Racebending again

[mirandir]

You. 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

Comments

[justuschickens]

<3

[skylon]

I've heard people use the Airbender complaints to complain about Jaden Smith being a bad choice for the new Karate Kid because he's not white. The Airbender complaint is very legit. The Karate Kid one is not. Where is the line?

[mirandir]

The Karate Kid movie with a white lead already got made?

[skylon]

you know how it works. Italian-Amrican = white because the only races that exist are white, black, brown, yellow and red.

It's why no one is complaining that the role of the Japanese Mr. Miyagi has been changed to the Chinese Mr. Han. "at least he's yellow."

[mirandir]

Or to phrase it a different and more accurate way: statistically, we need more representation for non-white lead actors. White -> Black for the Karate Kid is okay because it helps those numbers, Asian -> White for Airbender is not because it hurts them.

Now, one could argue that we do not, in fact, need more representation of non-white lead actors. But I've yet to hear such an argument that adequately addresses the numerical disparity.

And yes, I'm counting Italian as White. If it makes you feel better, please read "European American" in place of White-- last I checked, Italy was still in Europe.