Using the utterly creative insult “Uncle Tom” will get you warned once if we’re in a forgiving mood, then banned. Stay on topic and make your points in a civil fashion or this thread will be closed.

I just don’t understand your way of thinking.

I don’t know what to think of the Airbender/Shy issue tbh. I don’t know much about the cartoon; from reading the this entry it seems the characters are not specific to any ethnicities…just based on imagination. The cartoons characters are not specific to east asian characters and they don’t even look east asian – i mean look at their eyes? They look more south asian or caucasian or black. Anyways so I was leaning that M.Knight shouldn’t be put down b/c he cast non east asian characters.

But then realizing in his casting call, they specified caucasian first – well, that to me means M. Knight was pulled into the pressures of already eurocentric hollywood. It’s unfortunate he fell for that pressure. I would never go toward Taz’s attitude and call him out on internal racism. But I do believe he, like many directors and producers, were pressured by the bottom line and that often seems to mean in hollywood having white leads.

I think it’s great that the Indian American community can criticize M.Knight and we should and it shows our strength. I don’t agree with the “UT” and internal racism characterization, but I’m glad some Indian Americans validly can say, hollywood needs to change and M. Knight has, I’m sure, some power over the casting so he could have helped in this change.

And in this blog, I know that the bloggers have asked not to use that crap phrase – “ut” as well as “fob”.

Sorry, I can’t stand when some communities cannot criticize and self-analyze themselves. They usually come from societies that I think are incredibly insecure in themselves and do not have freedom speech.

To me, the fact that Indian Americans have valid criticisms of M. Knight, not ad hominem attacks – the casting call says a lot to me, shows a security in their culture and position and not a weakness.

let’s just sum this up:

1. m. night shyamalan had been criticized long before Airbender was released on wholly legitimate grounds. as i said above, and as even linzi pointed out, shyamalan’s own ego is the cause of his decline in fortune, not some conspiracy by the old boys network. just look at the controversy surrounding the produciton of LITW at Disney. we can separate that from the racial episode that is currently associated with him.

2. supporting desis means just that: supporting. what you are advocating is a blanket rationalization of all desi incidents all the time. but just as there are sanjay guptas on the one end whom we cheer, there are anand jons on the other (though we hope their population is miniscule). indian-americans are ultimately still americans. the political identity and responsibility as citizens, or in this case, critics of culture/cinema, shouldn’t automatically go out the window simply because someone shares the same ethnic background. I sincerely hope shyamalan’s fortunes improve and have always castigated the crab mentality that some among us have. but can you honestly tell me you would pull a community-wide OJ campaign for anand jon?–god no. community support doesn’t mean we throw common sense out the window.

my common sense tells me that shyamalan needs to get back to the basics and focus less on vanity projects–which by his own admission this was. so please, end the uncle tom taunts of everyone who expresses a different opinion than your own. this debate has managed to funnel together “secular congress party supporters who admittedly know nothing of maoism” as well as “hindoo fundamentalists” (who have frequently been banned on this site for passionately defending legitimate, mainstream, tolerant, conservative political positions). Neither side deserves this taunt, which frankly, if we really want to get racial, is disrespectful of african americans as well. and my being a proud indian american doesn’t mean i can only have indian friends. i have plenty of black friends who are, surprise, children of sociologists. trust me, none of them would appreciate the use of that literary device in this debate. So if we want racial sensitivity, let’s practice what we preach.

It truly is a sad state of affairs. No other race in the world would be so unsupportive to one of their own. They would understand the importance of having role models – not just for themselves but for their kids too.

And I bet if they asked their parents/ grandparents/ forefathers/ ancestors what they think, they would agree with quasi and I.

You guys are so wrapped up in being what you think you are supposed to be that you can’t even see your way to supporting one of your brothers.

What is wrong with you desis – get yourselves angry and FIGHT BACK. Don’t just let these things slide.

I too am leaving this blog – it is a sad excuse for a desi blog and frankly, I’m sorry I ever looked at it.

Can you read? have you read any of those reports talking about the studio? All they say is that the film and M Night’s casting is racist.

What I still can’t believe is that I have to explain to desis that they need to stick up for each other in the face of people trying to bring them down.

The whole world has it in for him and you so-called desis can’t even back the man up. This is why our countries get colonized.

I’m done with this blog, and bothering to try and convince you guys. The notion of trying to find some desi solidarity is long gone. Your forefathers and ancestors would be ashamed of you uncle toms.

One day, you guys might wake up and realize that what I am saying is true. In the meantime, just keep swallowing the white party line and be a good little immigrant.

Greta job guys, well done.

As for the acting; along with everything else, the actors performances have been panned by everyone, from critics to average movie-goers as stale, lifeless and wooden. Nicole Peltz (who played Katara) was specifically requested by M. Night, as he’s stated in interviews that he ‘couldn’t make this film without her. Jackson Rathbon, cast as Sokka… well, it’s fairly obvious why he was cast; to draw in the ‘Twilight’ crowd and otherwise fans of his.

As for Noah Ringer, who was cast as Aang, he has NO previous acting experience. M. Night stated as much in an interview he had last year where he stated that they sent Ringer ‘to be trained up a bit as an actor.’ That for many people was NOT a ringing endorsement for him. Yet HE was cast as the lead role in a major film?

ALL casting decisions were M. Night’s own. He had total control over this project. That’s not to say that he wasn’t also trying to please the hire-ups over at Paramount. His career is on the skids and failure to make returns on this movie (for which it will have to make $580 million to be considered a financial success, given they spent over $280 million on everything, including international advertising) could very well spend the end of it. He hasn’t had a hit film in ages and people just don’t trust him to make a really good film anymore. These days, having his name on anything spells doom for the project.

many of the comments in this thread have coherency than the movie.

Did you not bother to read my comment?

Some genius up there was wondering who has been commenting on Shyamalan as racist – there are so many links I don’t know where to start – try googling “last airbender racist” and see what comes up – there are plenty.

“Last Airbender racist” is not the same as Shyamalan as racist. In almost every case they’re talking about the studio, not the director.

Maybe, but e Asians have expressed annoyance at only being portrayed as martial artists in Hollywood numerous times in the past, why can’t people realize there would have been complaints either way?

That doesn’t make sense. The source material is about a vaguely Chinese/Tibetan kid learning martial arts (although in this case it’s more like witchcraft and wizardry with kung-fu stances.) The complaint is that the movie is deviating from the source material in a way that exemplifies racial bias.

A lot of Asians really loved the Avatar show because it was rare to have identifiably Asian kids be the main characters in cartoons. Not it is debatable as to how identifiably Asian the kids were in the cartoon. But the fact that Asian kids could see the characters as being representative of them in the first place says a lot about how far we’ve come.

Maybe, but e Asians have expressed annoyance at only being portrayed as martial artists in Hollywood numerous times in the past, why can’t people realize there would have been complaints either way?