Racism in the movie "Avatar: The Last Airbender" ???

[ProfJohn]

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a Nickelodeon TV show set in an Asian themed world.
But when hollywood decided to turn it into a big time motion picture they changed the leading characters from Asians to whites.

This sets off a big argument over whether their decision were racists or not. And the people claiming racism have a good argument. Why cast white kids as the movies heros instead of asians like the TV show?? And why leave the bad guys as being asian? It is another example of hollywood creating a world in which the good guys are white and the bad guys are anything but white.
IMDB site for the movie
site claiming racism
http://racebending.com/raceinavatar.php
I highly recommend you check out the link. It shows casting calls for the movie that make a very good argument that the movie makers are being racially insensitive or worse. Casting calls for the leads call for 'caucasians' but for the bad guys they want asians.

Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series is set in an Asian-fantasy world, and drew on elements from East Asian, South Asian, Inuit cultures and Western colloquialisms, making it a mixture of what were previously traditionally separate categories of anime and US domestic cartoons. Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was widely advertised by Nickelodeon executives, the show?s creators, and director M. Night Shyamalan as set in an Asian fantasy world.

Paramount Pictures' THE LAST AIRBENDER is a live-action film adapted from the popular animated series. However, the casting directors have chosen to appropriate the Asian fantasy world in all aspects except one: the heroes. The practice of casting Caucasian actors to depict ethnically Asian protagonists ? while Asian American actors are relegated to play antagonists, supporting characters, and background extras ? is insensitive, condescending, and woefully outdated.

None of the characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender are Caucasian ? including protagonists Sokka and Katara, who clearly have darker features and a Southern Water Tribe minority status that distinguishes them even from other characters in the story. At present, both of these characters ? in addition to Aang, the main protagonist ? are being played by white actors. It is unconscionable for the production to continue to describe its cast as ?multiethnic? when it is in fact ?whitewashing? the Asian fantasy setting by turning the entire Inuit-inspired, heroic nation white.

The two most subjugated ?Nations? in this Asian fantasy setting will be retrofitted from Shaolin/Tibetan Buddhist and Siberian Yupik/Inuit ethnic peoples to be Caucasian peoples, even as the film continues to appropriate the franchise?s core Asian concepts, including a Hindu Avatar and the Four Buddhist Great Elements. Ethnically Asian characters should never be depicted with Caucasian actors. In this day and age, casting white actors to play Asian characters--even going so far as to "whitewash" the Asian fantasy setting?is simply ignorant and unacceptable.

Some damning pictures showing the TV show characters vs the actors chosen for the movie.

Good guys
Actor Noah Ringer
The Avatar as he appears in the cartoon
Katara
Sokka
another Sokka

Bad guys
Commander Zhao
Fire Lord Ozai

Personally I think the movie should have stuck with asians in the lead roles, or at least the lead character should have been asian.

 

[JS80]

Americans don't generally don't like to watch chinamen in movies unless they are Jackie Chan (paired up with a white guy). It's more a financial decision than a racist one.

 

[Slick5150]

I'm not even remotely familiar with the cartoon series, but I would agree its a bit odd in this day to be recasting all the lead roles as white characters, and the bad guys are "ethnic" (including Asif Mandvi from The Daily Show??).

Also, its an M. Night Shyamalan movie, so its bound to suck at this point anyway.

 

[senseamp]

You knew this was coming

 

[sactoking]

Much ado about nothing.

1) None of the cartoon characters look exclusively Asian. The bald one has a slight Asian influence but could easily pass as several different nationalities. The other two supporting characters look like Inuit more than Asian.
2) The bad guy real life actors don't look Asian. The one guy looks kinda "American Black" and the other guy looks Southern Italian.

Hell, if anything the cartoon version of Ozai looks pretty damn Caucasian. Maybe it's the cartoon that's racist.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: JS80
Americans don't generally don't like to watch chinamen in movies unless they are Jackie Chan (paired up with a white guy). It's more a financial decision than a racist one.

Racist..Racist..Ra..oh wait..DOH

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: sactoking
Much ado about nothing.

1) None of the cartoon characters look exclusively Asian. The bald one has a slight Asian influence but could easily pass as several different nationalities. The other two supporting characters look like Inuit more than Asian.
2) The bad guy real life actors don't look Asian. The one guy looks kinda "American Black" and the other guy looks Southern Italian.

Hell, if anything the cartoon version of Ozai looks pretty damn Caucasian. Maybe it's the cartoon that's racist.

Huh?? The TV show is set completely in an asian environment.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: sactoking
Much ado about nothing.

1) None of the cartoon characters look exclusively Asian. The bald one has a slight Asian influence but could easily pass as several different nationalities. The other two supporting characters look like Inuit more than Asian.
2) The bad guy real life actors don't look Asian. The one guy looks kinda "American Black" and the other guy looks Southern Italian.

Hell, if anything the cartoon version of Ozai looks pretty damn Caucasian. Maybe it's the cartoon that's racist.

Huh?? The TV show is set completely in an asian environment.

You one of those grown men who are into Anime per chance? Like pokeman?

 

[OCGuy]

Where is the Asian Jessie Jackson when you need him?

 

[Phokus]

For once i agree with ProfJohn. Will Smith said when he did the movie hitch, they couldn't cast a white female as his love interest because american whites would be offended and wouldn't see it and they couldn't cast a black female because europeans wouldn't be interested in seeing a movie with the lead actors being black, so they chose eva mendez.

 

[sactoking]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Huh?? The TV show is set completely in an asian environment.

It may be an Asian environment, but these characters do NOT look Asian. Why is that? Because it's an American show done by Americans for Americans. It's set in an Asian environment but the American creators SPECIFICALLY gave the characters non-Asian physical attributes so it would play here.

 

[dali71]

Originally posted by: OCguy
Where is the Asian Jessie Jackson when you need him?

No idea, but would you settle for the Asian Ghostbuster?

 

[KentState]

Originally posted by: sactoking

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Huh?? The TV show is set completely in an asian environment.

It may be an Asian environment, but these characters do NOT look Asian. Why is that? Because it's an American show done by Americans for Americans. It's set in an Asian environment but the American creators SPECIFICALLY gave the characters non-Asian physical attributes so it would play here.

The one in front looks white and the other two almost look Hispanic.

They cast white actors so that the audience can relate, which relating to the villains isn't necessary so that can be of other races.

 

[herkulease]

I think they could probably make a better effort at casting if they plan to use the same character names. Some of the actors do look like they can come off looking asian though. Such as the actress casted to play the character Suki.

In any case I really won't judge it until i see the movie. If they heavily play up asian themes, then it would just come off as stupid. I've only see the trailer before transformers and just think its a bad movie.

 

[jonks]

Aang is white in the show, so no issue there. His 2 buddies in the show look like native americans and they're in short supply here, so maybe they could have gone with latinos, but who gives a crap. In fact the only ones with asian features are the bad guys, but if you cast the movie and only had asians as the bad guys youd also be called a racist.

 

[n yusef]

Originally posted by: sactoking

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Huh?? The TV show is set completely in an asian environment.

It may be an Asian environment, but these characters do NOT look Asian. Why is that? Because it's an American show done by Americans for Americans. It's set in an Asian environment but the American creators SPECIFICALLY gave the characters non-Asian physical attributes so it would play here.

They don't have distinct epicanthic folds ("slanted eyes"), but they do have brown skin. Most white cartoon characters are colored much lighter, so it's easy to see why people would read these characters as Asian.

 

[n yusef]

Originally posted by: JS80
Americans don't generally don't like to watch chinamen in movies unless they are Jackie Chan (paired up with a white guy). It's more a financial decision than a racist one.

You make a false dichotomy between economics and racism. . . .unless you think that slavery wasn't racist because it was profitable.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: sactoking

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Huh?? The TV show is set completely in an asian environment.

It may be an Asian environment, but these characters do NOT look Asian. Why is that? Because it's an American show done by Americans for Americans. It's set in an Asian environment but the American creators SPECIFICALLY gave the characters non-Asian physical attributes so it would play here.

Did you click on the link in the OP???

The TV show is set in an asian themed world and all the different characters come from different asian countries. Each of the four tribes are meant to be a different asian background.
The water tribe is Inuit, the fire nation is east asian and the air nomads are Tibetan.
This is VERY clear in the cartoon pics I posted in the OP.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: n yusef

Originally posted by: JS80
Americans don't generally don't like to watch chinamen in movies unless they are Jackie Chan (paired up with a white guy). It's more a financial decision than a racist one.

You make a false dichotomy between economics and racism. . . .unless you think that slavery wasn't racist because it was profitable.

You just equated market targeting with racism. That means that the BET/WB is/was racist, and that Lifetime is sexist.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
You one of those grown men who are into Anime per chance? Like pokeman?

Nope.

Read some Japanese comics years ago, but nothing since. Have only seen bits and pieces of the TV show as well. I learned about this while looking for information on the new James Cameron movie "Avatar" which shares a partial title with this movie.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: sactoking

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Huh?? The TV show is set completely in an asian environment.

It may be an Asian environment, but these characters do NOT look Asian. Why is that? Because it's an American show done by Americans for Americans. It's set in an Asian environment but the American creators SPECIFICALLY gave the characters non-Asian physical attributes so it would play here.

Did you click on the link in the OP???

The TV show is set in an asian themed world and all the different characters come from different asian countries. Each of the four tribes are meant to be a different asian background.
The water tribe is Inuit, the fire nation is east asian and the air nomads are Tibetan.
This is VERY clear in the cartoon pics I posted in the OP.

I watched the show. If you asked a 9 year old kid watching the show if aang was white or Tiebetan he'd say "duh, he's white." Almost every character had caucasion features with slightly varying skin tones. Frankly I think kids would be confused if a bunch of Chinese/Japanese people showed up in the movie since no one in the show has those pronounced facial features.

http://ttbmarketplace.cachefly...last_airbender_ngc.jpg

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: OCguy
Where is the Asian Jessie Jackson when you need him?

Thank god there isn't one. The reason the characters aren't asian is that the movie won't sell as well. Little white kids don't want to see a movie with all asians. They want to see a protagonists that look like them. The movie's made by shyamalan.

 

[cyclohexane]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: sactoking

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Huh?? The TV show is set completely in an asian environment.

It may be an Asian environment, but these characters do NOT look Asian. Why is that? Because it's an American show done by Americans for Americans. It's set in an Asian environment but the American creators SPECIFICALLY gave the characters non-Asian physical attributes so it would play here.

Did you click on the link in the OP???

The TV show is set in an asian themed world and all the different characters come from different asian countries. Each of the four tribes are meant to be a different asian background.
The water tribe is Inuit, the fire nation is east asian and the air nomads are Tibetan.
This is VERY clear in the cartoon pics I posted in the OP.

wow, for once I actually agree with ProfJohn.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

They made a lot of the asian characters white in the Dragon Ball Z movie....didn't see any posts like this when that movie came out.

 

[sactoking]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Did you click on the link in the OP???

The TV show is set in an asian themed world and all the different characters come from different asian countries. Each of the four tribes are meant to be a different asian background.
The water tribe is Inuit, the fire nation is east asian and the air nomads are Tibetan.
This is VERY clear in the cartoon pics I posted in the OP.

The whole point of the post/article is that Asian characters are being played by Caucasian actors which is wrong b/c they don't look Asian.

That's a fallacious argument because whether or not the characters are MEANT to be Asian, they don't LOOK Asian.

The casting for the supporting actors is dumb but not b/c they're not Asian, it's b/c they look nothing like the characters (who do not look Asian).

The rant may have film/continuity validity (actors as poor representations of characters) but lacks racial validity (since the subject matter doesn't match the argument).