Start by reading this...

This is a great article.

"...there's more to the argument against the casting of "Avatar" than a claim to racial justification. In fact, it's arguably a more powerful case than the one against "21." The creators of "Avatar" have stated that the show was designed from the ground up as an elaborate homage to the culture, ideas and artists that they revered -- an "epic, Asian, martial-arts fantasy/action/adventure/comedy/drama" celebrating the likes of anime legend Hayao Miyazaki."


This pretty much sums it up...

"When a role is ethnically ambiguous, I’m all for spicing up the diversity on screen with characters that don’t fit stereotypes. But when you come up with a cultural story like this, one whose very inception was inspired by Asian martial arts, it is your well-funded storyteller’s duty to be respectful of that which you are portraying. By not casting Asians in Asian roles, you are perpetuating the notion that Asians can’t act, that they don’t have a place in American arts, that they are not worthy of American media, that they have no voice in how their cultures (however artistically interpreted) are exhibited. It is a complete violation of simple cultural respect to take this project from the lands where its inspiration came from and give it an assimilated yellow face. Or worse, to not even bother at all."

This is a good one too.

"I’m sick of this. I know it happens all the goddamn time, but I’m sick of it. This persistent belief on Hollywood’s part that brown people “don’t sell” has to change. I would’ve expected better from M. Night, who is Asian himself, but as we all know, being a PoC doesn’t make one immune to white supremacist thinking, or stupidity. I’m holding out one hope — that this is some kind of messed-up viral marketing effort, maybe using reverse psychology to get people all riled up about the film so they’ll blog about it, etc. But if this is really the cast they’re planning to go with, I will definitely be boycotting this movie, and urging everyone I know to do the same."