Derek Kirk Kim, a Korean-American cartoonist, recently wrote a particularly poignant piece on the controversy surrounding the “whitewashing” of the cast of The Last Airbender.
First he touched upon a bit of personal history…
When my brother and I were in high school, our favorite class was Drama. While we were rehearsing for the next day’s class or participating in a school play or dancing it up at the after party, I don’t think there was anything we liked more. During such times, it even surpassed our love of—dare I say it—comics. But we never even entertained the notion of actually pursuing it as a career. Not because we didn’t want to, but because we had too much pride to spend our entire lives pretending to be Long Duk Dong, or a Chinese food delivery boy with one line, or a Kato to some Green Hornet. Or even worse, having our hearts broken over and over going after roles that specifically call for Asian Americans like “Avatar, The Last Airbender” only to see them go to white actors. Back in my Drama days in high school, I used to dream of being white so I could pursue acting.
With discrimination like this “Avatar” casting continuing to happen uncontested in Hollywood, my future kids will nurse the same pitiful wish.
And it infuriates me.
A sad bit of truth there, and it’s always bugged me about Hollywood. He also speaks on Avatar’s inseparable connection to Asian and Inuit culture.
It’s wholly and inarguably built around Asian (and Inuit) culture. Everything from to the costume designs, to the written language, to the landscapes, to martial arts, to philosophy, to spirituality, to eating utensils!—it’s all an evocative, but thinly veiled, re-imagining of ancient Asia. (In one episode, a region is shown where everyone is garbed in Korean hanboks—traditional Korean clothing—the design of which wasn’t even altered at all.) It would take a willful disregard of the show’s intentions and origins to think this wouldn’t extend to the race of the characters as well. You certainly don’t see any blonde people running around in “Avatar.” (I’m not saying that would have necessarily been a bad thing, I’m just stating the facts of the show and the world in which it is set.)
And a bit of foreshadowing…
Or let me draw a closer parallel—imagine if someone had 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.
How offensive, insulting, and disrespectful would that be toward Africans and African Americans? How much more offensive would it be if only the heroes were white and all the villians and background characters were African American? (I wince in fear thinking about “The Last Airbender” suffering from the latter dynamic—which it probably will.)
It would seem, given the recent recasting of the main villain, that this fear has unfortunately come to fruition.
African Americans kids can finally, realistically dream of being president one day. Can’t Asian American kids—perhaps my kids—at least dream of being something as relatively insignificant as central characters in some escapist Hollywood movie where everything is stolen from their heritage?
Can’t they be a part of America too?
To read the entire article, please visit Mr. Kim’s blog here.
Tags: Derek Kirk Kim, whitewashing
June 23, 2009 at 10:26 pm |
Uhm. Okay. Let me start by saying that I’m of Iranian descent, so my RACE has nothing to do with my problems with this article.
Let’s stop and think about this. I wouldn’t be surprised if M. Night Shyamalan, white supremacist that he is, is just searching for ways to bring the Asian culture in its entirety down. There’s also another chance that maybe the WHITE actors they cast in these roles were just more qualified. Maybe, in an attempt to make the most money possible, they scoured Hollywood to find the best actors possible, regardless of make and model. Maybe, just maybe they cast these white actors, not to slap Asian actors in the face, but because they deserved their roles.
It’s racist to say that white actors don’t deserve these roles, because of their skin color.
Plus, there are plenty of other roles in the Avatar trilogy that haven’t been announced yet, so who’s to say that there aren’t Asian Americans being cast into them. Also, there are a plethora of extras who are undeniably of Eastern descent.
So before we all get infuriated and disgusted, we need to stop and think. No one MADE any Asian actor be Long Duk Dong, or Quang Li the delivery man. Maybe, instead of bitching about how racist Hollywood is, aspiring actors and actresses who just HAPPEN to be Asian. need to say “no thanks” to those roles, and audition for something else. Lucy Liu did it.
July 10, 2009 at 8:57 am |
I find it so funny that throughout the entire animated series everyone was so desperate to say Avatar the Last Airbender was a “cartoon” and not an “Anime” because it was an created by Americans… but when they get to the actual film and the casting begins everyone is horrified at the fact their are white people playing the main roles. I would say that being an American show it was aimed for American kids. I’m sure it was kid’s in general all across the world but mostly Americans. I mean there’s no point in making a cake if the person your making it for doesn’t like it… I’m a huge fan of the Tv series and I watched every episode imagining that all the character’s were white… When they announced a film was on the way I also imagined white actors to play the roles (With the exception of the water benders). Not because Hollywood likes to “White wash films” and I have that frame of mind but because they seriously don’t look asian to me… Like not even the slightest bit. Sure I acknowledge that the architecture, clothing and writing looked asian but not the people. If the character’s are meant to be asian why did they never speak an asian language and just have subtitles…? I can dress up in asian cloths and move to asia… Doesn’t mean I’m asian. I still speak english. I mean I could make my own series with dark skinned people in it and everyone might be like they’re defiantly african… and I’d be like no… They’re Fijian Indians… So when people started saying “Aang ain’t white!” I was like wtf?? Seriously? Look at the eye’s… I know not all Asians have slits for eye’s but ever major character had massive eyes in the show, as well as a majority of the minor and background characters. It’s called “Speculative Fiction” It’s where you take some fact and mix it up with fiction… You can have a real story set in a fictional world or a fictional story set in a real world. You can have white character’s wearing asian cloths. I mean seriously no offense to an Asian person reading this but I’ve never seen an asian firebend before or bend any element for that matter. The story is set in a fictional world with fictional character’s who are never stated to be any race other than – Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation or Air Nomads… So if it was never stated that these character’s were a particular race from “Our World” then how the hell did everyone get this idea in their head that everyone in the Avatar Universe is Asian? Could it be that they saw bit’s of the asian culture and just assumed that the characters must be asian. I understand that white washing must be a horrible thing for young asian kids hoping to one day become an actor but you can’t white wash a show if the characters already look white. I would be more understanding if it was an Inuit person complaining about Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz playing the roles of Sokka and Katara. but even then you can still make their skin look darker with special effects these days. I would rather watch a film adaption of my favorite cartoon played by actors who look like their characters from the show and can actually act.
I mean if it’s that big a deal save up $300,000,000 and film your own “Avatar the last Airbender” with your desired cast and see how many people complain about the entire cast being Asian. No matter what cast you have you will always have someone who is unhappy about the choices. I’m upset that Dev Patel (An Indian Actor) is playing my favorite character Prince Zuko, who’s skin isn’t even Dark at all. But I haven’t gone and written a whole article dedicated to something I can’t change. I’ve learnt to look at the good points too it.
1) Dev Patel is great actor for his age, who also holds a blackbelt in Taekwondo which will come in handy with the many fight scenes that are bound to occur in the film.
2) It gives all the Indian’s and other dark skinned people out their a role model or an idol to look up to… Someone to be proud of as a representative of that culture.
3) He look’s like zuko! I mean if he can act and looks like him. Who really cares what colour his skin is. I would rather Dev playing Zuko than some random white (or Asian) guy who looks nothing like him.
You just need to simple find some good points in having no Asian main characters. What if the film sucks? If it was a cast mainly comprised of Asian actors then everyone would be like man I’m never watching a movie with Asian actors ever again. It could ruin your races reputation in the acting industry. All future movie casters would be like… “We can’t have Asian actor’s… Remember how much that Avatar film sucked?”
All I know is that I support M. Night Shyamalan’s film 100% it.
August 16, 2009 at 8:23 pm |
When you say it is an American show for American kids, that is true, but let’s not forget that America is not a country of just white kids. And what did you mean the characters don’t look asian? Do all asian people look the same? Also, Asian americans do not speak in subtitles, they speak in English. Your comments alone are very disturbing and racist all together. In addition, the cartoon was widely advertised by Nickelodeon as set in a “fantastical Asian world”. If it wasn’t meant to be any such race, they wouldn’t have called it that.
White people in America don’t really know what racism is or what it truly feels like. Racism is so deep rooted in America that most people do not truly recognize it or tend to ignore it and call it something else. Until we, as Americans, all recognize this racism will never end. Also, please remember American is not primarily white.
July 29, 2009 at 4:24 pm |
Stop being racist against white people. It’s not cute, funny, admirable, or even acceptable and I am very VERY offended by the entire letter that Mr. “kim” wrote.
Just because we’re white doesn’t mean we don’t get offended, and it most certainly doesn’t mean we’re invulnerable to racism.
It’s about time somebody defended the WHITE PRIDE.
I’m white, and I’m VERY PROUD. Honestly, I’d never want to be anything BUT white.
November 12, 2009 at 1:49 am |
noone’s telling you not to be proud. Racism is bad. Period.
But seriously, for a major movie like this, they couldn’t even cast a single decent Asian actor?… Also, I think his re-casting of Zuko shows some kind of forced compromises – I would almost respect Shyamalan more if he stood behind his original casting. Now it looks like he only did it to appease the fans, and that he made a mistake in the original casting. If he truly thought he cast the best actors for the part, then he would not back down…. And in fact, he would make a statement defending it as a non-racial issue. Yes, I agree it’s about the best actor, but cmon. I think the casting called for “Caucasian or any other ethnicity.”
February 24, 2010 at 2:39 am |
I know right! It’s sooooo terribly racist and anti-White to protest the removal of Asian and Native American cultures from a movie based on a cartoon based on their cultures and the heroes made in their image in the first place!
Seriously, no one’s being racist to Whites. They’re just protesting whitewashing.
August 28, 2009 at 7:25 pm |
the superb acting in “dragonball” and “speedracer” shows that white people obviously play better asians. can’t wait till they cast kevin spacey as the live action fat albert because he’s a “better actor.”
October 11, 2009 at 9:34 pm |
Over at FaceBook a new Group was made AGAINST Racebenders “All For Avatar”
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=155823106882
I Joined
November 12, 2009 at 1:46 am |
It’s not about backwards racism: this is clearly an ethnic period film, and so should be cast by the correct ethnicities.
Then again, what else is new? Tamlyn Tomita played a second-generation daughter in Joy Luck Club (about Chinese women). Because, after all, all Asians look alike, right?
And, I doubt they tried very hard and looked beyond race. I’m sorry, but the American film industry does NOT work that way… they’re still trying to make money. Only “B” films can actually say they don’t cast according to race, because it’s not mainstream.
November 19, 2009 at 2:19 am |
All!!! Bottom line & of end of story: the movie/book/cartoon – Avatar: The Last Airbender was/is based on an asian children’s story book created/writtne by “ASIAN PEOPLE”, hence should be cast and presented by a predominantly asian cast – “Period”!!!! Dah!!
November 19, 2009 at 2:23 am |
I completely agree! Why have a story line based on some asian cultural believe/fantasy and cast a complete all “Non-Asian” cast? DAh!!
February 5, 2010 at 11:30 pm |
i kinda agree with the article.
i mean the point of making a movie based on a book or show is for the movie to portray the book/show..
i have no problem with race or anything like that but thats the main reason why i hate seeing movies based off crap..
becuase when i watch it i cant help but want to scream..like was i reading a different book or movie because im pretty sure that wasnt suppose to happen…
and what they did is like if when they made the movie pendragon for loor they cast some white lady when in the book loor is clearly of african descent…but they probably wouldnt do that why? because it would be too obvious but changing asian characters to white ones is much easier…
soo epic fail with the cast choice but hopefully they got the plot right
February 11, 2010 at 12:39 am |
BRUCE LEE is rolling over in his grave. Shame. Dev Patel is a cover up for the original Zuko, which was going to be played by Paul McCartney. God forbid an Asian, or any person of color can save the world.