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The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan’s live action feature film recently released by Paramount Pictures, is causing protests across the country. From Seattle, Washington to Hollywood, California, people have gathered to demonstrate their disapproval of the casting choices for the movie, claiming that white actors were selected to portray characters of color.

Based on the popular Nickelodeon animated TV series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, the film revolves around four nations - Air, Water, Earth and Fire. The Fire Nation has launched a war against the other nations and Aang, the only Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements, teams with Katara, a Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka, to bring peace to their world.

Though the action takes place in a fantasy environment, many fans of the original television show are offended by the film adaptation, which utilizes white actors to portray Aang, Katara and Sokka. The only Asian actor hired to portray a main character was Dev Patel for the role of the antagonist, Prince Zuko.

“The series featured Asian and Inuit characters in a fantasy setting inspired and informed by a variety of Asian cultures. The cast and setting were virtually unique in American media as a celebration of people and culture of Asian/Inuit descent,” reads a description on www.racebending.com, an online community founded in 2008 by fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The grassroots organization - comprised of over ten thousand active supporters, including Caucasians, as well as those of Asian, African, Latino and Native heritage -   encourages equal opportunities in Hollywood. They report that a casting call seeking “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” for the film was published and “is contrary to fair hiring practices and an active rejection of the full diversity of the American people.”

”The movement began in late 2008 with a letter-writing campaign to Paramount, M. Night's production studio, and the Marshall production company. Supporters wrote in over two hundred letters expressing concern about the casting.  Unfortunately, the vast majority were returned unopened,” says Michael Le, Racebending.com’s Los Angeles coordinator and media spokesperson.

“When other organizations got involved in 2009 - including the Media Action Network for Asian Americans and an industry petition consisting of entertainment professionals - Paramount finally responded with a form letter, signed simply "The Producers."  The letter suggested that the diversity present in the antagonistic, supporting, and non-speaking roles made up for the absence of leading performers of color,” says Le.

“As the movement grew in 2010, Frank Marshall and M. Night both felt the need to address the controversy directly. Their answers all insisted the movie was the ‘most diverse tentpole film of all time,’ ignoring the fact that the series' Asian and Inuit origins have been virtually wiped out. M. Night has variously defended the casting by suggesting he cast ‘colorblind,’ that Asian Americans should automatically support him since he himself is Asian, or by suggesting that the ambiguity in the original characters' appearance justified the casting of white actors,” adds Le.

"Noah is Aang. There is no way around it. From the moment we saw his audition tape, we could see the sincerity in those big brown eyes," says Shyamalan in a press release. "He is dedicated to his craft and he truly cares and wants to work harder every day. His discipline is unprecedented for such a young man."

Noah Ringer, a Texas state Taekwondo champion, had never acted prior to putting together an audition DVD for “The Last Airbender” casting call. Though he and Dev Patel both hold black belts in Taekwondo, a Korean style of martial arts, the world of “The Last Airbender” uses Wushu, a Chinese art form that incorporates various fighting styles. Therefore, months of training were required for them to learn to portray their characters. Likewise, Nicola Peltz, who portrayed Katara, had no previous martial arts experience and received training in Tai chi chuan, a Chinese martial art with gentle, flowing movements.

While some may argue that The Last Airbender is just a movie, others believe that casting choices in Hollywood impact the community in other more important ways.

“Media shapes so much of American culture - and right now, the message in media is that Asian Americans are foreigners in our own country,” says Le. “This sort of mindset led to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the exclusion of Asians from citizenship until the 1940s.”

“In the 1980s, a Chinese American named Vincent Chin was lynched by autoworkers who thought he was a ‘Jap.’  His murderers never spent a single day in prison. Even today, the national opinion of ‘Asian’ as foreign has led to violence against Asian Americans in Philadelphia high schools,” adds Le.

Washington D.C. resident Paris Huang, an immigrant from Taiwan and an International Broadcaster for Voice of America, shares Le’s concern.

“It further strengthens the image that Asian Americans are unimportant and neglect-able, and should naturally be subjected to other races, especially white,” says Huang. “The original series promotes understanding and respect to Asian cultures and religions, which allows ordinary Americans to see their fellow American citizens with Asian heritage in a different light, and to bring them closer. But the whitewashed casting twisted and destroyed this good intention.”
Shyamalan, however, still defends his casting choices.

“I am pissed that anyone would say anything other than ‘Bravo’ when looking at “The Last Airbender” as a culturally diverse movie,” he said in an interview broadcast on YouTube. “It saddens me that there is a tiny group of people, and it is a tiny group of people, that have an agenda.”

captions:

Caption: On July 1, about 45 National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC) and Korean Resource Center(KRC) members from Los Angeles and Orange County joined Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) and a diverse crowd to protest at the Hollywood premiere of "The Last Airbender." 

Caption: Kids from the Korean Resource Center march in front of the Arclight Cinerama Dome, Hollywood, CA.

Caption: Noah Ringer plays the heroic Aang in the Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies adventure, "The Last Airbender."  Photo credit: Zade Rosenthal 

Caption: Left to right: Noah Ringer plays Aang, Nicola Peltz plays Katara, and Jackson Rathbone plays Sokka in the Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies adventure, "The Last Airbender."  Photo credit: Zade Rosenthal

Caption: Writer/Producer/Director M. Night Shyamalan on the set of Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies adventure, "The Last Airbender."  Photo credit: Zade Rosenthal