Racebending.com

“Shyamalan’s ‘The Last Airbender’ Under Fire for Racebending” by Natalie Zutter.

While thousands were drooling over James Cameron’s lush CGI epic, another Avatar film was in development: the adaptation of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender (which eventually lost the first word, to avoid confusion). The landmark series was heavily inspired by Asian culture — especially martial arts, calligraphy, and food — and featured heroes of color. When Paramount announced that it would translate the animated series into a live-action film helmed by M. Night Shyamalan, fans were overjoyed.

However, when Paramount began the casting process, people of color protested the studio’s practice of racebending — i.e., they called for actors who were “Caucasian or any other ethnicity”. They created the reactionary website Racebending.com to educate people on the choice. The three leads are white: Noah Ringer as Aang, Nicola Peltz as Katara, and Jackson Rathbone as Sokka. After the Caucasian actor meant to play villain Zuko dropped out, only then was Dev Patel (of Indian descent) cast. That casting, Racebending.com says, then led to a call for non-white actors… to play the other antagonists.

The latest controversy came when Facebook took down Racebending.com’s group on the social networking site, eventually reinstalled it as a secret group, and finally made it public again — all while groups comparing President Obama to Osama bin Laden, or mocking sexual assault, remained intact.

Here’s one of their videos, which coaches people on talking points for the controversy, including how to answer the common argument regarding Aang’s ethnicity:

Check out the latest trailer for The Last Airbender and judge for yourself if the casting could have been racially motivated:

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, plus responding to M. Night Shyamalan’s interviews with other news outlets. Additionally, they highlight artists and actors of color each week, in the hopes of influencing casting directors to not automatically call for white actors, especially in obviously non-white roles.