There’s a great big hullabaloo going down over the casting of white actors as the leads in the live-action adapation of the Asian-themed cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Apparently, it’s a really popular show on Nickelodeon.
Here’s a more objective article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/01/28/apop012809.DTL
The source of that picture up above: http://www.geneyang.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry090128-131008
And this one I really like: http://derekkirkkim.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-day-in-politics-same-old-racist.html
Let us touch on the last one. It draws an analogy, a what-if scenario wherein white actors are cast to play “black” roles, like in the movie Shaft. The author posits that there would be outrage in the black community if the leads were played by whites and the background characters/motifs were black. In fact, the general press would likely scoop up such a juicy story and plaster the headlines on their front pages. It’s hard to disagree with its.
The funny thing is how Asians are so easily subjected to this “whitewashing”, and movie studios are able to get away with it. Even in recent times, actors have been able to don their yellowface and play off Asian themes, while casting the leads (at least, the males) with white actors. Check out Balls of Fury for a recent example.
The problem, you ask? It’s pretty straightforward. Check out exhibit A:
This is a scan of what an author wrote when she signed a copy of her book for an Asian American customer, who wanted it made out to his sister. I guess the brother and sister got quite the surprise when they came home and found this.
Where am I going with this? Well, for some reason this 47 year old white author thinks it’s okay to be racist to Asians (more info here). Now, I’m sure many an Asian child has dealt with racial slurs or the pulling-of-corner-of-eyes crap in the schoolyard. It’s demeaning garbage that makes you feel pretty bad inside. Now with this Avatar movie, with its great fan following of school-aged children, we finally have a chance to show that it’s actually pretty cool to be Asian and to have all that history and culture. Problem is, if white actors portray the leads then not only does that dream disappear, it just further reinforces the idea in Hollywood that Asian actors are only ever needed for stereotypical bit roles, and it’s better to cast whites as the dynamic leads.
