On July 1st, actor Dante Basco wrote an article on his blog regarding the casting controversy surrounding The Last Airbender: The Last Airbender: To Boycott or Not?

Basco writes:

“Believe me, as an actor, it’s no easy answer. My first gut feeling is, the best actor should be cast for the job no matter race… But maybe that’s just an ideal that is unreal when it comes to making a movie, and making a big budget movie at that. See, my whole career is based on playing roles that were not written race specific, matter fact, if I had to wait for Hollywood to come along with a script for a Filipino American, I would have no career at all.

The fact of the matter is, in Hollywood… it’s not fair. It’s not fair at all, the tables are tipped unfavorably for ethnic actors. The percentage of roles for ethnic actors to white actors is something to the effect of: in 100 roles, there may be 12 roles for black actors, maybe 7 for latin actors and only maybe 2 for asian actors.”

“So… to boycott or not? I still feel a loyalty to the whole project, I helped to make it popular and I hope the film does justice to a near perfect animated series. Boycott is a strong word, but I do know that I won’t go see it opening weekend. I’m sure I will see it sooner or later, but my money won’t be apart of the opening weekend tally. In this day and age, in America 2010… I just don’t think it is at all viable for white actors to play ethnic roles… at least until they let us play white roles.”

Update: On July 7th, Basco blogged a follow up to his July 1st entry.

“I’ve always thought of myself as an actor first and only realized myself as an “ethnic” actor as I’ve grown up in the industry and experienced the lack of parts I was being able to play. My goal is always to work, but if I can in someway help widen the eye of “Hollywood” film making to include the stories and faces of everyone and not be so focused on one group or another’s perspective… I’m down for that.

“Thank you again for all the fan’s who wanted to see me in the film, Prince Zuko will always be a special character to me and I’m sure Dev did a great job to help bring him to life. For all those who commented on the blog and continue to, thank you… Whether we agreed or not, I think this dialogue needs to happen, the more this comes up, the more the chance actual change can happen.”

Basco is well known for playing Zuko in the animated series that inspired the adaptation, Avatar: The Last Airbender. He’s also famous for his role as Rufio, King of the Lost Boys, in Steven Spielberg’s Hook.

AsiaArts Magazine interviewed Basco about Asian American representation in 2006. In this interview, Basco noted:

“You never forget that you’re a person of color, you never forget that you’re Asian-American. You never can. Being that where I am at my career right now I’m luckily not tied down to just playing Asian characters… I get those opportunities and I’m thankful to get those opportunities. I know a lot of actors don’t get that kind opportunity.”

Earlier this year, Basco blogged about the pressure he resisted, as a teenage actor of color in Hollywood, to get plastic surgery to look less “ethnic”- Dante gets a nose job.

“Growing up in Hollywood, there weren’t many Filipino actors and there was absolutely no Filipino roles, so my jobs consisted of me playing anything and every thing from any form of Latino to any form of Asian and even some black or white roles for characters that they couldn’t find good enough black or white kids. So this question of a nose job arises… I must have only been 14 and was seriously asked to give it some strong thought…”

essay by guest contributor Faith Bell

Colorblindness. I have been hearing this term more and more. It sounds nice, but it does more harm than good. After centuries of giving value to the color of a person’s skin, attempting to push race aside now also pushes aside the struggles that many people have gone through because of the value placed on their skin. Colorblindness is passive. It helps maintain the status quo.

The idea of colorblindness is positive when a person is not preferred over another based on race. But this term also carries a connotation of inability or unwillingness to perceive something that has meaning to those who can perceive it. I would like the uniqueness of every single person to be admired, not ignored. Instead of trying to tackle and dismantle the idea of race, it would be more productive to address the racial inequality that prevails.

In a report titled “A Year After Obama’s Election: Blacks Upbeat about Black Progress, Prospects” the Pew Research Center gives statistics on perceptions of race as well as on racial inequality in America. Through surveys, the center found that the income of black households was 61.8% of the income of white households in 2008. In 2009 the homeownership rate for whites was near 75% while the rate for Hispanics was about 50% and the rate for blacks was about 48%. Great disparity still exists in the quality of life and opportunities based on race. After centuries of this white supremacist societal construct, one that places whites at the top of the hierarchy and privileges them over other races, the negativities associated with racial identity need to be rethought before we get to a place where there is no hierarchical value associated with race.

Eliminating the discussion on race does not help end racism and can perpetuate racist acts, though these acts may be subtle. Mica Pollock, an assistant professor at Harvard who wrote a book on the subject, gave an interview for the article “When Race Matters: ‘Colormuteness’ in American Schools.”Pollock claims that sometimes colorblindness is just another word for colormuteness, because it ignores race and racial inequality by not discussing them. Pollock says, “Refusing to talk about racial orders doesn’t make them go away. Indeed, we can actually exacerbate racial orders through colormuteness. The most counterintuitive race talk dilemma…is that while talking in racial terms can make race matter, not talking in racial terms can also make race matter.” The silence makes race matter because no effort is being made to fix racial inequality, so the disparities between the races remain.

Our society cannot be colorblind right now. I have been taught by my family, by friends, by teachers, and by the media that I am black. Other people have been taught to see me as black. Race does not have a biological basis; it is a social construct. But can we demolish that social construct after centuries of enforcing it? Because I have been taught that I have a race, I have developed a racial identity. When I think of myself, I know I am Faith Bell, an introverted young black woman. If we demolish the ideology of race, then I can no longer claim my blackness, which is something that makes me unique. Yes, the term can be used to group and stereotype me with other black people, but as an individual I can claim my racial identity, in the same way that I claim I am an American. When people take time to examine those who call themselves black, then they will see it is a very diverse group, just as Americans are diverse based on individual personalities, values and interests. I am black, but my race does not define me; it is just an aspect of me.

It is important to not let racial stereotypes dictate who to befriend, hire or avoid. That is colorblindness at its best. However, there is a problem when someone refuses to acknowledge racism because they claim to be colorblind. It should not be used as a response to discrimination, admittance of fear, or observation of racial inequality in society. In movie castings, in stories and in media that represents people, we should be more aware of the tropes that are being used and we should challenge them. We should be aware of how people feel when they see people that look like them misrepresented, if they even see people that look like them at all. We should be aware of what our choices—conscious or unconscious—mean in society and how they affect people. It is not about pleasing everyone. It is about fighting racial constructs and tropes so we can step closer to equality.

The Last Airbender is a film coming out this summer. It is a live-action movie based on a cartoon called Avatar: The Last Airbender. The creators of the cartoon—Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino—informed IGN Entertainment in an interview, that “Our love for Japanese Anime, Hong Kong action & Kung Fu cinema, yoga, and Eastern philosophies led us to the initial inspiration for Avatar [the animated series].” Set in a fantastical world, the cartoon incorporated aspects of Inuit and different Asian cultures, including clothing, philosophies and Chinese script. Yet, the movie production cast a white actor and actress for the two lead characters named Katara and Sokka, who were brown-skinned Inuit-inspired characters in the cartoon. A world that was filled with Asian and indigenous influences now features white actors as the good characters, brown-skinned actors as the bad characters and people of color from various backgrounds as the extras. I have a problem with whiteness being the baseline, the norm. I see that as racism. If it were not true that whiteness is the baseline, then it would not be so common for some people to argue that they never saw Asianness in a cartoon that was filled with Asian influence. Why were white people the automatic choice for main roles?

The casting choices may have been made with the intent or pretense of colorblindness, but the consequences are far from racially neutral. Not many roles are given to Asian Americans in American movies, and the few roles are usually martial art roles and other stereotypical tropes. The Last Airbender was a great opportunity to showcase the talent of Asian actors and actresses. Unfortunately, decisions were made to change the world and the people of the series to fit tropes that are identifiable to American society: the good light-skinned people fighting the bad dark-skinned people and in order to win, some dark-skinned people must join the light-skinned people.

I am not saying that there can never be a hero in a movie who is white. But there should be more heroes than just white ones. We need to think about what it means when in narratives a white person encounters a culturally different group of people and then does everything better than they can, a scenario that plays out in James Cameron’s Avatar. Why did the writer choose to do this? What message does this send? Is there a way to complicate this story that has been told over and over it so that it challenges the tradition? Even if there are a range of races and ethnicities represented, we must examine how each of these is represented.

We should explore our society and what we mean by race because if we do not know what we mean by race we cannot tackle institutional racism. We should fight racism that takes away individuality by seeing individuals who are directly affected by the construct. Let us begin to embrace a different idea of race by accepting multiracial identity, by challenging stereotypes, by seeing the beauty in all shades. I want people to value my personality and character, but before you know me you will see my brown skin and my naturally tightly curled hair. I want everyone to see the beauty and uniqueness in my outward appearance instead of not seeing it at all. Race is a social construct and since we have constructed, it we have to learn how to live with it but without racism.

Update: On June 30th, Ebert issued his most damning missive against The Last Airbender yet on twitter.com, flat out calling the film’s casting practices “racist.”

ebertchicago: The best writing I’ve seen on the racist casting of “The Last Airbender.” Devastating. http://j.mp/bz5zbI

Ebert linked an article written by Vietnamese American blogger Q. Le, “Facepainting”, to his 170,000 followers. This message was retweeted by over 100 people and became the top search result on twitter when people searched for Last Airbender.

In his June 9th, 2010 Answer Man Column, American film critic Roger Ebert answered another fan question about the casting of The Last Airbender and the practice of “racebending” and “whitewashing” in general.

Ebert had previously answered a question about The Last Airbender in December 2009, where he called the casting decisions “wrong.”

From the June 9th column:

Q. A friend and I got in a discussion over whether it is racist to have race be a criteria while casting a role. My friend was of the opinion that the best actor should get the role. I felt that if the part was written for, say, a young African-American male, the audition pool should be limited to young African-American males. This discussion specifically focused on the movie “The Last Airbender,” which is based on an American-made animated show called “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

Two of the characters in the show were not white, yet their movie counterparts will be white. I felt that the movie casting choice was not true to the source material while my friend thought the casting choice (from a racial perspective) was irrelevant. Is casting white actors into non-white roles a form of racism/whitewashing? Would the opposite also be racist? Or should the best actor, regardless of race or any other physical consideration, be chosen?
Colleen Stone, Woodbury, Minn.

A. It was racist in the days when minority actors just plain couldn’t get work in anything but stereotyped roles. The situation has improved. If I’d been making “The Last Airbender,” I would probably have decided the story was so well- known to my core audience that it would be a distraction to cast those roles with white actors. I’m guessing, but I suspect the American group most under-represented in modern Hollywood is young Asian-American males.

Characters from the animated series and their depictions in the film adaptation. The lead protagonists are played by white actors while the lead antagonists are played by actors of color.

Some of the most underrepresented groups in Hollywood today include women (particularly women over 50), people with a disability, and yes, people of color.

In October 2009, while Paramount was casting The Last Airbender, the Screen Actor’s Guild released statistics showing that only 3.8% of film and television roles went to actors of Asian Pacific descent, and only 0.3% to actors of Native American descent.

And when actors of Asian Pacific and Amerindian are cast in film and television, they are rarely the first-billed lead or central character. UCLA Law Professor Russell Robinson found that only 1.8% of lead roles are cast with an actor of Asian Pacific descent, and less than 1% of lead roles are cast with an actor of Native American descent.

Television series like Trauma (2009) starring Cliff Curtis and films like Ninja Assassin (2009) starring Rain are few and far between.

Harold and Kumar is possibly the only recent mainstream film franchise to feature Asian American actors, playing Asian American characters, in lead roles.

These statistics also don’t differentiate between Asians from abroad and Asian Americans. When the opportunity arises for a studio to cast a character of Asian Pacific descent, the studio often selects an actor from overseas–such as the casting of Jay Chou as Kato in The Green Hornet–limiting Asian American actors’ opportunities further. The most famous actors of Asian descent–like Jackie Chan and Jet Li–continue to be from abroad while Asian American actors struggle to find any work at home. And aside from the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series, very few mainstream movies and television series have featured circumpolar indigenous people like the Inuit.

The “racebending” of The Last Airbender was a missed opportunity for Americans of Asian Pacific, Amerindian, and Circumpolar Indigenous descent to star in a tentpole summer film. But more than simply a “missed opportunity,” the production’s decisions also had a discriminatory impact, reinforcing that in Hollywood, people of color can play secondary roles in films – but white actors are preferred for heroic leads, even if the characters were created to be ethnically Asian and Inuit in a fantasy world representative of the cultures of the Pacific Rim.

Paramount Pictures, the studio producing The Last Airbender, is America’s oldest running movie studio–founded in 1912. A previous Racebending.com article took a look at the studio’s early history of casting Asian American actors in lead roles: Paramount Pictures and Asian Americans: A Tarnished Legacy. This article will focus on Paramount Pictures’ diversity in terms of their most recent, top-billed lead actors from 2000 to present and beyond.

A UCLA study found that industry-wide, men are 3 times more likely than women to be the first billed lead, and that 4 out of 5 lead roles go to an actor who is white. We were curious about how Paramount would line up, particularly since Paramount promised the Asian American community diversity statistics in November 2009 but never delivered. Volunteers Sirajah Raheem, Renee Starling, and Marissa Lee took a close look at Paramount Pictures films distributed and/or produced by the company from 2000 to 2009 and also 2010 and beyond.

Why Look At First Billing?

Our count of lead actor diversity at Paramount is based on the idea that diversity isn’t just who is hired, but who is hired in what positions. Who gets the best roles? Who achieves prominence?

“Credit is often the most fought-over issue in a [Hollywood] negotiation, because credit represents a number of the juiciest points to win: Ego, power, and fame are all tied up in where your name appears on screen or in advertising. Because of the importance of credits…this section of a contract can take up pages and pages.

“Depending on your clout, you want to be the first credit, the largest credit, and the most often mentioned credit of anyone connected with the picture. In any advertising, it’s your name that gets mentioned and–if you’re an actor–your picture that gets shown, your voice that gets heard, and your film clip that gets played. source

Various types of Credit include Main Title Credit (before the movie starts), End Title Credit (after the movie is over), Paid Advertising Credit (mention during commercials and publicity), Above-the-Title Credit (name shows up on top of the movie name in promos and on screen), and Billing Block Credit (the block of text on posters and trailers.)

For our review, we simply looked at which actor is listed first on imdb.com. Even if several actors have received top billing or above the title billing, someone is always listed first.

For an example of top billing in action, check out Warner Bros Pictures’ Oceans Eleven (2001).

Although Oceans Eleven has an ensemble cast–including actors like Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Shaobo Qin–George Clooney (in the role of the titular Danny Ocean) was clearly given star billing for this movie. A dispute involving above-the-title billing is rumored to be the reason why Don Cheadle is not listed in any of the movie’s closing credits. Had Cheadle been given above-the-title billing, he would have alphabetically preceded Clooney.

Our review of actors in top billing was necessarily subjective, but the cultural ethnicity and gender of most of Paramount’s top-billed actors like John Travolta, Angelina Jolie, and Samuel L. Jackson are well established in the public sphere. For animated characters like Shrek the Ogre, Spongebob Squarepants, and Eliza Thornberry we looked to the gender and ethnicity of the voice actor. We simply tallied the first actor billed, (for example: Malin Ackerman in Watchmen, Chris Pine in Star Trek, Ben Affleck in The Sum of All Fears, Jamie Foxx in The Soloist, Noah Ringer in The Last Airbender.)

How Does Paramount Stack Up? – Gender

Paramount didn’t stack up all that well when we looked at gender.

In March 2010, the Motion Picture Association of American released statistics indicating that women go to movies more than men do. Women bought 55% of the movie tickets sold in 2009, but looking at the gender of Paramount’s first billed actors, you wouldn’t know it. Hollywood is a male dominated industry and the same appears to be true at Paramount.

Actresses of color fared the worst. Only one movie released in 10 years starred an actress of color–Queen Latifah in Last Holiday (2006). Out of 30 lead actresses, only one actress–Queen Latifah–was a person of color.

How Does Paramount Stack Up? – ETHNICITY

When it comes to first billing, Paramount clearly gives actors who are white more roles than actors of color. A whopping 86% of Paramount films distributed or produced in the last decade starred a white performer.

Out of 133 movies either produced or distributed, 17 had a black lead actor and only one had an Asian actor–Parry Shen in the film Better Luck Tomorrow (2002). However, Paramount did not produce Better Luck Tomorrow, the company distributed the film to theaters after the film made the independent film circuit.

Over a 10 year period from 2000 to 2009, we found that Paramount did not produce a SINGLE movie starring a Latino, Asian American, or Native American actor.

Had Paramount’s leads been anywhere near proportional with the actual United States population, twenty of their films would have had a Latino lead actor, six of their films would have had Asian American actors as lead, and at least one film would have starred a Native American actor.

Ironically, even though Paramount did not give any Latino or South Asian actors top billing from 2000 to 2009, Paramount did cast actors who are white to play Latino and South Asian lead characters.

Also in the past decade, two real-life heroes from 9/11, who are African American, were depicted with white actors in supporting roles in the Paramount film World Trade Center (2006).

The Last Airbender is not the first time Paramount has bumbled in casting by giving roles that could have gone to actors of color (improving Paramount’s dismal diversity statistics for first-billed roles.)

Paramount Pictures in 2010 and Beyond

Paramount’s slate of executives was wiped in summer 2009. New Paramount Pictures President Adam Goodman met with Asian American advocacy groups in November 2009 and affirmed Paramount’s commitment to diversity. But does Paramount’s new slate of upcoming films from 2010 onward live up to this ideal?

Of the 54 already announced movies Paramount plans to produce and/or distribute this decade, about two-thirds have been cast with a lead actor. If these casting decisions are any indication, 89% of this decade’s Paramount films will star a white actor, and 94% will star a male actor.

Only two of the films so far, Warriors (2011) and Nick Fury (2012), will star black actors. One film, First Glance (2011) has Filipino American actor Dante Basco attached. And finally, a Latino single lead–if Antonio Banderas voicing Puss in Boots in a planned Shrek prequel counts. Native American actors–with not a single lead actor in the past decade–still haven’t been cast in a lead role at Paramount in this decade.

As for actresses of color? Barely given a chance to be the star in the past decade, there are currently no films in development at Paramount with an actress of color attached to star.

In April 2009 through August 2009, Racebending.com surveyed our supporters on our livejournal community and via facebook. In just three days we received more than 400 responses. Here are the results taken from over 1,200 responses.

We’ve put the statistical data from the survey below. To read some of the most memorable survey responses, please click here!

Age of Racebending.com Supporters

Age ranges of the survey respondents ranged from 6 years old to 59 years old, spanning five decades.

Children under age 13 are not allowed to provide identifying information on the internet. As the survey was conducted on social networking sites, Racebending.com was unable to legally survey people under 13 unless their survey information was provided by parents or older siblings. Children under age 13 are underrepresented in this survey.

The survey asked for the ages of our supporters.
The mean (average) age of our respondents was: 22
The standard deviation was: 7.14
The median age of our respondents was: 20

Gender of Racebending.com Supporters

We asked our supporters to self-identify their gender, as they felt comfortable. Responses to this question were emphasized as optional.

Ethnicity of Racebending.com Supporters

We asked our supporters to self-identify their ethnicity, as they felt comfortable. Responses to this question were emphasized as optional.

This pie chart illustrates the ethnicities of our supporters with no overlap, categorizing everyone who reported a mixed ethnicity in one group (as is common in demographic surveys.)

We found that 15.3% of Racebending.com supporters from the United States and around the world are of mixed ethnicity. This number is particularly striking given the United States Census found that in 2000 only 2.4% of the American population was of mixed ethnicity.

The “mixed ethnicity” grouping in that graph is very vague, though, and does not reflect the true diversity of the respondents. We took all respondents’ reported single, dual, triple, ethnicities and ran the numbers again by partial or whole descent. These percentages do not add up to 100% because they include mixed ethnicity overlap.

Amerindian
5.3% of our supporters had Amerindian heritage. Many supporters wrote that they were of Native American, Cherokee, First Nations, or Inuit, descent.

Asian
29.26% of our supporters said they were of some or all Asian descent.
23% of the supporters were of East Asian (ie: Chinese Australian, Korean, Japanese American, Taiwanese, etc.)
2.15% were of South Asian descent, (ie: South Asian, Indian, Pakistani American, Sri Lankan, etc.)
9.61% were of Southeast Asian descent -(ie: Vietnamese American, Filipino, Indonesian, Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese Australian, Javanese, Malay, etc.)
0.45% identified as ethnically Pacific Islander.

Black
We categorized people of African, African American, and Afro-Carribean descent into this category and found that 11.76% of our supporters identified from groups such as Black American, African American, African, Congolese, Nigerian, Black British, Jamaican, Sudanese, Black Guyanese, and Afro-Carribean.

Latino
We grouped the 6.55% of respondents who identified as ethnically or part South American, Hispanic, Latino/a, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Brazilian and similar ethnic heritages as Latino.

Middle Eastern
1.08% of our supporters were of Middle Eastern descent, including identities such as Palestinian American, Egyptian, Iranian American, Israeli, and Arab American.

White
60% of our supporters identified as all or partially white or Caucasian.

It is very interesting and important to note that Asian Americans (and Asians internationally) were not the only people offended by the casting of The Last Airbender! 7 out of 10 Racebending.com supporters are NOT of Asian descent. People from many different ethnic groups felt strongly opposed to the film’s casting decisions.

Racebending.com Supporters by Country

We received survey responses from over 50 countries around the world:

Here is a map of the States and Countries where Racebending.com supporters live, based on our survey respondents and also fans of our Facebook page. Don’t see your country or state on the map? Email us to be included!

American Racebending.com Supporters by State

We heard from supporters from 47 States and Washington D.C. (If you’re from South Dakota, Wyoming, or Arkansas, drop us a line!)

Cities with the highest number of survey respondents included: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, San Diego, San Jose, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Portland, Miami, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Salt Lake City.

Closing Thoughts

As recommended by the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, this survey would be important for us to prove to the world that this issue concerns everyone–not simply a cause taken by Asian Americans, young people, Avatar fans or any other single minority group. As much as statistics ‘pigeonhole’ us, it can also help show how diverse we are.

One of the respondents to the open survey left these insights, which we also hope you will keep in mind:

“I don’t think you need to answer the people who are asking about the demographics of this group.This isn’t about just standing up for Asian Americans; it is a simple fact that this group consists of people who are mobilizing against a system that is unjust and unfair.  There is no need for an answer to a question that brings no intelligent insight to a system with social bias. It’s a matter of right or wrong, and the demographics should not take away from the matter at hand.”

The survey was anonymous and asked for age, and hometown, with an optional request to also enter ethnicity, gender and reason for supporting the movement. Respondents opted to complete the survey and are representative of our supporters from our livejournal and facebook online communities. We were touched by the outpouring of support and the number of people willing to disclose information about themselves in order to prove that this is an issue that touches many different people from many different communities.

Thank you for supporting Racebending.com and our efforts to protest the discriminatory impact of The Last Airbender.

Fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender are familiar with Mako Iwamatsu, the Japanese American actor who voiced “Uncle Iroh” in the first and second seasons of the animated series before he passed away in 2006.

Mako’s character in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Iroh.

Fans may be less familiar with Mako’s work as an Asian American advocate. In fact, Mako spent his entire career fighting discrimination and standing up for actors of color!

Mako was one of the founders of East West Players, a Los Angeles based Asian American theater troupe. Created by Asian American actors who found their careers limited by a glass ceiling that discriminated against actors of color, East West Players gave Asian American actors a place where they could perform roles beyond the stereotypical parts available in mainstream media.

In the October 2000 Journal for Asian American Studies, researcher Karen Shimakawa interviewed Mako about racism in Hollywood and the East West Players in her paper, Asians in America: Millennial Approaches to Asian Pacific American Performance.

Other key figures in the establishment of Asian American theatre companies were similarly inspired by the heightened race-consciousness of the period: as early as the mid-1960s, remembers Mako, actor and founding member of Los Angeles’ East-West Players. An established film and television actor, Mako and his cohort lamented the scarcity of (non-racist, non-stereotypical) roles available to them, which eventually led to their beginning a theatre company:

“We started talking about…[how] most of us were caught being stereotyped in television and movies whenever a bunch of us would work together, and that went on for several years,” Mako said. “Finally, in 1965, we said: ‘We gotta do something…we gotta do things of our choice. We can’t wait for someone to say, hey, you guys gotta do something–we can’t wait for that.’ So, that’s how we started East-West Players.”

For over 45 years, East West Players has mentored young Asian American actors, including Avatar: The Last Airbender voice actor Dante Basco (Prince Zuko.)

left: Mako in Pacific Overtures right: Mako in East West Players’ inaugural production of Rashomon.

As one of the first Asian Americans nominated for an Academy Award in 1966, the Los Angeles Times wrote that “Mako used the prominence the Oscar nomination gave him to address the dearth of parts for Asian Americans in general. Unless a script specifically called for an Asian American, producers and casting directors rejected them for roles.”

“Of course we’ve been fighting against stereotypes from Day One at East West,” Mako said in a 1986 interview with The Times. “That’s the reason we formed: to combat that, and to show we are capable of more than just fulfilling the stereotypes – waiter, laundryman, gardener, martial artist, villain.”

In 1998, the Sondheim Review interviewed Mako on the 1976 musical, Pacific Overtures, the first musical to feature an all-Asian American cast. Mako was nominated for a Tony for his role, but he told the interviewer that had he won, he would not have accepted the award:

“Asian-American actors have never been treated as full-time actors,” Mako said. “We’re always hired as part-timers. That is, producers call us when they need us for only race-specific roles. If a part was seen as too “demanding,” that part often went to a non-Asian.

“I refused to piggyback off the success of Pacific Overtures. If the audience wished to boo me, fine. I would’ve thanked the people I worked with, but I didn’t feel I could accept the award as long as Asian-Americans were not treated as equals in our profession.“

The Review asked Mako about director Hal Prince’s insistence on hiring an all Asian American ensemble to depict a Japanese story in Pacific Overtures. Mako said:

“No matter what happened, we couldn’t let people say ‘Asian-American actors can’t act.’”

Mako claims a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994

In the 2006 documentary The Slanted Screen, Mako was interviewed for his perspective on the depictions of Asian American men in Hollywood. He cautioned aspiring Asian American performers against falling into a trap when breaking into Hollywood.

“Don’t get into ’stereotypic image, you know? ‘Stereotypic image is the simplest and easiest way to do it, but you will not get– performers will not get–satisfaction out of doing it. The only satisfaction may be that your bank account may be a little fatter. That’s about it. Is that worth having that kind of a record on your soul?”

Mako also gave some additional insight to the documentary makers and viewers on his vision for the future of Asian American representation in film.

“The vision I had for myself and the vision that the younger generation has may be different. Maybe the younger generation is more success-oriented. ‘Once I make it, I can make things happen’–you know, that type of attitude.

But my word of advice to them is that: One man alone cannot do it all by himself. I think he needs a collective effort to rectify the injustice that has been piled up among, and buried, in our past.”

In Mako’s obituary in Playbill, current East West Player Artistic Director Tim Dang said:

“With Mako’s passing, there is a great feeling of loss in the Asian Pacific artist community. We have lost a pioneer who helped pave the way for all of us trying to make a career in the arts and the entertainment industry. East West Players is deeply grateful for the passion, the artistry and the activism that Mako displayed over the many decades as artistic director, director and performer. If it wasn’t for Mako, none of us would be here.”

Racebending.com believes that through the casting practices employed by the production of The Last Airbender Paramount is continuing the same discrimination, stereotypes, and yellowface-style practices that Mako spent his entire career fighting against.

Mako’s decades of advocacy should not amount this: a film where once again, Asian American actors cannot play the hero, and are not treated like “full-time actors.”

Mako’s groundbreaking performances, refusal to accept stereotypical roles, and creation of East West Players have paved the way for modern day media representation advocacy. The Last Airbender movie’s perpetuation of those same outdated practices undermines Mako’s inspirational legacy as an advocate for casting equality.

Avatar: The Last Airbender honored Mako in the episode “Tales from Ba Sing Se”

Avatar: The Last Airbender is such an important part of Mako’s legacy. In 2010, fans cannot allow Paramount to use The Last Airbender to continue the same kind of discrimination Mako fought against his entire career.

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We’ve gotten this question from fans of the show an awful lot: “Why does Racebending.com label Zuko as an ‘enemy’ rather than a hero? We know that in the end of the series, Zuko joins the good guys –Aang and his friends–to save the world!

It’s a very fair question, but one that we have to place into the context of the casting of the film adaptation, historical Hollywood discrimination and depictions, and messages the film The Last Airbender will send to its young viewers.

His Royal Antagonistic Highness, Prince Zuko

In the show, Zuko starts out as the primary antagonist of the series, and remains an antagonist until Season 3. Hence, Season 1 cover art, where he’s Mister Threatening Scary Eyes.

Zuko is a very complex character with deep motivations, and certainly not a cardboard stock villain or “bad guy.” He’s a confused kid who wants his daddy’s attention. He is however, still Aang’s antagonist.

Aang wants to master the elements and save the world. Zuko wants to put Aang in sack, drag that sack back to his daddy, and restore his honor. He is a direct challenge to the goals of the primary protagonist, Aang. So in a sense, he’s set up to be Aang’s enemy.

Is Zuko a Villain?

We established above that Zuko begins his character arc as an antagonist, a foil to the lead protagonist, Aang. In that sense, he’s Aang’s enemy in Book One, and in the movie. But is he a villain? The actor portraying him in the film adaptation, Dev Patel, believes he is, telling IGN.com at a set visit:

“This guy [Zuko] in a nutshell, he’s a villain with a heart. He’s not evil for the sake of being evil.”

Zuko’s Reputation as Evil

As fans of the original series, we don’t think Zuko is evil. Anyone who watches the original series knows that the show was more complex than black and white, good and evil.

this is not the face of evil.

But that is currently how the Dev Patel version of Zuko is being marketed and perceived by the public: as a bad guy. As evil.

In May 2009, when Paramount gave USA Today the first new photos of Dev Patel in the movie, it was published with the caption and article reading:

“The bad guy: Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel plays Zuko, a “firebender” who can manipulate flames.”

In June 2009, IGN.com was invited to visit the set of The Last Airbender. They also described Zuko as evil.

“Dev Patel — in his first post-Slumdog Millionaire role — plays evil-yet-vulnerable, Prince Zuko.“

Very Vulnerable Indeed.

In January 2010, when the Los Angeles Times interviewed M. Night Shyamalan, they also wrote:

“The movie hits theaters on July 2 and stars Noah Ringer as Aang, Dev Patel (of “Slumdog Millionaire”) as the evil Prince Zuko“

Even the Official Plot Synopsis and the film’s publicity Production Notes describe Zuko as the villain and frame the conflict between Aang and Zuko as “good versus evil.”

The Fire Nation is waging a ruthless, oppressive war against the other three nations.… Dev Patel plays the Fire Nation’s evil prince Zuko.

In any compelling story of ‘good versus evil,’ everybody knows you have to have a great villain. So, getting someone to match Ringer [Aang] in the part of Prince Zuko would be key.

Poor evil guy can’t catch a break.

No matter what fans say to defend Zuko, his character can’t seem to escape the villain reputation–at least in terms of his role in the film adaptation–within the film’s marketing public perception of the character. People who are unfamiliar with the series (particularly Zuko’s character arc) have already marked him as evil.

Other ‘Villains’

Fire Lord Ozai tried to conquer the entire world. Commander Zhao killed a fish and by doing so erased the moon. (For those of you who haven’t seen the series, this makes sense, we promise) Uncle Iroh is Zuko’s assistant in his quest to capture the Avatar. All three, along with Zuko, are leaders of an Imperialistic Fire Nation that committed genocide, killing an entire nation of people, the Airbenders.

Fans of the show know that one of these Fire Nation adult characters has a gentle soul and a good heart, the other two characters…not so much. People who aren’t familiar with the show…

Lead protagonists are on the left, lead antagonists on the right

Light and Dark; Good and Evil

The Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series uses the character of Zuko to subvert tropes about good and evil, light and dark. But it is the casting of the film adaptation that really brings racial politics to the forefront by matching other patterns in Hollywood: Where people of color are constantly cast as the villain, but never get an opportunity to be the good guy.

yeah…

A difference between the original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series and The Last Airbender film is that there is not a color divide between the protagonists and the antagonists in the animated series.

In the film, the lead heroes all have light skin and the lead villains all have dark skin, reinforcing an incorrect belief that studies have found children hold–that white people are good and people of color are bad.

Why This Color Divide is Significant – Colorism

The Last Airbender is a tentpole family film, marketed to children and families. According to several studies on how children perceive race, children from all around the world–whether light skinned or dark skinned–are exposed to colorist messages.

Colorism–a form of skin color stratification–is a process that privileges light-skinned people over dark skinned people. This form of discrimination is present not only in diverse countries such as the United States but also within specific cultural groups and internationally.

Colorism is discrimination in which human beings are accorded differing social and treatment based on skin color. In film industries all around the world, not limited to Hollywood, actors with lighter skin generally have access to more opportunities. Actors with darker skin have less opportunities and are more likely to play the bad guy. The media helps reinforce to viewers that light is good and beautiful and that dark is evil and ugly.

Child psychology researcher Rebecca Bigler’s study, Shades of Meaning: Skin Tone, Racial Attitudes, and Constructive Memory in African American Children, found that children showed better memory for stereotypic, rather than counter-stereotypic, information about skin tone.

(read Racebending.com’s interview with Bigler)

In the study, children were told a story featuring a “good guy” with dark skin and a “bad guy” with light skin. When tested 10 minutes later on how well they remembered the roles the characters played in the story, the kids had a hard time recalling that the dark-skinned character played a positive role. Many even remembered the story incorrectly, changing the good guy to be light skinned and the bad guy to be dark skinned. Even though these children had dark skin themselves, they had an easier time visualizing people with dark skin in the negative roles in the story.

While the Avatar : The Last Airbender series showed children that kids with darker skin, like Sokka and Katara, can be heroes, too, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender is doing the opposite by reinforcing the correlation–directly or indirectly–that bad guys are not only dark, but dark-skinned.

We’re not happy to label movie!Zuko as a villain on our site. But that is how he is currently being perceived and marketed, which only reinforces the Hollywood glass ceiling where people of color cannot play the lead heroes, only villains and secondary characters.

Repeated exposure to colorism changes how kids view themselves in relation to their skin tone–which was why it was so important in The Last Airbender for people of color to get to play lead characters described as something other than “villain” or “evil.”

• General Questions
• Specific Questions Related to The Last Airbender
• Questions About Hollywood Casting

General Questions

What is Racebending.com?
Racebending.com is an online community founded by fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Since our formation in 2008, we are now a grassroots organization dedicated to encouraging equal opportunities in Hollywood. To learn more, visit our Who We Are page.

How do I contact Racebending.com?
If you’re a member of the press, please visit our Press Page.
If you’re a reader, you can contact us using the information here, but please read through the FAQ first.

What does the term ‘racebending’ refer to and what does it mean?
The word “racebending” is a portmanteau coined by one of our co-founders. It’s a play on words that refers to the “airbending” and other elemental bending in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.

The practice we’ve dubbed “racebending” on this site refers to situations where A) A movie studio/publisher, etc. has changed the ethnicity of a character B) with a resultant discriminatory impact on an underrepresented cultural community and actors from that community (reinforcement of glass ceilings, loss of opportunity, etc.)

What is Colorism?
We reference the term “colorism” frequently on the website. Colorism is a form of discrimination in which people are accorded differing social and economic treatment based on skin color. Colorism occurs across the world and can occur within an ethnic group or between different ethnic groups. In most entertainment industries–including Hollywood–lighter skin tone is given preferential treatment and darker skin tone is considered less desirable. Oftentimes, heroes are cast with lighter skin and villains are cast with darker skin.

Would Racebending.com rather have movie studios cast the best actor for the role or the actor who looks like or has the same ethnicity as the character?
Acting talent and ethnicity are not mutually exclusive–nor is acting ability some sort of innate racial trait. Any cultural or ethnic community in the United States will contain talented actors, so a movie studio should never argue that they had to choose between casting a talented white actor to play a character of color or an actor of color with terrible skills. There are equally talented actors of color, and they deserve the chance to represent their communities.

Why are people upset about The Last Airbender?
Our four minute video series breaks the issues down succinctly. We encourage people new to this site to check it out!

What is Racebending.com doing about the casting/cultural competency of The Last Airbender?
Our efforts include directly contacting Paramount and the production, speaking out and drawing awareness towards the production’s discriminatory casting practices (to the media, on university campuses, etc.) and connecting concerned fans to other media watchdog organizations. We are encouraging people to boycott the movie, so as not to financially reward the studio for discriminatory decisions.

What does Racebending.com do about other movies/books/etc. that “racebend”?
Racebending.com has expanded to monitor other situations where ‘racebending’ has occurred. We inform our members about the situation and occasionally take direct action. For example, we launched an email campaign when David Henrie was cast to play a Chinese American lead character in The Weapon. If you feel there is an issue in an upcoming movie that we should address, please contact us with more information.

How did Racebending.com get its start?
Racebending.com got its start through our sister site, Aang Aint White, a livejournal started by some anonymous folks (some with professional ties to the franchise) immediately after the principal cast was announced in December 2008. When the protest began to pick up steam, it became clear that a blog wouldn’t be enough, so we expanded to a livejournal community and eventually to our website, Racebending.com.

Are supporters of Racebending.com fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender? Can you guys still be fans if you’re critical of the movie?
Although we have received plenty of outside support, many of our supporters are fans of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.

As fans of the original television show, we still hold the highest level of respect for the animated series and its culturally nuanced depiction of an Asian/Inuit fantasy world. The cast and setting were virtually unique in American media as a celebration of people and culture of Asian descent. For American children, it was an opportunity to witness heroes and heroines of color – an opportunity that enriched all of us, regardless of ethnicity.

We wanted to support The Last Airbender film, but we cannot in good conscience support a production that reinforces glass ceilings by systematically excluding people of color from heroic lead roles.

Are you just a small group of vocal fans angry about changes in the movie?
We comprised of several thousand supporters in 50 countries around the world. Although most of us are fans of the animated series, our supporters also identify as students, parents, advocates, academics, and professionals. Our primary concern is the bigger picture–The Last Airbender is just one example in a long history of Hollywood discrimination. For many of us, seeing this kind of discrimination associated with our favorite series is what spurred us into taking action.

Racebending.com has represented the Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom at Wondercon 2010. We have also presented at several universities, including MIT, UPenn, UCLA, and USC. We are also being studied by academics from MIT and USC as an example of social media and advocacy.

Specific Questions Related to The Last Airbender

Why is Racebending.com making such a big deal out of the casting in a movie?
There are several articles on our website outlining why Racebending.com is drawing attention to the cultural competency practices of The Last Airbender. Our primary concerns regarding The Last Airbender are:

• The outdated and discriminatory practice of casting white actors to depict Asian/Inuit characters.
• Casting calls indicating a preference for white actors for leads; people of color for villains, secondary characters, and background extras.
• Culturally ignorant language used by members of the production (e.g. “If you’re a Korean, wear a kimono” and “I definitely need a tan”)
• The colorist implications of featuring a villainous nation with dark-skinned actors and heroic nations led by white heroes who liberate the “Asian and African” nation.
• Cultural appropriation of Pacific Rim cultures and the franchise’s core Asian concepts, despite a glass ceiling blocking off Asian American (or Native American) actors from playing lead protagonists.

Why is Racebending.com so concerned over just a kid’s movie?
The fact that The Last Airbender is being pushed as a family film despite its cultural competency and discrimination problems is exactly why we are concerned. The Last Airbender is a microcosm of how readily present discriminative attitudes are in society–even in children’s entertainment. We are concerned that these casting practices will be presented to children of all ethnicities as something acceptable, normal, and not a big deal at all. Some of our interviews with academics cover the impact these casting decisions might have on children in greater detail.

How do the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender feel about the casting or Racebending.com?
The creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender have said nothing publicly about the casting other than Bryan Konietzko’s declaration on his MySpace, where he wrote: “I have NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CASTING WHATSOEVER for the feature film.” Other people who have worked on the show, including a director, artists, and cultural consultants, have publicly expressed disappointment about the casting.

Are the characters in the Avatar setting ethnically Asian/Inuit?
The Avatar: The Last Airbender series was established by the creators and Nickelodeon as set in a “fantastical Asian world.” The Intellectual Property Bible affirms that the world of the series is and should be authentically Asian, and cultural consultants were hired to ensure the depiction of the world and characters would be respectful. People who have worked on the original series have also affirmed that the characters were ethnically Asian/Inuit.

The default physical appearance for all characters in live-action fantasy worlds is not and should not always and only be anglo-saxon, western European facial features and coloring–particularly not in a series like Avatar: The Last Airbender, which featured ethnically Asian Pacific /Inuit characters and Pacific Rim cultures.

If the characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender are Asian, why don’t they have slanty eyes, yellow skin, or accents?
In traditional Western Animation, Asian characters are often depicted with stereotypical features. Avatar: The Last Airbender employs a style of anime from Korea that does not use those stereotypical markers. In addition, the voice direction of A:TLA was advised not to use stereotypical Asian accents to depict the characters. Depicting Asian characters with a stereotypical accent is an old Hollywood practice that generally no longer occurs in modern productions with Asian and Asian American characters (eg. Disney’s Mulan, Jake Long: American Dragon.)

Are the characters of Sokka and Katara White, Inuit, or Asian?
The characters from the Water Tribe are largely inspired by circumpolar indigenous cultures, with some influences from Asian and Pacific Islander indigenous groups. On a DVD commentary, the animated series creators noted that even Katara’s “hair-loopies’ hairstyle (not used in the film) is even an authentic Inuit hairstyle.

Circumpolar indigenous people hail from from Canada, Russia, Alaska, and Greenland. There are many Asian circumpolar indigenous people (from the Chukchi Peninsula), but not all circumpolar indigenous people are Asian.

Some of our readers have asked “if it really makes sense” for Water Tribe characters have darker skin than the other characters, even though they live in a cold climate. The real life explanation for why circumpolar dwelling people such as the Inuit have darker skin is explained by Vitamin D consumption, melanin adaptation, and UV light exposure. It is perfectly “realistic” for Sokka and Katara to have darker skin.

Some characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender have blue/grey/green eyes. How can they be people of color?
The creators of the series gave the characters eye colors corresponding to their “elements.” Airbenders have grey eyes, Earthbenders have green eyes, Waterbenders have blue eyes, and Firebenders have orange eyes.

That being said, people who are white do not have an exclusive monopoly on blue eye color. Many people of color also have blue/green/grey eyes. And one potentially “Caucasian trait” does not invalidate a person’s Asian Pacific / Inuit traits or cultural identity.

What issue does Racebending.com have with the actors in The Last Airbender, especially the white child actors?
Our issue is not with the actors selected, but with the production, which did not think children of color were suitable to play in a movie based on their own cultures. We will, however, hold adult actors accountable for culturally insensitive statements, such as Jackson Rathbone’s assertion that he would get “a tan” to play Sokka, a person of color.

What are Racebending.com’s thoughts on the original voice actors for Avatar: The Last Airbender?
While it is important to cast people of color to represent characters of color in all mediums, we are willing to give voice acting a freer pass. The voice actors are not a complete representation of the characters, as they only perform the characters’ voices. The voice actor for Appa, Dee Bradley Baker, isn’t really a bison, and Ash Ketchum from Pokemon and Bart Simpson from The Simpsons are voiced by middle-aged women. However, when characters in animation are depicted as people of color, we encourage studios to cast voice actors from those communities.

Why has Racebending.com labeled the character of Prince Zuko as the “enemy”?
For the purposes of the first season of the animated series and the film, Zuko is the primary antagonist of the main character, Aang. In the film, actors of color have been cast but only in antagonistic and ancillary roles, and this is a glass ceiling. In fact, the feature film markets Zuko as a villain.

Were the selected actors for the roles in The Last Airbender the best actors for the job?
By writing “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” on the casting sides for the lead roles, the production made their preference for Caucasian actors to play PoC clear from the beginning. (Normally when ethnicity is left open-ended, casting sides read “Any Ethnicity.”)

Jackson Rathbone and Jesse McCartney (the production’s first selection for Zuko) may be considered great thespians, but there are equally talented actors of color. When the production says these actors are “the best for the role” they are also reinforcing an appropriative glass ceiling. We believe Hollywood could have cast this film without reinforcing the glass ceiling, using equally talented actors of color. If in Hollywood, actors who are white are considered “the best” to represent people of color, then where does that leave actors of color?

70% of speaking roles in Hollywood go to male actors. 82% of lead roles in Hollywood go to actors who are white. This is not because they were always casting for the best actor and the best actor always happens to be white and male. This is because of discriminatory bias and not because women and people of color cannot act.

Why is Racebending.com advocating for actors of Asian descent to play the characters in the film if that would mean they would be playing a stereotype (martial artists)?
Casting actors who are white to play characters of color does not protect people of color from discrimination or stereotypes. We also believe the Avatar: The Last Airbender series took the proper steps to avoid being stereotypical, (eg: cultural consultants)–unlike the film adaptation.

Does the fact that M. Night Shyamalan is South Asian American impact Racebending.com’s position on his film at all?
Racebending.com believes that anyone is capable of making decisions with a discriminatory impact, regardless of their ethnicity, talent, and experiences–and regardless of their intentions. Our focus is on addressing that impact.

M. Night Shyamalan recently said that the film will be “the most diverse tentpole movie ever.” What is Racebending.com’s position on this diversity?
Racebending.com and other advocacy groups argue that there is a difference between diversity and equal representation and that this difference must be acknowledged.

Having a diverse palette of villains and extras is nothing new–Hollywood has upheld this glass ceiling for ages. The three heroic protagonist lead roles were still reserved for white actors. M. Night Shyamalan’s claim of diversity also does not address the production’s repeated culturally incompetent gaffes, including specifically casting for white actors to play the leads, cultural appropriation, and stereotyping (eg: Koreans come in Kimonos.)

The production has not acknowledged full impact of its actions. While actors of color are present in the film, they are not treated equally. Similar to a restaurant or store that employs people of color in the back room but places people who are white in the storefront, this production’s “diversity” is indicative of a glass ceiling. Glass ceilings with backfilled diversity are not indicative of true diversity.

What does Racebending.com think about Frank Marshall’s recent claim that the production of The Last Airbender did not create nor intend to use the “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” language?
We are very skeptical of this claim. Marshall told UGO.com that the “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” language was “not written nor distributed by the production, or the studio, but by a local extra casting entity that did not consult with either.” Yet, when this casting language was released to Breakdown Services, it came from the office Gail Levin, then-chief of Paramount Features Casting. The “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” breakdown was the most widely distributed casting language for th film’s lead roles.

The “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” language was used on several official casting websites, including the thelastairbendercasting.com site owned by Paramount and on Breakdown Services/Actor’s Access [source].

At Racebending.com we’re more concerned about the language–and the impact of the language– the production did use, rather than the language they meant to use. The production’s concrete actions had a discriminatory impact[learn more here.]

Does Racebending.com think the people involved in the production of The Last Airbender are racist? Does Racebending.com think fans of The Last Airbender movie are racist?
No. We are not in a position to judge whether any individual–unaffiliated with the casting or not–is personally racist.

What Racebending.com can assess is the production of The Last Airbender’s cultural competency and the discriminatory or disparate impact of the production’s decisions. A film production need not have discriminatory intent or be “racist” in order to make decisions with a discriminatory impact.

In the case of The Last Airbender, the production’s decisions–whether deliberate or inadvertant–have reinforced glass ceilings in Hollywood. The idea that Hollywood casts films with a glass ceiling is well established and has been studied extensively both in academia and by professional organizations including the Screen Actor’s Guild.

Similarly, we are not in a position to judge whether any individual fan is racist and going to see the movie is a personal choice. So many people who loved the series don’t realize that when they are supporting the live action movie, they are also indirectly supporting discrimination. Our goal is to raise awareness and inform fans that they can boycott the movie if they do not wish to financially reward the production for making decisions that have resulted in discrimination. We hope that one day, fans and media consumers will not have to choose between supporting a franchise and taking a stand against discrimination.

Questions about Hollywood Casting

How does Racebending.com feel about ‘colorblind casting’?
Racebending.com absolutely supports casting a role without considering an actor’s ethnicity, with a few caveats.

One is that ‘colorblindness’ should not be a free pass to ignore race, ethnicity, or culture altogether. A system that does not recognize race will also become unable to recognize when race-based discrimination does occur. And, given that in American society–and particularly in Hollywood–the default color is white, organizations like the Media Action Network for Asian Americans have found that when the ethnicity of a character is not listed in a casting call, old habits die hard and actors who are white may be preferenced anyway. Colorblindness should not be used as an excuse to ignore disparities or discrimination in Hollywood.

Another caveat is the double standard. This occurs when studios cast characters of color in a “colorblind” manner, but do not cast characters who are white in a “colorblind” manner. In this situation, studios select actors who are white to play characters of color (usually the lead) but actors of color are rarely selected to play characters who are white.

Lastly, it is important for studios to recognize that actors of color and actors from other underrepresented groups represent their communities. Nothing is stopping Hollywood from casting an abled-bodied actor to portray a person in a wheelchair, a male actor to portray a female character, and a white actor to portray a person of color–but there is a great distinction between an actor portraying a character, and an actor representing for an already underrepresented community. It would certainly behoove movie studios to take representation into consideration when casting for roles where the character’s identity as a member of an underrepresented group factors into the portrayal.

Is Racebending.com saying that white people can’t play Asians/Inuits? Isn’t that reverse racism? Shouldn’t actors be able to play any role?
Casting characters of color with white actors sends the message that white people are more qualified to represent people of color than people of color themselves.

“Reverse racism” isn’t endemic in Hollywood right now; quite the opposite. There are actors of color actors equally as talented as the white actors selected to play the roles in The Last Airbender–except Ringer, Peltz, and Rathbone have other lead roles (white leading characters) open to them and actors of color do not. 82% of lead roles in Hollywood go to white actors. Less than 2% of lead roles go to Asian actors and less than 1% go to Native American actors.

Asian American actors should have the same opportunities to play Asian characters as white actors have to play white characters. The same applies for Native American actors.

Does Racebending.com believe that only people from a certain group should be able to play characters from that group? For example, what does Racebending.com feel about British actors playing Italian characters?
Again, we’re examining double standards applied to actors of color in Hollywood. Advocate Helen Zia wrote: “To further suggest that Equity advocates the narrow-minded view that Jews can only play Jews, or Italians can only play Italians, or any similar casting that is drawn strictly along racial or ethnic lines, totally distorts the issue. Jews have always been able to play Italians, Italians have always been able to play Jews, and both have always been able to play Asian. Asian actors, however, almost never have the opportunity to play either Jews or Italians and continue to struggle even to play themselves.”

In addition to not seeing these movies, why launch letter writing movements, protests, and the website?
Racebending.com believes that it is important for media consumers to put studios that discriminate on notice. We are vocally protesting and pointing out that the kinds of casting practices used by The Last Airbender and other films are embarrassing, discriminative, and inappropriate. We hope to show the film industry that consumers will no longer stand for discriminative casting and that these practices are no longer financially viable.

What if casting decisions are driven not by racial discrimination but by financial motivations? Perhaps moviegoers would not see a movie without white actors?
It is certainly patronizing if Hollywood believes that most viewers are so intolerant and narrow-minded that they must need a white viewpoint in the story in order to ‘get it’. American audiences have happily embraced films like Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Slumdog Millionaire, and they also fell in love with Avatar: The Last Airbender even though all of the characters were people of color.

By casting The Last Airbender the way they have, Paramount has lost revenue from minority families excited by the prospect of a kids movie where their ethnicity is represented, people pleased that casting was done in a culturally competent manner, and all the fans who are boycotting the film now. Financially-driven discrimination is still discrimination, and would be unacceptable in any other industry.

Director M Night Shyamalan was interviewed by ugo.com (further related interviews here and here) about the casting discrimination in his upcoming film The Last Airbender. The interviews meant to clarify his motives behind casting white protagonists in an Asian-based fantasy film.

The staff of racebending.com have since sent a letter to the President of Paramount Pictures, which restates why exactly we take issue with this film.  Here is an excerpt:

Avatar: The Last Airbender featured characters of color, and the film adaptation was an opportunity for Paramount to develop leading talent from Asian American and Inuit American communities—groups the Screen Actors Guild has acknowledged as underrepresented, particularly in leading and heroic roles. Only 1.8% of lead roles in Hollywood go to actors of Asian descent and less than 1% of lead roles go to actors of Native American descent.Yet, Airbender lead casting breakdowns worded as “Wanted: Caucasian or any other ethnicity” failed to provide adequate outreach to communities of color during lead casting. And the production’s specification of “Caucasian” and the initial casting of all four leads with white actors further reinforced Paramount’s failure to extend the rare opportunity to be a lead heroic character to minority actors.

The casting of The Last Airbender exemplifies the “glass ceiling” that pervades Hollywood casting. While actors of color have been cast, they are marginalized in roles as antagonists and background characters. The casting decisions in The Last Airbender have reinforced Paramount’s lack of support for actors of color, and lack of regard for equality and diversity.

Worse, Paramount has sent a message to the rest of the industry, reinforcing that casting white actors to play people of color is appropriate–while actors of color are barred from playing characters that share their ethnicities. If Paramount chooses not to have actors of color as lead protagonists–even in a culturally inspired film like The Last Airbender–then when does Paramount actually plan to extend meaningful opportunity and representation to Asian American and Inuit American actors?
– read the full letter to Adam Goodman here (.pdf).

MANAA also responds to the Shyamalan interview in their blog, stating outright that “Shyamalan misses the point.” Further points:

But to respond to our calls for people of color as heroes, he simply points to the racial indeterminacy of anime — as if that justifies the casting of only “European”-featured heroes. He completely neglects to mention that they specifically cast for white actors, instead implying that they were really trying to populate their world with a mix of races. Which would be hard to do with the casting announcement for “Caucasian or any other ethnicity.”

Responses to Shyamalan’s interview quickly popped up over the internet and in other media. Additional articles can be seen below:

Los Angeles Times – Hero Complex- M. Night Shyamalan says ‘Airbender’ rises above race issues
SlashFilm- M. Night Shyamalan Responds to Last Airbender Race Issues
MANAA – M. Night Shyamalan misses the point
io9.com – Shyamalan Addresses Airbender’s Race Controversy And Answers Your Questions
8Asians.com – Shyamalan on ‘The Last Airbender’ Casting Controversy
Latino Review – M. Night Talks About The Changes And Casting Choices In His Airbender Movie.
AngryAsianMan – m. night shymalan talks last airbender and “diversity”
ScreenCrave – M. Night Shyamalan Addresses Race Issues In The Last Airbender
Asia Pacific Arts Magazine – M. Night Shyamalan talks about Last Airbender casting

• 2002 to mid-2008: Origin of the Series
• August 2008: Casting Heroes: “Caucasian or Any Other Ethnicity”
• December 2008: The Protest Gets Organized
• January 2009: Extras and Villains Wanted, Seeking Actors of Color
• February 2009: Advocacy Groups Become Involved
• Summer 2009: Former A:TLA staff members speak out!
• Fall 2009: Paramount’s film The Goods Outrages the Asian American Community
• Racebending.com Hits the Road
• The Casting Controversy Draws Increased Media Attention

Origin of the Series

2002

Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko begin early concept work on Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Nickelodeon wanted to make a “legends & lore” type of show with a kid hero. That’s a genre we are very interested in, but we wanted to create a mythology that was based on Eastern culture, rather than Western culture.

Although “Avatar” isn’t based on a specific Asian myth, we were inspired by Asian mythology, as well as Kung Fu, Yoga, and Eastern Philosophy. We were also inspired by Anime in general. We wanted to create a story that inspired people’s imaginations and that had elements of comedy, drama, and action.”

-Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender

February, 2005
The animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender – marketed by Nickelodeon’s Marjorie Cohn as set in a “fantastical Asian world ” – premieres to critical acclaim. It soon earns a place as one of the most popular children’s shows on television, earning high ratings and garnering fans of all ages and backgrounds.
(source)

Caucasian or Any Other Ethnicity

August, 2008

The Protest Gets Organized

December 11, 2008

A grassroots movement launches the “Saving the World with Postage” campaign, urging the public to write letters to producers Kennedy & Marshall at Paramount Pictures, and Shyamalan at his company, Blinding Edge Studios.

Over 200 letters are ignored and returned to sender. Campaign organizers are given out-of-date and conflicting contact information by Paramount employees, but fans continue to send in letters to the Kennedy/Marshall Company. This fan movement eventually shifts into Racebending.com, the full site gets it’s launch in February 2009.

There is no response.

December, 2008
A Facebook group for anyone protesting the white-washed casting of The Last Airbender is created. There are now 4,700 members.

January, 2009
Asian American artist Derek Kirk Kim creates a petition of industry professionals who plan to boycott the film.

What if someone made a ‘fantasy’ movie in which the entire world was built around African culture? Everyone is wearing ancient African clothes, African hats, eating traditional African food, writing in an African language, living in African homes, all encompassed in an African landscape…but everyone is white.”

- Derek Kirk Kim, author of Same Difference and Other Stories
(source, photo courtesy of Aaron Albert)

Shortly after, award-winning Avatar: The Last Airbender director Giancarlo Volpe applauds Mr. Kim’s message:

This blog entry sums up my feelings exactly. Thank you, Derek Kirk Kim for spelling out the situation so eloquently. ”

-Giancarlo Volpe, Avatar: The Last Airbender director
(source, photo courtesy of Kenji Yamaguchi)

Extras and Villains Wanted, Seeking Actors of Color

January 24, 2009
First Open Casting Call for background extras held in Philadelphia. Flier reads: “dress in the traditional costume of your family’s ethnic background.”

At the cast call, casting director Deedee Ricketts recommended extras emphasize their own culture.

We want you to dress in traditional cultural ethnic attire,” she said. “If you’re Korean, wear a kimono.”
(source)

One middle-aged black woman, clad in a denim jacket and black slacks, raised her hand. “Are you at a disadvantage if you didn’t wear a costume?” she asked, evidently concerned about her “non-ethnic” outfit.

“Absolutely not!” Ricketts reassured her. “It doesn’t mean you’re at a disadvantage if you didn’t come in a big African thing. But guys, even if you came with a scarf today, put it over your head so you’ll look like a Ukrainian villager or whatever.”
For more on the casting, click here.
(source)

February 7, 2009

Advocacy Groups Become Involved

February 11, 2009

March 25th, 2009
After several weeks of being given the run-around, MANAA finally hears back from Paramount. Unfortunately, by this point, filming has already begun, making changing the cast substantially more difficult. In a letter signed simply “The Producers” The letter argues that the cast is “ethnically diverse and inclusive” and goes on to list the ethnicities and country of upbringing of actors playing antagonist and secondary characters. According to the letter, “The four nations represented in the film reflect not one community, but the world’s citizens.” The letter does not address MANAA’s concerns regarding a casting bias or that the lead roles were changed from Asian/Inuit to white.

March 28th, 2009
Zazzle.com inexplicably shuts down the Racebending.com t-shirt store despite fair use protections.

April 1st, 2009
Frank Marshall, one of the producers, returns from Greenland and opens a twitter account. His first tweet:

Good to be back in civilization…”

Angry members of the public immediately begin tweeting him regarding the cast. In response, Marshall tweets:

The casting is complete and we did not discriminate against anyone.”
- Frank Marshall, Executive Producer, The Last Airbender

April 9th, 2009
MANAA responds, again requesting a meeting to “discuss the casting and depiction of cultures in the movie.” MANAA writes:

MANAA is a strong supporter of studios’ efforts to increase diversity, but it is absurd to use that as an excuse to make a project more white and to say the original concept wasn’t diverse enough when the cultures of the four Asian [and Inuit] nations clearly were.”

Paramount does not respond, and MANAA’s repeated attempts to contact Paramount regarding The Last Airbender and The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard are also rebuffed.

April 24th, 2009
Racebending.com begins to poll supporters for demographics including gender, age, and hometown. Responses begin flooding in from all over the world…over 500 in just one day! To this day, Racebending.com still receives approximately three responses a day.

Former A:TLA staff members Speak Out

June 2009
Sifu Kisu, martial arts consultant on the animated series, begins to engage fans in the debate regarding the casting, through various forums on the internet as well as at San Diego Comic Con.

Now I’m hearing people are so surprised that a Caucasian kid was cast as the Asian lead? SHOCKING NEWS!! Kinda like the Kung Fu TV Series when David Carradine beat out Bruce Lee for the lead. I mean goodness we all know David Carradine was by far superior in the martial arts compared to Bruce Lee, go figure.
- Sifu Kisu, martial arts consultant, Avatar: The Last Airbender

June 9th, 2009
Paramount broadcasts on The Last Airbender fan sites that it has cast Korean American actor Isaac Jin Solstein, age 13. Despite their emphasis on this casting fans are quick to point out that Solstein has been cast as “Earthbending Boy”– a character so minor it does not even have a name. An experienced young martial artist and Asian American actor, Solstein could just as easily have played one of the main characters…

July 3rd, 2009
Professor S.L. Lee, series calligrapher and cultural consultant, is interviewed on San Francisco radio station 94.1KPFA.

Since the 1960s, there [have been] a lot of immigrants from Asia. There shouldn’t be any problem of selecting from a very wide arena of candidates, to cast this film. I was very puzzled by why there are absolutely no Asian [actors]–other than South Asians as one of the evil characters. I feel that this is totally off the theme of the original TV show. The reason why this TV show is now a syndicated show is because of the idea of having different ethnicities involved, and so I think that should be the same with the movie.”
– Professor S. L. Lee, cultural consultant to Avatar: The Last Airbender

July 23rd-26th, 2009
At San Diego Comic Con 2009, members of the Racebending.com Los Angeles Street team hand out fliers, pins, t-shirts, and collect petition signatures. They even get to meet the series creators and see the newest Comic Con Avatar: The Last Airbender fan poster.

An older version of Aang (the last Airbender) as depicted by co-creator Bryan Konietzko for a poster shared with fans at the San Diego Comic Con after the casting controversy.

The Street Team interviews several Comic Con celebrities opposed to the casting, including Jerry Holkins (Tycho) of Penny Arcade, Sandeep Parikh of The Guild, Gene Yang, writer of National Book Award finalist American Born Chinese, and Keith Chow, editor of comics anthology Secret Identities.

July 29th, 2009
Professor S.L. Lee, series calligrapher, announces that Chinese calligraphy–a cultural element so ingrained in the animated series it was included in the series logo–will not be used in the feature film.

July 31, 2009
Dao Le, Animatic Editor of the Avatar: The Last Airbender original animated series, speaks out:

It’s been a huge disappointment to hear about the casting for Avatar’s live-action movie. The show was heavily influenced by Asian culture, some of the characters were even modeled after Asian members of the crew.

But now, with the pre-dominantly white cast, it feels like all the Asian/Eastern influences, origins, what have you, were just a backdrop for these characters.

[...] I always believed they were Asian, or even mixed Asian. And that belief added a little extra pride in working on such a great show. The appreciation Mike & Bryan had for Asian culture, the interest it generated in the fans, gave me greater appreciation for my own culture.”
-Dao Le, Animatic Editor for Avatar: The Last Airbender

Paramount’s film The Goods Outrages the Asian American Community

August 14th, 2009
Paramount Pictures releases The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, which features a scene that incenses the Asian American community. The scene in question depicts the beating of an Asian-American man by car salesmen, evoking memories in the community to the real-life murder of Vincent Chin by Detroit auto workers. After a protest in front of Paramount Studios–a joint effort by several Asian-American groups, including the JACL, MANAA, and Racebending.com–Paramount pulled all advertising material for the film using the scene in question and agreed to meet with leaders in the Asian-American community to foster continuing dialogue on the issue.

On behalf of the studio, I want to extend our sincerest apologies to the Japanese American Citizens League and the greater Asian American community for the racially demeaning language used in the scenes depicted in the film.”
- Adam Goodman, President of Paramount Pictures

September 5th-7th,2009 A viral video criticizing the casting of The Last Airbender – unaffiliated with Racebending.com – runs on Dragon*ConTV throughout the weekend of the Dragon*Con convention. The video is played multiple times throughout the weekend before panels and at participating hotels.

October 2009
Racebending.com comes into the possession of a few pages from the Avatar: The Last Airbender’s “Intellectual Property Bible,” the guiding document members of the animated series’ production used to create the show. The Bible reiterates that the world of Avatar was always intended to be representative of the cultures of the Pacific Rim.

This is an ancient, fantastical Asian environment, primarily Chinese.”
- The A:TLA IP Bible

November 14th, 2009
At a meeting with Paramount Pictures regarding the depictions of Asian Americans in The Goods, the Media Action Network for Asian Americans brings up the casting controversy over The Last Airbender. The President of Paramount Pictures, Adam Goodman, is made fully aware of the public’s problems with the casting. Goodman promises to let the Asian American advocates at the meeting see a screening of the film well before before its release. Goodman tells MANAA that in all his years in the business, he has never seen such outcry over the casting of a character.

Racebending.com Hits the Road

November 21st, 2009
Racebending.com staff member Loraine Sammy is a panelist at the Futures of Entertainment Conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT.) The protest against the casting of The Last Airbender is now being studied in academia as an example of social change in transmedia.

December 24th, 2009
In his December 23rd, 2009 “Answer Man” column, venerated film critic Roger Ebert publicly condemns the casting of The Last Airbender film as “wrong.”

The original series Avatar: The Last Airbender was highly regarded and popular for three seasons on Nickelodeon. Its fans take it for granted that its heroes are Asian. Why would Paramount and Shyamalan go out of their way to offend these fans? There are many young Asian actors capable of playing the parts.”
- Roger Ebert, film critic

January 8, 2010
Dark Horse Comics announces the publication of Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Art of the Animated Series, a hardcover book set to release on June 2nd. The book jacket reads:

[Avatar: The Last Airbender is] beautifully executed, a stunning masterpiece of animated storytelling that harmonizes Western influences with aesthetic inspiration drawn from a diverse array of cultures, including those of China, Japan, India, and the Inuit.

January 28, 2010
The Los Angeles Times interviews M. Night Shyamalan. No mention of the casting controversy, but the article again describes Avatar: The Last Airbender as a “fusion of Eastern philosophies and martial arts” and explains that Shyamalan was drawn to its Buddhist philosophies. The character of Aang is a “pre-teen, martial-arts version of the Dalai Lama” and Dev Patel is playing “the evil Prince Zuko.”

February 4, 2010
Paramount debuts the Super Bowl Trailer for the film and holds the first few screenings for test audiences.

March 6, 2010
Racebending.com presents two workshops at the East Coast Asian American Student Union Conference to a packed house of students at the University of Pennsylvania.

March 11, 2010
M. Night Shyamalan shills The Last Airbender at the Upfronts. He also flies in fan sites and web journalists to New York City, has a Q&A breakfast with them, and hosts them at the Tribeca Grand Hotel.

March 15, 2010
Facebook shuts down the “People Against Racebending: Protest of the Cast of The Last Airbender Movie” Facebook group without warning for being “hateful, threatening, or obscene.” Jeff Yang of the San Francisco Chronicle launches a new group demanding that the Facebook group be restored. The group of supporters swells to over 500 supporters in 24 hours, including support from authors Maxine Hong Kingston, Derek Kirk Kim and Tak Toyoshima. After supporters send Facebook messages, the group is restored the next day at 8pm.

The Casting Controversy Draws Increased Media Attention

March 24, 2010
Paramount releases the full length trailer for The Last Airbender.

March 30, 2010
M. Night Shyamalan is interviewed by UGO.com and calls the film “the most culturally diverse tent-pole in history.” He is dismissive of what he calls “ironic” complaints about the casting and says that the diversity of the cast is “more than [fans] could have expected.”

It is revealed that Paramount reneged on its promise to give the fan sites and online journalists a video of the meeting to post publicly with their readers. Instead, the fan sites cobble together a transcript from their notes and recordings that day.io9.com also posts its transcript of the March 11th interview with M. Night Shyamalan and other fan sites follow suit.

The Media Action Network for Asian Americans blogs in response that “M. Night Shyamalan misses the point.” Several other websites, including the Los Angeles Times – Hero Complex, Racialicious, SlashFilm, ScreenCrave, etc. also take note.

Racebending.com responds with an email directly to the President of Paramount Pictures, Adam Goodman. The letter points out that M. Night Shyamalan misconstrued and was dismissive of public concerns, and requests a meeting between Paramount, the production of The Last Airbender, Racebending.com, and other advocacy groups.

April 1st, 2010

UGO.com interviews Racebending.com staffer Michael Le..

April 2nd-April 4th, 2010

Racebending.com hosts an exhibitor table among other fan tables at WonderCon 2010 in San Francisco, CA. Over a thousand people visit the booth and over 500 people participate in an online photo petition on the last two days of the convention.

On the same weekend at AnimeBoston in Boston, MA, fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender present on the film adaptation during the A:TLA panel.

April 7th, 2010

Los Angeles Times Comments Blog notes the fan dissent over the controversial casting of The Last Airbender.

April 8th, 2010

Producer Frank Marshall responds to the Michael Le interview on UGO.com by blaming what he agrees is “poorly worded and offensive” casting language “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” on “a local extra casting entity” that did not consult with the production or studio. (This, despite the fact that the language was used on the official Paramount thelastairbendercasting.com website and the casting language was for the LEAD characters and not extras.)

April 21st, 2010
Backstage Magzine, one of the most prominent actor/casting/trade magzines in Hollywood, publishes the first article on the controversy to include interviews from all sides of the argument: Airbent Out of Shape

April 28th, 2010
Racebending.com presents with MANAA at Cal Poly Pomona.

May 2nd, 2010
The Los Angeles Times publishes an article on the controversy, On the set: Casting of ‘Last Airbender’ stirs controversy. The article only provides quotes and information from the production, no advocacy groups were contacted.

May 11th, 2010
SciFiWire publishes two dueling editorials asking this question: Does Last Airbender Discriminate?

Racebending.com co-founder Marissa Lee argues:

“If not in a franchise like The Last Airbender, then what other opportunities do actors of Asian and Inuit descent currently have to star in Hollywood blockbusters?

Ian Spelling of SciFiWire argues:

“Was it truly Shyamalan’s duty to do what no one else has been willing or able to do?”

May 25th-May 28th, 2010

Several media outlets cover the casting controversies behind Prince of Persia and The Last Airbender. Articles about the controversy, with direct quotes from Racebending.com, are published by CBC Canada, The Los Angeles Times, The UK Daily Telegraph, The Associated Press and over 50 other media outlets. Racebending.com is also interviewed on the BBC World News Update.

July 1, 2010
Release date of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender.

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