History Main / DivineRaceLift

* Brazilian miniseries-turned-film ''O Auto da Compadecida'' has Jesus appearing as a black man specifically to play on the prejudices of protagonist João Grilo ("I thought you were very less burnt...").

* In the ''Literature/BetsyTheVampireQueen'' series, Satan usually appears resembling actress Creator/LenaOlin, which is more of a ContinuityGag: Satan possessed Betsy's stepmother (then, her father's mistress) on a lark and ended up pregnant. "She" appears to [[AntiAntiChrist Laura]] and Betsy in this form to remind them of their relationship.

[[caption-width-right:272:[[Myth/NorseMythology From the whitest of all Norse gods to the brightest of all Norse gods.]][[note]]the Norse word for "whitest" can also mean "most glittering" or "brightest."[[/note]]]]

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* In ''Manga/{{Noragami}}'', Bishamon takes the form of a blonde white woman.

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[[folder: Radio]]

[[folder: Real Life Religions]]

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* "Female god" version in ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles''. [[spoiler:However, She ''is'' also a ''dragon...'']]

* "Female god" version in ''[[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Last Dragon Chronicles]]''. [[spoiler:However, She ''is'' also a ''dragon...'']]

[[caption-width-right:272:From the whitest of all Norse gods to the brightest of all Norse gods.[[note]]the Norse word for "whitest" can also mean "most glittering" or "brightest."[[/note]]]]

* To go from the example given in the introduction, [[Myth/NorseMythology Thor]] was a redhead. So was [[TheTrickster Loki]] who tends to be dark haired in adaptations.

* In ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'' God took lots of different forms, possibly as a deliberate attempt to subvert both "old white man God" and "female/black/child/whatever God OMG!" Basically, whenever Joan is alone, God takes control of a person nearby and uses that person to speak to her, ranging from a boy she has a crush on to a badboy goth kid, to her lunchlady. Entirely appropriate for a show based on the song, "(What If God Was) One of Us". A parody by either ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' or ''Magazine/{{Cracked}}'' showed God taking the form of a (female) stripper who gives lap dances, much to the Joan character's disgust. When called out on this, God fires back with "I could have disguised myself as a lawyer, but [[TakeThat that would have been too sleazy]]."

* Parodied in ''Film/TwentyOneJumpStreet'': the undercover police HQ is located in a church in Koreatown featuring a statue of Jesus that looks Korean. One of the main characters briefly prays to "Korean Jesus."

* A painting of [[PlayingWithFire Pele]] at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park generated controversy because it depicted the goddess as being Caucasian. It, however, remained in the visitors' center from 1966 to 2005. In 2003, a contest was held to make a more culturally-authentic depiction of the goddess. Out of 140 entries, a group of Native Hawaiian elders selected [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/The_goddess_pele_by_arthur_johnsen.jpg this]] painting by Arthur Johnsen, and it replaced the other one in 2005.

* Most depictions online of [[Myth/AboriginalAustralianMyths Australian deities]] look caucasian. For example, [[https://www.google.pt/search?dcr=0&biw=1366&bih=636&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=gnowee&oq=gnowee&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i19k1j0i30i19k1.1893.3069.0.3346.6.6.0.0.0.0.346.599.2-1j1.2.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..4.2.597...0.0.6i1GAo-dhi0 take a look at]] what you come across when you research for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnowee Gnowee]].

* In the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'', the Asgardian Heimdall (pictured) is played by the black Creator/IdrisElba. The Norse god upon which he is based was called "the whitest of the gods."[[note]]Note that [[http://glegrumbles.tumblr.com/post/105615718608/thetwistedrope-glegrumbles-a-god-of-light 'white' here does not necessarily refer to race or appearance.]][[/note]] This caused a minor controversy.

Note the example picture may or may not be a misleading example of this trope, depending on whether one thinks God is Creator/MorganFreeman or [[Film/OhGod George Burns]]. Also, just because an example of this trope involves taking the appearance of a minority group doesn't mean that it's also an example of TokenMinority. See also RaceLift and GenderFlip.

* ''Series/SmallWonder'' had an episode in which Joan and Vicki were competing against Ted and Jamie on a camping trip, with [[PositiveDiscrimination everything going swell for the mother and daughter and rotten for the father and son]]. When Jamie asks his father why men always have bad luck when they compete against women, Ted can only suggest that God must be female.

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': Gaia, the spirit of Earth and BigGood. Voiced by Creator/WhoopiGoldberg, she falls somewhere in between ButNotTooBlack and AmbiguouslyBrown. Ironically, heroes and gods from [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]] [[InvertedTrope are usually depicted as white]], despite being from the Mediterranean. This Gaia [[TropesAreTools probably looks more authentically Greek than most]], even if she does have [[PurpleIsTheNewBlack purple hair.]] According to the show's own website she's supposed to have features from numerous races--dark skin (African), almond-shaped (Asian) blue eyes (Caucasian), etc. Any connection to Greek myth is InNameOnly (especially since the mythological Gaia was rarely anthropomorphic and kept giving birth to monsters).

* Played with in the Italian satirical comic book ''Jenus'': Jesus is represented as a white man (albeit short and with brown hair), but the fact he's supposed to be middle-eastern gets mercilessly and unsubtly {{lampshade|Hanging}}d. Also, God himself is represented as the ''American-Italian '''Music/RonnieJamesDio''''' (as in God came on Earth in 1942 with the identity of Ronnie James Dio, sang a lot of music, and in 2010 he got pissed enough at the Church that he returned to Heaven). {{Justified|Trope}} as he's a {{shapeshift|ing}}er that could have any form he wanted (and in fact the first time we saw him he was first a giant who suddenly became a ''flower in a vase''), and Ronnie James Dio is just his favoured form.

* In the ''Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation'' version of the story of Abraham, Jeremy explains that "For the purposes of winding up bigots, God will be played by Debbie Isaacs."

** ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'': Aphrodite in the DC comics had previously always stuck to the Western expected depiction as a blonde white lady, this version has brown eyes & hair and a light olive complexion which becomes amusing when later writers chose to alter this version of Aphrodite's family tree to go with her less popular mythological parentage of Zeus, the blue eyed (GrandpaGod formerly) blonde guy.

* In ''Film/BruceAlmighty'' and ''Film/EvanAlmighty'', God is Creator/MorganFreeman (pictured), although it may be more accurate to say Morgan Freeman is God. But with that voice, who would mind?
* In the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'', the Asgardian Heimdall is played by the black Creator/IdrisElba. The Norse god upon which he is based was called "the whitest of the gods."[[note]]Note that [[http://glegrumbles.tumblr.com/post/105615718608/thetwistedrope-glegrumbles-a-god-of-light 'white' here does not necessarily refer to race or appearance.]][[/note]] This caused a minor controversy.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1315429939037103200

[[quoteright:300:[[Film/BruceAlmighty https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/still_brucealmighty_397.jpg]]]]

* Amaterasu, the Shinto goddess of the sun, is a Japanese deity. In ''Comicbook/TheWickedAndTheDivine'', she's portrayed as a white girl. Naturally, Cassandra, who is of Japanese descent, has a huge problem with this. She repeatedly points out how offensive it is for a white girl to represent the persona of a Japanese goddess. The comic also shows that despite Cassandra's repeated protests, Ammy doesn't listen and [[spoiler:her failure to be sensitive to another goddess, Sahkmet's anger, resulted in Ammy's death.]]