Racebending
noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The act of playing the role of, or casting someone in the role of, a character of different race or ethnicity. derogatory, often, slang, uncountable
"Hilarity ensues as the director tries to justify his decision with famous racebending examples from Hollywood (The faux slit-eyes in Cloud Atlas, anyone?)."
Verb
- 1 present participle and gerund of racebend form-of, gerund, participle, present
Example
More examples"Hilarity ensues as the director tries to justify his decision with famous racebending examples from Hollywood (The faux slit-eyes in Cloud Atlas, anyone?)."
Etymology
From race + bending, following the pattern of genderbending. Popularized, and likely influenced in form by, fan reaction to racebending in the casting of the 2010 film The Last Airbender (film).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.