Racebending.com

Airbender’s creators, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, have said they purposely chose to base their cartoon in an Asian-inspired setting as opposed to a European one, incorporating different kinds of martial arts, as well as other cultural elements like Chinese calligraphy. At least some of the main characters were drawn as people of colour. That the initial casting had four white actors in the main roles, and that the three heroes are still all played by whites, is an outrage, said Guy Aoki of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans. "It speaks volumes when the initial casting decision was to cast four white leads," he said. "For them to be comfortable with that … it’s embarrassing, it says a lot about their attitudes." (more...)

"The movie’s detractors have spoken against the film at six college campuses, including MIT.,New York University and UCLA, also setting up booths at events such as San Francisco’s WonderCon pop culture expo to publicize their discontent. At last count, the group’s Facebook group had 7,125 supporters and attracted petitioners against the movie’s casting in 55 countries. The stated goal: to prevent “Airbender” from blooming into a lucrative three-part franchise via negative word of mouth..." (more...)

Did The Last Airbender Discriminate? SciFiWire publishes two dueling editorials from Racebending.com co-founder Marissa Lee and freelance entertainment writer Ian Spelling. "Hollywood continues to privilege actors who are male and white with more work opportunities," Lee writes. "As a result, equally talented women and actors of color are denied voice and the opportunity to represent their communities." (more...)

"We're upset about how the production has conducted itself," [Racebending.com] said. "It goes back to not only the release of the casting notice, which specified Caucasian as a preference, but also several actions they've taken since then, such as ignoring advocacy groups, ignoring the petition and the consumers who would logically be the fundamental fan base and consumer base for the film when we came to them with concerns." (more...)

Frank Marshall says the production didn't "intend" to discriminate. End of story? Racebending.com digs deeper... (more...)

UGO.com interviews Racebending.com press contact Michael Le. Mike: "I believe the American public, and American consumers, American families and parents and children, are more ready for actors of color to lead the way than Hollywood believes." (more...)

"Racebending.com's members know that at this point in the game they can't change the film's casting, but that hasn't stopped them from carrying on their message to the Bay Area WonderCon last week..." (more...)

"Fans have a culture, too. So why isn't there room for them in M. Night's "tent-pole movie," especially when their protests say a lot about our own changing but very real world?" (more...)