Racebending.com

About Racebending.com

On December 9th 2008, the lead roles were cast for M Night Shyamalan's upcoming film The Last Airbender and all of them were originally cast as white actors.

The Nickelodeon show "Avatar: The Last Airbender," on which this film is based, featured Asian characters in a fantasy setting inspired and informed by a variety of Asian cultures. The characters fight with East Asian martial arts, have Asian features, dress in clothing from Asian cultures, and write with Chinese characters. The cast and setting were a refreshing departure from predominantly white American media, and were a large part of the show's appeal as well as an inspiration to many Asian American children.

As fans of the original television show, we still hold the highest level of respect for the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series and its culturally nuanced depiction of an Asian fantasy world. We desperately want to support The Last Airbender film, but we cannot in good conscience support its current incarnation and the generations of Hollywood discrimination it represents.

Marissa Lee
Loraine Sammy
P.R. Coordinators
[email protected]