On Racebending and Shyamalan

If you know me, you know I'm 100% behind the Racebending cause (or is it called the anti-racebending cause?)... anyway, I'm against the casting choices of M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender. Yes, I am HUGE fan of the Avatar animated series, and yes, I support the boycott of the film.

And since it's opening weekend for the film, I thought I'd finally articulate my thoughts on the film, and the director.

It boils to a few points:

1. Avatar: The Last Airbender, the animated series, is a beautiful celebration of Asian and Inuit culture. The costumes, settings, and martial arts are all based on aspects of real-world cultures. This is clear, this is deliberate (the creators have explicitly stated that the world is Asian-inspired).

But to keep this Asian culture in the film while removing the Asian people is exploitation. Asian culture is not something for your white heroes to wear. It's not just a theme you throw on to add flavor and exoticness to your product. This is not P.F. Chang's.

2. This WAS a perfect opportunity to cast Asian/Native American actors and actresses in a Hollywood movie, to bring some much needed mainstream representation for these communities. That opportunity was wasted, completely. Even Dante Basco (the voice of Prince Zuko from the animated series) agrees.

3. Whether deliberate or not, this movie was cast with white heroes saving Asian and African people from dark-skinned villains. Whether they mean to or not, this reinforces long-standing racist stereotypes in Hollywood.

4. The casting call favored Caucasians from the get go. Seriously, they barely even tried to reach out to the millions of talented actors/actresses of color out there.

Now onto M. Night Shyamalan...

He's not a bad guy. He has good intentions. He wants to make a beautiful, multi-ethnic, rainbow coalition film ...but he has done so by washing away the Asian/Inuit culture and people that already existed in this story.

In a way I can't blame him, because this conflict stems from a fundamental disagreement about the nature of anime. Basically, he believes that the anime characters of Avatar (and all anime) are completely meant to be racially ambiguous.

Now, I disagree 100%, because I think that the cultural context CLEARLY conveys race. (Aang's clothing and homeland are inspired by Tibetan and Shaolin monks, and his movements are taken directly from Ba Gua Zhang, a Chinese martial art. It stands to reason that he IS Asian. Also, his name is AANG.)

But IF you agree with Shyamalan, and accept that Aang is "racially ambiguous," than you can ignore all that "culture" stuff and cast whoever you want.

...Have I mentioned I DON'T agree with Shymalan? I don't agree with Shyamalan.

At the end of the day, I think he pursued his own intentions at the cost of taking opportunity and representation away from Asian/Inuit communities.

I for one, will not support this film with any of my money. If you must see it, I urge you wait until after its crucial first week or two.

And whether or not you agree, thanks for taking the time to read this.