Racebending again
May. 25th, 2010 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kilroyYou. Yes you, person on the internet who thinks the people complaining about the casting in the Last Airbender are "overreacting." Who says that the anime characters having round eyes or ambiguous skin tone makes it okay for them to be cast white in the film. Who points at all the villains and minor characters being cast Asian as evidence that the picture supports diversity.
Take a step back with me for a moment, and let's talk about films in general. Take a minute and name every American live-action film you can think of that was made in the last five years. I'll wait.
Done? Ok, good. I'll bet you probably thought of a dozen movies or more. Now take another minute and name every American live-action film you can think of that was made in the last five years and has an Asian lead. Not a villain or a supporting character, mind, but the hero/main character.
It was a much shorter list, right? You might not even have thought of any.
That second list should be longer than it is. Even one film a year would be an improvement, and that's hardly unreasonable to ask. But the only way for that to start happening is for a few brave directors to start casting Asian actors in movies people see. Once it starts, it will probably spread.
There are a lot of contextual issues that can complicate things with this particular film, but that's the underlying truth. If M. Night had stepped up, he could have helped fix the problem with the lists. But he didn't, and that makes a lot of people sad and angry.
If you run into one of those sad and angry people, please don't try and argue with them. Explaining why it's okay The Last Airbender got cast the way it did isn't going to fix the problem with the lists.
Take a step back with me for a moment, and let's talk about films in general. Take a minute and name every American live-action film you can think of that was made in the last five years. I'll wait.
Done? Ok, good. I'll bet you probably thought of a dozen movies or more. Now take another minute and name every American live-action film you can think of that was made in the last five years and has an Asian lead. Not a villain or a supporting character, mind, but the hero/main character.
It was a much shorter list, right? You might not even have thought of any.
That second list should be longer than it is. Even one film a year would be an improvement, and that's hardly unreasonable to ask. But the only way for that to start happening is for a few brave directors to start casting Asian actors in movies people see. Once it starts, it will probably spread.
There are a lot of contextual issues that can complicate things with this particular film, but that's the underlying truth. If M. Night had stepped up, he could have helped fix the problem with the lists. But he didn't, and that makes a lot of people sad and angry.
If you run into one of those sad and angry people, please don't try and argue with them. Explaining why it's okay The Last Airbender got cast the way it did isn't going to fix the problem with the lists.