Earlier this winter, the Media Action Network for Asian Americans publicly spoke out against Paramount's casting policy regarding The Last Airbender. They posted an open letter to the producers on their site as well as sending it through more direct channels, offering to help Paramount Pictures steer this project in the right direction.

Nearly a month later, Paramount responded. You can read their letter in its entirety here, but it says, in part:

Early casting includes an Indian actor, born in Mumbai and raised in the UK and the US; a Persian actor born in Tehran and raised in the UK, Switzerland and the US; a Maori actor born and raised in New Zealand; a Korean-American actor, born and raised in Chicago; an American actress of Italian, French and Mexican heritage; among several others of varied nationalities from around the world.

The four nations represented in the film reflect not one community, but the world’s citizens. These societies will be cast from a diversity of all races and cultures. In particular, the Earth Kingdom will be cast with Asian, East Asian and Africans.

We would like to take a moment, here, to speak briefly about the real world cultures represented within Avatar: The Last Airbender. The only written language represented is classical Chinese. The characters' journey through the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation reveals a wide variety of distinctive East Asian cultures, including Chinese, Korean, Tibetan, Japanese and Vietnamese. The Water Tribe draws from Inuit, Yupik and Pacific Islander cultures. This world features astonishing diversity from all across the Asian continent and all along the Pacific Rim, which is a part of what made it so unique.

There are no equivalents to African or European cultures in the Avatar world. There are no medieval French castles. There are no Egyptian temples. There are no Viking long houses. There are no Malian mosques. Including African American extras in the Earth Kingdom was a deliberate decision, intended to mask the whitewashing of the principle cast.

The MANAA found Paramount's letter as pandering and transparent as we did. They have written a response, which you can read here on their site, but certain sections seem particularly important to point out here:

Thank you for your letter. Because it raises important questions regarding your perceptions of diversity, we are again requesting a meeting to discuss the casting and depiction of cultures in the movie (and your future projects) so this film can truly be the success we all want. We are interested, for instance, in how your ideal of including people from “all corners of the globe” correlates with your casting policies. Specifically seeking out white actors and casting four white leads for what M. Night Shymalan admitted was an “Asian fantasy world” does not celebrate ethnic diversity. Re-casting the sole villainous lead with an actor of color is a concession that results in three heroic nations going to war against an evil nation of color.

After dealing with Hollywood studios for the past 17 years, we are more than familiar with the justifications used to cast white actors instead of actors of color. Other film productions have previously used the same pretexts, touting diversity through the casting of supporting roles--but only after first discriminating in casting the lead roles.

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How can you, in good faith, say you are trying to honor the integrity of the television series by taking a story written with Asian themes, settings, characters, and populating it with white leads—especially when there are so few Asian roles available in Hollywood? You are continuing a generations-long practice of racial discrimination where the opportunity for actors of color to be heroes for a change is taken away (this time in the name of “diversity.”).

The MANAA intends to pursue this matter, but they would very much appreciate any support the Avatar fan community can provide. If you live in the Los Angeles area, their next general meeting will be on May 21st, and they would love to have more fans concerned with this issue attend and share their thoughts.

If you don't live close enough to join them in person, we would encourage you to take a moment to write them a note sharing your thoughts and your support. If you aren't of Asian descent yourself, they would appreciate being told as much -- it's encouraging to know that people of all races are standing by them!

Finally: as we mentioned earlier, producer Frank Marshall has an account on Twitter, which many fans have used to contact him directly regarding this issue. Unfortunately, some fans have chosen to behave in a rude, unhelpful manner, which casts a bad light on all of us and makes our concerns that much easier to dismiss. We would therefore encourage you to use this platform to send polite messages and questions about The Last Airbender and its cast -- perhaps we can drown out the unhelpful negativity and show the producers that we're serious enough about this issue to write about it respectfully.

First, we've set up another way you can help us make our voices heard! An online petition has been created, which will soon be delivered by hand to Paramount Pictures and the Kennedy/Marshall company. This is a great opportunity to let them know the scale of this movement, and we would strongly encourage you not only to sign it, but also to pass it along to friends and family you think may be interested.



We've also created a website, Racebending.com, with more information and resources about this movement, including a press release. Discussion of the issues surrounding The Last Airbender and its cast also continues at racebending.

There has been some confusion regarding the motivations and goals of this movement. As such we'd like to take a moment to make ourselves and our intentions absolutely clear.

We all very dearly love the original Avatar: The Last Airbender show. We want the live action adaptation of it to be successful, and for it to be a project we can wholeheartedly support. It has deeply saddened all of us to watch events unfold as they have. None of us want this project to fail.

However. We cannot support The Last Airbender if the production continues on its current path.

We believe the roles of Sokka, Katara and Aang -- the three heroes of this story -- should be recast to reflect the races and cultures of those characters. The current situation, in which three white heroes will be saving the world from a race of dark-skinned Firebenders, is one we cannot in good conscience support or endorse. On a related note, we would also urge Paramount to cast the remainder of the Water Tribe and Air Nomad characters with actors of Inuit or East Asian decent.

Ultimately, we would encourage Paramount Pictures to work closely with the Media Action Network for Asian Americans and the East West Players to find ways to make The Last Airbender a film we can all stand behind.

Following the Media Action Network for Asian Americans' public announcement of their concern regarding The Last Airbender's casting -- which we spoke of in our previous post and encourage you to check out if you have not already -- we have more big news for you today!

As some of you may have heard, the East West Players -- an organization that works toward increased opportunities for Asian American actors in theater, film and television -- has written a letter to The Last Airbender's producers, publicly denouncing the existing cast and offering their services in helping to set things right again.

From that letter, which you can download in its entirety here, courtesy of jedifreac:

How exactly are the lead white actors going to represent ethnically and culturally diverse "nations," unless they resort to wearing makeup and/or prosthetics to try to appear "ethnic" [..] ? Or, if the lead actors will continue to appear white, what signal does it send that they are the leaders of darker-skinned and/or ethnic societies? And how can the casting of homogeneously Caucasian actors as three out of the top four leads possibly be consistent with a story whose overarching message is diversity and harmony between different cultures?

Given that AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER is so clearly based on and inspired by ancient East Asian, South Asian and Inuit civilizations, it is a major lost opportunity for the producers not to have aggressively sought out Asian talent for the lead roles. The face that Dev Patel apparently has been cast in one of the four lead roles is a positive step but it certainly does not excuse the filmmakers from being insensitive to the negative ethnic and cultural implications of using whites to either "look like" ethnic peoples or to inexplicably lead such peoples as if they are white saviors.

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Given the serious concerns that have been raised about the casting of AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER, including furious debates that are taking place on the topic in cyberspace, we believe it would be beneficial for Paramount executives to meet with representatives of EWP and other Asian American organizations to discuss the matter.

For those unfamiliar with the East West Players, EWP is the nation's premiere Asian American theater organization and the oldest continuously operating theatre of color in the country. When EWP was founded in 1965, Asian Americans faced limited opportunities to play roles outside of stereotypical and often demeaning caricatures in mainstream American media, and many ethnically Asian roles were often given to white actors while Asian American actors were overlooked. In that respect, The Last Airbender is simply the latest page in a long Hollywood history of lost opportunities.

After experiencing first-hand the discrimination Asian Americans faced in Hollywood, the founding members created EWP to expand opportunities for Asian American actors, writers, directors, and producers. One of the founding members, and artistic directors, was Makoto "Mako" Iwamatsu--the voice of Uncle Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Several members of the EWP family have performed in the animated series, including:

Dante Basco (Prince Zuko), one of the stars in EWP's latest play, IXNAY.
Tim Dang (Yon Rha in "The Southern Raiders"), EWP Producing Artistic Director
George Takei (The Warden in "Imprisoned"), Chair of the EWP Council of Governors
James Hong (The Mayor in "Avatar Day", an Air Nomad Monk in "The Storm"), EWP Founding Member
Daniel Dae Kim (General Fong in "The Avatar State")
Lauren Tom (Joo Dee)
James Sie (The Cabbage Merchant!)
Sab Shimono (Monk Gyatso, Master Yu)
Tayako Fischer (Lo and Li)
Tsai Chin. (The Fortuneteller)

The East West Players are currently hard at work at their newest play, IXNAY, which features actor Dante Basco. Southern California fans-- let's support these Avatar: The Last Airbender actors and the organization they belong to! IXNAY is running through March 15th; Tim Dang directs and Dante Basco is part of the featured ensemble cast, playing character Eric Galindo. If you're interested, you can find information on ticketing here.

For those of you who aren't local to Southern California but want to financially support either of the excellent organizations helping us with this fight, you can donate to the East West Players or to the Media Action Network for Asian Americans online. If you know of or belong to a similar organization dedicated to supporting Inuit or Native American actors, please let us know!

One further bit of news that more directly concerns all of you: someone has set up a livejournal community dedicated to news about and discussion of The Last Airbender's casting controversy: racebending! We encourage all of you who have been active here in the comments of this journal to join -- the community will provide a more relaxed format for discussion, as well as the ability to make posts of your own! Check out the community's profile for more information -- it's a big step toward keeping this conversation going in the fan community and providing a safe space for those who want to talk about this issue.