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EmpressFunk — Whitewashin' and Racebendin'
Published: 2011-03-09 18:21:51 +0000 UTC; Views: 26986; Favourites: 733; Downloads: 293
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My feelings. Lemme show you them.:/
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Comments: 199
God, I hated that movie. Jackson Rathbone looked like he had a STICK shoved up his ASS for the WHOLE FILM. Not any different than in Twilight. Shyamalan ruined every single character. And the plot.
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I loved dev patel as prince zuko though. I thought he had a nice intensity. ALSO he's sooo dreamy.
But that's not what you're talking about. (Even though having a comedic indian actor playing a hardass general named "Zhao" was about the dumbest thing ever)
Prince of Persia was terrible in every respect....and it went along with what so many American directors do...Foreign=British. Right? Always? Whatever. Rub some dirt on his face. But keep the accent!
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this is unfortunately how it works... movie have unfortunately become all about the money... throwing a full cast of "unknowns"( because there honestly arent that many well known poc actors...wish they wouldve atleast looked) in with the whole movie on their back is incredibly risky... for something like the last airbender where...well the general fan base already knows the plot, producers especially want to make sure the main cast is "screen tested" aka: big names, fan favorites...someone that will actually draw people in to watch the movie... and i hate that.
but obviously it worked well for the last air bender : rolls eyes : one of the worst movies i have seen....
the prince of persia movie too.... even though jake gyllenhaal is ... well.. lets face it, ill forgive them for that one... movie was still shit though
bane i will also give them a pass on because tom hardy is a pretty damn great actor
Heimdall as a poc is actually pretty damn cool, not gonna lie psyched for that, and its great to see when casting directors will look at the acting and not the actor...deffinetly gonna see that.
Btw nick furry(Sam Jackson in iron man and soon in the avengers/shield movie) is another poc that won out, true nick furry has been portrayed in comics as both black and white...but the fact that the studio couldve gotten away with white washing and didnt is very cool 
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Everytime I see this, I still facepalm over Hollywood's general idiocy.
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I'm still raging about Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia.
However, if the actors actually are the best for the role (ie, Laurence Olivier in anything ever, notably in Othello) then I can understand. Same thing for actors that can look quite ambiguous (for instance, Gemma Arterton in Prince of Persia, Eva Green in Kingdom of Heaven). However, I'm still astonished how Shamalamadingdong, a POC himself, seemingly went out of his way to cast white actors in TLA.
Even though I don't watch Avatar and I haven't seen the movie
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Yes, this!! And, oh Last Airbender, what a giant ball of fail you were.
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IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE FOR THEM TO BE WHITE!!! AND WHY WAS ZUKO INDIAN???
...might have swooned over the Prince of Persia... *is ashamed*
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You're so right - the casting in AtLA just made me want to shit razorblades. Although the rest of the movie sucked too, so not much surprise there What was M. Night thinking? I mean, you'd have thought that as an Indian dude*, he'd not want to perpetuate this rediculous bullshit?
I purposefully include a huge range of different ethnicities in my writing, simply because I think that the media is so saturated with white people. I think Hollywood's attitude is archaic, and needs to be changed. I tells ya, if they tried to whitewash ANY of my OCs in a screen adaptation, I'd go nuclear.
* Just as a side-note, calling somebody "coloured" or "a person of colour" in the UK is like HYPER RACIST. So it felt really wrong using it!
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Huh, never knew that term was really racist. Its alright of people who are ethnic are using it because it's the term we gave ourselves.
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Yeah, of course! It's just a historical difference I think. In the UK the N-word wasn't used as much as "colo-ds". As a result, "people of colour" is seen as a bit to close to comfort over to here, and we refer to "ethnic minorities/minority ethnics" or "Black British" people instead.
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thats sounds good to use overseas. But here in America, minorities have been pitted against each other and finally began to work with each other to fight racism and oppression. So by not using designated racial names, we use POC's instead.
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That's also happened over here, but interestingly the label "Black British" (including British (South) Asians and British Caribbeans/Africans) has come to serve the same purpose
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Just sayin', your version of generic movies looks WAY COOLER. A SunKen romantic comedy?? YES PLEASE!!
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OMG so totally /seconded
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Yet another reason I will never watch the ATLA movie.
This is one of those undeniable realities that SHOULD NOT BE A REALITY ANY LONGER. I don't know what Hollywood's problem is. Well, maybe I do. When I was young I used to think that everyone was like me. Not that everyone looked like me, of course, but that they shared the same moral/philosophical background. When I found out not every person in the world was the same religion as mine, it was like MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH. XDX So I could understand if these casting folks #1 are surrounded entirely by honkies, and #2 have the mental capacity of five-year-olds. Otherwise, they need some serious help.
The "white is default" thing is also really obnoxious in books. For instance, when I read To Kill A Mockingbird (at an age obviously too young to comprehend the point of the story), in my head, for whatever reason, Atticus Finch and Scout and her brother were black. The book didn't say otherwise, and I just... imagined it that way. So when I was practically at the end and then suddenly they're saying that Atticus and his family are white? Man. I was furious. It ruined the whole book for me. But then here I am, white girl, writing a story about white people in a country inhabited entirely by white people, and one of the white kids leaves town and meets a black woman, and no matter what I do, she's going to seem like a token. And then I have a character who looks Chinese, but since there is no China in my fictional world, I can't, like, say "oh and she looks asian". People will just assume she's white. IT IS VERYY STUPID WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE. T_____________T
We shouldn't have to say when a character is "POC". We shouldn't be expected to assume that, unless otherwise stated, So-and-so is white. How long will it take to get this cultural construct excised from our consciousness? HOLLYWOOD, YOU ARE NOT HELPING.
Also, it's times like this that I get very annoyed with the fact that I'm white. I don't want anything in common with the people perpetualizing these defaults. >[
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Randomly tossing this in there, but I don't think the story would have had the same impact if Atticus was black. During that time period, it wasn't common for white people to defend POCs and it was a big deal that he did.
It's been a while since I read it though, so maybe I'm remembering things incorrectly.
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Well, I know that NOW. But bear in mind I read the book in grade school. I was kind of clueless. 
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Defaults are natural, though. For example: If you're writing a story that takes place in Africa, you're not going to say "He was black" because that is a given. Instead, you're going to write "He was white" (well, unless we're talking South Africa, BUT OTHER THAN THAT). Where as the U.S. has a white majority, so we just tend to think people are white when we aren't given clues otherwise. (Though apparently you didn't seem to think so about Atticus Finch . . . seriously though? What self-respecting black person names his kid Atticus? XD XD)
I expect this to change by 2050, when the new default will be Hispanic. However, usually with Hispanics we are given clues, like their names. It's hard to see a guy named Alejandro as anything other than Hispanic. XD Then again, can you imagine a Shaniquah as anything other than black?
I too have set my default at white when I read a story, especially because most of the time I'm right. When a character's eye color is anything other than brown . . . well, what can you do? So I have justified this default with some serious thinking. IT AUTOMATICALLY MEANS I AM RIGHT.
I think it's the same with anything. Because we automatically assume people are straight, right? People claim this means it's a "heteronormative" society. WELL OF COURSE IT IS. 90% of people consider themselves "straight" in this country. With a majority this big, of course we're going to assume a person is straight unless proven otherwise. I don't think it means you're prejudiced if you consider a person straight and white. You are just aware of the majorities.
ON ANOTHER NOTE . . . HELLO HOPE. I STALK YOU EVERYWHERE. MWAHAHA.
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Atticus is a fucking awesome name, shut up.
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In fact I read a book in which a guy went by a nickname cuz his real name was Atticus and he hated it.
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Clearly that guy was not a badass.
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I'm sorry this discussio is like a million years old but that comment MADE ME LAUGH
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But I liked that book. Cuz, like, he was actually described as ugly and I was all "WHUT. Ugly person in romance? HOW REFRESHING".
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BUT HE WAS NOT A BADASS LAWYER.
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My neighbour's name is Alejandro...he's Chinese.
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That's awesome.
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I was so confused. I moved into my dorm (it's co-ed) and I was like "Hey, I'm Mickey." and I was expecting like, "I'm Kevin." or something and he was all "Alejandro, nice to meet you." and he went into his room and I was just left in the hall thinking "What?" He's a really cool guy, actually, we hang out all the time.
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You sure he's from China? Some Hispanics look Asian . . .
Either that or he just has awesome parents.
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Well, he was born in Canada, but his parents are both from China. Everyone calls him Alex, though.
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If I were a Chinese boy named Alejandro, I would INSIST people call me Alejandro. It's just too awesome to abbreviate.
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Exactly what I said, but he refuses. It would be so fun to confuse people though...
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Completely agree with you about ATLA. They didn't look anything like the characters, they couldn't even act to make up for the ethnicity fail, and making the "bad guys" the darkest people in the movie? Real subtle, Hollywood. The Prince of Persia thing didn't bother me as much tho; sure, the leads are still the palest people in the film, but at least legit Persians can be that pale (as opposed to other films which I won't name where they expect me to buy that Arabs are as pale as Western Europeans >_< ).
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I must admit though, I'm not sure how much of my ATLA-driven anger was from the racebending, and how much of it was because I was looking forward to pretty Asian/Indian men >_>...
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I'm not sure I get what you're trying to say. Could you be more explicit?
Yeah, I tore my hair out over the whitewashing in Failbender when the casting was announced. (I think, to this day, that the initial casting of Jesse McCartney as Zuko was just a red herring to allow them to "fix" it later.) But, in the end, it was such a terrible movie that I just can't get that upset about it. Anymore than I could be proud of in "inclusiveness" of Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.
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Okay, this is hilarious and so true! I HATED the casting for Prince or Persia! I MEAN COME ON! HE HAS A BRITISH ACCENT! SERIOUSLY?!!!!!! But, ya, annoying, and again I say, this is hilarious, I loved, "Ethnicity: just a spray can away!" XD Oh, and loved the last photo, oh so telling... poor kids in the background are growing up thinking only whites can save the day! ...... Ugh.... Oh, and incase anyone cares, I AM WHITE! MWHAHAHAHAH! Still agree totally with this.
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We must also not forget the irony that the director is of indian descent! So I wouldn't be surprised if the producer of this half cooked protection was saying do it or else your fired!
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Goddammit.
I never actually saw the Airbender movie, and I only just started watching the original show... but... but... Goddammit, guys! This show is all about different cultures and ethnicities! This would have been such a great opportunity to get people of so many different races on board, and they just... squandered it.
tl;dr: Word.
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Putting PoCs behind the white character playing PoCs is subtle amirite? Pfft. Hollywood dudes.
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I'm not even going to get into how mad AtLA movie made me. I'll just sum up and say I completely agree with you.
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Let us all punch the last airbender movie in the face. Then we can be a bit happier again.
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I say we need to aim bigger and punch HOLLYWOOD in the face.
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I Love IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This so true!
Gosh I'm not ALONE!
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I had an opportunity to see bits and pieces of The Last Airbender this week (I was avoiding it before because of the reactions I heard) and not only the whole racebending issue is horrible by itself, what I cannot understand is the director did not see how wrong and stupid it looks to put white people in a village based on Inuit culture. Sokka and Katara looked like adopted white children of the tribe. Just... no. It made no sense at all.
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