i am furious (yellow)
So, this Avatar thing.
There have been a lot of excellent posts about this -- many of them from my sister, who in turn:
- addresses the most commonly-seen kneejerk racist responses
- rounds up other links about the casting
- broaches the idea of getting media coverage
And of course there is the aang-aint-white letter-writing campaign, which has tons of people posting the content of their letters and has another set of links as well.
Apart from the blatantly shit-stupid protests from people who feel that "kids" (read: white kids) will be confused by seeing PoC on the screen and people who keep insisting, "well, *I* think they look white!! Prove to me that these dark-skinned characters in Asian clothes in an Asian world aren't white!!", there's the more ... how should I put this ... "nice" arguments.
Such as, "oh, well ... I don't think it's fair to hate those kids for being cast, it's not their fault. And if they're the best actors for the parts, shouldn't that be okay? I mean, clearly there should be *some* PoC in the cast, but if Aang the Tibetan monk with all the Buddhist-based martial powers really really *is* best-portrayed by a white kid from Texas who was top of his karate class, shouldn't that be okay too?"
The answer is -- NO. It is not all right. Let me deal with this in point form, because it is not a new argument and I am sick of seeing variations on this theme of FAIL from white allies.
1) O WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!! Nobody hates these child actors. Actors have to work. Actors of colour have a harder time of it. Why won't anybody think of the child actors of colour who missed out on the very few parts that were fucking tailor-made for them?
2) White people are not automatically the best actors for the parts. There's this assumption that white people can play anything (with a good enough tan or tape to make their eyes slanty or putty to make their noses hooked) and it should be okay. Whereas PoC (even if they're like Katrina Kaif and straight-up pass for white) do not get this privilege. Please note that key word: PRIVILEGE. You don't even need to talk to actors of colour to understand how circumscribed we are in what we can dress up as or play; just ask a brown kid which of her favourite characters she thinks she looks like. See how long it takes her to come up with something other than "Dora".
3) Oh, yay, there can be some PoC in the cast! How generous!! As long as there's the all-important white presence in the heroic central roles, naturally, it's okay to add a little exotic spice. Do me a favour, go check out some of the discussions about a possible black Doctor Who and tell me again how delighted white people are to have a black actor who's "the best for the job" in the heroic role.
4) Avatar is set in an Asian world. Protest that it's fantasy all you want, it's as much Asian as Lord of the Rings is European. To then think that it's okay to put white people in these roles because White is the Default is fucking racist and offensive. And I am not making any exceptions for the single white person who really truly honestly for sure just *happens* to benefit from systemic racism be the "best actor for the role" out of everybody who auditions. Here, I'll say it: I would rather take the chance and see a slightly less "perfect" actor of colour in the role. I've seen a lot of shitty white actors; I can handle the ZOMG HORRIBLE POSSIBILITY of seeing shitty actors of colour.
5) Fuck you.
And nobody better start telling me "but look at Merlin! Guinevere is a PoC, and that's not historically correct! Why would it be different to have a white Katara?" Well, for one thing, Merlin doesn't stick to the Arthur legend in ANY respect, so why not have a brown Gwen? For another thing, SHUT THE FUCK UP.
This may have been exacerbated by listening to commentary on an episode of The Simpsons where one of the writers casually said, "On our show the Asian people are white and the regular families are yellow." Y'all know how I feel about Simpsons, but I had to turn the DVD off and go away and be angry about that for a while before I could continue.
ETA: If you're thinking of leaving a comment here about how:
a) you're a white person who feels hurt because it sounds like we're saying "white people who don't care about this are racist"
b) you're a white person who belongs to a subculture that's discriminated against/you're "colourblind"
c) you're a white person whose ancestors were discriminated against/it HUUURTS YOU that people think you could be racist just because you're white
DON'T TALK TO ME. I've seen this fucking nonsense all over glockgal's journal entries, and although she is polite and tries to talk to people about this, I WILL NOT STAND FOR THAT KIND OF BULLSHIT. Go feel white!emo on your own time, thank you.
There have been a lot of excellent posts about this -- many of them from my sister, who in turn:
- addresses the most commonly-seen kneejerk racist responses
- rounds up other links about the casting
- broaches the idea of getting media coverage
And of course there is the aang-aint-white letter-writing campaign, which has tons of people posting the content of their letters and has another set of links as well.
Apart from the blatantly shit-stupid protests from people who feel that "kids" (read: white kids) will be confused by seeing PoC on the screen and people who keep insisting, "well, *I* think they look white!! Prove to me that these dark-skinned characters in Asian clothes in an Asian world aren't white!!", there's the more ... how should I put this ... "nice" arguments.
Such as, "oh, well ... I don't think it's fair to hate those kids for being cast, it's not their fault. And if they're the best actors for the parts, shouldn't that be okay? I mean, clearly there should be *some* PoC in the cast, but if Aang the Tibetan monk with all the Buddhist-based martial powers really really *is* best-portrayed by a white kid from Texas who was top of his karate class, shouldn't that be okay too?"
The answer is -- NO. It is not all right. Let me deal with this in point form, because it is not a new argument and I am sick of seeing variations on this theme of FAIL from white allies.
1) O WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!! Nobody hates these child actors. Actors have to work. Actors of colour have a harder time of it. Why won't anybody think of the child actors of colour who missed out on the very few parts that were fucking tailor-made for them?
2) White people are not automatically the best actors for the parts. There's this assumption that white people can play anything (with a good enough tan or tape to make their eyes slanty or putty to make their noses hooked) and it should be okay. Whereas PoC (even if they're like Katrina Kaif and straight-up pass for white) do not get this privilege. Please note that key word: PRIVILEGE. You don't even need to talk to actors of colour to understand how circumscribed we are in what we can dress up as or play; just ask a brown kid which of her favourite characters she thinks she looks like. See how long it takes her to come up with something other than "Dora".
3) Oh, yay, there can be some PoC in the cast! How generous!! As long as there's the all-important white presence in the heroic central roles, naturally, it's okay to add a little exotic spice. Do me a favour, go check out some of the discussions about a possible black Doctor Who and tell me again how delighted white people are to have a black actor who's "the best for the job" in the heroic role.
4) Avatar is set in an Asian world. Protest that it's fantasy all you want, it's as much Asian as Lord of the Rings is European. To then think that it's okay to put white people in these roles because White is the Default is fucking racist and offensive. And I am not making any exceptions for the single white person who really truly honestly for sure just *happens* to benefit from systemic racism be the "best actor for the role" out of everybody who auditions. Here, I'll say it: I would rather take the chance and see a slightly less "perfect" actor of colour in the role. I've seen a lot of shitty white actors; I can handle the ZOMG HORRIBLE POSSIBILITY of seeing shitty actors of colour.
5) Fuck you.
And nobody better start telling me "but look at Merlin! Guinevere is a PoC, and that's not historically correct! Why would it be different to have a white Katara?" Well, for one thing, Merlin doesn't stick to the Arthur legend in ANY respect, so why not have a brown Gwen? For another thing, SHUT THE FUCK UP.
This may have been exacerbated by listening to commentary on an episode of The Simpsons where one of the writers casually said, "On our show the Asian people are white and the regular families are yellow." Y'all know how I feel about Simpsons, but I had to turn the DVD off and go away and be angry about that for a while before I could continue.
ETA: If you're thinking of leaving a comment here about how:
a) you're a white person who feels hurt because it sounds like we're saying "white people who don't care about this are racist"
b) you're a white person who belongs to a subculture that's discriminated against/you're "colourblind"
c) you're a white person whose ancestors were discriminated against/it HUUURTS YOU that people think you could be racist just because you're white
DON'T TALK TO ME. I've seen this fucking nonsense all over glockgal's journal entries, and although she is polite and tries to talk to people about this, I WILL NOT STAND FOR THAT KIND OF BULLSHIT. Go feel white!emo on your own time, thank you.