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Another very interesting read decoding the politics of Hollywood whitewashing and how it relates to Avatar the Last Airbender.

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Fans can not wait for the new Avatar series. The castings seem to have been approved by the fans who were disappointed by the castings from the 2010 live action film.

Showrunner and writer Albert Kim said, "It also wasn’t lost on me that this was a world that drew from Asian cultures and legend, which is a rarity to this day and something I appreciated as an Asian-American father. That my daughter was able to see characters who looked like her on screen was more than just entertaining. It was a gift. We’ll be expanding and growing the world, and there will be surprises for existing fans and those new to the tale. But throughout this process, our byword has been “authenticity.” To the story. To the characters. To the cultural influences. Authenticity is what keeps us going, both in front of the camera and behind it, which is why we’ve assembled a team unlike any seen before—a group of talented and passionate artists who are working around the clock to bring this rich and incredibly  beautiful world to life."

Rusak, Rotem. “Here's the Full Netflix Live-Action Cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender.” Nerdist, 13 Oct. 2022, https://nerdist.com/article/netflix-avatar-the-last-airbender-live-action-cast-announcement/. 

As a fan of the show, this sounds so promising! Hopefully we see more films and tv shows start to cast their actual correct race representation more in the future.

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Avatar: The Last Airbender Rebirth

When M Night. Shyamalan took over as director for the live action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender, there were supposed to be multiple installments, I would've predicted three total films. Since the first installment was a big let down, the sequels never came. After a decade has past, a new announcement came out that there will be a new live action remake. This time, things would be done correctly. The castings have been released and now fans can breathe when seeing the races being used are more correct. There is no whitewashing. The mistake would not be made again.

"Now, the Avatar and the gang are making a huge comeback on the television screen in Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action series. The Avatar live-action show was announced in 2018 but only started production in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The announced cast will feature a set of fresh faces led by the young actor Gordon Cormier as Aang, as well as other renowned actors in Hollywood."

Tuting, Kristine. “Netflix’s Avatar Live-Action: Cast, Trailer, Release Date.” One Esports, 30 Sept. 2022, https://www.oneesports.gg/culture/netflixs-avatar-live-action-cast-release/. 

Even before the release of the live action version, there are more adaptations coming out from the Last Airbender universe. Animated films that will follow Aang after the ending of the cartoon from 2008. It seems as though Avatar the Last Airbender is truly making a huge comeback and fans can not wait.

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Another whitewashing example in television.

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What's the Big Picture?

The big picture is bigger than just the whitewashing used in Avatar: The Last Airbender, it's the fact that minority races are being misrepresented as a whole in entertainment television. White people are always portrayed as the "good guys" while minorities seem to always involve being the "bad guy" or perpetrator. This happens in news coverage as well, as many local broadcasts use more stories of black perpetrators than white. Minority officers are also used less as well. "A content analysis of a random sample of Los Angeles television news programs was used to assess racial representations of perpetrators, victims, and officers. A series of comparisons were used to assess whether local news depictions differed from outside indicators of social reality. In a significant departure from prior research, they revealed that perpetration was accurately depicted on local TV news. Blacks, in particular, were accurately depicted as perpetrators, victims, and officers. However, although Latinos were accurately depicted as perpetrators, they continued to be underrepresented as victims and officers. Conversely, Whites remained significantly overrepresented as victims and officers."

Dixon, Travis L. “Good Guys Are Still Always in White? Positive Change and Continued Misrepresentation of Race and Crime on Local Television News.” Communication Research, vol. 44, no. 6, 2 Apr. 2015, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0093650215579223. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022. 

The bigger picture is that we all need to see each perspective in television. We need to understand everyone's story. Every race needs to be properly represented or else, in the case of the Avatar: The Last Airbender film, it seems offensive or ridiculous. The lack of representation in the media and entertainment creates a sense of bias, which is not good for our world. People need to be equally represented or at the least, have minority actors play minority roles, it's crazy to even have to say that.

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How did the Casting and Misrepresentation Affect the Public?

"When the news broke that white actors would be playing the starring roles of Aang, Katara, Sokka and Zuko, one of the first responses was from artists who had worked on the show. Under the handle ‘Aang Ain’t White’, they anonymously created a LiveJournal website and initiated a letter-writing campaign. Although hundreds of fans and non-fans learned about the issue through the site and mailed letters, most were returned to sender unopened. Soon thereafter, casting for the film was completed and production began with no changes to the cast. One consequence of creating this forum, however, was that like-minded participants had a chance to meet each other in this virtual arena and establish a basis for future conversations. Two such individuals, known on the site as glockgal and jedifreac, decided to start their own forum. They created a site called Racebending.com, as well as a corresponding community on LiveJournal. The name was a playful riff on the notion of ‘bending’ that was an important part of the universe of The Last Airbender – each tribe is based on a natural element, and individuals known as ‘Benders’ have the ability to manipulate that element."

Lopez, Lori Kido. “Fan Activists and the Politics of Race in The Last Airbender.” International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 15, no. 5, 21 Oct. 2011, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1367877911422862?casa_token=wuiDABKjSMkAAAAA%3AxmtWeGiIjSZhim72d1kc4sc5jlXDniPhsnNol_YQMStVuLETGy-_lQZp5e0tia3OZrMemB_s3qhx_w. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022. 

Fans were obviously outraged when the news broke of the castings. For many of those who were able to identify with the characters in the cartoon series, that would not be the case for the live action series. Many minorities take a sense of pride when they are represented on screen, as much of the time Hollywood uses white actors to portray the roles of minorities majority of the time. For those of Asian descent, these castings were infuriating and offensive. The characters that they identified with and resembled, gone. Fans were not afraid to take action and speak their minds. In the clip that I posted of the people who went to see the movie on opening night, they were not pleased at all with the result. The castings were terrible, the directing was terrible, and the names of the characters were even changed. People were asking for their money back. This movie completely bombed and the public made it known.

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Fans give their perspective on the film after seeing it opening night in theaters.

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Monk Gyatso in the live action (top) vs Monk Gyatso in the cartoon series (bottom)

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It Gets Worse!

So, we have three white characters playing the heroes. Well, our only minority lead happens to be the villain. We have three white heroes and a minority villain. That can be seen as problematic. The Fire Nation as a whole seems to have been casted with Indian descent. It can't get worse than this can it? Well, yes it can. Aang, as I mentioned, is supposed to be of Tibetan descent. He was cast with a white actor. However, in flashbacks used throughout the film, we see Aang's former mentors and friends.There is one thing that stood out. Aang was the only white person. His mentor, Monk Gyatso was black while the rest of the young air benders seemed to be of Asian descent. So why was Aang white? He did not fit in and this is where the casting became a bigger problem. Aang did not even resemble his own people. Aang is portrayed as the "white" hero or "white" savior.

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What is Whitewashing? 

“Whitewashing is a term used to refer to a casting practice in the film industry in which film producers seek and cast white actors into roles that were originally meant for people of colour.”

P, Aditya R. “Decoding the Politics of the Whitewashing Phenomenon in Hollywood through M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Last Airbender.’” International Journal Of English and Studies, vol. 3, no. 4, 2021. An International Peer-Reviewed Journal, https://www.ijoes.in/papers/v3i4/14.IJOES-_87-95.pdf. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022. 

Whitewashing has been very common in Hollywood and entertainment. White actors are being casted to play roles of minority characters. Avatar: The Last Airbender, was one of the more obvious cases. For some backstory on the movie, the film follows Aang, the last existing air-bender who also happens to be the Avatar. The Avatar is someone who can bend all four elements, the Avatar brings balance to the world. After the Avatar dies, he is reborn in the next tribe in the cycle. Aang had decided to run away because he did not want to be the Avatar. Aang and his flying Bison Appa, had gotten stuck in a storm where Aang froze the two to survive. While this happened, the fire nation, was plotting to kill all air benders so the avatar was not reborn, so that the fire nation could control everything and rule, making the Fire Lord the most powerful bender. 100 years had passed and Aang was discovered by siblings Katara and Sokka, members of the Southern Water Tribe. This is where we will get to the whitewashing.

Each tribe represents a different race. The Water Tribe consists of Indigenous Arctic cultures like the Inuits and Yupiks. The Earth Kingdom follows Monarchial China, the Fire Nation by Imperial Japan, and the Air Nomads by Tibetan Buddhist Monks.

The casting by Shyamalan was very problematic. Now, Aang is a Tibetan Monk, however, it is hard to identify that in the original cartoon. He seems more white than Tibetan so I was not really too concerned with the casting of Noah Ringer based on his martial arts experience. The rest of the casting threw people off. Katara and Sokka were those of Indigenous descent. They had darker skin, and followed more native culture. However, both were cast with white actors. Many of the water tribe members were white, including many in the Northern Water Tribe. Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation was supposed to be similar to Imperial Japan. Instead they casted Dev Patel, a British actor of Indian descent to play the role. This casting became even more problematic for an obvious reason.....

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Misrepresentation of Race in Television

M. Night Shyamalan faced a lot of harsh criticism for the use of white washing in his 2010 film, Avatar: The Last Airbender, a live action remake of the first season of the Nickelodeon hit show.