The thing that really irks me about the whitewashing in Ghost in the Shell is how they deliberately drew attention to it. Like they actually made it part of the freakin' story. When I watched the movie, I made the conscious decision to ignore the politics behind the movie and try to appreciate the movie on its own merits, but instead the film threw the politics into my face, making it impossible for me to ignore. GAH!

Things like whitewashing and other similar equivalents - regardless of what we think about it - is easier to overlook when the story doesn't make it an issue.
e.g. Katniss Everdeen was whitewashed in the Hunger Games films, but the films never make it an issue. Basically Katniss is white in the cinematic Hunger Games universe, but dark-skinned in the original book continuity.
Kusanagi is a Japanese in the original manga and anime continuities of GitS, but Japanese... in a Caucasian shell... in the cinematic... GAH!! This did not need to be an issue! Wannna make her White? Just make her White and, as they say in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, GET ON WITH IT!