Hallo,

You have found my main journal, which is used for my inanities about life, fandoms and friends. Most posts are flocked. I'm happy to friend you back!

If you are looking for fanart, please watch/join my art community glockart.

If you are looking for my posts about Avatar: The Last Airbender movie casting, CLICK HERE.

When Bryan and Mike do everything to make this show and world and people Asian (-American-ish), short of slapping blinking signs saying "AZN" on them and plastering them with yellowface caricatures, and people still go "THEY'RE TOTALLY WHITE," I'm thinking there's just no helping those ones.
-- vejiicakes

If you are looking for the meaning of life, you can find it in an aquarium of British fish.

AZKATRAZ: INFORMATION
It seems like not many Azkatraz-attendees are checking their flists these days (SO MUCH STUFF TO PREPARE FOR!), but for those who are, here's some cool informational stuffs that could add to your trip:

Unofficial Azkatraz Survival Guide - LOTS of great info on transit to the hotel and hotel amenities. Free wireless at next door Starbucks, yay!

PDF Schedules of Azkatraz Programming and the Azkatraz Presentation Summaries and the Azkatraz Events Schedule in THREE FORMATS. There are a lot of great things going on, so take note if you enjoy planning.

QUICK NOTE #1: The Fanart Retrospective panel on Sunday from 4:30 - 6pm has a new feature: FANART DRAW LIVE! The panel will not just discuss fandom/fanart, but artists will be drawing live for the audience's pleasure!! Artists participating in FANART DRAW LIVE! are: reallycorking, lizardspots, draykonis, dramedy and tbranch. People...you gotta check this out. CHECK OUT THE LINE-UP. It'll be awesome.

Speaking of great things - Schedule for the Drawble/Drabble and FanArtist Portfolio Showings! You know the drill - show up and the artist/writer will sketch out your request for you right there. This will take place in the Embarcadero Room (Vendors and Art Gallery) on Level 3.

And just in case you're curious, my Azkatraz Schedule and my contact list poll if you'd like to share your phone number with me.

QUICK NOTE #2: Gotta a posted schedule of your own that you'd like to share with everyone? Want a quick place to have all the schedules in one place? Commment and link to it here! Then during Azkatraz, your friends will have a one-stop place to nab all the personal schedules they want. (okay really this is just for me, hurr hurr *iz creepy*)

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I had other non-Azkajazz stuff to talk about, but I'll put that in another post. For now. AZKATRAZ!

I'm leaving this as an open public unlocked post, FYI.

YOU TOTALLY KNOW IT, THAT'S RIGHT.

( STAR TREK REBOOT FANART MEME - warning, giant-asstastic image )



NOW YOU MUST DO IT. IF YOU AREN'T ALREADY. HERE BE TEH BLANK

Amid the heady fannish joy, I'm taking a moment to be srs bsnz.

THE LAST AIRBENDER UPDATE AND URGENT PLEA
So USA Today released photos of both Noah Ringer (Aang) and Dev Patel (Zuko) from the movie. ( Check out the photos )

Aside from the painfully shoddy production value of these publicity photos, the fail of this is multiple. It's being discussed HERE.

<The racebending.com peeps are urging fans and advocates to contact USAToday/Scott Bowles with emails regarding this 'article'. The details:

"Send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification."
They prefer articles with 250 words or less. Jumping off ideas:

* The wording of using the "look of Aang"
* Good guy/bad guy coding in the article
* No mention of racefail casting practices
* The production's missteps, including culturally ignorant statements made by the cast and crew

Please, if you have the time, send something in. They can ignore one or two letters, but if two hundred people write them then they may feel like they need to print something. Please don't assume that other people will read this post and write in! And finally, please also ask others to write in as well!

Please please please! And thank you, so so very much. ILU all.
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NICKELODEON PRE-VIS: what they actually intended
There has also been a pre-vis video released that showed how Nickelodeon intended the characters to look and it's pretty telling. It's all in 3D with some hastily assembled models and effects - the usual pre-vis teaser pitch.

Screencaps from the video (it keeps being removed from YouTube) have been posted on racebending.com. What strikes me most is Katara. Clearly her 3D version - even with its lack of modeling finesse - is NOT WHITE. The purposely used a darker skin colour and Inuit features.

Here, you don't even need to visit the site if you don't want to, check it out ( here )

Now it's just a bunch of the same arguments over and over from commenters on the USA Today article, who have done absolutely know research into this movie, bu think they know everything about it and how people are cast and what colourblind means to them. Good times!

Props to the people commenting over at the IJ Scans_Daily, though. Yay!

AVATAR/ZAZZLE/VIACOM UPDATE

FOFL ZAZZLE HAS PUT THE ORIGINALLY REMOVED RACEBENDING PRODUCTS BACK FOR SALE.

The story since last time you joined this hoohah:
- Zazzle removes products from the racebending store, claiming it's copyright infringement
- I inquire clarification
- They tell me Viacom claims intellectual property
- I'm like wtf and post on my LJ
- SO MANY PEOPLE GIVE ME AMAZING ADVICE, including the kickass people from otw_news and jedifreac. the hero to my sidekick.
- BoingBoing.net does a write up about it.
- Zazzle tells me that the products were removed because Viacom does routine searches on Zazzle to remove IP
- I put up MORE products, some saying 'CENSORED BY V1ACOM'
- One of those products gets removed, claiming again 'intellectual property'.
- I file a DMCA counternotification from Zazzle
- scrollgirl, bless her, emails Viacom and asks them for an explanation.
- VIACOM REPLIES IMMEDIATELY (!!!) saying:

We didn’t take anything down from Glockgal’s Zazzle store. Zazzle did it without our request or our knowledge. When we eventually heard about what they had done, we asked them to restore the merchandise as quickly as possible.

- Zazzle products...back for sale. Including all of the keywords.

Most hilarious part? Try doing a keyword search for 'airbender' on Zazzle. Other than a couple more obscure products which had never been removed, my products are the ONLY ONES THAT SHOW UP.
(this is subject to change, if the Zazzle or Viacom peeps read this journal. Hiya! *waves*)






This has been one incredibly surreal event in my life. The blending of fannish and real life...crimeny. Good god, a big thank you so EVERYONE who helped and gave advice and told me not to just shrug and accept this.

heh

AVATAR: ZAZZLE/VIACOM FAIL
Wow. OH WOW. All but one of the products on my racebending.com Zazzle store has been removed because "it contained content in violation of Viacom's intellectual property rights". This means not just images (all of which were drawn by me), but also WORDS.

Apparently a t-shirt saying 'Aang can stay Asian and still save the world' is a copyright violation, but images and words taken directly from the cartoon are just fine. Deleted as well, right after I made this post. Well...okay then. O.o

Anyway, this just means I get to make more Zazzle products and be more circumspect AND publicise on my Zazzle store that my products were removed by Viacom's orders. Awesome...?

( screencap vof images for the record )

ETA 1 - Zazzle's response to my request for a DMCA notice. ( read it here )
So I did a search for 'avatar the last airbender' and 'airbender' and found a total of two items (mine and someone else's) t-shirts. So now I'm thinking Viacom has removed EVERYONE'S products that used the search 'airbender'...not just racebending's products?

Hmmm.


ETA 2 - All's well in Zazzle/Viacom HappyLand. The racebending store now has all its products back up. Read about how it happened HERE
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AVATAR: TAKE THE QUICK SURVEY!
I urge you all to fill out this quick survey over at the racebending community. Or if you're feeling lazy, you can fill it out here and I'll pass on the message:. Copy and paste in comments:
<b>AGE</b>
<b>GENDER</b>
<b>ETHNICITY</b>
<b>REASON (THREE SENTENCES ONLY)</b>

Thank you!
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AVATAR: YOUTUBE CHANNEL!
Yeah baby! Racebending.com now has a YouTube Channel! It's specifically geared towards making boycotting videos for the movie, but we're also looking for creative and insightful videos regarding the protest.

More info is HERE on making your own boycott video to add to the channel (you have the freedom to be creative, but polite). If you have a video about Avatar that you'd like us to add to our Favourites, please contact boycott@racebending.com.

And, if you have a webcam or a video recorder, make your own video! I'm considering buying a webcam just for this purpose! And then maybe later for....sexy purposes.*





I KID, I KID. I AM VERY SRS BZNS ;D

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER
Updates! Lots of very very cool happenings:

MANAA and Paramount Pictures: Round 3?
Paramount Pictures finally responds to MANAA's letter. Claims their desire for ethnic diversity. Signed personally by 'The Producers'. MANAA replies, seeing right through 'The Producers' pretense and derailing.

We urge everyone who is protesting the casting to CONTACT MANAA via email, phone calls etc. They want to know that people are invested in this. Please help by showing them you care about diversity!
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Margaret Cho
Eee she posts about The Last Airbender on her blog! SQUEEEE!!!
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NYC Boycott Fan Meetup
This looks so cool. I hope some people can make it so I can live vicariously through you. :D
When: 5:30pm (sharp) to around 6:30pm Friday, April 24th, 2009
Where: Outside Starbucks, on the corner, connecting to the East Bank bank between the Canal Street (6) line and the Canal Street (J,M,Z) line.

There's a Facebook event for it HERE.
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Much love to everyone who's still going strong! I'm right there with you. <3
racebending.com

(ps - my RL has been a little hectic lately, so comments have been disabled. But feel free to contact me if you need to).

BINDI?
DISCLAIMER: I'm using 'Wolverine and the X-Men' as an example. I'm not offended by the cartoon, I just laugh at the story/characterization of the X-Men. My personal opinion, which doesn't affect this discussion and doesn't judge your enjoyment of the cartoon. (in short: I like tons of stuff others laugh at; but I know you don't judge me for it. ;D)

I've watched a few modern-day cartoons (most recently the laughable Wolverine and the X-Men) and noticed a vaguely delightful increase in speaking, Asian-varieties of NPCs*. In particular, Indian women (generally depicted as scientists, teachers, doctors). And generally they:

a) wear a bindi**
b) have an Indian accent

**( Digress to a LOLwtf about the Wiki entry on bindi )

So like, okay. It's a cartoon, right? Cartoons need to simplify, stylise and provide easy indicators so children can immediately understand that a character is heroic or evil or a boy or a girl. So a brown character, she could essentially be any variation of brown-skinned races in the world - until the creators slap on a bindi and give her an Indian accent.

Is it necessary? Can we have a speaking!brown character without providing cultural indicators? What I mean is:

• can a child watching the cartoon comprehend that the character is a certain race without the cultural indicator?
• for a child, can it be a subtle, subconscious form of Othering?
• and, is it really necessary for the child to comprehend the culture of the character if it's not particularly necessary to the story?

Most of the speaking!NPCs are just that - NPCs. They forward plot and no complex characterization. Interestingly, - most of the cartoons I watch being American cartoons - this cultural indicating/branding applies to white NPCs, as long as they're outside of America. In Wolverine and the XMen for example, scenes/people of Germany where hilariously situated in some olde tyme burg and the NPCs all dressed like peasants from 1896. And...I'm pretty sure they carried torches (not flashlights - actual fire).

Last question - if I win the lottery, should I commit myself to the research and investigation of race and racial shortcuts in cartoons? Because now I really really want to. And if I enlist you guys to help, I'll totally give you $5 (Canadian).



PS - 'NPC' means 'non-player character'. If you didn't already know that, your nerd-level has just dropped by 5 points. XD

AVATAR - SIGN THE PETITION, O PLS.
Oh my lovely flist - if you haven't seen the racebending.com website yet, there is now a petition to sign! This petition will be printed out and hand-delivered to Paramount Pictures, MANAA and EWP, so it's not just a useless petition of uselessness. It can make a difference and it can bolster the cause.

The production made a choice. That choice sent a clear message:
"Children of Color: You are not good enough to play the hero, even if that hero shares your ethnicity."

More info about the petition, including the letter to Paramount in full.

Or, if you know you already rally against The Last Airbender casting, head on over and
SIGN THE PETITION

ETA: if you want to use this image, feel free to hotlink. In this one case, I really don't mind people using my bandwidth, yay! \o/

Just as important - TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THIS PETITION! If each of you can get at least five people to sign this petition, it will make SUCH an incredible difference and you will totally deserve good karma, brownie points, a pat on the back and all the candy in the world! ♥ ♥ ♥

Thank you!
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(isn't the new site gorgeous? Check out the pretty Press Release, squeeee! Our lovely web designer opal_skies is to thank. *love*)

AVATAR: MORE CASTING!FAIL
So remember how there were rumours floating around that the nations would be cast according to their lead actors? So in essense:

Air Nomads (heroes, victims of genocide): white people
Water Tribe (heroes, oppressed, canonically dark-skinned): white people
Earth Nation (good/bad, repressed): anything 'exotically Asian'
Fire Nation (evil, genocidal tyrants): brown people

Remember that? Yeah well it's all true. Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub and Cliff Curtis have joined the cast of M. Night Shyamalan's THE LAST AIRBENDER.

As much as I love - LOVE these guys, what's paining me so much is this:

• some fans of colour saying "Well, Fire Nation ain't all that bad! There's...this one character and...oh this other one character." Yes, sure. And they only way they can be good is when WHITE PEOPLE TELL THEM THEY CAN BE GOOD. Give the brown character a cookie for turning on his entire evil nation!!


• some fans of colour are saying "Yay, it's so good to see brown representation! I'm so proud!" It's sad that PoC are reduced to saying "Well...at least...they're...visible!"


• fans saying racebending and aang-aint-white are 'fanwanks'. This is just wretched.

And remember: in the cartoon, THE WATER TRIBE WAS THE DARK-SKINNED NATION. AND THE HEROES. NOW THEY ARE ALL WHITE. Once again, Hollywood is showing adults and children that White is Right. What a great adage to believe in in the year 2009.

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AIRBENDER: WHITE WASHED WATER TRIBE
This is killing me. Filming has begun in Greenland. What do you think about that photo? What do you think when you see that village? Hey, take a look at the people who live in Greenland!

I'd give you one clue: It's not white people.

I'm still trying to get over the fact that they've kept everything Siberian Yupik/Inuit based, except the people. They are blatantly whitewashing and they don't care. I CAN'T. I CAN'T WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THIS.
--------

Still in its rough stages, but it's functional!

TWILIGHT > AVATAR
Cree Actor in Talks for Lead Role in Twilight's 'New Moon' - I MEAN. COME ON. If Twilight can make the goddamned effort, WHY DOES THE LAST AIRBENDER HAVE TO FAIL US ON SO MANY (read: three) LEVELS?? IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE AN ASIAN-BASED WORLD, WTF WTF WTF.

I don't want to discuss Twilight's actors/plot/characters/fanbase on my journal, but feel free to join me in my joy that there's a Native American actor in a lead role, because Summit actually took the time to FIND ONE. And conversely, share in my dismay that The Last Airbender casting directors obviously can't make that effort.

Did you see this, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy? What can you say now? Do you even care?

Well, obviously they don't, because there have already been sightings of our two white-washed heroes (and our one dark-washed anti-hero) entering pre-production phase with M. Night Shyamalan in Philadelphia. Inuit-based characters? No way, there are no Inuit actors. So let's just make the ENTIRE NATION WHITE.

Fantastic.

AVATAR: AIR AND WATER = WHITE
There was a small but successful protest in Flushing, New York which has all been recorded here. The most disturbing discovery being that, according to what the auditioning actors told our protesters (quoth sidepocket_pro):

The casting director inside said that they are casting around the race of the actors they have chosen, so this is how the tribes will break down:
- Water Tribe = White People
- Fire Nation = Indian People
- Earth Nation = "Asian" People
Which if rumors are correct, the final puzzle piece is:
- Air Nation = White People

And this is what it means:

• The two nations that contribute the three main heroes of the film are now (conveniently) white.


• Even when people disagreed about Aang's race, most people agreed that yes, Sokka and Katara are definitely darker-skinned characters and look to be Inuit-based. The Water Tribe was - on whole - the darkest-skinned characters in the show, and they were the heroes Their nation has been completely white-washed.


• Oh! But guess who the dark-skinned ACTORS get to now play in the movie? THAT'S RIGHT, THEY ARE NOW THE VILLAINOUS NATION.


• This Asian-based fantasy world is now composed of: generic!Asian (periphery roles), South East Asian (villains) and two nations of generic!white (heroes). ONCE AGAIN, WHITE IS THE DEFAULT "RACE" FOR FANTASY CHARACTERS

--------------------------------

THE WASHINGTON POST has written an article about the casting of The Last Airbender! (OH! If you keep getting the login screen, read the article HERE.) And I am loving this Casting Director Ricketts more and more with every gem that drops from her mouth:

"There's been some talk that we're casting authentic Asians as a response to the backlash, which is totally wrong because our world is multi-ethnic and the 'Avatar' world will be multi-ethnic.'"

O RLY, MS RICKETTS?? Then why is the Inuit-based nation now white? ANYONE WITH EYES could tell that the Water Tribe was not white, even Jackson "I need a tan!" Rathbone. So is the Water tribe now gonna be Nordic? Or Icelandic? Or vampiric? The paler they are, the better the hero, amirite?

Anyway, bless the Washington Post, they did a bang up job of reporting. The best (saddest?) bit is on the last page with the quintet of hopeful actors and DeeDee Ricketts' 'helpful' advice.
--------------------------------

Let me get a few things clear, since there are a lot of people who have a thousand different opinions about what and who aang_aint_white is:

1) People who are protesting this do not hate white people. People who are protesting this do not have a political agenda. People from all spectrums of politics and race support this cause.

2) AAW is not composed of a handful of disgruntled nerdy white fans who scream racism but sekritly just want some other pet actor to play the roles. We are not all-white and the only thing that concerns us about this casting is white-washing, yellowface and discrimination.

3) AAW isn't composed of disgruntled Asians with nothing better to do than pick on honest-working white actors and innocent!sweet!Hollywood. We are not all-Asian and we are concerned about the systemic racial bias in Hollywood that has been going on for decades. If we don't speak up, this will continue.

kthnx!

THE EAST WEST PLAYERS

The East West Players have sent an letter to Paramount Picture to voice their concern over the white-washing of the cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The letter is in pdf format and can be read from here.

But who are the East West Players? Many of them lent their voice acting talent to The Last Airbender animated series, in a variety of guest roles. Two members were full-time voices on the show:

-- Dante Basco - who voiced Prince Zuko (now cast as Dev Patel in the movie)
-- the late Makoto "Mako" Iwamatsu - who voiced Uncle Iroh to Prince Zuko

Mako was a determined long-time activist and voice for Asian American actors when they had have no voice in Hollywood. He was one of the founding members of the East West Players, and was determined to ensure that Asian American actors and filmmakers received rights, representation and recognition in the film industry. He fought discrimination and stereotype in film all of his life.

What would he have thought about The Last Airbender casting of the main characters? It's an unhappy thing to wonder.

Anyway.

The East West Players is an Asian American theater troupe based in Los Angeles, created to fight the discrimination minority actors face while working in Hollywood and increase opportunities for Asian American artistic talent. EWP's latest play, IXNAY stars Avatar's own Dante Basco! IXNAY is directed by Tim Dang (voice of Yon Rha, "The Southern Raiders") and currently playing in the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles through March 15th.

So if you live in southern California and are in the mood to see a play, please go check it out! And do tell me what you think. It sounds so cool. ♥!

AVATAR: PROTEST IN NEW YORK AND VIRGINIA
Reminder: The Last Airbender has put out a call for PoC as background roles.

aang_aint_white has the dates, times and locations on both HERE.

There's also now a Facebook event for the Flushing, NY protest, started up by sidepocket_pro who plans to attend. GO HERE If you live close/in Flushing, please consider joining in the protest!

Here's a really swell flyer from the FB event for people to print and distribute. Print/download them from here and here.

From a rather unfunny article in the Washington Post:

The producers are looking for actors of Mongolian, Cambodian or Laotian heritage, which suggests the filmmaker is responding to previous criticism from "Avatar" fans about the cast looking a little too Caucasian.

Responding? Responding how? By making sure everyone with non-speaking roles gets to be Asian, while the white actors save the world? Oh! Oh how GRACIOUS of them. Yeah, that's exactly what we want, thanks so much. *bows, bows, wags head, bows*

Honestly, I would have been less aggravated if they just cast everyone as white actors/extras and have done with it. But this is just insulting. This kind of response only serves to rub in my face just how much they believe only white actors in lead roles will bring in the $$$$$. I JUST. GYAH.

If you live nearby either Flushing or Arlington but you can't attend, please consider printing out the flyers over the weekend and posting them in public areas or leaving a pile of them in a public area? THANK YOU I LOVE YOU FOR IT!

<3 <3 <3

AVATAR: PROTEST IN NEW YORK AND VIRGINIA
Once again, The Last Airbender has put out a call for PoC in the background only. No Asians allowed as the three lead roles! Only in the background, non-speaking roles, people. Don't worry, the white people will save you from impending doom, that's how it's done.

aang_aint_white has the details on both HERE.

There's also now a Facebook event for the Flushing, NY protest, started up by sidepocket_pro who plans to attend. GO HERE If you live close/in Flushing, please consider joining in the protest!

Here's a really swell flyer from the FB event for people to print and distribute. Print/download them from here and here.

Quoted from AAW:

Paramount is trying to put a bandaid on this problem by casting Asian actors in minor, background roles, in a world that will still be saved by three white heroes. Now is the time to tell them that that isn't good enough.

Also, please remember The Language of Casting:
-- Caucasian, or other ethnicity for LEAD ROLES
-- Near and Far Eastern, Middle Eastern, Asian, Mediterranean and Latino. etc and now Chinese, Thai, Mongolian, Vietnamese etc for BACKGROUND AND EXTRAS.

Tell me again that this movie isn't fucking white-washed when it comes to the heroes? Tell me again how this movie is just OOOHHH FANTASY (AKA WHITE) and not Asian-based/diverse? Tell me again that I'm a bad fan for being angry at their blatant racism?

Damn it all. I am so angry all over again.

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER - LULZ
Man, I haven't done a Google search for 'aang-aint-white' in a long time, and yet it never fails to be full of fail.

I finally found a commenter who thinks racism is over (see comment 10). I feel like I should win a prize or something! I mean, I've joked about that whole "But we elected Obama! We're post-racism!" tripe, but I never thought I'd actually see it. Not only are we post-racial, but WW2 Japanese internment camps were fear-based (not racist!) and lynchings don't happen any more.

HAAHAHAH WHY ARE PEOPLE SO --. Anyway. I won't say what.

Even better, I also found the most confused reaction to Aang-Aint-White ever. I mean, is he for a diverse cast? Or is he against it? Or does he only approve of it if people agree with him and hate 'tangential liberals'? This is why Canadians get a bad rap - because they get angry about stuff, but then they flip-flop on points and therefore make NO POINT. The best part of this is that he's under the impression that the creator of aang_aint_white is...oh where's the quote, it's so gold...ah:

Except the chick who started the "Aang ain't white" movement on Youtube is white. The vast majority of people who I've seen up in arms about this are white. I've seen extremely little asian interest in this at all; because really most asians don't give a fuck about Avatar. Its fan-rage, and most of the fans of Avatar are pasty white kids.

So...is he saying that only Asian people should be angry about this? Or just white people who AREN'T fans of the show? Or....?

AHAHAHAHAAHAHAH WHY ARE PEOPLE SO ---. Right. Not gonna say it.

Now I'm gonna Google 'Avatar whitewash' and see what I can find! Wheeee.....?
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-- Oh and to clarify, I've been using the royal 'We' in the past few Avatar-related posts. Not out of pretentiousness; I literally mean 'we' as in the core-group from AAW. It's truly been a group effort (massive stress on effort) and so I feel like I should be inclusive. :D Rah rah rah!

-- Over on racebending, there's an interesting discussion on Inuit Culture in the Last Airbender Movie. I figure some of you might wanna join in! I plan to as well, once I get my thoughts formulated, hehe.

-- And later, more on the East West Players, their group members and their upcoming production!

AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER: SUPPORT
Remember how right at the beginnng I offered to donate to MANAA if protest letters were mailed to Paramount Pictures? Well, in light of MANAA's letter to Paramount Pictures as well as all the enthusiasm and action that us regular people have been taking, I finally made the donation.

YAY!!! ( image proof so you can confirm )


Oh Caramell Dansen. ILU.

An excerpt from MANAA's letter:

The Asian American community, and the movie-going public at large, is used to seeing Asian men depicted as villains and rarely get the opportunity to see Asian heroes they can get behind and cheer for. This is also an historic opportunity to give Asian American actors a chance to shine in a big-budget film franchise which would bolster their careers for future projects. You will get deserved credit for launching those careers and can break down barriers by understanding that the audience that loved the television series is ready (and expects) to see Asian Americans playing those characters on the big screen.

You can read the letter in full here, and their ongoing blog on this and other issues can be read here. We're thrilled that the MANAA has decided to become involved in this issue, and we look forward to seeing where that involvement may lead.

MANAA deserves a lot of love for taking on this cause, so if you have the time, be sure to drop them an email, thanking them for their ongoing efforts to communicate with Paramount Pictures: manaaletters@yahoo.com or letters@manaa.org

If you'd like to find out more ways to help out in stopping yellowface and white-washing in The Last Airbender, check out my previous blog post. We need your help more than ever!

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER - ADVOCACY!
I'm not even sure where I should begin. It's been a while!

Really the main things to do at the moment is to read aang_aint_white's latest updates, specifically news on the East West Players and MANAA making contact with Paramount Pictures.

We have organizations on our side, people who can't be ignored by Paramount. This is...incredible. THANK YOU to all of the AAW group for making this happen, especially Teh_Boulder. XD ♥
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THE TIME IS NOW!
However, even though we have some big guns on our side, the issue is not yet closed. We can't leave it in the hands of the few. Hollywood only listens to the many. Filming is supposed to start in mid-March. This means that once filming begins, it will be too late to try and force changes. We must increase our efforts right now!

We need your help desperately to make this final push. You do not have to be Asian or a PoC to help. Anyone who believes that white-washing is wrong can rally and help us! So, what can you do?

One: Letter-writing
SEND MORE LETTERS to Paramount Pictures.

Two: Media
Contact anyone you know in your local media or in general media to alert them to this story. You can inform them of MANAA and EWP's efforts and letters to Paramount. MANAA's letter to Paramount is on their website and their blog. With the permission of EWP, their letter has been published online in a PDF file. Highlights:

...how can the casting of homogeneously Caucasian actors as three out of the top four leads possibly be consistent with a story whose overarching message is diversity and harmony between different cultures?

...Even if the filmmakers are blind to these concerns, they ought to be responsive to marketplace realities. There are millions of fans of Nickelodeon's AVATAR and they are drawn to the series' Asian themes. They are not likely to accept either a "whitewashing" of the story or an unrealistic portrayal of white actors trying to look ethnic and/or leading distinctly ethnic civilizations.

Three: Media Again
Did I mention contacting the media? It's worth mentioning it again. Online newssites and popular blogs like SciFi Wire, io9, Entertainment Weekly, the San Francisco Chronicle, Angry Asian Man etc need to know about the latest news! For a list of people we can update check out the left-hand links bar on aang_aint_white. The more people write in, the more likely they will be to write an article on the issue.

There's also been suggestions of contacting well-known You Tube vidders/vloggers as well. If anyone can help out with that, it would be awesome! I'm not too familiar with the world of vlog.

Four: Word of Mouth!
TELL YOUR FRIENDS. I can't stress this one enough. Word of Mouth is so incredibly important - so if you can, I am begging you to make an LJ post about this, or bring up discussion on a fan forum, or mention it to some pals over a dinner. Anything that'll get people curious and possibly supportive.

Five: Racebending
If you are looking for constant (and fun!) updates on Avatar, please join racebending because it is awesome and energetic and has a lot of good info. It's an off-shoot of Aang-Aint-White, and therefore concentrates more on what's happening in the news rather than the letter-writing campaign.
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More detailed news tomorrow!

AVATAR: PROTEST IN PHILLY!
OMG people, I am so excited about the protest in Philly regarding the Feb 7th casting call which asks for extras who are:

Near and Far Eastern, Middle Eastern, Asian, Mediterranean and Latino.

Keep in mind that the casting call for the LEAD CHARACTERS was:

Caucasian, or any other ethnicity.

-- A wonderful explanation on The Language of Casting by the amazing vejiicakes

--Happy news: the Organization of Chinese Americans plan to attend the protest as well!! HOMG YAYE. For updates and to plan with others, check out AAW's Entry or the group on Facebook

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AVATAR: DEV PATEL as ZUKO
I am really pleased that we have dealt with this surprise!recast that Paramount has tossed at us and we have remained unified. High five to all of us! As always, aang_aint_white says it best - A Step in the Right Direction...But We Have a Long Way to Go! For any thoughts that people may have about Zuko being an anti-hero and therefore not cast as 'brown evil guy' against 'good white people', consider this (quoth jedifreac):

"He becomes a hero, then, by rejecting his brown daddy and his brown daddy's invading horde, after the white heroes teach him the error of his ways? This is going to be so awkward."

Because exactly. EXACTLY.

Also, there's a great article written at The Kosmopolitan Online examining Hollywood Whitewash in the Era of Change. Great stuff!

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LULZ? OR, OH GOD WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?
Off the topic of Avatar casting, but still interesting to note that the market audience The Last Airbender is targeting, they look up to this:

I mean, not that I expect much - if anything - useful or constructive from Miley Cyrus, but did she have to go and be downright destructive?? Unbelievable how many reasons why people are defending her actions. Don't read the comments in the Gather.com article. Just, don't.

Well jeez louise - Jesse McCartney out (of the movie, not the closet) and Dev Patel in to play Zuko the Fire Nation prince.

I want to be happy and sit back and celebrate a little. No, really I WANT to. It's generally not in my nature to have such constant and consistent outrage. I wanna be like "Oh wow, a (very bizarre sort of) concession; nothing more for me to do here, look! I can finally shut up and stop bothering 'colourblind' (non-flist) people with my outrage!"

Yeah. I'm not shutting up. I'm still outraged.

There are sooooo many reasons why and as usual, jedifreac says it so much better than me:

Before you say, "No matter what we do, the fans will still complain, they are impossible to please" can I posit that it's REALLY hard for people to be pleased about flagrant discrimination? And that we probably shouldn't be?

Goddamn. The more I think about Jesse and his "scheduling conflict" the more pissed off I get at Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Films for pulling a fast one without acknowledging our protest.

Can you imagine - a TANNED Rathbone dressed all-fully Inuit next to an ACTUALLY BROWN Patel? I just. I. THE MIND BOGGLES. HOW DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE.

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Ironically, I finally did watch Slumdog Millionaire this weekend with the folks.

( Yayyyyyyyy....? )

And how does it tie in to Avatar casting?
a) Dev Patel, ahahha! Okay okay.
b) The Last Airbender plot is indeed mired heavily in Asian influences. In this case, the story IS racially dependent.
c) Slumdog clearly shows that all-non white casts can be beloved by white audiences!
d) Casting Dev Patel isn't a concession, it's a token.



Aw man. Does this mean we need to come up with new slogans? ;D