The Last Airbender Action Packed with Asian American Issues

The hit Nickelodeon TV Show Avatar: The Last Airbender, is being remade into a live action movie.

As in typical Hollywood style, an ethnic cleansing of the casting list has been performed, with the main roles being filled by Caucasians, despite the fact that the animated world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is highly Asian influenced and inspired, exists largely without caucasians. In many ways, this is similar to the whitewashing that occurred with Sci-Fi Channel's adaptation of Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea series, which introduced new characters within the story and filled the majority of roles with caucasians.

Comedian Margaret Cho wrote about The Last Airbender in her blog:

I am never surprised when Hollywood takes a story with Asian characters and casts white people instead of Asians. This is so typical and happens with such frequency! I always thought that in order to make our presence known in entertainment, we should be writing, bringing our dreams and realities to the cinema, but now even telling our own stories isn't even enough.
Why is it better to have white actors play the roles of Asians? I don't understand. Because it sells more tickets? I am not white and I have had no trouble selling tickets. Maybe the powers that be should ask me what to do. I would tell them. "The Last Airbender" is the last straw to a lot of people.

Racebending.com is a non-profit group of fans who are opposing the racial discrimination in the production of this film, and quite recently had merchandise which was protesting the casting actions removed from the Zazzle store, even in cases where the merchandise was only text printed on a T-shirt.

Artist Derek Kirk Kim has asked for fans to write to Paramount and call for change, as well as a boycott on the movie:

So if you're someone who believes in equality--if you want to see all of America reflected in our world's most popular and influential narrative art form--I implore you, particularly if you aren't Asian yourself, to write a letter of complaint to Paramount or show your displeasure in some form. If you have a blog, please post something to shame the producers of this film or feel free to distribute my little essay here. Especially if you're a professional in the arts or entertainment industry. With a strong enough voice, perhaps we can force them do what's right by recasting this movie. And lastly, if this effort fails, please boycott this film when it's released in the summer of 2010. Let Paramount and the rest of Hollywood know that this kind of blatant discrimination isn't acceptable to us. Not just for Asian Americans, but for all minorities in our country who never see themselves reflected in our country's media.

Comic Writer/Artist Gene Yang on The Last Airbender:

To be clear, I don't believe that director M. Night Shyamalan and the other creators of Paramount Pictures' The Last Airbender movie are motivated by intentional racism. They probably just want to make the most entertaining (and profitable) summer blockbuster they can, the best way they know how. But intentionally or not, they are adding another chapter to Hollywood's long, sordid history of Yellowface. By giving white actors roles that are so obviously Asian - and by stating from the get-go their preference for Caucasians - they tell Asian-Americans that who we are and how we look make us inherently inadequate for American audiences, even in a movie that celebrates our culture. Like the schoolboy who pulls up the corners of his eyes at his "Oriental" classmate, they highlight our otherness.
The way I see it, Mr. Shyamalan and Paramount Pictures now have an opportunity to take responsibility for the old wounds they've re-opened. Whether and how they do so will reveal quite a bit about their commitment to the source material, their understanding of their profession's history, and the respect they have for their audience.

Personally, I think Paramount should have learned from Fox's recent production of Dragonball Evolution that racial recasting rarely has good results.

It seems to me that Hollywood is stuck on the idea that they can make a successful movie by replacing the ethnic characters with white actors. They keep trying and trying, and thankfully they've met with minimal success thus far (mostly because other things about the film were failures, it was not solely due to casting choices). Of course, I can't imagine the flipside taking place in Hollywood conference rooms where the white management is complaining that all the stories they are getting don't have white characters in them.