Aang isn't White (Seriously. And apologies to the moderator for the multi post kind of a LJ Virgin)
I was recommended to this site by one of the ATAS guys so hopefully y'all will enjoy what I have to say I recently had a conversation on You Tube with a guy posting a video in which one of the points he argued is that Aang is actually White. In many ways he's actually a nice guy who unfortunately made a argument that can't be supported. This isn't my best grammar and is a unpolished but hopefully it still has good points.
So for anyone who argues that Aang actually looks White here are some facts to have them consider.
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Hello There;
I recently came across your video your video on youtube and am taking the time to respond. While I think you made some fair points I do think you missed a lot of facts about the issues pertaining to Avatar
I don't think you're a bad guy for having these opinions and I'm sorry if you've received any emails or post from your video that were personal attacks. A lot of times with something like this people lose their ability to be fair or reasonable. however I think you also make some mistakes in the ideas that inform; your arguements . The two that I will address are
1) Aang is White
I am guessing your reasoning behind saying Aang is white would be similar to the argument that since the characters in the show have non Asian features (blue eyes for water nation, grey for air nomads etc etc.) then they aren't Asian. This is flawed for two reasons.
The first mistake is to think that certain features such as hair and eye color do not occur among Asians (or hair/eye color among non white people for the matter is limited to one type.) While rare Asians have been known to have both red and blonde hair, blue eyes, hazel eyes etc etc. I have included links as examples of this (there was a paper written in a genetics journal that talked about frequent cases of red hair on a small Japanese Island unfortunately its only available in Japanese.)
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/125/417264000_5f29966248.jpg?v=0
http://i4.tinypic.com/zyhfmx.jpg
http://galerie.lilos-reisen.de/d/3095-3/Mekong_Frauen_im_Hmong_Dorf.jpg
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=1znbi3m&s=4
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96434059@N00/150324675/
I bring this up since in video you used both Naruto and Bleach as examples of Cartoons with "White people" in them. Now to think that characters with blonde hair or hazel eyes or blue eyes are white is fair; then however you have to explain why everything else about them is so Asian from their names to the food that they eat to the places they go. This brings me to the second reason why Aang is not White.
In Japanese Manga and Anime hair and eye color are entirely symbolic. Blonde hair doesn't represent whiteness but instead power and guile (which is why in Dragon Ball Z the characters hair turns blonde and why both Naruto and Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach are both blonde.)
Eyes of any color are also symbolic. Big Eyes are not a sign that the person is western but that they have a innocence about them (e.g. Aang’s eyes get drawn less big as the series progresses) Or as in the case of Avatar Eye color is used to represent the different nations.
There are many other eye color and hair color symbolism and explanations out there. Now as I am just a guy on the Internet I’ll direct you to some folks that can explain it more eloquently than me.
http://www.peterpayne.net/2009/01/japanese-anime-eyes.html
http://www.three-musketeers.net/mike/eyes.html
Please forgive me if I'm coming across as being overly academic but I bring this up to make a point. During your video you said that since the characters look white they are white (I'm paraphrasing you here so apologies if this is not exactly what you said.) and that when you showed it to friends they all said that Aang looked white.
Ironically I also did this exercise where I showed it to people. I got the exact opposite reactions. The reason why so many people besides myself interpret it this way is that even if I am to initially believe that Aang or any other ATLAB is white I have to also take into consideration:
A) Why so many non white names for these white characters (Toph Bei Long, Aang, Leong Fang)?
B) Why do they spend so much time dressed up in Asian Clothing?
C) Why do so many of the places have Asian sounding names like Bao Tsing Se and Kyoshin?
D) Why do they write in Chinese Kanji?
E) Why do they do Asian Martial Art Movements to bend the elements?
The strongest argument that Aang is white comes ironically from taking an Asian art convention that is symbolic literally, and requires ignoring all the other literal things about the Avatar world that are meant to be Asian. I could go on further but also wanted to devote some time to my other point.
2) People Comparing Avatar Casting to Casting a Movie about Africa with White People is taking it too far or that the casting isn't racist.
While I don't think from your reasoning on this matter you mean any harm or offense I also don't think you have had enough experience with viewing Hollywood from a non white point of view.
It is not a knee jerk call of racism to cast essentially all the bad guys as dark skinned and all the hero characters as light skinned. Even you agreed there is a lack of consistency in the casting of the Water Tribe Members.
It is not knee jerk call of racism to note that a show that contains so much information that it can be read a certain way (using traditional Asian music for scores various Asian art motifs concepts from Asian culture etc etc) is presented in a completely opposite way
Let’s say I wrote a story about two characters named Amadou and Kwame; I place them in a setting; with Zebra's, Lions and Hippos and have them be encountered by a Spider spirit named Anansi. I describe their clothing as Kente Cloth and describe the surrounding characters in the story as being curly haired and dark skinned
Then when it came time to draw the two main characters I drew them both as blue eyed blonde and Aryan looking. It would work against me on two levels.
The discrepancy between the description of the characters background and their actual physical appearance would be so profound it would require an amazing explanation or constantly put the reader in a frame of mind that would disrupt the story.
Also my story would suffer from "Tarzan Syndrome" which is the sometimes subtle and sometimes overt idea where white people are always presented as the "messiah" of minorities.
Now let me just make something clear I don't know you well enough to accuse you of racism nor do I think you are. But I think in being dismissive of the charges of racism in the film you are arguing from experiences you cannot possibly have had that many people in the Aang isn't White Camp have had with viewing presentations of themselves or their cultures on the silver screen.
I have to end now because I realize this letter is way way way too long. But thank you if you've made it this far in the letter without deleting it or dismissing it.