[korra] so here's a terrible conversation i had with my mother today re: racebending--
i showed her the first two episodes of korra the other night, and today we were talking about race and racism in hollywood
and she is just like... soo... ignorant... about a lot of it
so i went
as a lead-in to the white-washing of the Avatar film a few years back
"hey mum, what do you think Korra's ethnicity is? the main girl in the cartoon we watched the other night."
her: "uhhhh... white?"
me: ..............................
me: ............................
me: ....... did. did we watch the same show??
....o-oh wow
me: SHE HAS BROWN SKIN AND LIVES IN THE SOUTH POLE.
mum: oh yes i guess so. eskimo then!
and then she got all defensive about how despairing i was, and goes "WELL THAT WAS A HARD QUESTION, YOU ASK YOUR FATHER! I bet he'll agree!"
no mum
it is not that hard
. . . 
"If you're from the south pole, why are you white?"
she's just. so white. i mean. i am white. i am the whitest. you can't be much more white than i am. AND YET. SHE IS.
oh my god, you can't just ask someone why they're white. /end mean girls quote
i am sorry my mother is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with hollywood
she's from a fantasy series, of course she's white!
oh my dad is home 
time to go ask him the same question
time to go ask him the same question
just like everyone else in avatar world some of them just have tans!
some of them just have tans!
let us know how that goes
ANCIENT CHINESE-INSPIRED TANNING BEDS
AT THE SOUTH POLE
oh my god
my dad's answer
"scandinavian, right?"
............................................................................................................................
...wow
i can't with this family
WERE THEY USING THEIR EYES?!
...........
i really don't
oh my god
that's even worse
like. unless he means greenlandic inuit = denmark = technically scandinavian?!
(although i believe greenland is under their own rule now and also, i doubt that's what he meant)
JUST. HOW
...maybe you should, have a picture of korra with a picture of a really good cosplayer who looks like her. . .
to be fair
it's hard to notice racial things when you have never been asked to
it's not hard to notice that someone with dark skin and dark hair doesn't look very typically scandinavian
like I didn't actually think about the fact that no one in avatar is white until the white washing issue came up
and i was like =|a oh yes i guess that is true
i thought about the fact that THE ART IS SO GOOD AND NO ONE HAS TO HAVE PINK HAIR TO DIFFERENTIATE THEM
minorities are only obvious when they're the token minorities?
the yellow ranger etc
Yeah basically =|a when they are there TO BE THEIR RACE
it is actually more obvious
than then when they are not. there. to e a race
yellow ranger black ranger... god i had that revelation last year and was like AAAH
cuz then you don't think about their race
LIKE I AM NOT SAYING EVERY WHITE PERSON DOES NOT NEED TO BE SMACKED WITH THIS REALIZATION
/randomly pops in for Things Boxy Didn't Notice As A Child So It Took Forever As An Adult
cuz it's a very important realization to have
just. yeah. you do have to be smacked with it
i never quite. made that connection
me either 
that's. terrible.
i always just thought of it as like
pink and yellow are the girly colors...
so. the girls.
robowolf: also hahaha no you are correct in your assumption that that was not what my dad meant
='D
FRIDGE HORROR
racism from our childhood coming back to haunt us even now
also aviy re: there being no white people in ATLA, i thought about this the other day in relation to RP and then i wondered
if any ATLA character in panfandom RP has ever been weirded out by a white person
because
I thought the Black one was the green ranger?! I DONT REMEMEBER ANYMORE
white people wtf '-'a
no the original black ranger was black =')
hahaha sob
AND THE YELLOW RANGER WAS ASIn
yeah i know legit
WHAT'S WITH THIS YELLOW HAIR BUSINESS
a;sdfsl
tho i do love that they have a variety of eye colors in avatar
but yeah like FOR ME
yesss
before i ever thought about racial stuff
i thought about world and character design
so i just liked that everyone looked normal??
cuz i grew up in the era of crappy shoujo
where you need wildly ridiculous hair to tell people apart
and et you have a whole race of BROWN SKINNED BROWN HAIRED PEOPLE
and that is not a problem
in art
i like to think the fact that nobody cares HEY WHY IS NOBODY WHITE =(( unless you are racist is like.
p..roof... that... every bullshit hollywood dude saying IF THEY'RE NOT WHITE WE WON'T RELATE is bullshit
ugh yes
no i have a history of not realizing i am watching something without white people until it is pointed out
i don't think that's a complaint i've ever seen ANYWHERE about avatar
which is good
like when i was growing up i watched family matters and full house
dudes no plz just stop whitewashing i promise we will watch movies without white people in them
and i did that for years before i was like 'hay one of these shows is full of black people 8|a'
tho apparently people are complaining that there aren't enough boy characters in Brave for their boy children to relate to
UM ALL I WATCHED WAS FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR
which made me laugh until i cried
and now that's all my little brother watches
ugh
(ps fresh prince is still hysterical)
WHY SAYA
fresh prince 
YES I BET I SAW THE SAME DAMN PERSON COMLAINING ABOUT THAT
MY FAITH IN HUMANITY WAS ALREADY SLASHED TODAY
now it's. just that little bit lower.
SERIOUSLY??????????
fuck you guys
I'm guessing they've never travelled.
oh my god yellow ranger
black ranger
I KNOW RIGHT
oh my god
yellow ranger was my fave
mine too!!
so was sunny in teen power inc, now that i think about it
and she was the token asian girl
YELLOW RANGER WAS TOTALLY MY FAVORITE 
the less popular perfect pink girl!11
the less popular perfect pink girl!11
i had a yellow ranger stuffed toy it was my bff
hahaha these fridge realizations I had years and years and years ago
:'D
though I neever even thought about family matteers and fresh prince not having white people :|a
I think fresh prince did but they were like, mostly the rich co-workers for uncle phil and typically jerks
judges and lawyers
also I was totally all about green/white ranger, though blue was the best before that
<- nerd
god if you watch it now
he's so much older
you don't notice when you are little but now it's just like WHY ARE YOU HANGING OUT WITH CHILDREN YOU COMPLETE WEIRDO
n-no I noticed he was weirdly old by like the first time they changed their suits
it became super obvious in uh.... turbo, when they had an actual kid
Man yellow ranger was MY favorite because she turned into a fucking saber tooth tiger
/SUPERIOR BATTLE MORPH, ALL THAT MATTERS
yes that too
I never realized the Yellow Ranger was supposed to be a dude for yeeeeears
someone told me it in passing and I was just OH YEAH SURE I KNEW THAT!!
and it wasn't until I saw a gif with REALLY OBVIOUS DONG that I was just "and I thought you were a girl for forever 
"
"
Just popping in to say original black ranger was missing a finger.