NO KILL I ([info]glockgal) wrote,
@ 2008-12-15 07:48:00
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Entry tags:avatar, avatar: the last airbender, the last airbender

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER
I'm back, and still angry!

Over the course of the past few days, I find it amazing just how vociferously people will argue why an all-POC/Asian/diverse cast isn't a good thing. No matter what you say and how many facts you point out, they just will keep saying "PROVE IT TO ME." or "THEY AREN'T ALL ASIAN" (therefore, the entire argument for diversity is moot?) or "AVATAR IS A FANTASY".

I'm amazed. 'Amazed' to rhyme with 'disgusted'. That people feel an irrational need to argue against diversity and racial representation in a movie...I just. I JUST. GYAH THE MIND BOGGLES. WHY MUST THEY DO IT.

So I've found a set of periphery links that relate to this issue, the best ones listed here --

-- The Unapologetic Mexican Glossary - In particular, the White-Magik Attack and the Appeal to Melanin.
After trolling all the blogs, I have seen EVERY example of the Wite-Magik Attack being used in varying degrees. Uncanny, innit?

-- Racial Drawing 101: The Crash Course - Given the many arguments of 'BUT SO-AND-SO CHARACTER LOOKS WHITE', I guess the concept designers at the Avatar studio just never took SecretAsianMan's Crash Course. The fools!

-- To put it all in perspective, we now have not ONE, but TWO versions of Avatar RaceFAIL Bingo Cards! HEE!

-- Not for the faint of heart - The Art of Defending Racism by [info]yeloson - a scathing and yet eerily accurate summary of all the many arguments used to defend racism. It might not be an easy read for some people.

-- A beautiful, positive spin: PoC Daily, on InsaneJournal. No child actors (the Mod doesn't want to run the risk of creep factor, understandably) but a gorgeous, stunning array of PoC performers. It'll help you open your eyes.
--------------------------

So...yeah. I'd really love if we could get some form of media coverage on this. One awesome person ([info]tallycola?) wrote a letter to Stephen Colbert, but his and Jon's seasons are over for this year, dang.

It's also too bad colleges and schools are closed, because I figure their radio programs would be good venues for grass roots publicity (OKAY YES, I ASSUME AMERICAN SCHOOLS HAVE RADIO STATIONS BECAUSE OF 90210, LOOLOLOLOLOL). Anyway, the point being that I want to think locally.

There are some great connections via Fair.org, but I think this kind of scoop would appeal to entertainment-focussed news shows/magazines? Hmmm.
--------------------------

In other news, I'm bringing back my 8 Days of Happy Meme--
The rules are that for 8 days you have to post something that made you happy that day. Tag 8 people to do the same.

DAY 5: [info]yuletart has started and it looks AWESOME!!! Also [info]artlulz is a new art chat community, full of fun and crack and artists. Good times.


And remember:
[info]aang_aint_white
and
Debunking the Arguments and What Else You Can Do

(37 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]quietrevolution
2008-12-15 04:10 pm UTC (link)
Keep bringing it on, sister! There is NOTHING wrong with diversity in movies, and having a POC cast in this movie, IMHO, would make it not just more accurate to the show, but I think would be great to watch. I'm tired of white folk being cast as EVERYTHING. Let POC have their chance, especially in roles meant to be played by POC

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[info]glockgal
2008-12-15 07:50 pm UTC (link)
Let POC have their chance, especially in roles meant to be played by POC

This concept. THis right here, man. Still so hard for people merely i nthe blogosphere to understand; and I think this is the EXACT reason why Hollywood says "See! White is what people want to see!"

LDSFJ Sometimes I wonder, I really really do. *clings to you*

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[info]spookshowbaby
2008-12-15 04:22 pm UTC (link)
A friend of mine is the editor of his grad school diversity blog. The school may be closed, but maybe it could get picked up? I also wonder if it's the sort of issue that some of the media blogs might want to pick up.

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[info]glockgal
2008-12-15 07:50 pm UTC (link)
Oooh, it's a good idea to approach media blogs. XD YAY GRAD SCHOOL DIVERSITY BLOG. What a sweet idea!!

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[info]spookshowbaby
2008-12-15 10:07 pm UTC (link)
Totally! I will send him the links and see if he's interested.

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[info]lunarennui
2008-12-15 04:27 pm UTC (link)
wait. people are arguing that having a racially diverse cast would be a BAD thing?

i'm not catching this one.

i'm trying to be fair here, i can understand casting a caucasian kid if they honestly were the best person for the part. (hey, lots of the kling-ons weren't actually black, but they airbrushed em...yes, i know this is a horribly lame argument.) and i don't know what's going on with the auditions, so i can't say outright 'dude, you're a dick, you're being racist.' ...it definitely SEEMS that way, but i don't know enough to make an absolute statement, you know? i don't feel adequately informed to make an I HATE YOU decision...yet.

on the other hand, aang AIN'T white, karate doesn't mean you're epic win, and i find it very difficult to believe that NONE of the inuit/eastern applicants were acceptable. if there even were any inuit applicants...and there should have been...argh.

pretty much, what i'm taking away from this whole issue is that i won't be watching the movie. i like the anime--AS IT IS. all the negatives are making this movie a no-go for me, much like the damned HP movies that i watch out of a nagging sense of obligation.

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[info]lunarennui
2008-12-15 04:55 pm UTC (link)
to clarify the above, i'm trying REALLY hard to be fair to the side that i think is wrong. really, really hard. because i seriously don't like dealing with this sort of things. sensitive issues, not fun. you can't pick a side without losing, and if you DON'T pick a side, you still lose.

see, and someone's going to call me a moron for this too, but...why the hell were the auditions done in texas? wouldn't auditions in california and seattle be more available for inuit and asian actors? how many inuit people do you trip over in frigging texas? what about the kids who couldn't get airline tickets in time?

i don't know. this whole thing is seriously putting me off. DVDs, i love you...movie, i...well, i don't love you.

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[info]star_maple
2008-12-15 06:23 pm UTC (link)
Auditions were probably not done in Texas (Although I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt on this one) -- this kid's agent probably sent a tape in to the casting agent. That happens a lot.

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[info]glockgal
2008-12-15 07:57 pm UTC (link)
I'm learning not to bandy the term 'racist' around, because there is such an adverse knee-jerk reaction to the term and understandably so - being 'racist' is a very, very bad thing.

Being ignorant, and even worse - willfully ignorant is just inexcusable. Whatever reasoning the stupid/producers/director had to cast an all-white for a non-white movie is to do with money. In Hollywood's eyes, seeing white people on the big screen keeps the audience complacent - mostly-white casts in movies is what everyone expects/accepts as the norm. Seeing multi-PoCs in the big screen - well, suddenly the movie becomes 'political', 'exotic' or 'audience-culture-specific' (ie, if it's a movie with a large black cast, the movie is then designated for a mostly-black audience). That skin colour is categorized in the same way that 'rom-com' or 'sci fi' is? It baffles me.

Baffles and saddens.

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[info]lunarennui
2008-12-16 01:03 am UTC (link)
just to make this absolutely clear, i didn't mean that YOU'RE being racist, at all. (i hate this racism thing. there is no way to win. even refraining loses. wtf, who made up this game? if there's a god, i'd like to kick it.)

i've never thought of a movie that has a mainly-POC (i guess that's a politically correct term, since so many people are using it) cast as being special interest. well, okay, i lie there. it's often more interesting to me than the 'hi white cast where's my starbucks' crap that hollywood dumps out. which is sad in itself, that i notice movies that i might not simply because they're not the usual bland junk that's ground out.

and people wonder why i don't have a television line...or go to movies...

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[info]glockgal
2008-12-16 06:19 pm UTC (link)
OH noooo!!!! I didn't think you were saying that at all, bb. <3 <3 For true. XD

I will never give up on movies because there really are some excellent ones out there. Sometimes yeah - I gleefully indulge in the cheap hot candy; other times, I (pretentiously? lol) rely on lovely institutions like our city's International Film Festival. Many (not all, ahaahah) of those movies are like, delicious five-course meals for my mind. *loves*

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[info]rotae
2008-12-15 04:37 pm UTC (link)
Hmm. I hate to bring this up because, damn, it's not exactly the New York Times, but have you thought about e-mailing someone like Perez Hilton?

He actually has a pretty wide-spread audience - people who would be interested in helping (even if he is an idiot), and believe it or not, a lot of people in the industry do read his blog...

I dunno. Just a suggestion. LOL :D It's better than nothing at all... kinda XDDDD

Peace,
Rotae

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[info]glockgal
2008-12-15 07:59 pm UTC (link)
Noooo dude, that's a good idea! Perez Hilton, though he kinda scares me, LOL would be much more our line of publicity than NYTimes.

Also, I think PH is still widely popular, while poor NYTimes is going bankrupt, d'oh.

Thanks for the suggestion! It's opened up a wide avenue of publicity possibilities!! <33333

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[info]rotae
2008-12-16 04:04 am UTC (link)
Oh, yay!! I did a good? LOLOL :D Yeah... he kinna scares me too... the man is saying, "IS HP THE NEW TWILIGHT?!" >:OOOOOOOOOOOO UM. NO. LOL.

But he is very proud of his heritage, which could bode well. He's an advocate of a lot of political issues too, so I think they'd jump on it :D

Lemme know if you want me to do anything! <3333

Peace,
Rotae

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]zephiey
2008-12-15 04:39 pm UTC (link)
The whole family has discussed this upcoming movie.

Some Background on the family:
The husband, L- age 49, is a rabid Avatar fan, along with the classic Japanimation cartoons of Speed Racer (don't mention the movie or the new series to him- just don't), G-Force and Star Blazers among others. The 16 year old boy child, S likes Avatar but is not as hooked as dad. He prefers the classics (like his father), Dexter's Laboratory and the MGM/WB/HB classics.

Me- love Avatar! Hate South Park and Sponge Bob. I don't wish to talk about the farce of the Speed Racer movie.

Now that being said- when we read that the movie was going to be made we were ecstatic. We started listing the actors that we would like to see play in the movie. We all agreed that either Chow Yun Fat or Sammo Hung as Uncle, would be great. We couldn't decide on the kids since we WERE sure that they would use unknown actors for the roles.

Fast forward to last week. We hear about the casting and head to find any feeds about it so that we can see who is playing who. Not one of us could believe the cast! WTF- this is an Asian themed fantasy series. The characters, story lines, everything have an Asian theme. Why the hell would you make the cast all white? This makes no sense!

L, who hates anyone fucking with his animation is pissed, S is calling everyone who is involved with the film and casting 'dumbasses'.

I won't be seeing this film. Instead I'll buy the whole animated series on DVD while the studio and its ilk fuck up another good animation trying to appeal to a wider audience.

Dumbasses!

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[info]glockgal
2008-12-15 08:04 pm UTC (link)
For real. I mean, I've been annoyed at how my favourite comic books or books have been completely destroyed when taken to the big screen, because. By god there's been so many! But I've sucked it up because, eh. It's all about the $$$$$$.

But this was just far too offensive and took it over the line. It's one thing to cast a batty, gorgeous, playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne as Michael Keaton; I'll bitch and wtf?!, but whatever. It's a whole other matter to take four characters and completely change their race.

AND THEN READ PEOPLE WONDERING WHY I'M SO MAD. OMG if I don't laugh right now, I'm gonna start crying.

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[info]lunarennui
2008-12-16 01:06 am UTC (link)
oh come on, we can AIRBRUSH THEM ASIAN!

sorry, i'm low on sleep and idiocy is pretty damned funny to me atm.

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[info]aang_aint_white
2008-12-15 04:52 pm UTC (link)
People should probably be harassing io9.com about this -- it's right smack in the middle of their area of interest, and I'm surprised they haven't picked up on it already.

NPR (On The Media especially) and The Huffington Post have been suggested as good places to write to as well.

We're probably going to make a post later today with a "screencap essay" for those who aren't as familiar with the show or who seem to have misremembered it in key ways. That should do a lot to help interest media types who might not otherwise realize the scale of how offensive this is. As I said to a friend last night, "This isn't Xiaolin Showdown. There's no ambiguity here."

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[info]aang_aint_white
2008-12-15 05:24 pm UTC (link)
Also, looks like some hackers are trolling the EW article's comments

Which is hilarious, actually, as I can't imagine that won't just...make this issue seem more important to the people watching?

This is already shaping up to be a long, long week.

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[info]glockgal
2008-12-15 08:12 pm UTC (link)
AHahaha...rick rolled.


Dude, I've never even heard about io9.com, but I LOVES IT. I'm totally gonna contact them! And HuffPo!

That should do a lot to help interest media types who might not otherwise realize the scale of how offensive this is.

YES. That would be AWESOME. I wanna wait till this is posted, because visual connections are more powerful than words. IMO, LOLOLOL. XD

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[info]aang_aint_white
2008-12-15 08:16 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I'm in the same boat! As soon as my cohort wakes up and finishes going through the HUGE FOLDER I sent her (really, it's embarrassing, I think there were 265 images) we'll put it up.

Incidentally, I've been thinking...and if anyone asks who's behind the scenes on this thing, just tell them it's "Lee." (There's a MILLION Lees ;3)

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[info]aang_aint_white
2008-12-16 05:34 pm UTC (link)
It's up!

Let me know if you catch any errors. Spread it faaaaaaaaar and wiiiiiiiiiide. <3

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[info]ashkitty
2008-12-15 05:15 pm UTC (link)
I don't know anything about Avatar, I'm afraid; the first time I'd ever heard of it is this movie casting business. But it reminds me a bit of what they did to the Earthsea movie as well--Ursula Leguin, who was the daughter of an anthropologist in Africa (?), purposefully made the main race of people in her books dark-skinned. Blatantly. But it didn't last to the movie adaptation. There's a response to it that she wrote somewhere, because she was Not a Happy Author.

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[info]lunarennui
2008-12-15 05:27 pm UTC (link)
i remember that response, because i was majorly hyped about the adaptation--and managed to watch 15 whole minutes before i started shouting (literally) and turned the television off. her response was exactly what i would expect of such a wonderful author--very correct, to the point, and biting as icy hell. i laughed myself sick, and then went to read the books again to try to wash the WTF from my brain.

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[info]glockgal
2008-12-15 08:13 pm UTC (link)
YES. I read her response - it's being used as a precedent for a lot of the pro-diversity arguments in this case, and I love it. Her frustration is so....palpable. Gyah, I can't imagine how it must have felt for her, seriously.

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[info]dahemo
2008-12-15 05:45 pm UTC (link)
I'm also pissed off that people are trying to defend this. I can understand if you just don't care that much because you're privileged or you're not a fan, but to tell me that I shouldn't be offended? No.

By the way, I ended up sending 2 letters to people at Paramount. And I was just thinking that Entertainment Weekly might actually be a great place to contact. They're the ones who broke the news, and they're quite receptive to readers' thoughts/opinions. We could email them or send letters to the editor.

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[info]glockgal
2008-12-15 08:17 pm UTC (link)
I know, it kills me to hear people use words like 'uppity' and 'shut up'about this. Oh and another gem - 'race doesn't matter'. *HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER*

Thank you, bb!! Oh yes! I will totally be sending the EW website an email as well, whatta great idea!!

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[info]tomscribble
2008-12-15 07:01 pm UTC (link)
heck, why not go straight for theBBC. I mean I bet they have shitloads of stories coming in every day from readers/listeners, but who knows you might get lucky. I don't know any other more grassrootsy blogs/radio stations etc, sorry.

Anyway, I'm behind you all the way. I guess people argue against non-white casting because they sub/consciously feel that admitting the casting is fucked-up would also be admitting they had been ignorant of these things due to their privilege, and therefore would have to realise they are less libertarian and one-worldy than they thought they were; maybe also would have to admit and try to atone for the sins of their forefathers or something? I mean it's not nice admitting that your forebears did crapalacious things which you yourself perpetuate out of ignorance (best case) or comfort (worst case), but NOT admitting it (and pretending it all has nothing to do with you now) is surely worse, isn't it? Meh, what ostriches.

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[info]glockgal
2008-12-15 08:20 pm UTC (link)
Hitting up BBC is a good idea - they're far enough removed from the shenanigans of US race-politics, but they're Westernized enough to recogniz the issue at hand. Good idea, thanks, bb!!

It's some kind of weird guilt; I've had already a few people crop up to explain in great detail how they sheltered their lives are and how they 'don't see race', etc etc. And I don't know what else to say back except 'well I have to'.

GYAH.

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[info]vejiicakes
2008-12-15 10:11 pm UTC (link)
Not to mention, it was the BBC that collaborated with HBO on House of Saddam, so if any network knows a thing or two about successfully casting an entire movie full of actors from a racial group not seen too much in popular media...

Also, if race didn't "matter", we'd still be seeing blackface. Guaranteed. (And if anyone defending the Avatar cast understands that, unfortunately I suspect it's because the discussion on race in this country is still seen as some sort of binary between white and black.)

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[info]142978
2008-12-15 09:32 pm UTC (link)
Start contacting college radio stations in major cities - or any cities where there are large universities.

Even if school has let out for the holidays, chances are that there are still radio programs being broadcast, and there are always a hefty number of kids who stick around for most of their break even if they end up at home for Christmas (etc.) itself. Besides which, their audiences reach farther than just the college kids.

I am not sure about the best way to start a list of college stations to contact, but WIDR in Kalamazoo would probably be able to find a place to talk about it.

(Reply to this)


[info]tallycola
2008-12-15 10:34 pm UTC (link)
That was me, thanks. :-) Yeah it's a shot in the dark, but I'll let the internet know if I hear anything back.

I keep meaning to post a comment about this on Jezebel but, I always feel like kind of a loser on that blog!

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[info]tallycola
2008-12-15 10:40 pm UTC (link)
Well as soon as I wrote that I knew I had to get over it and I emailed them.

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[info]tallycola
2008-12-15 10:42 pm UTC (link)
Not that Jezebel is true media, it's just a widely-read blog related to Gawker. Gak, racial outrage has sapped me this past few days!

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[info]cellia
2008-12-16 01:06 am UTC (link)
I wish I had helpful advice (never even seen Avatar, tho it's on my list), but just wanted to say that I'm glad you're not letting this lie.

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[info]callmesandy
2008-12-16 01:39 am UTC (link)
Ugh, is there a place to add letters to stupid Entertainment Weekly? They had a full column on the casting and never once mentioned any of this - just "la la la here they found the kids la la la" - I expect better coverage from them and hope there's a letter to the editor pointing that out.

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[info]quinconcinnity
2008-12-16 02:43 am UTC (link)
I'm rather sorry to see the fandom for something as awesome as avatar erupt into a frothing wank-fest :(
What was M. Night thinking? I wouldn't mind seeing a white Toph, Ty Lee, or even Aang..but there's no way Zuko, Azula, and Mei aren't Asian..and those kids playing Kitara and Sokka are way too light-skinned.

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