The controversy started when the lead characters were cast in roles that were originally Asian in origin [casting call was "Caucasian or any other ethnicity"]. The creators, while Caucasians themselves, made the show so as to reflect Asian/Inuit cultures, going so far as to researching the cultures and traditions of their sources and incorporating these in the show. That’s the essence of the show, at least based on how they created it. Instead of the controversy dying down when an Asian man, Patel, was cast, it became even worse, because it showed that the Asian was the villain in the story (at least, for the first movie, based on its description and how the story originally went), and it even worsened when it was found out that the casting call for the members of the Fire Nation, the antagonists in the story, were for Asians/dark-skinned people, while the casting call for the good guys are for Caucasians.

Do you think this is racist on the side of Paramount? I’m of two minds about it, given that Hollywood doesn’t really make Asian-style movies, but I admit I’m teed off at what casting director DeeDee Ricketts said to those who were auditioning as extras for the movie:

"Dress in traditional cultural ethnic attire…If you’re Korean, wear a kimono. If you’re from Belgium, wear lederhosen… We’re trying to create these four different nations so we’re looking for different skin tones, and features, and bone structures…It doesn’t mean you’re at a disadvantage if you didn’t come in a big African thing. But guys, even if you came with a scarf today, put it over your head so you’ll look like a Ukrainian villager or whatever."

What the heck, Ms. Ricketts? First of all, it’s the Japanese who are identified with Kimonos, while lederhosen is to the Germans. Secondly, "big African thing"? "Ukrainian villager or whatever"? Seriously, what’s wrong with you? Asian-concept/created stuff have been westernized throughout the years (like this year’s Chun-li and Dragonball movies), but I don’t think any member from the cast or crew would say something like that, even during casting. (I’m curious though, why is it that those two movies didn’t really create that much fuss about the race issue compared to Avatar, barring comments similar to what Ricketts made).

At the very least, the movie’s going to come off really badly because of wrong casting. At its worse, this is going to escalate into a race war.