideas can influence a casting directors perception and subsequent choice in hiring a person of colour. Colour-blind casting also enables intentional neglect and discrimination based on skin colour to occur as it creates powerful explanationswhich have ultimately become justificationsfor contemporary racial inequality as accusations of such are denied with the claim of being blind to colour (Richeson and Nussbaum 2004: 410). The technique of using colour-blind casting to cast people of colour in traditional white roles as a meansof achieving inclusivity also ignores the history, culture and politics of skin colour. Therefore, the extent to which colour-blind casting solves issues of colourism in the process of casting is minimal.10'