And if the WT is diverse too (or worst, all POC behind white heroes), and Aang is white, and the EK is white and/or diverse... then it means that race and ethnicity will mean nothing in the film. And that's wrong too, because ATLA is very much about racism and ethno-centrism and nationalism and all the evils those things can result in. In the show the FN never says "we killed you because you don't LOOK like us" but the "lesser elements" bending was a thin metaphor overlaid on racially/ethnically separated cultures.
Good point. I loved the way that it was about ethnicity and race without being about white people or white guilt. That was FANTASTIC, really. Because it's not all about white people! The people of Japan, China and Korea (to give just one example) have some SERIOUS history that, while being effected by Western colonialism at times, was about the differences and governments and power and prejudice of people that cannot be all lumped together in stupid ways.
In truth, I'd like to see it done the way it was on TV. But if they absolutely MUST stick with the casting as is, I'd rather race and ethnicity mean nothing in the film than that it ends up reading as something really, really ugly.
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Date: 2009-02-02 07:52 am (UTC)Good point. I loved the way that it was about ethnicity and race without being about white people or white guilt. That was FANTASTIC, really. Because it's not all about white people! The people of Japan, China and Korea (to give just one example) have some SERIOUS history that, while being effected by Western colonialism at times, was about the differences and governments and power and prejudice of people that cannot be all lumped together in stupid ways.
In truth, I'd like to see it done the way it was on TV. But if they absolutely MUST stick with the casting as is, I'd rather race and ethnicity mean nothing in the film than that it ends up reading as something really, really ugly.