you know what? iām gonna say it. atla was a huge part of my childhood. it was definitely a step forward in regards to cartoons.
but the racial insensitivity is staggering. and i wanna talk about the amount of exploiting there is of south asian culture specifically. iām south asian, indian specifically, and i grew up watching this show that was supposed to be ādifferentā and āinspiringā for people of colour.
except there were little to no characters with dark skin who had importance and were explicitly made out to be south asian. that was fine. i was used to not seeing characters on television who looked like i did. except this show used my culture. they used my culture and they couldnāt even bother putting in good characters who looked like they remotely belonged to that culture, even if they were minor and not part of the gaang.
first of all, the show has a lot of influence from Hinduismāthe word avatar (avatÄra) itself means ādescentā in Sanskrit, referring to the incarnation of a deity in human form. where did Hinduism originate?
indus valley, or what we now call pakistan, a south asian country. the entire concept of chi or prana, as it is referred to as in Hinduism, is a reoccurring theme in atla; your vital energy, your spiritual energy. this is another one of the religionās influences on the show.
atla also talks about the seven chakras. this is another concept from Hinduism, and in the religion, they must always be unblocked for your prana (the term from Hinduism) or chi (the Chinese term which is used the show) to flow smoothly. chi is your life energy.
so. guess who helps aang out with his chakras?
right. this guy. the only blatantly south asian character weāve gotten so far, and you wanna know why itās so blatant? because heās literally an indian stereotype. heās the only obviously south asian character so far in the show and heās a racist portrayal of enlightened practitioners of Hinduism. great.
oh, and before i forgetā
do their foreheads look familiar? oh yeah, thatās because itās literally copied off of this:
this is Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction. they used a religious symbol in Hinduism to make a couple characters look cool. well, combustion man and pāli both have these third eyes, so we can assume they are at least south asian codedābut what are their characters like?
villains. unhinged. insane. we donāt even know combustion manās nameāwe just know heās a contract killer who would murder a child for the right price. pāli wants to dismantle all forms of government and let the world reign free in chaos, and finally she is given a horribly grotesque death: she gets her head blown off.
for all of the culture references that are important pieces of this show, youād think thereād be an area that has south asian people. there isnāt one. iām not going to speak about the other loads of racism in atla because i donāt belong to those cultures, but hereās my two cents.
this show was written by white men who did the bare minimum. itās nothing worth praising.
stormborns
ellievsbear
kianamaiart
prguitarman
