- the act or process of whitening with whitewash: The picket fence could use a few minor repairs, but mostly it needs a good whitewashing.
- an instance or methodical practice of covering up or glossing over the faults or errors of someone or something: Behind her assurances that all the coffee was fair-trade, there always lurked the possibility of some creative whitewashing.We would have known about this high-level corruption much sooner if it weren’t for the carefully orchestrated whitewashing within the department.
- the casting of a white actor to play a character of color in a film, television show, or play: Whitewashing has a long tradition in the history of Hollywood casting.
- in a representation of a historical era or event, the focus on a member or members of the dominant cultural group rather than the minority individual or group whose presence would be more historically accurate: The documentarian's whitewashing preserves the false notion that our race to the moon was won only on the shoulders of white heterosexual men.
