What Is Wrong With This Picture?
My mother told me this story: when she was a teenager, the musical South Pacific premiered on Broadway. By then she was no longer living in New York, but in Seattle, so she didn’t get to see the musical live, but my grandfather, who was a big Rodgers and Hammerstein fan, bought the cast album and played it. After hearing it for himself, he summoned his four kids into the living room and sat them down.
“I want you to hear this,” he said to them, and put the needle to the vinyl. This is what he wanted them to hear:
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
These words are sung by a white, American lieutenant named Joe Cable, who is in love with a Pacific Islander girl named Liat. They were sung to a French widower who had mixed-race children and who could not understand why the American nurse he had fallen for would be upset by the mere existence of his children. The lieutenant is trying to explain that, in the culture they come from, racism is institutional. “It’s not born in you,” says Cable bitterly; “it happens after you’re born…”
Lieutenant Cable understands how it has happened that he’s broken Liat’s heart, and how, despite the fact that he loves her and she loves him, his upbringing and the social conformity against “mixing races” is so strongly ingrained in him that even though he sees that freight train bearing down on him, he cannot move himself off the tracks. He is angry and frustrated at himself for being that way; he does not want to be, but cannot stop himself from it.
That this song caused the production a few headaches when it came out is a major understatement. More than a few times during the rehearsal period, Rodgers and Hammerstein were counseled to cut the song. And every time they heard that, they dug their heels in a little deeper. The producers, afraid of a backlash from several different quarters, including the increasingly paranoid-of-communism Federal government, appealed to the author of the original stories, James A. Michener, to try and get him to persuade them to cut the song. Not only did Michener take the pair’s side, he agreed with it. Years later he explained: “The authors replied stubbornly (to the requests) that this number represented why they had wanted to do this play, and that even if it meant the failure of the production, it was going to stay in.”
Fast forward twenty-odd years to the freewheeling 1970’s: when I was old enough to enjoy musicals, when I could sit through The Sound of Music and Oklahoma! without squirming, I saw South Pacific on TV. And right after the hilarity of watching a butch Seabee in a coconut bra and grass skirt get laughed off a stage, Mom poked me in the shoulder and said, “I want you to listen to this.”
I remember later on, in 1981, having this song pounding in my head when my oh-so-progressive, white liberal Democratic California high school elected a black homecoming king and a white homecoming queen and hordes of parents flipped their freaking wigs and it got real ugly… for everyone except us kids, because hell, we elected him! I still remember his name: Willie Stubblefield. I cannot remember the queen’s name for the life of me, or even the prom king or queen. Why else would I remember him other than the controversy? In a perfect world, frankly, I wouldn’t have remembered his name, either.
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To quote from an old Bill Cosby routine, “I told you that story to tell you this one…”
When the Hollywood Reporter announced last year the casting choices for the four leads in the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” movie (now called just “The Last Airbender”, due to James Cameron calling dibs on the “Avatar” part for something completely different), it caused nary a ripple in the mainstream media. So many properties are getting turned over into movies, if it wasn’t for the fact that M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and several not as good movies I’m willing to overlook simply because of the first two) had taken the project for himself and put his name on it. There had been a nationwide casting call to get unknowns to lead the cast, echoing the spirit of the casting of the Harry Potter films. Fans were hopeful that Hollywood might, just might, Get It Right.
And Hollywood came up with four white teenagers. Read it here.
(for the benefit of those who don’t know: “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, which will hereafter be referred to as ATLA, because you try typing that out over and over again and see why, is an American made cartoon series from Nickelodeon, which features characters and landscapes and architectural and costume designs so deeply and richly influenced by Asian, Southeast Asian and Inuit culture that it is inextricable from the story. For visual examples of this, please see here and here . Then we’ll continue.)
After a grueling nationwide casting call, the lead character, a young boy whose character design is styled in the Tibetan monk-Dalai Lama tradition is being played by a martial arts-wielding kid from Texas with the decidedly western name of Noah Ringer. (side note: that name is suspicious to me. Knowing M. Night Shyamalan’s penchant for twists, it’s more than possible, since there are no authenticated pictures of what the young man looks like, that “Noah Ringer” is in fact a fake name —as a “ringer” is slang for a stand-in that is actually more than advertised—and Shyamalan may have pulled a total fast one. That is, if I were writing the movie of this movie, that’s how it would be. Alas, I have little hope that this is the case. Although if it is the case, you heard it here first! 
)
The other three kids, the brother and sister friends of the protagonist-hero and their rival-slash-enemy, were chosen from kids who actually have acted professionally before. One of them is a teenybopping pop star (who has since been replaced—ahem, I mean, who has since bowed out due to the euphemism-laden scheduling conflict excuse—by Dev Patel, one of the stars of Slumdog Millionaire, which would have been a great thing except they have now replaced the white villain with a dark villain, making the dynamic now White Kids save the world from Dark Evil. Way to change the dynamic for the worse, there!). Another one of them is a member of the cast of “Twilight,” which ironically is a story featuring very very white, albeit undead, heroes and possibly the worst stereotype of Native Americans since “F-Troop” (that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it). And who by the way has made some pretty stupid comments about how he just needs to shave the sides of his head and “get a tan” to play his character before his publicist told him to STFU. And I’ve never heard of the girl but apparently she’s been in a movie or two herself. At least so far she hasn’t said anything stupid.
So what’s the problem? What’s wrong with how they cast the ATLA movie? Plenty. From the commentary to the casting notice I found this one entry summed it all up nicely, point and counterpoint:
“It’s only a movie”
Well, it’s a movie targeting children.
With the current white-washed cast,
it will perpetuate that White actors/actresses
can act Asian better than Asian actors/actresses.
Out of all the 14 millions Asian-Americans and 3 Million Native-Americans,
all they could find is 3 white kids to play the heroes and a Indian-British kid to play the villain?
“It’s only a cartoon”
Well, if you are a child in the minority then you would know how inspiring and empowering it was
to experience a refreshing departure from a predominantly white media.
White people have the privilege to not care.
It’s no big deal to them.
“It’s only a movie.”
?”It’s only a cartoon.”
Well, if you were offended by Jackson Rathbone’s comment,
“…I am definitely going to need a tan…”
Then you don’t have the privilege to not care.
Please note that there has been a complete and telling absence of comment regarding this movie and the casting from the original creators of the television series, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Koneitzko, but that is hardly surprising. Unless you’re Alan Moore—and he has just cause to rail against his own works in movies, what with the track record so far—very very few writers will bash the movie versions of their books before they come out. At most they will have their names taken off the credits, which is telling in itself. The only really big kerfluffle that springs to mind was when Anne Rice balked at Tom Cruise playing Lestat in “Interview With The Vampire” and she railed and wailed against it while it was in production and then when the movie came out she declared it the bestest thing evar. Which is her prerogative, but still.
However, the reason why they haven’t commented on the casting of their movie may be a lot closer to this:
(In which Ursula K. LeGuin explains why she didn’t bash the SciFi movie version of her beautiful and fantastic Earthsea books while it was in production, until the producers tried to put words into her mouth suggesting that she approved of the whitewashing of her dark-skinned protagonist and she could no longer keep silent. This is a cautionary tale; for those who would see their books transformed into movies and for would-be writers, know this: JK Rowling’s experience at keeping creative control is the extreme exception. This will not happen to you.)
And the best explanation, ever, of why the casting of white protagonists in place of originally nonwhite characters is a bad thing, when people look and say all of those things above, that it’s only a story, that why can’t the characters be white, that it’s reverse racism to say otherwise, can be found here.
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So what does this have to do with the price of tea on Bali Ha’i, I hear you ask. It’s this:
Children imprint on what they see. When nonwhite children see only white kids saving the world, they come to believe or expect that this means that no one else can, including themselves. The flip side of this is that if white kids also only see white kids saving the world, they too come to believe that they’re the only ones who can be heroes, excluding all others.
When I was growing up in the 70’s, it wasn’t just white kids only saving the world, it was white boys only. The girls I had to look up to were Dorothy, and Alice, and the Disney princess of your choice, all passive, needing to be rescued, gloriously light skinned and light haired. I wanted to be the hero of my own adventures, so badly I usually ended up just pretending to be a boy to avoid the whole question. It took a lot of searching to discover that yes, girls can be heroes while still being girls. But I never would have discovered that just by watching the movies that told me otherwise.
Dear Hollywood (and the ATLA producers in particular): To say that they cast the best possible actors regardless of color is at best ingenuous and at worst DO YOU THINK WE’RE STUPID?!? Do you not know how important it is for children to see themselves mirrored on a screen so they can say, “I can be a hero too,” or do you only stick to the mantra “only white kids sell movie tickets. No one will take their kids to see a nonwhite cast of kids star in an action flick”? No need to answer. Your choices answer for you.
But, peel yourselves away from your bottom line and look at what you’re doing. Take a good, hot, steamy look. You had the most beautiful opportunity to present a product that would be true to the intent, and to the audience, and you chickened out. You pulled a Joe Cable on this project. Rather than face the ridicule and social stigma of bringing a Tonkinese girl home with you from the war, you went off on a dangerous mission because running away from the problem is somehow easier than facing it.
And if you’ve seen South Pacific you know how that turned out for Cable.
And if you’ve seen South Pacific you also know what happened to the Frenchman and his kids. And you have some hope.
That is the choice you had, dear Hollywood producers, and with ATLA you borked it big time. Production is already starting in Greenland. However, I refuse to believe it’s too late. To quote a book by Barry B. Longyear: “Anytime before you pass through the gates of hell, you can change your luck.”
If this movie fails at the box office you will blame the economy, the original story, the production, anyone and everyone; you will EAT YOUR OWN before you will admit that you were wrong.
And if it does blockbuster box office, then thank you for perpetuating the wrong, for taking the safe road, and making it that much harder for the next project with a nonwhite protagonist to get made true to its story.
Which oh by the way is exactly the opposite message of ATLA in the first place. Aang ran away from his responsibilities as the next Avatar because it frightened him to do the right thing, and look what that did. It took three seasons and a war to fix that, inasmuch as it could be fixed.
Dear Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, executive producers of the ATLA movie: There is still time to fix this. There are many who will boycott this movie simply on these terms, but we would rather see it fixed. It’s so much easier, and less costly, to do it right than it is to do it over. But you have to be the change you want to see, and be the lesson you want to teach.
It’s your choice to make the movie you want to make. Sure. And when the movie’s done and in the theaters, then it’s our choice.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
Arlene C. Harris started reading at age 3 and writing at age 5, and shows no signs of slowing. She is a former Grand Prize winner of L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future award; her story, “His Best Weapon,” was written as an editorial response to the insistence of the Star Trek franchise that there is no place for gays in their perfect future.
Her current projects include Pont-au-Change her multi-volume sequel to Les Misérables, and a fantasy trilogy she’s adapting as a graphic novel, “Carillon Quartet”. She lives in Vegas, baby! which may explain a few things.
Blog post by Arlene C. Harris and copyright 2009, Arlene C. Harris. Used with permission.
