I thought about posting about the Printz award, but so many other bloggers have summed it up so much better than me. I might natter about it later, after I finish more of the books recognized (I’ve read one, and wooo Frankie! I knew you could do it!). Instead, I have a point that’s Printz related.

I want to talk about the controversy over the casting for the Nickelodeon show, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Does anyone else watch this show? It’s so well done. I’ve loved it from the first few episodes I watched. It’s the best show on Nick since Salute Your Shorts and Are You Afraid of the Dark went away (in my biased opinion). It’s Asian, through and through, and beautifully so. This show was created by white men who were not clueless. They created a successful story with engaging characters and a intriguing plot and didn’t boil the race issues down to the least common denominator. I had high hopes for the live-action version after. M. Night Shyamalan was tapped for the director’s position. Surely he would recognized that this show is Asian and thus, the characters in it should be as well. Alas, it was not meant to be.

The movie’s main characters were cast with white actors. This article in particular makes me see red.

Due in theaters in summer 2010, “Airbender” has already begun to face a bit of controversy over the casting of white actors like Rathbone, Ringer and McCartney to play Asian characters — a concern the actor was quick to dismiss. “I think it’s one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan,” he said of the transformation he’ll go through to look more like Sokka.

Jackson Rathbone, this was a racist, douchebaggy comment and I hope it clings to the minds of people for the next fifty years. I know I won’t forget it any time soon, just like I won’t forget Robin McKinley’s or Orson Scott Card spouting homobigot bile all over the internet while still pocketing an award for lifetime achievement in writing for teens. Please continue to vomit out racist bullshit so you look like even more of a jerk. You will never, ever be my Sokka, no matter how much Yellowface you use to fill roles from minority actors that are more appropriate and easily more deserving than your spoiled, privileged ass you’re waving all up in the air with your pants around your ankles. If this were different, if he had made this comment in the context of a white actor portraying a black character, it would be blackface and you can bet more people would be pissed. This post sums that up quite well:

If Rathbone had gotten the role of “Shaft,” and got a perm and a “tan” to play that character (and I don’t mean in a self-conscious, subversive way like Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder”), there would be a shit storm of outrage from all sectors of America, not just the African American community. It would be a headline across every newspaper, and I highly doubt that production would make it to filming. … Why this double standard?

During this time of year as we all fawn over the Printz choices, something occurred to me and I tracked down Gene Luen Yang’s thoughts on the subject. Why him? Just a few years ago in 2007, he wrote American Born Chinese which won a Printz award for pointing out these issues. The judges decided his book was the best, I’ve seen it lauded and recommended and so well-loved. The world I live in is a world where this book written for young adults and kids can be honored but this show, a beautiful, well-animated show with such a strong message made for these same young adults and kids can be white-washed. It’s hard to deal with; it’s hard not to be angry. How do we praise books where this is addressed but ignore the more subtle forms in other types of media? It’s subtle, it’s pervasive, it’s 2009 and it’s still a problem. Racism is not dead.

This is what Gene Luen Yang had to say:

By giving white actors roles that are so obviously Asian – and by stating from the get-go their preference for Caucasians – they tell Asian-Americans that who we are and how we look make us inherently inadequate for American audiences, even in a movie that celebrates our culture. Like the schoolboy who pulls up the corners of his eyes at his “Oriental” classmate, they highlight our otherness.

I’m so tired and disappointed. I have a sinking feeling this movie is going to be released with a white main cast and people who are ignorant of these issues or (foolishly) don’t care will see it just because it’s Avatar and their kids loved it will send the profits sky-high, only encouraging Hollywood to keep up its silly, racist habits.

Further reading and letter writing campaign: Saving the World with Postage.