Racebending and Ethnicity Issues in Hollywood

If you haven't read my earlier essay that discussed Avatar: The Last Airbender, allow me to fill you in on some of the show's core concepts - by quoting the monologue that begins every episode:

"Water.. Earth.. Fire.. Air.. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang. And although his airbending skills are great, he still has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world..."

So that's that. It's a pretty straightforward epic fantasy story, albeit extremely well-done for a kids' show. Now, the animation style is strongly influenced by Japanese anime rather than "typical" American animation. However, in addition to that, almost every element within the series' universe is borrowed from various Asian cultures. The written language of all four nations is Chinese calligraphy - a point which the producers felt was so important to get right that they hired an expert. Each nation has its own form of martial art/elemental control, each of which is essentially a real-world Asian martial art with magic added: Airbending is Bagua, Waterbending is Tai Chi, Firebending is Shaolin, and Earthbending is Hung Ga. They got an expert for that one, too. In terms of visual culture - architecture, clothing, hairstyles, and even skin tones - the Fire Nation resembles primarily Tang Dynasty China, the Earth Kingdom draws from both Qing Dynasty China and Korea, and the Air Nomads are mostly Tibetan-inspired. The Water Tribe, which is mostly informed by Inuit culture, is kind of the odd one out. Even so, can we agree that the show has very little caucasian influence, aside from the language spoken? Good.

....But now they're making a movie of it, and things are going awry.

What's wrong with this picture?

You may notice that the three protagonists - two of whom were downright dark-skinned, and one of whom was certainly intended to be Asian - are white. The antagonist - who, in the series, may have had the most strongly Asian facial features - is brown. The problems with this are twofold. First, and most broadly, it reinforces the common Hollywood trope of white heroes versus "ethnic" villains. It would be easier to ignore this if not for the fact that all Fire Nation characters are now dark-skinned (the four main antagonists of the film being played by actors of Indian, Maori, and Iranian descent). The fact that a large number of non-white actors are playing prominent, non-stereotyped, complex characters in a major movie is generally a good sign. However, the apparent divide between the light-skinned good guys and the dark-skinned bad guys is concerning, to say the least.

 Three more characters on the antagonist side of things, and their live-action actors.

Second, and perhaps more unfortunately, three characters which could have provided breakout roles for Inuit or Asian actors have been cast with white actors. Try and think of as many Asian characters in films and TV shows as you can. How many of them are defined by their race, or have their ethnicity frequently referenced in-story? How many are associated with common Asian stereotypes like martial arts expert, math whiz, overbearing parent, musical genius, or wise elderly person? How many are main characters? Compared to white actors, it is much more difficult for an aspiring non-white actor to find a non-stereotypical, non-one-dimensional role. Only 1.8% of lead roles go to Asian actors, and only 1% go to Native American actors. This issue is, unfortunately, self-sustaining: Hollywood believes that audiences will always prefer a white main character over an Asian or Native American main character, which means that Hollywood never makes any movies with Asian or Native American main characters that might help the audiences get used to the idea. 

There's a little too much of this in movies.

The most interesting thing about this, to me, is that The Last Airbender will be directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who is Indian-American. Was the largely-white casting intentional? Shyamalan says that he believes the source material to be "ambiguous." Despite the Asian cultural cues, he believes that the characters themselves are a mix of all sorts of ethnic features, so there could have been plenty of variety in the casting. “My daughter looks at Katara [the lead Water Tribe girl] and sees herself,” Shyamalan said “but her [non-South Indian] friends see themselves.” Shyamalan has also said that he likes the idea of each nation having similar ethnic features within the group: Fire Nation is Indo-Arabic, Water Tribe is European, Earth Nation is Asian after all (with a smattering of black characters mixed in, oddly enough), and Air Nomads are mixed-race. Fair enough...but then again, a lot of the background extras in the Water Tribe are played by Native Americans, as they appeared to be in the cartoon. Why are only the lead-role Water Tribe characters white? And even if Noah Ringer (who plays Aang, the titular Airbender) is mixed-race, his features appear white to the untrained eye - and if audiences don't know going in that he's half-Asian, then they will simply perceive him as white as well.

Shyamalan himself.

Some people are saying that, well, maybe the casting was completely colorblind. Maybe they just chose the best actor for each role, and it just happened to turn out that the best auditions were white actors. That kind of thinking would be a step in the direction of a truly post-racial society wherein race does not enter into the equation at all. It would be a bummer that the Asian-inspired characters weren't played by Asian actors, but at least we would know that there wasn't any prejudice involved. Sadly, we are not in a post-racial society. Case in point: when the casting call for all the major roles in The Last Airbender went out, they requested actors of "Caucasian or other ethnicity." That is, the casting director strongly hinted that they wanted white actors - anyone else could try, but they would be secondary. 

 At least they haven't completely scrubbed the Asian visual cues...

I am a die-hard fan of the type that wants to see everything related to the source material. There are plenty of die-hard fans of another type: those who will not tolerate the injustices being committed against the characters and the Asian- and Native-American communities. I see their point of view, and respect it, but as much as these racial issues bother me, I still plan to see the film. I've never been a boycotting type of guy. Plus, I want the movie to do well enough to justify making the two planned sequels - sequels that will explore the idea that "good" and "evil" are not easy generalizations to make, and that most people in the fire nation are good people (even those who may be perceived as villains in the first movie). That theme ought to provide some redemption for the whitewashing in the casting process. We'll see how it all plays out, I guess. 

The Last Airbender was a perfect opportunity to have an entirely non-Caucasian cast in a blockbuster film with a pre-existing fanbase to give it support. It could have been a chance for people with a wide range of ethnicities to see People Like Them being heroic on the big screen, instead of playing second fiddle to a white dude. And if that movie had done well - which it probably would have - then maybe non-white people would see movies starring People Like Them more often.

 

 Check out Racebending for a more in-depth exploration of many of these themes.