The Caste of Avatar, the black man’s opinion
By Chris X
I know I am late to the blogging party when it comes to this but the more I come across the topic the more I find myself vexed to the point of stating my opinion. I am not a person of Asian descent however I feel the weight of this issue like any in their Diaspora mainly because as a minority I can fully relate to being place on the metaphorical sideline while someone else is on the court “representing” you. As an African-American I know firsthand how society beat minority actors and actresses into stereotypical niches. I admit The Last Airbender isn’t too far removed from the “Asian Martial Arts/Magic” stereotype but at least the managed to do so with a healthy blend of Americanization, which could have been monumental for Asian-American actors who often got to play up the foreign factor or face obscurity in the mainstream media. This movie could have been the showcase for young Asian American talent and a chance for more veteran actors/tress to step into what should have been well developed characters that are awesome and happen to be Asian. I was shocked and angered by the white washing of this movie and M Night Shyamalan selling out the greater Asian community in order to “diversify” the franchise with Indian American and Bollywood actors.
Quotes from the movie cast
“The second group is the Fire Nation; when Dev was cast as Zuko, I said, OK, I have to cast an Uncle Iroh who looks like his uncle. We’re going to go from Indian/Persian to Mediterranean, all that group with all its darker colors including Italians.” – Quote from Shyamalan at roundtable discussions. (It’s just funny to me how protest against white washing lead to the insertion of an Indian actor instead of an Asian one. This decision so shamelessly bias that it’s a slap in the face)
Shaun Toub, who plays Patel’s uncle in the film, responded to the controversy with:
“If they would have put all Asians in a certain nation, I think then there would be people who come out and said, ‘Well, now you’re stereotyping, saying that anything that has to do with martial arts has to do with Asians and chop suey and all that.’ So it’s nice to mix it up and just do the unexpected.” (To me Shaun Toub is just talking politically around the issue. It makes sense that he would defend this project after all in all fairness he shouldn’t have been casted so instead of saying it’s wrong for so few Asians to be casted he’s trying to make it seem like the Asian American community should actually be thankful for not casting them)
And who can forget Jackson Rathbone comments on playing an Asian characters—a concern the actor was quick to dismiss
“I think it’s one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan,” he said of the transformation he’ll go through to look more like Sokka. “It’s one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit.” (Forget the fact that he didn’t get that tan for the movie, this guy completely skips over the issue. He doesn’t seem to care about it and holds the belief the public won’t when the movie comes up… Sad part is for the most part he was right)
What gets my goat about M. Night Shyamalan “Diversity” is it doesn’t do anything to break the cycle and he knows it. It even sends a nice little message, “White/Fair people = heroes, Brown/Yellow people = villains” and so outrageous is the notion of colorblindness that anyone who sees the actual Asians hidden discreetly in the background of the water nation knows that the white people there seem forced into place. I think Asian-Americans should make a movie about the pilgrims with a majority Asian cast and I would love to see how the Indian community would feel if in the future I got a contact to make a Slumdog Millionaire 2 and replaced the main characters with people of African descent and left the antagonists as Indian. I’m sure in that scenario no one would suspend disbelief as Tyler James Williams (Everybody hates Chris) talked about his life in an Indian setting making reference to Indian mythology while reminiscing about his traditional Indian love interest, Willow Smith (Will Smith daughter). There would be an outcry, the movie wouldn’t be watched oversea and domestically, and they would be screaming “Blacks are trying to ruin the cultural integrity of the film” despite the actor and actress skin color matching the people they are portraying. The performance wouldn’t matter at all what they would care about is that Black people was playing and profiting off of Indian culture and for the most part the world would agree. So why would these same proud people be so hypocritical towards the plight of their fellow Asians after all in America they basically share the same model minority/tight casted history of exclusion which both groups aim to shatter. So in my head I would think that the Indian community in Hollywood would proudly bring cultural integrity to the Last Airbender franchise instead of being self-serving and helping to ruin it for their own little bit of spotlight.
A study by the UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center found that Latino, black, Asian American and Native American actors have few acting opportunities available to them. The study found that 69%of the roles were reserved for white actors and another 8.5% were open to white actors as well as non-white actors. Actors of color were limited to between .5% and about 8% of the roles, depending on racial background. Blacks/African Americans are responsible for the 8% while Asian Americans are generally the .5% because as far as Hollywood is concerned any role an Asian can portray a white person could too, with more marketability even, so when a truly great story comes along involving a Asian American who does something Hollywood moviemakers take it upon themselves to white wash it and usually with no resistance. Now I have always been an advocator of justice and it’s been great to see so many people waking up to the long history of white supremacy in the media. I’m proud that so many Asian Americans drew inspiration from the civil rights movement and decided it wasn’t enough to be the quiet, non-confrontational ‘model minority’ and decided it was time for their voices to be heard. No longer were they just going to allow their cultures, experiences and image to be offered up to Hollywood just to extend the white man’s range in roles while they get subjected to less than flattering depictions now they join a long list of minorities that seek change in Hollywood and by extension America herself.
In this supposed “Post Racial” America much regression has occurs among color lines and we are seeing more proof that maybe post racial isn’t how we describe ourselves but rather we are a generation once removed from outright racism and now focusing on the removal/disarmament of institutional/ structural racism which still survive in America due to their subtleness, much like a discrete racist person, a institution that’s racist in nature will never admit to it. You can ask any person of African descent if they feel the cops unfairly target them and if they believe jail sentences varies greatly on race most will say yes now if you ask a Caucasian the same question most will say no. To an African-American the numbers simply don’t add up on how so many of us end up in jail despite being so little of the actually population, surely 80% of our population are not criminals yet you can ask a White person and even Asian for that matter and they will say without a second thought that, “Yes the majority of blacks are criminal minded” to me this is a screaming example of institutional racism just like how African-Americans/Latinos tend to exclude Asians as a minority group with issues and problems because of the institutionalized thought of them as a “Model Minority”. We simply don’t relate to them in the same way we do other people of color, my brother would even laugh at me calling them that, and it’s all a part of the divide and conquer strategy used against minorities in America. The reason for division is simply, it’s easier to manage smaller groups advocating singular interests while pulling each other down then it is a united group advocating a broad range of interests while supporting one another. Most Asian American Activist can admit that there is opposition when confronting issues of their community because Americans tend to view their issues as non valid. This is mainly because of the limited amount of voices willing to take a stand and the lack of support both within and outside the community in other words they are ignored by the greater minority population and left at the mercy of whites in regards to representation which they use to fuel the very stereotypes we have against them.
Stereotypes such as:
Asians-Americans strive towards whiteness: While it is true that the pressure to blend into the American fabric is strong in all minority populations in States, I believe it’s not fair to accuse Asian Americans of wanting to be white. This is a huge problem in itself where as a society we view certain characteristics as naturally belonging to any one race. The Asians that I met have never once expressed the desire to be Caucasians and the very rare cases where that are not true I find that deeply rooted individual self hate/Colonial Mentality/low self-esteem is often to blame. Frankly the general census on Asians viewing themselves as white is this
“To become white, you shit in your blood, hate yourself and all your kind.”
-Frank Chin, “Confessions of a Chinatown cowboy.”
The reason why the identity issue is just now exploding, which was simmering in the past but never seem to boil over, is because of the transitional periods of Asian Immigrant families to First generation down to the present gen. of Asian Americans.
“Precisely because Asian Americans have become economically secure, do they face serious identity problems. Fully committed to a system that subordinates them on the basis of non-whiteness, Asian Americans still try to gain complete acceptance by denying their yellowness. They have become white in every respect but color.”-Amy Uyematsu, “The Emergence of Yellow Power in America,” GIDRA, 1969.
“So the Nisei generation kept their minds off the fact that they were Japanese, in order to become good nursery-men, good physicians, bankers, good photographers—whatever they became. It is [in] an era of relative prosperity that the Nisei created that the Sansei can ask themselves the question “What is my identity?” They didn’t have a problem of identity in the Nisei generation because they were too ambitious, they had a goal for themselves; they didn’t have a problem. They had too much work to do. It’s the college-educated, affluent Sansei who have an identity problem. I think it’s funny as hell.”-S.I. Hayakawa, former President of San Francisco State College, 1971
Similar sentiments have been echoed from Asian-American scholars, elite, and political leaders and it all points to this generation as the generation of change. This generation that will open the floodgates to the question all minorities face in America, “What is my identity?” but the overwhelming majority already agrees it is not and never will be “White” so the same generation that witnessed the raise of Asia seem destined to see the raise of Asian-Americans and this black guy has to say, “Power to People” because I believe that as American becomes more accepting of all colors then fair media is just fair in the eyes of special interest and we seen what that type of media produces.
Asian-Americans make money off of Blacks while being racist toward them: This is perhaps one of the most propagated messages we see as far as Asian/Black relations go and one of the biggest goals of the model minority myth. No one will deny that Asian Immigrants have a tendency to set up shop in lower economical areas and communities that happen to have a large African-American presence and that interactions between the two have been rocky yet no one talks about the fact the Immigrants have limited knowledge of African-Americans outside of already bias media and the fact they are in a relatively low class environment that naturally have a criminal element. All these things lead to self destruction naturally and then our USA media have a field day with it, finding the most ignorant of the black stock and pitting them against Immigrants who have trouble even speaking the native tongue and didn’t have too much respect for the natives to begin with for all of America to see. Then because we are human and have defensive instincts a lot of us take to the boards and such and say hateful things we don’t always mean. Frankly anyone of educational mind will not to subscribe to racism and there are more positive examples of Asian and Black unity then the current media will every show for obvious reasons. A lot of Asians immigrants of positive economical standing often move directly into middle class majority white areas (60% of the Country is white) and develop a limited view of African-Americans as strictly ghetto, low class, rude and fixed as the official American untouchables as a result of such new reports and media imaging. They may pressure their children not to associate with blacks as a result but this often backfires when the child encounters an African-American of middle or upper class origin and doesn’t display the stereotypes. The constant growth of Asian/Black marriage within the United States illustrates that more often than not racism is generational and naturally this generation has come to embrace African-Americans as much so as any other group in America. Asian Male/Black Females are one of the biggest emerging trends of the census largely in the L.A area and Black men and Asian women always had a history of hooking up only now it’s becoming less taboo to talk about it and Asian women are facing less discrimination for it. Several of the black upper class like Cassie, Neyo, Nicki Minaq, and Tiger Woods has direct Asian blood and even the first President of color has a half brother in China, they show us that while a very few of us are divided the ones that come together form a powerful union that often result in successful offspring. Black and Asians people of the college level often draw similarities in each other that validity of commonality as people of color and many are waking up to the real reasons behind their social programming. This is best stated in a quote from Daniel Hyukjoon Choi
“The question of affirmative action points to a snag in the race relations dialogue, not only because it inflames the sensitivities of black and Asian American college students, but also because it misses the larger sweep of our respective evolutions as minorities in America. Most people cannot get beyond the notion of eugenic insult in the affirmative action debate: to say outright that Asian Americans have outperformed blacks in academics is to risk being called a racist. Collectively, Asian Americans have outperformed blacks on the SATs, just as blacks have clearly outperformed Asian Americans in athletics, not because of any racial advantage, but because Asian Americans and black Americans have approached the problem of being a minority differently. Asian Americans, arguably, have succeeded not only because they work hard, but also because they follow the rules, stay inconspicuous, and never question authority. Blacks, on the other hand, have always been threatening to white America with their outspokenness, their assertion of difference and readiness to testify to their oppression, Malcolm X and Ice Cube. Theirs has been a history of struggle and group activism, ours a pattern of uncomplaining assimilation and an individualized pursuit of material success.”
