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That Ain’t White
Racism exists even in the days of Obama. A perfect example is when white play ethnic minorities on film.
It has recently come to my attention that Avatar: The Last Airbender, is being made into a Live Action motion picture and the leading four characters have been cast, the actors playing them are all White. Why does this matter? Most movies are full of white people, so why is this different?
Avatar is very popular cartoon series which features a cast of characters of obviously Asian ethnicities. The clothing, the geography, the eating utensils are all of the asian variety and the people, the most important part of any story, are being played by white people. I don’t mind white people being successful but in this day and age we have realized that racism is wrong and yet we continue to let films be made at the exclusion of ethnic minorities. A young man named Jackson Rathbone is playing a young man named Sokka and his comments about race are simply “well, hopefully the fans are willing to suspend their disbelief.” What? NO! I will not.
An Asian actor should be playing this role, it isn’t like asian actors are given very much attention in Hollywood. No, Asians are usually ignored unless they are female and the female Asian actresses are left playing very strict stereotypes and only serve as sexual exploitation. What makes this especially hurtful is that M. Night Shyamalan, a man of Indian descent, is the director. An Asian, lets not forget that India is part of Asia, is chosing to ignore the vast and large racism on display.
Not only is it wrong that white people are playing asian people in Avatar: The Last Air Bender. This has happened repeatedly in recent history!
21, a film based on true events replaced the ethnic central character with a white actor. The story is based on the actions of an Asian student at MIT but the leading role was given to a white guy.
300, based on an historical incident involving the Persians and the Greeks. Who played the king of Persia? A frenchman. What was even more insulting about 300 was that the Persian king was portrayed as being a blacker than oil African man, not as he is described historically. That is two kinds of racism in one!
Radio Free Albemuth, based on a novel by Philip K Dick is not primarily about an ethnic minority but one character, a woman, who was featured in the novel and described as being black is going to be played by Alanis Morissette. I freaking love Alanis but this makes no sense.
These kinds of things need to stop! White people have the luxury of ignoring race and we need to realize that we should not employ this luxury. It is wrong. It is ignorant and it is harmful.
5 Comments
Love your article, Tidwell. You made some good points and I do believe that Asian people should be given more attention in term of playing role in movies. I watch the Avatar and the character is sooooooooooo Asian, its kind of stupid that White people are playing the part, it does not make sense at all….
Thanks rosemary!
What you say is very true with respect to all the films you mention – except Radio Free Albemuth: I don’t agree that Sadassa Silvia is necessarily an African-American character. In fact, I don’t think she is. Her parent’s names are Serge and Galina Aramchek. Eastern European or Russian-sounding names, certainly not African-American. Also there are not very many blacks in Orange County where she grew up. Her parents were friends and neighbors of the future president Fremont. She says she’s an Episcopalian, which is a mostly white denomination. Nick remarks that her face is “pale with fatigue” when she walks into his office. Not something you could really say about a black person. The only characteristic in the book that might make one think she’s black is the description of her hair style as “Afro-natural black hair.” But back in that time period, many young women wore their hair in an Afro style. In fact, it was the trademark of some white female folk-singers like Phoebe Snow, who PKD might have been thinking of. I seem to recall a picture of Jane Fonda with an Afro during her radical period hanging out with the Panthers,. And from personal experience I knew many white college students- male and female – who wore Afros as a hip style and a sign of solidarity with the black liberation movement. I don’t think there’s any direct reference to her as black in the novel when Nick is accused of having an affair with her, which you would expect in a repressive regime that is suspect of interracial relationships. Nothing absolutely conclusive, but to me there’s more evidence in the novel that Silvia’s white than Afro-American.
except there are black people in the oc, who are not baptists but Episcopalian, and you are overlooking the word natural. Most white people with afro’s don’t get them naturally. Also, most black americans have European names because they are the decendants of slaves and yes, guess what, black people can be pale too.
White people have the luxury of ignoring race.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0154226/
Justin Chatwin is playing Goku in Dragon Ball… :-/