Gene Luen Yang: Why I Won’t Be Watching the Last Airbender Movie

By Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man

Award-winning graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese is a huge fan of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series. So when he found out the live-action movie adaptation would feature an all-white principal cast, he became one of the more vocal voices against the casting controversy.

With the movie’s release just over a month away, Gene has spoken out again against The Last Airbender (”the last stone from my slingshot on this topic”) — using a comic, of course — calling on folks to boycott the movie: Why I Won’t Be Watching The Last Airbender Movie. I’m re-posting it here:

Nicely done, Gene. To see more of Gene Luen Yang’s comic books (they’re great!) visit his website here. And for more information on The Last Airbender’scrappy casting choices, go to Racebending.com.

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When casting calls go bad « Between the Lines on 04 Jun 2010 at 11:02 pm

[...] casting calls go bad June 5, 2010 Re-posted from Racialicious: Award-winning graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese is a huge fan of [...]
Weekly Round Up – 06/05/10 :Maurice Broaddus on 05 Jun 2010 at 7:06 am

[...] Gene Luen Yang: Why I Won’t Be Watching the Last Airbender Movie – Fresh on the heels of the white-washing of The Prince of Persia comes The Last Airbender. [...]

Comments

Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:

great cartoon. I will NOT see Airbender next month, either.

I am proud to say that I haven’t seen SATC (for its xenophobia & racism) or Prince of Persia (for its whitewashing) and I refuse to.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 9:59 am ¶
Batsu-chan wrote:

^ITA.

I also noticed that Zuko, who, based on the trailer I am assuming is the “bad guy” *is* an actor of color. Hmm…protagonist caucasian, antagonist NOT caucasian.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 10:40 am ¶
Iggles wrote:

Same here! I’ve been aware of this for awhile and I refuse to support racist whitewashing of movies!

With POP, the story doesn’t appeal to me anyway but I *would have* gone to see it IF they had cast a person of color! I heard there was an actor who auditioned for the role who was an actually Persian Prince (yes, nobility from Iran!), so they had NO EXCUSE!!

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 11:21 am ¶
MICHELE wrote:

I won’t be watching either. I Really don’t understand why M Knight is so self hating. This is something that has always been, way back from the Sixth Sense in ‘99. He has always had the opportunity to put leading characters of color in his stories and chooses not to. Then has the nerve to try to justify it.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 11:28 am ¶
Darth Paul wrote:

What’s insult to injury is that director himself is desi and sees no issue. I think that’s the tacit rationale with the approvers, ironically.

@ Iggles – Ben Kingsley has a minor role in it, which I suppose counts as a token POC castmember. I guess that’s Disney’s feeble loophole. But Disney has a solid history of marginalizing POC, so booty. I simply refuse to support them (aside from watching V on ABC).

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 11:56 am ¶
Brandon wrote:

M. Night’s justification was laughably bad, too. He said that the great thing about anime is that it’s ambiguous. So the characters transcend race. So they could be any race. So he can cast anyone for their roles.

This ignores everything about Avatar the television show. It doesn’t take much cultural competence to see that the characters, setting, and culture are obviously Asian.

What an embarrassment this film is.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 12:02 pm ¶
dersk wrote:

@DIMA – Well, that and the fact that I’d rather remove an eye with a rusty spoon that’s been soaking in dirty kitty litter than watch SATC or PoP.

Really well-done comic, though – lays out its case very well and acknowledges that it’s really not that big a deal, but still with a good, relatively easy call to action.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 12:19 pm ¶
Banna wrote:

@ Michele: ITA!

He has an opportunity to put people of color in his movies! Oh wait he does…himself! ::rolls her eyes:: Unbreakable came on TV over the weekend and it’s the only movie of his that has had a POC in a lead role (Sam Jackson)…and he was the villain!

I assumed that he must be under a lot of pressure when it comes to moviecasting given the fact that he is an underrepresented minority. Is he scared of being deemed a racist for casting people of color? Or has he too fallen into the idea that movies POCs won’t sell? I wish he would come out and say something of substance rather than offer lame excuses.

And the Sixth Sense is probably the most overrated movie ever.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 12:29 pm ¶
eRobin wrote:

My white, teenaged kids won’t see the movie for the same reason. We saw previews of the film together and they started whispering and scoffing to each other. I asked them on the way out what the animus toward Airbender was all about and they told me that the film cast white actors in Asian roles. I was surprised that they cared and I don’t think they want to go too deeply into why they are ticked off (b/c that sort of discussion is bor-ing) but they certainly won’t see the movie.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 12:46 pm ¶
DivergentDana wrote:

That’s the thing. It won’t do all that well, but it’s failure to become a big moneymaker will *not* be attributed to the ethnicity of the actors in the same way that it would be if those actors were Asian. (see ‘21′) They’re going to figure it failed despite the “safe” casting decision, not because of it.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 1:00 pm ¶
Juan wrote:

When I first heard about the movie in production before the casting call went out, I knew they would Earthsea the shit out of it.

I despise being right.

Anyway, found my way to the original post on Mr. Yang’s blog and really which he would’ve screen comments. The fail–it repeats itself. Over and over again.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 1:06 pm ¶
Red wrote:

Recently I realized that if they could find actors of color to be villians and henchmen, then they could also find actors of color to be heroes and protagonists.

For example: If a TV show can set an episode in Chinatown with Chinese American villians and henchmen, with all the Asian American characters and extras, or in an IT setting with all the Asian American IT people, then clearly there is enough of an Asian American population in their fictional world to support an Asian American protagonist.

Yet, it still doesn’t happen. We’re still supposed to be happy they put in *a* black man and *a* white woman for diversity. As an Asian American woman, that’s not enough for me.

And please don’t tell me to watch Grey’s Anatomy. I like Sandra Oh, I don’t like medical dramas.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 1:08 pm ¶
Mike Barber wrote:

Even as a PoP, I’m tired of the constant whitewashing. Depriving PoC–fictional or not– of agency just to appeal to bias for the sake of profit just exacerbates things. I’ll cast my vote with my $ and say no to Airbender, just as I did for The Blind Side, SatC2, Avatar, Prince of Persia…

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 1:34 pm ¶
Kendra wrote:

@ Batsu-chan:

I think that Patel could be considered Caucasian, but he isn’t white.

I have seen an extended trailer for the film, and I noticed that Princess Yue is also a white girl. I think that Pakku also became a white guy. So it’s not just the principal characters who are being affected, most of the characters with important storylines are being whitewashed. The Fire Nation looked a lot darker than they were in the animated series, so I guess they’re going for an archetypal portrayal. And that’s not to say that Asians can’t be dark, so no hard feelings concerning Patel taking the role of Zuko. But I know he doesn’t look like Zuko. The white kid playing Aang is most like his character among the principal characters, but even that casting choice doesn’t satisfy me.

If you’ve seen the animated series, ya’ll must remember the intro where Katara and Sokka stand among their water tribe with shining eyes (I think they were holding a lamp). They had that very scene in the trailer, but it looked like total BS b/c they seemed to be the only two white faces among a bunch of brown faces.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 2:18 pm ¶
alia wrote:

i wish i could make that commitment. and even though i’m pissed about the whitewashing…my little bro works at a movie theater so i’ma see it for free! although..i did see prince of persia for free…and let me tell you…i regretted that decision. well, the movie will never be anything close to the cartoon series. if they really wanted to do it right, they would have done all the different books separately and released it over time and not white-washed it at all.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 2:33 pm ¶
Danny wrote:

I watched a whole episode of the Avatar:Airbender cartoon for the first time. By now, I don’t really care if people call me a racist for saying this but I think that it probably would be more aesthetically attractive if the main characters were of East Asian/Inuit background. Except for Aang, he really could pass for a light caucasian but there’s a lot of Asian Americans who have the same features as well.

Anyways, the whole using white actors for main characters is tiring for everyone, especially since we live in the 21st century where diversity is everywhere and we don’t have to rely on 1950s white fantasies. However, I think the biggest argument we can make that can touch people the most is the race casting. That alone will make a lot of people disgusted rather than the “Aang aint white” or the ethnic-culture representation stance.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 2:37 pm ¶
jvansteppes wrote:

@Red: Sandra Oh’s talent is wasted in a medical drama. I can’t wait until she leaves Grey’s Anatomy.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 4:30 pm ¶
urbia wrote:

I just want to say how awesome it is that activists have gotten together to agitate for a boycott of this film. You all rock!

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 5:13 pm ¶
Celeste wrote:

I won’t be seeing this whitewashed disgrace of a movie.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 5:51 pm ¶
Candace wrote:

This was an amazing comic, I’m a fan of the cartoon and I’ve been trying to get the word out about the boycott to anyone who will listen. But I’m also a huge Prince of Persia fan from waaay back (as in teh video games) and I just wanted to say I appreciate DIMA and the others who’ve said they’re boycotting PoP as well, because sadly no one really seems to be talking about it other than my fellow PoC gamers.

The especially sad thing about the PoP movie is that it’s supposedly based on the Sands of Time continuity, not only was the Prince himself whitewashed for the movie but so was the female lead, who was South Asian in the game. In fact there was not a single white person in that game that I can recall, and I played it to death. Ubisoft is one of the few game developers with a cool track record WRT PoC in their games, probably because they are one of the few with a diverse staff including women and PoC, as well as religious minorities.

What really makes me angry is what someone else mentioned, how the whitewashing really only extends to the heroes–they have no problems continually keeping the villains as PoC in these “adaptations”.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 10:48 pm ¶
Ciderkiss wrote:

There are lot’s of movies that I don’t see Airbender and Prince of Persia will be added on that list. More money in my pocket.

Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 11:00 pm ¶
Vik wrote:

I like how there was a casting call for Asians to play extras in each nation (, i.e. Lao and Cambodian people cast for the Earth nation) but their leads are white! haha Ah…background noise is all we are.

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 12:11 am ¶
Arj wrote:

While I applaud everyone here for taking initiative and “voting with your feet,” I can almost see why there were white actors chosen. They are (whether it’s right or not) more marketable in the United States and much of Europe. Hollywood isn’t just there to entertain; these companies are after profits just like any other business.

And on a side note, to comment on something someone wrote above, I was incredibly surprised they put a white guy in for the lead role in Prince of Persia. That was the main reason I decided to skip it.

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 4:41 am ¶
MAC wrote:

whitewashed isn’t a strong enough word. the casting was racially discriminatory. the film is racist, bigoted, backward. its colonialist. it says to white kids, once again, “you are the heroes…even in a non-western setting, you are still the centers of the earth and people of color are Other–either the villians or figures in the background.” is there nothing in this world that we can have to ourselves?

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 6:57 am ¶
Hilary wrote:

I won’t be seeing this movie, even though I was looking forward to it, solely because of what I learned reading this post.

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 8:20 am ¶
Aiyo wrote:

I hope this movie fails BADLY! The excuses I have heard for the casting just really pisses me off everybody calling it anything but racism. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and casts white actors in film based on a cartoon that was inspired by Asian and Inuit culture then that duck is racist.

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 8:29 am ¶
inkst wrote:

My wife doesn’t like cartoons either, but I got her hooked on Avatar!

So we’re both sharing our sadness about the movie.

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 11:26 am ¶
Rhys wrote:

I saw the trailer last weekend when I went to see Iron Man 2. Something struck me as weird about it.

First, it looks like it’s going to be a terrible movie.

But I wrote it off as the awkwardness of bunches of child actors. I noticed the Fire Kingdom guy was an adult.

Now it occurs to me I might have subconsciously registered, “white kid they’re trying to present as vaguely asian” thing in addition to the general crappiness of the acting.

If I’d watched Avatar more recently than when it first came out I imagine it would have struck me more forcefully.

It’s one thing if they pick SOME whites for roles you’d imagine as ethnic in a diverse cast. It’s entirely another if the entire cast barring one or two exceptions is white.

I also laughed my @ss off at the idea of Jake Gyllenhal as Price of Persia. White or not that’s a terrible casting choice. Gawd.

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 12:03 pm ¶
Hapa wrote:

@Danny

I think his face shape reads as east asian. If you have trouble getting past skin color and eyes, the best way to tell is the underlying bone structure of the face. Not to mention, Aang was actually based off one of the east asian employees of Avatar. Even so, asians and pacific islanders have so much physical variety.

You can see a drawing of Aang that clearly shows he’s east asian. To be more specific, Tibetan. Creators unveiled it at Comic-con after the casting controversy. It might have been their way of taking a stand without getting anyone angry enough to sue. At least, that’s how I interpret it.

Look Under: July 23rd-26th, 2009

http://www.racebending.com/v3/press/the-last-airbender-timeline/

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 12:47 pm ¶
MICHELE wrote:

@ Brandon
exactly, and isn’t it a common practice for people who make film adaptations to try to find people that look similar to the characters from the animated series or comic books? He shoots himself in the foot with his own statement. What he’s really trying to say here is that White people are ambiguous and can play anyone, and all the ‘others’ better take what they can get.

@Banna, I totally forgot about Sam Jackson in Unbreakable. Indeed he was the villian, not to mention the ‘breakable’ one, so was he was also weak, as well as spiteful and deranged.

Bottom line is these type of casting choices have far reaching effects and do a lot of psychological damage to POC adults and children alike, and the twist in the blade is when other people of color gain power but still feel the need to maintain this twisted unrealistic hierarchy.

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 1:01 pm ¶
Ellington wrote:

To Gene Leun Yang!
FABU comic and nicely said too!
I mos def will NOT be seeing this lame attempt by M. Night Sham and neither will my nephews who adore Aang, Sokka, Katara, Toph, Momo and Appa to name a few of the WONDERFUL cartoon cast.
I will stick to the cartoon as it is wonderful brilliant, well done and timeless. It gets better with every watching of it!
I am beyond tired of the jank and lame racist excuses these Hollywood jagweeds use to get away with this tripe.
So no Last Airbender movie for me, my family or my friends!

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 3:59 pm ¶
Candace wrote:

@Arj: I suppose all those Will Smith movies like Wild Wild West and ID4 were total bombs because they had PoC heroes. And the Matrix, all those black and Asian heroes really made those movies flop. Rush Hour–total box office poison! Hell, I don’t even see why they let Jackie Chan make movies, they always flop so badly.

Meanwhile, Waterworld, wow, that made so much money! Good thing they had a white man as the lead in that. White people are so marketable in movies, they just make so much money all the time, like magic! I mean, Cutthroat Island, wow, white people are box office gold! And who can forget that classic, Ishtar. That made a fuckton of money! Yay whitey!

Oh, wait.

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 6:40 pm ¶
Faith wrote:

@ eRobin
You say that discussion about why your children are ticked off, which may involve race, is boring. But maybe that sort of discussion is good.

I don’t want to see the movie. The race changing is infuriating. And even though my ATLA-obsessed is starting to see what I’m saying about the poor casting decisions, she still insists that our family goes to see it together. I don’t know what will happen, but I hope the movie fails so sequels aren’t made. Won’t say that to my sister though.

Posted 05 Jun 2010 at 7:54 pm ¶
Currian wrote:

Could someone please explain to my why was there none of this controversy when the Dragonball movie came out last year? I’m seriously confused.

Posted 06 Jun 2010 at 1:20 am ¶
JBH wrote:

Well done, Gene Luen Yang! I loved his book…and glad to see someone of his notoriety taking a stand.

Posted 06 Jun 2010 at 9:15 am ¶
foreverloyal wrote:

Won’t be seeing it either.
Too bad, my whole family loves the cartoon series.

Posted 06 Jun 2010 at 8:36 pm ¶
Kari wrote:

Can I re-post the comic? Its awesome and I have been spreading my distaste for the live action film myself because of this particular issue.

Posted 07 Jun 2010 at 3:28 am ¶
Aiyo wrote:

@Currian

I think there was controvesy when Dragonball came out but I think because it was mostly Asian Americans talking about it their voices were silenced once again.

Posted 07 Jun 2010 at 6:49 am ¶
Baiskeli wrote:

@juan, thanks for saying this movie being Earthsead

For those who might need more detail behind Earthsea, here is Ursula K. Le Guin explaining in her own words about what a travesty the EarthSea TV adaptation was.

A Whitewashed Earthsea
How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books.
http://www.slate.com/id/2111107

And here we are many years later, and the same crap is happening. Sad.

Posted 07 Jun 2010 at 12:10 pm ¶
Dee Dee wrote:

I think this “cartoon” is a wonderful analysis of the duplicitous and racist tactics used by Hollywood.

But I disagree with the author on one point. Racism in the casting of a Hollywood flick is EXTREMELY important. For you see, a film is never just a film. It’s a two-hour executable file that can help shape racist dogma, overlook the culpability that certain groups have in oppressing others and continue to posit post-racial ideology while maintaining a status quo that favors whites over everyone. And I haven’t even touched upon the fact that as the author admits, cultures can be examined and explored without even the presence of that cultures’ actual inhabitants.

Films (and their underlying messages) travel globally and therefore have direct and subtle power over the way that we treat one another. And in my opinion nothing can be more serious than this.

Posted 07 Jun 2010 at 1:38 pm ¶
Tom wrote:

During an Anthropology course in college, the professor nicknamed this phenomenon “White Indian,” pointing to films and books like “Last of the Mohican’s” or “Dances with Wolves.” It’s the act of arrogant white people who think we make better natives than the natives.

We’ve come a long ways from the days of black face and white people playing Asians in full costume with painted eyes and fake mustaches but frankly we are still in the same rut.

Think back to Tom Cruise, playing a better samurai than the native warriors who trained entire lifetimes to battle and die in the heat of combat.

More recently, the widely popular “Avatar” engaged in this concept, where a white man was a better alien than the aliens.

It’s insulting and Caucasians are unapologetic for this behavior. We even try to over compensate by trying to re-cast roles with new races to repent for the sins. Recent wild rumors say that Spider-man may be cast as someone of another race.

We are a strange sad people, with short memories and even shorter perspectives. It kind of drives me nuts. Caucasians often paint themselves as the villains in these films, and then point out how great we are as individuals. It’s petty, small and naive.

I am not sure I would call it racist as much as purely narcissistic, self involved with a touch of self loathing. White people need to stop carrying the weight of race guilt and embrace cultures and celebrate the differences that make us all great.

Tom- a guilt free Caucasian since 2001

Posted 07 Jun 2010 at 1:54 pm ¶
Danny wrote:

Well, regarding Aang’s face, I said he can pass for a light caucasian mainly because I’ve seen quite a lot who have those features from not just white people but others individuals who may not be considered as “white” but caucasian. Then there are a variety of features of Asians and Pacific Islanders too who can pass for almost anyone.

On the other hand, Noah Ringer doesn’t look like Aang at all, however that’s my opinion and it isn’t a strong enough case to build against this movie. If I were to explain to those who don’t know or aren’t aware of the issue, that is. To those that have heard but don’t care or don’t see what’s the fuss about, there’s little I can say to them. I understand the issue with Asians and American media, and there’s enough things to worry about than entertainment but what got me the most was the casting calls.

The thing is that any movie made in the US, if there are opportunities for non-white people to play non-white characters, there’s only a few excuses I can see where the non-white person doesn’t get the part. If the non-white character was ambiguous to begin with or it was due to connections (that’s the unfortunate reality of life). Other than that, everything else kind of sounds like a bowel of crap to me.

I give a little bit leeway in a sense, because if you live anywhere in the world, nearly all minorities do accommodate more to the majority population. Not in a degrading matter but that’s how human beings behave in general…whoever is in the majority will have the biggest influence. It isn’t always race per se, but other topics as well.
However, my point is that in the US, we don’t have to do that. The demographics are changing, most Americans want to keep on progressing and these fantasies are very outdated, limited to a time when there were fewer opportunities for minorities for just being alive. In a sense, Hollywood is giving a big “F— you, we don’t give a s–t” to all of that. So, I agree with you all that the only way we can teach these guys a lesson because of their attitude, is to target their pockets. There’s a lot of revenue from international audiences so we should spread the world to them as well. Maybe a PSA during the world cup perhaps?

Posted 07 Jun 2010 at 10:23 pm ¶
Bagelsan wrote:

Think back to Tom Cruise, playing a better samurai than the native warriors who trained entire lifetimes to battle and die in the heat of combat.

GAH I hate that movie so much. It should have been about 10 minutes long, starting with Tom washing up or whatever and ending when Cruise is all “I’m like, totally gonna be a samurai, y’all!” and then is stabbed by everybody. Including the woman. Especially the woman. So. Many. Times.

As for Avatar, I’m definitely skipping it. I don’t want to give those assholes my money, and even if I snuck in for free I don’t think it would be appropriate, in front of a bunch of kids, to get as stinking drunk as I would need to be to watch it at this point.

There’s no excuse, even the pathetic “but teh white peeple’s monies!” kind of excuse, for this whitewashing. This franchise was handed to M. Night on a platter with a guarantee that the target audience didn’t object to POC, and he still wimped out and f’ed it up. The original show did just fine with brown kids (I promise!) — did he think the fans were going to get to the theater and be like “omg these brown characters are brown I don’t know what the what” and demand their money back? (”Also, apparently Katara was a girl this whole time? I had totally thought that everyone kickass was a white man! Ewwwcooties!”)

Argh. /nerdrage

Posted 08 Jun 2010 at 2:42 am ¶
Bagelsan wrote:

At this point, you just know if they ever made a live-action Dora the Explorer if would star Miley Cyrus. Or hell, just cast Robert Pattinson as Diego, ditch Dora entirely (”boys can’t watch giiiirl characters!”) and call it a day. >.<

Posted 08 Jun 2010 at 2:45 am ¶
Juan wrote:

@Bagelsan

And don’t forget that they’d probably rip out any Latin cultural references and instances as well as the spanish language.

Sadly amusing is that’s reminiscent of a comment by author Nalo Hopkinsin around the time of the sci-fi channel’s Earth Sea movie, that if they ever made her book Brown Girl in the Ring into a movie then it’d be retuned into “White Girl in the Mall”

Posted 08 Jun 2010 at 11:44 am ¶
Fireball wrote:

“First they had The Mexican with Brad Pitt and now we have The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise? Maybe they’ll produce my film: The Last Nigga on Earth starring Tom Hanks.”

-Dave Chappelle

Yep, that about sums it up when it comes to Hollywood whitewash.

Posted 08 Jun 2010 at 1:49 pm ¶
Fireball wrote:

Oops, my bad. That was Paul Mooney.

Posted 08 Jun 2010 at 1:52 pm ¶
7thangel wrote:

i’m tired of arguing with folks that say ‘it’s just a movie/cartoon’, or how ‘they don’t look overly asian’ (but are afraid to say what ‘asian’ looks like), blah, blah, blah. after a while, you’re just wasting your time and eventually some troll will say something offensive while telling you to get over it. there’s only so many times you can expose someones bias and willingness to maintain the status quo and their privilege only to have it dismissed.

they want the heroes white. they expect the heroes to be white. and fuck you if you get in their way of seeing the millionth white hero being awesome and saving the world, even if it’s from a race change whitewash.

Posted 08 Jun 2010 at 8:23 pm ¶
kat wrote:

What REALLY amazes me is the amount of people I’ve come across who say the casting bothers them in one sentence, but admit they’re STILL opting to see the movie in theaters or on DVD in another sentence.

It’s been said time and time again, but money does talk. Don’t support these practices with your hard-earned dollars!

Look at how many movies are coming out in 2010 with white leads. They are not being margenalized in any shape or form, so why do POC get the shaft? Is not America a melting pot? Some of my favorite films have white leads, but I’m not adverse to seeing other races take up the hero/heroine role.

Why is consistency so hard to achieve? If a character is black in a book they should be so on the big screen. If a character is asian in a book they should be so on the big screen. And, last but not least, if a character is white in a book they should be so on the big screen.

Posted 09 Jun 2010 at 5:30 pm ¶
Ellington wrote:

@Fireball : )
That Paul Mooney joke was very funny and poignant but just one thing the Brad Pitt movie “The Mexican” was not about a person from Mexico but it was the name of a rare gun.
Other than that, the joke works and illustrates a good point and is funny on many levels!

Posted 09 Jun 2010 at 9:05 pm ¶
Ellington wrote:

Oh and I will not be seeing “Dances With Wolves” EVER!
The idea is appalling to me.
And yes I concur wholeheartedly that “The Last Samurai was a racists piece of dog dung!
I HATE that movie!!!
And I still have not seen “Avatar” yet and something tells me that I won’t.
I cannot take nor abide another” white man is better and let us show you silly natives why” movies. No. Way.

Posted 09 Jun 2010 at 9:14 pm ¶
CDF wrote:

Cool strip! I read his ABC book for a young adult lit class (info-sci). I’ve never followed the Avatar genre much, but the casting of the live-action flick is odd…

Posted 10 Jun 2010 at 4:22 pm ¶
Jake wrote:

I saw the trailer for this and at first I thought it might be cool, then about 10 seconds into the trailer I became confused.

I’ve never watched an episode of the cartoon but I am familiar with it, enough to know that it was at the least Asian influenced. I had thought the cartoon was about mythical Shaolin monks so I came to the conclusion that the movie was based on something else that I probably never heard of. Why, because it didn’t seem like there were any Asians being cast for this film.

When I read this post and realized that it IS in fact based on the cartoon I decided immediately that I would not be seeing this movie. I was even more saddened to read this knowing that M. Night Shyamalan had written it. I would think that if anyone he would be more sensitive toward casting non-white actors.

Posted 15 Jun 2010 at 4:32 pm ¶