Everyone was posting journals on the subject, so I thought I'd hop on the bandwagon in hopes of inspiring even one more person.

So. Avatar live action casting. White kids. Epic fail.

[link] The main action headquarters.

[link] The new, very inspiring blog entry.

[link] The support of an Avatar staff member.

My take on it? Well this is my letter:

Lord of the Rings is based on European culture. What if they had cast the Hobbits all as African-American? “They're not explicitly white in the book,” you could argue, “they're just Hobbits.” But we all know that's absurd.

Similarly, the cartoon Avatar is set in a world permeated with Asian and Inuit culture. Why would they cast all white people?

Worse yet, if the leads are white, but supporting and background characters are Asian. What kind of a message does that send to America's youth?—“Asians aren't good enough to be leads.” Hollywood seems to believe this message, too.

I'm writing to you today because you have such an amazing opportunity! What a chance you have to finally put some strong Asian American characters in the limelight, the heroes for the millions of kids who love and will come to love Aang, Katara, and the rest!

I'm white myself but my three-year-old siblings MaryCatherine and Daniel are both adopted from China. I often wonder if MaryCatherine will grow up wishing she looked more like Hannah Montana and the other idols of her generation, or if Daniel will feel like an outcast because Hollywood never portrays Asian men with women of any other race.

My siblings are already huge fans of Avatar, even at their young age. MaryCatherine loves to tell me her favorite characters — Katara, Toph, Suki... Please seize this opportunity to make the heroine of the next big kids' film someone that Asian Americans like her can be proud to say, for the first time, “I look just like her!”

Thank you for your time and good luck!

This is my letter too but I'm having my mom send it cuz she's too lazy to write one herself even if she agrees with me.

I'm writing today about your upcoming film, The Last Airbender. When the cartoon Avatar came out in 2005, my four children immediately loved it. The next year, my husband and I adopted a baby girl from China, and in 2008, we adopted a little boy. All six of our children, now ranging in age from 16 to 3, are still huge fans of the show — we own DVDs, posters, calendars, action figures — and were very excited for your upcoming adaption. But when we heard about your casting decisions, we were very disappointed, particularly myself. We try so hard to educate my Chinese daughter and son about their Asian roots, and while the Avatar cartoon was an aid in this, The Last Airbender is clearly going to be an impediment, due to the racist casting.

My adopted children may be too young to understand it now, but what of the other Asian American children in our country? There's a casting call in Philadelphia for extras in “ethnic costumes” — so you're saying the background characters and no-names can be diverse, but Asians aren't good enough to be lead roles? Are you even considering what kind of a message this sends? We had our hopes up for a kids' film with actors that our little ones would undoubtedly look up to — the characters they loved, doing the martial arts they admired, played by Asians who looked just like them. But instead, you decided to continue Hollywood's long history of discrimination and yellowface.

You may think you're making a good marketing decision by casting white actors, but the truth is most white kids have the privilege of being “colorblind” — they're no more inclined to like Demi Lovato than Keke Palmer because race is a non issue for them. But minority children (who may or may not experience racism outright, but still feel they're “different” ) would be thrilled by an Asian idol.

Unless you make more sensitive casting choices for your main characters, you can expect my family to avoid spending a cent on your franchise.

Thank you for your time.

And I'll probably write more... hey I have 8 people in my family.

So - what are YOU going to do about this crap?