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I have been contacted by a group curious to learn about the demographics of our movement. It might be important to prove to the world that this issue concerns everyone, not simply Asian Americans or young people or Avatar fans, etc. As much as statistics 'pigeonhole' us, it can also help show how diverse we are.
These are the things I am surveying for:
AGE
I would like a number so I can generate a mean and median age.
GENDER
I just added this, sorry! Don't worry if you didn't put it in before, I don't expect my stats to be completely accurate for this category but someone just requested it.
ETHNICITY
I was most reluctant to poll for this but it's also important to prove that "it's not just the X people who are offended about Y, it's everyone." Under Ethnicity, write whatever you want to call yourself. If you don't feel like you identify with any particular ethnicity, that's fine, too.
HOMETOWN
State, country, whatever you feel comfortable divulging. I was thinking about mapping out where people are geographically.
REASON (THREE SENTENCES ONLY)
Are you an Avatar fan? A parent? Against yellowface or whitewashing in general? Three sentences on your opinion of these casting practices. The best quotes will go into a revised press release for the racebending.com site!
This poll will be conducted on the racebending community, AAW's home page (hopefully), the facebook group message board, and private facebook message, so please respond only ONCE.
Here are the answers to my survey
AGE: 22
GENDER: Female
ETHNICITY: Taiwanese American
HOMETOWN: Los Angeles, CA
REASON: I was a fan of the original series and I think these casting decisions are against a lot of what Avatar stood for. I admire Mako's work and advocacy for Asian American actors and I don't think this should be happening to Avatar, part of his legacy. I'm Asian American and remember being told when I was growing up that Asian girls don't get to grow up and become actresses.
EDIT: The Survey is now complete and available at Racebending.com
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April 25 2009, 05:33:40 UTC 3 years ago Edited: April 26 2009, 19:20:33 UTC
Age: 28
Ethnicity: white (ETA: equal parts Dutch and white American with Armenian heritage as well)
ETA: Sex: Biological female, mostly female-identified
Hometown: Salt Lake City, UT
Reason: I'm an Avatar fan who liked the show for many reasons, but largely because it was an extraordinary fantasy not set in a world dominated by white people. I'm appalled as well by the racism Hollywood constantly displays and by blackface and yellowface, and by not casting Asians and Asian-Americans in specifically Asian roles, I think this film is reinforcing racism. Further, I am one white viewer who is sick of every major movie featuring people of my race, and I think more racial diversity in art benefits everyone.
(I hope that didn't suck too badly :x)
Anonymous
May 26 2009, 21:27:03 UTC 3 years ago
Ethnicity: African American
Gender: Male
Hometown: Kingston, Jamaica
Reason: I have grown tired of the stereotypes and under representation of all minorities in films. The Last Airbender was a chance for East Asian actors to find success but it was stolen from them. I am also offended that the studio tries to make it better by hiring numerous South East Asian actors now(Dev Patel).
Anonymous
2 years ago
April 25 2009, 05:46:23 UTC 3 years ago Edited: April 25 2009, 15:12:00 UTC
Ethnicity: White American
GENDER: Female
Hometown: Madison, WI
Reason: Adore the original series, disgusted with the blatant racism of the casting. I'm not really sure what else to add... it's just so insulting for everyone involved I can't stand it.
April 25 2009, 05:48:04 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: European American mutt
HOMETOWN: Chesapeake, Virginia
REASON: I'm a student of animation and became a fan of the Avatar series because it was one of the most well written and wonderfully animated American series I had seen in a long time. I found it a wonderful tribute to Asian cultures that was at the same time very honest and respectful to them rather then being the normal exploitive stuff that we so often see. It was also so groundbreaking and bold because of the decision to use Asian and Native based heroes.
When I heard about the casting I thought it was an internet joke. When I found out it was true, I felt betrayed because they were taking something that was so smart and bold and watering it down and taking away what made it special to so many people who saw it as groundbreaking. It's become a whitewashed mockery and nothing more then a soulless studio product.
April 25 2009, 05:56:30 UTC 3 years ago
Ethnicity: White
Hometown: San Francisco, CA but going to to school in Santa Barbara, CA.
Reason: I was a fan of avatar from the third season on so when I saw the casting news I was outraged. I knew Hollywood had a history of whitewashing films but even in my cynicism I never thought they'd go this far simply because the series was so blatantly Asian-based. I was very glad to see that action was taken so quickly and that it made such a huge impact so as well. The power of the internet!
April 25 2009, 06:04:57 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: Chinese in Canada
HOMETOWN: China
REASON: I'm just getting sick of whitewashing Asian characters, whether it's in the original Avatar cartoon (which is admittedly not as Asian as I'd hoped it would be, but good enough) or in general other TV shows with Asian Americans playing the token character of color. With a live action movie I'd hoped that there would be more Asian actors given a chance to make it big. Plus, I just really hated the recent DBZ movie turning Goku white (Monkey King was my childhood hero, though I admit Goku's only loosely based off him, it still stings to see him white...and speaking English in Forbidden Kingdom).
April 25 2009, 06:07:03 UTC 3 years ago
Ethicity: White American [Italian/Polish background]
Hometown: San Francisco, California [living overseas in Hanoi, Vietnam up until June 16 2009]
Reason:
A large chunk of my childhood has been (and continues to be) ruined by Hollywood--specifically, campy, relentless sequels to classic Disney movies. The thing is, I could live with the campy Disney sequels because they had their good points, they were still entertaining, and most importantly, it would be the original version that people would remember.
The Last Airbender, on the other hand, is an extreme. It's not just campy, it's a slap in the face to the original series, and most everything the original series stood for as a cutting-edge, original, multi-cultural show.
April 25 2009, 13:15:00 UTC 3 years ago
April 25 2009, 06:07:52 UTC 3 years ago Edited: April 25 2009, 07:55:47 UTC
April 25 2009, 06:10:47 UTC 3 years ago
Ethnicity: White
Hometown: California/Iowa
Reason: I've been a fan of the original series since it started, and one of the main reasons it captured me so completely was its portrayal of a blend of cultures and races coexisting. As a gay person I've seen stereotypes and fear saturate popular media and turn public opinion- Avatar is one of the few shows that isn't afraid to show people of different beliefs, values, races standing up, fighting, living for themselves. I don't want to see that taken away.
April 25 2009, 17:20:20 UTC 3 years ago
they need this now~
Gender: female3 years ago
April 25 2009, 06:15:15 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: White American
HOMETOWN: I don't actually have one; I'm a military brat. Currently in Carmichael, CA.
REASON: I'm somewhat of a latecomer to the Avatar fandom - I didn't actually get really into the show until the huge hiatus between DoBS and the following episodes - but I still adore the show. It was finding out that Dante Basco voiced a main character that drew me in, actually; I loved his Rufio. Too, the casting for the movie actually opened my eyes to the problem of racism that still lingers in Hollywood, that people try to justify with "finding the best actors".
April 25 2009, 14:16:52 UTC 3 years ago
April 25 2009, 06:17:07 UTC 3 years ago
Ethnicity: Caucasian mutt
Hometown: Clarksville, IN (across the river from Louisville, KY); going to college in Muncie, IN
Reason: I'm an Avatar fan who's loved the series from the start and immediately fell in love with the world saturated in cultures I knew little about at the time. Finding out about the casting was a low blow and infuriates me to think that a movie "needs" white heroes to be successful. If non white people can identify with white heroes, why can't white people identify with non white heroes?
April 25 2009, 16:58:54 UTC 3 years ago
April 25 2009, 06:18:13 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: Asian. More specifically Vietnamese & Thai.
HOMETOWN: Melbourne, Australia.
REASON: Love the Avatar series, hate that it's gonna be yet another good animated series turned into an awful live action film, and a white washed one at that. I'd just love for an Asian to take the lead for once, rather than being the token Asian/coloured best friend, and by lead I don't mean as the Engrish speaking detective from Asia on a mission for the FBI or whatever. The Avatar has the potential to bring a lot of talented Asian Americans out from the woodwork and I'd love to see this happen.
Anonymous
April 25 2009, 06:18:33 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: Mexican-American
HOMETOWN: Laredo, TX
REASON: I'm a pretty big fan of the show. It's hard to pinpoint when I started feeling angry and offended at the casting. It probably started with aversion to the production in general with Jessie assuming this was an anime, Rathbone's hair and tan comment, and more. I figure I'd have been fine with an actual "multi-ethnic" cast, not the joke of one they've got now. As time went on, I read the posts of Derek Kirk Kim and others, and recalled a few classic movies that featured whitewashing, like the Mr. Moto series that my history teacher told me of, I began wanting to see change based on the social implications, not just disrespect towards the source material. I want to see it change or at the absolute worst, not succeed and be forced to see the studios rewarded for continuing something that should have been seen as an old and embarrassing practice.
Long story short, I just feel that what the studio is doing now cheapens all the work that went into Avatar, and disrespects a lot of the people that helped bring it to where it is.
April 25 2009, 06:20:32 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: Korean American
HOMETOWN: Washington DC suburbs
REASON: One of the reasons I loved Avatar was because of how truly reflective it was of every aspect of Asian culture without stereotyping or fetishizing it. I think Asian culture was integral to the show. Making an Avatar movie with white actors would be like drawing Mulan as a white girl (Wrong! Very wrong!).
April 25 2009, 20:53:12 UTC 3 years ago
April 25 2009, 06:21:12 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: Chinese Canadian
HOMETOWN: Ottawa, ON (born in Lanzhou, China)
REASON: I'm incredibly offended by the blatant whitewashing and racism evident in the casting decisions, and even more so by the production's flippantly insensitive attitude towards our concerns. I thought we as a society were better than this, had learned and moved on from obvious stereotypes like White Hero and Coloured Villain. Minority actors are in a tight spot as it is, and I'm angry because this film could have different—should have been, considering the source material—yet it chose to be another shafting of Asian American actors, leaving them what but stereotyped roles and unemployment.
April 25 2009, 17:19:07 UTC 3 years ago
April 25 2009, 06:22:13 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: Filipino (American)
HOMETOWN: Seattle, WA
REASON: I've been taught all my life that race doesn't matter, and I've been fortunate enough not to have encountered racism (except maybe for people always mistaking my ethnicity... which I know isn't really racism, but it shows a regrettable lack of education. Filipinos just aren't on the map for most Americans, and that includes other non-white, non-Filipinos. Check out various Filipino actors, like Dante Basco, who have yet to play Filipino characters.) But for some reason this didn't stop me from picking up the idea that the default race is white. I'm not white, and whenever I sit down to write or create anything, my character(s) comes out... white.
This is beyond weird for me, and I hope that no child ever grows up unable to see themselves as the protagonists of their own stories.
Plus Avatar is just beyond awesome. It was popular just the way it was: Asian people, dark-skinned people, blind and scarred people... don't fix what ain't broke, Hollywood, when are you ever going to learn that?
April 25 2009, 09:16:10 UTC 3 years ago
This happens to me too!!! (I'm Latina.) Sometimes I think it's because I pass for white and so I don't have that visual marker of "different-ness." Sometimes I think it's because I'm Puerto Rican, and here on the west coast most Latinos are Mexican-American, so I lack a frame of reference for my own culture beyond my immediate family. But then I hear about folks without issues like mine who do the same exact thing, and it amazes me. And it seems like M. Night Shyamalan himself is a victim to this type of thinking, judging from his previous works. You're right, it's beyond weird, and it hurts to know that other people suffer from this.
3 years ago
Anonymous
2 years ago
3 years ago
April 25 2009, 06:24:21 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: White American
HOMETOWN: Georgia
REASON: I've enjoyed the original show in passing for several years, and found out about the cast via someone's post of Fandom!Secrets about the community "Saving the World with Postage". After looking over the posts there, and reading some of the comments, I started to re-watch the show from episode 1. Looking at it from that perspective, the casting seemed insulting, racist, and stupid. Adding to that, I didn't care for McCartny or Rathbone, and I still don't. I don't particularly care for Patel either, but that's a whole different story (involving an obsessive roommate who played the song Jai Ho for 8 hours straight while I was trying to study).
April 25 2009, 06:26:02 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: White
HOMETOWN: Louisville, KY
REASON: I could go on for more than three sentences (and initially was planning to), but long story short: despite people who think this is nothing more than fans bitching, I'm not here because I'm upset that evil movie producers messed with my favorite show. This is about more than just Avatar--this is about protesting a tradition of whitewashing, a history of yellowface, and a Hollywood culture that sidelines Asian American and Native American actors and characters.
April 25 2009, 08:22:19 UTC 3 years ago
April 25 2009, 06:27:28 UTC 3 years ago
Ethnicity: Mostly German and French Canadian.
Hometown: Western Washington
Reason: I was always a really huge fan of Avatar because it was so different; a beautifully animated show that really respected the cultures it was inspired from? How wonderful! Seeing the live action movie not give any of the respect the cartoon did by forcing Katara and Sokka, two people who are obviously not white, to be played by actors who are white is really disappointing, amongst other things about the production of the live action movie.
April 25 2009, 06:30:36 UTC 3 years ago
Ethnicity: Filipino American
Hometown: Katy, TX (not far from Houston)
Reason: I've been an Avatar fan since season one and I've loved the show and hearing the speculation before casting or anything about the movie has always been on the edge, like "Oh, live action, how are they going to be able to pull that off?" but then when they announced the casting decisions it just made my head hurt -- yes, 4 white leads, with Jesse McCartney no less in the mix -- and I think seeing characters whitewashed just about did it. Even after starting to take a Minority Studies class which addresses issues specifically of race and ethnicity in the United States, things became even more clearer as they continued with the directions they took with the casting (race by color and then bunching African American and Asians into the Earth Kingdom) and yet staying pretty on target with clothing and settings, it made me a bit outraged. They have perfectly good source material to work with and that material was created with consultation with MANAA so they wouldn't put up racial stereotypes or anything extremely negative and they put in a lot of respect, love, and work into it. The movie deserves to give that source material the same respect. And Hollywood needs to change its practices they keep on doing that, if maybe for them unintentional, perpetuates racism.
April 25 2009, 06:33:32 UTC 3 years ago
Ethnicity: white American
Hometown: Seattle, WA
Reason: The original series is obviously based in Asian cultures, and ethnically Asian actors have been disadvantaged by Hollywood for an awfully long time. They deserve a chance to play roles that are ideal for them. Whitewashing hurts people -- read Pam Noles, read Ursula Le Guin -- and the people who are likely to be hurt worst by this are little kids who love the show.
April 25 2009, 09:00:56 UTC 3 years ago
This. Can you imagine what it would be like from a kid's perspective? It's so sad to think about.
3 years ago
April 25 2009, 06:41:22 UTC 3 years ago
Ethnicity: Palestinian American
Hometown: United States
Reason: I'm a huge fan of the original t.v. show, and being a Muslim Palestian-American, I know very well what it's like to be hit by discrimination. I don't accept racism, discrimination, or "white-washing", and want to do my part to fight what I believe is a terrible ideology that continues to plague Western society, even in a time and country that is supposed to be diverse and free.
April 25 2009, 15:40:20 UTC 3 years ago
Gender: female
April 25 2009, 06:41:23 UTC 3 years ago
Ethnicity: Asian-American (Korean to be exact)
Hometown: Texas~
Reasons: I adore the original series and I feel that the casting decisions made for the movie go against some of the main themes and motifs of the original series. I feel that it is a shame to not showcase skilled and talented young actors of all races in a movie that stresses people of different nations working together.
April 25 2009, 06:43:51 UTC 3 years ago
ETHNICITY: native american/irish (others as well, but those are the main two)
HOMETOWN: tahlequah, oklahoma
REASON: i have only just watched this series, but i'd heard about the hype beforehand. actually, i'd say the hype about the movie's fail-tastic casting was what made me watch the animated series in the first place - that said, i'm pretty disgusted with the fact that despite the overly blatant asian themes present in the series, we've got hardly any asian casting in the movie at all, and two of the main, darkest-skinned characters are caucasian. i'm even more disgusted that my country is supposed to be the "giant melting pot", and we can't even try to reflect that in a movie that's made from an animated film that portrays so many different people coming together, to fight alongside one another for a better world.
three sentences, long though they may be... XD;
Anonymous
September 14 2009, 19:40:42 UTC 2 years ago
What's More Disgusting is Shyamalan
What I find more disturbing and disgusting is that M. Night Shyamalan is not trying to stick up for a diverse cast for HIS movie and he is a person of color. What does that say about his mentality?April 25 2009, 06:44:47 UTC 3 years ago
Age: 36
Ethnicity: Standard African American mutt -- bit of Creek Indian, bit of unknown white person, but I identify as black.
Hometown: New York, NY, though I'm originally from Mobile, Alabama.
Reason: I'm a fan of the original series, a professional fantasy writer, and an enemy of racism. I believe Hollywood's racism targets all people of color, therefore all people of color need to work against it. There's a lot of problems to target, but this one means a lot to me because ATLA was a brilliant and groundbreaking cartoon being turned into an asinine Hollywood cliche, and that offends me as a fan, a writer, and a PoC.
April 25 2009, 18:55:29 UTC 3 years ago
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April 25 2009, 06:49:43 UTC 3 years ago
Age: 19
Ethnicity: White
Hometown: California
Reason: I was a fan of Avatar and while I had no interest in ever seeing an Avatar movie (I was doubtful it would be any good), I was outraged to hear that the material source (aka the cartoon series) was not going to be respected in the movie. And the casting is definitely a sign of disrespect, in my opinion. Also, it's racist and I hate prejudicism in all its forms.
April 25 2009, 21:40:58 UTC 3 years ago
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