During the whole Last Airbender whitewashing fiasco, there were many who let their true colors show as they tried to stamp out any objection to racist casting practices in Hollywood. They are bothered by any one who dares challenge the status quo. This is a sense of self-entitlement that leads them to believe they have a 'right' to go about their merry way without having to endure some 'politically-correct whiner' complicate their lives with talk of racial equality. In their twisted minds, we are the bullies.
Yet, it's funny how whenever they are 'being bullied', they are voluntarily taking part in the conversation, trying to shut us all up.
In the above image, we witness the twisted logic of one such person as he argues against the irrefutable fact that the model for the character of Aang is a biracial Asian-American boy. What I find sickening beyond belief is that he reasons, 'he isn't Asian because he isn't drawn like one. So it doesn't matter how many facts you use against me--you're wrong'.
Obviously, this person completely misses the fact that the boy is biracial. However, the idea that he possesses the cultural awareness that is required to recognize and racially classify a biracial Asian kid is laughable. As a biracial Asian-American, I have spent my entire life being mistakenly identified as Native American, Peurto Rican, Latino, etc. Or, I could have just been another white kid with a slightly darker complexion. I have never been accurately described as biracial, and no one has ever guessed "Asian" whenever the question of my heritage came up.
No offense, but the white majority in this country are really bad at determining a person's race. So, forgive me if I find it amusing when some racist knuckleheads suddenly speak with authority on the subject of race on some internet message boards.
What really irks me is this kid's sense of entitlement. Of course, one of the many things that confirms the reality of racial inequality is the smug resistance of people like him. If the only thing his opponents want is fairness, what is he afraid of? What motivates him to try to stamp out the fight for fair representation in the media? He doesn't seem to have a dog in the fight. Why does he persist, and so arrogantly?
Fear.
If fairness wins, he loses something. Is it privilege? See, people of color don't get to control the national dialog. We don't get to dictate what people are allowed to talk about. We're not part of the club that laughs at an insensitive joke made at the expense of the disenfranchised. We don't get to shed this image of 'otherness' that the majority project on us. We are perpetual foreigners in our own country.
If he wins, fairness loses.
Who's the bully?
