Hollywood is at it again. They are trying to justify the replacement of the cast for The Last Airbender movie, which is an Asian animated series, with a majority White cast. It doesn’t make it more ok to “yellow face” actors just because the writer and director is of Asian descent. In my book that makes it even worst. After much protest from many people, some of the characters in The Last Airbender movie have been replaced with a few people of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent.
We don’t like taking crumbs. Hollywood has decided to place these “ethnically correct” actors in stereotypical roles. The hero is White and he/she must save the poor, helpless minorities. They also threw in people of African descent into the Earth Kingdom to satisfy those who fight for diversity yet there are no African people of descent in the Earth Kingdom. It sounds like a huge mess. Hollywood is just throwing things in here and there to make us shut up. Thinking of making people shut up, the Facebook group, “People Against Racebending: Protest of the Cast of The Last Airbender Movie” was removed on March 15 by whom? We can only speculate. Word spread fast about the group being taken down. People mobilized through emails and other means of communication. It worked, someone was watching. The group was restored on March 17.
When I first saw the preview for The Last Airbender I was very disappointed. I am a fan of this animated series. It is downright racist to replace Asian people with White, Black, or any other non-Asian race or ethnicity on the movie screen. Hollywood has done this countless times over and over again. They did it with Charlie Chan, The Good Earth, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Norbit, Prince of Persia, and countless other movies.
I really appreciate it, more than anyone could imagine, when Asian directors do NOT sell out. For instance, director Justin Lin who filmed the famed movie Fast and the Furious and following sequels, was offered the money to film his movie Better Luck Tomorrow if he would change the characters to an all White cast. That’s racist Hollywood no matter which way you cut it. So thank you Justin Lin! Keep the hope alive!
A movie shouldn’t be popular just because it has White or Black actors in it. What’s sad is that a lot of America still feels this way. It takes US to change this mindset. You can join the Racebending group, “People Against Racebending: Protest of the Cast of The Last Airbender Movie”, here: Facebook.
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