Racebending

Lore & Background

The term racebending emerged from a LiveJournal-based protest against the 2010 film The Last Airbender, where white actors were cast as Aang, Katara, and Sokka, characters originally coded as East Asian and Inuit. The protest initially involved inundating Paramount with mail, but the cast went unaltered. The protest leaders then founded the advocacy group Racebending, playfully borrowing the concept of bending elements from the Avatar universe. The term has since been used to describe similar casting controversies.

Reader's Guide

Racebending is significant as a term and movement that highlights systemic whitewashing in Hollywood. According to Christopher Campbell, whitewashing has a long tradition in the industry. Christina Shu Jien Chong and Russell Robinson argue that the lack of minority representation stems not from a shortage of applicants but from implicit bias and a connection-based culture, with 87% of studio directors being white. Producers like Dana Brunetti and Ridley Scott have defended such casting by citing a lack of bankable minority actors or financing challenges. The term has been applied to controversies including Exodus: Gods and Kings, Prince of Persia, Ghost in the Shell, and the Harry Potter stage play and TV series, where debates over racebending and 'blackwashing' have arisen. The legacy of racebending is its role in calling attention to how casting decisions can perpetuate racial exclusion, even as industry figures dispute the motivations behind them.

Did You Know?

• The term 'racebending' was coined in 2009 as a protest against the casting of The Last Airbender film.
• The initial protest was called 'Saving the World with Postage' and involved sending protest mail to Paramount.
• According to Russell Robinson, 87% of studio directors are white, which he links to discriminatory casting breakdowns.
• Mamoru Oshii, director of the original Ghost in the Shell anime, defended Scarlett Johansson's casting, citing the character's cyborg nature.