So, they're making an Avatar: The Last Airbender live action movie. Pretty cool, no? Well you might think so... until you saw the cast. They're all white. Every last one of the main characters. Yes, even Katara and Sokka

One of the great things about Avatar is that the setting isn't the same old "vaguely European" fantasy setting. It's based on Eastern cultures, and not just "the exotic Orient." The clothes, the food, the architecture is all based off of different Asian civilizations.

And the cast for the live action movie is white, when they weren't in the show.

Does everybody get why this is a problem? Does everybody understand the paucity of people of color in entertainment, especially in fantasy? And Avatar is a show that's all about people of color. This is a chance a people of color (especially children) to see people who look like them. But that's been abandoned in favor of "Oh no, white people would never see a movie featuring people who's skin is less than ivory." (And am I the only white person who finds that frankly offensive? The racism is the real issue here, but the implication that I am far too shallow and stupid to identify with characters who don't share my skin color is insulting.)

Naturally, there are people defending the casting. Privileged people will defend anything.

"Isn't talent more important than race?" The biggest problem with this is that it implies that there aren't any good POC actors available. It assumes that people of color who tried out couldn't make the cut, rather than there being racism in the audition and casting process. There are plenty of POC actors. Good ones. But instead, M. Night Shyamalan cast all white people. Plus, do you really think that any of the actors chosen are so absolutely astounding that there were no other suitable options? I mean, really?

"But I don't see Aang and Zuko as Asian." Good for you. Nice to see that the "white=default" assumption is still in place. (And by "nice," I mean "rage inducing.") But given that everything else in the Avatar world is Asian influenced, it's a rather logical to assume that the characters would look Asian. And, really, the alternative is much worse. White characters decked out in entirely Asian trappings? Can you say "cultural appropriation"? Good, I knew you could.

"It sucks, but then again, the whole movie is going to suck." Okay, bad acting and crummy action scenes or whatever? Make a movie suck. Casting characters of color as entirely white? Makes a movie racist. There is a difference in the degree of bad. (Hint: racism is worse.)

"It's not that big a deal. Why do you people care so much?" Because we don't like racism. End of story.

And my favorite, I saved it for last: "Even if the actors don't have the right skin color for Katara and Sokka, they can just wear makeup."

Yes! Yes, indeed the perfect solution! Just slather some paint on and put them in blackface! And then we can tape up Aang and Zuko's eyes and make them squint a whole bunch! Hollywood used to do that all of the time! I wonder why they stopped?

BECAUSE IT'S FUCKING RACIST! I have trouble finding the words to express this. If you can't understand that yellowface is not the solution, then I'm not sure that we have any common ground.

What to do if you're pissed off by this? Well, there a letter writing campaign over at aang_aint_white. Write (...I originally typed that as "white") to Paramount studios. Write to the media. Write to Shyamalan's company. Or you could make am lj post about it. Or you could just bring up the problem when talking about the movie. It really isn't hard.

Yeah, I think that I'm done for now.