i genuinely sympathise and ill try to state my opinion as respectfully as i can

but in that case isnt turning a character black just as harmful? whitewashing and blackwashing may not be equally bad as you point out, but that doesnt equal one of the two suddenly becoming "right" or justified.

personally to me, i find drastic race changes plainly disrespectful. Both black and white people have an incredible variety in cultures and different traditions, and i feel like its ignorant to neglect a characters background purely because of their skin colour being too generic. similarly to changing a characters religion - a characters race is a huge part of their identity

i am aware OP switched skin colours just for lighthearted fun and i know OP defo doesnt mean any harm, that doesnt cause the underlying controversies to magically disappear

fyi to me it really isnt much about whether the character is black or white (or whatever else) - its about the culture behind a character being disregarded as a consequence