With the release of The Last Airbender coming up next week, Racebending is organizing fans to take action and make sure movie critics -- who may not be fully aware of the characters' animated origins -- are aware of the racist casting issues surrounding the film, which will hopefully inform their reviews: Take Action: Write Film Critics About Disrimination in 'The Last Airbender.' Three easy steps:
Step One: Draft an EmailThey've also provided a long list of movie critics you can send your messages to. I have to really commend and give props to Racebending, which has been on top of this issue from the very beginning. A movement started and fueled by Last Airbender fans, they've been all about an informed, dialogue-driven response to this nonsense. Big thanks for all their work.
This shouldn't be very long. You can do this in a matter of minutes! A few sentences will do.
Please respect the film critic's time–short emails are more effective. Keep your email under 150 to 200 words.
Suggested formatting might be:
Salutation: Dear Mr./Ms. ______,
Sentence One: A sentence describing yourself, your relationship with the newspaper, and your background. My name is Jane Doe, I am an Asian American business woman and mother from northern California and a subscriber / reader of the San Francisco Times.)
Sentence Two: Explain why you're writing the email as related to Airbender. I'm concerned about the film The Last Airbender and representation of people of color in Hollywood. Even though the characters in the original series were depicted as from an Asian background, the film cast white actors to play the heroes and only cast actors of color in background and bad guy roles.
Sentence Three: Explain why this upsets you and you are protesting. I can't think of a single movie featuring an Asian American or Native American actor that has come out recently/this reminds me of yellowface // It sends the message to kids that only people who are white can be heroes and main characters // Paramount has a really bad diversity track record, etc.
Sentence Four: Your call to action for the person you are writing. Please consider mentioning the casting discrimination in your review of the movie // I wanted you to know about his before going into the movie // please encourage your readers to learn more about this issue, etc.
The letter should encourage the journalist to explore the issues surrounding the film. Most journalists and critics want to be balanced and inclusive of different viewpoints and sources in their reviews. Be friendly and share your opinion in a clear and helpful manner.
Step Two: Figure Out Who You Want to Write
We recommend that you visit the website of your local newspaper. If you don't know your local newspapers, you can try this database. Read some of the entertainment and film review articles from the newspaper and determine the name of the person you would like to contact.
Racebending.com supporters have compiled a list of potential journalist contacts. (see below!)
Most websites for your newspaper will have a “contact us” form. Others will provide an email for each journalist. (eg: the format for the Los Angeles Times is firstname.lastname@latimes.com) If you can't find the right person to contact or you have to submit through a generic form, you can always write a general letter to the editor or “ATTN: Entertainment Editor”
Step Three: Send the Email!
Fire off that email! That's it!
If you'd like, you can BCC (blind-carbon-copy) mike@racebending.com. This is optional, but will help us track what critics are being contacted!
Thanks so much for writing journalists and critics, and be sure to update us if a film critic you wrote to gets in touch with you or talks about the issues surrounding the casting.