I AM A PROUD fan of Avatar. The Last Airbender. I own the entire collection on DVD. I used to debate the pros and cons of each bender type with my 10-year-old niece. I am, and forever will be, part of Team Zutara.

So, in early 2009, when casting choices were announced for the film adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon, I was as angry as everyone else who lashed out in the Asian American and fan-boy blogospheres. At the center of controversy, amid all the furious appeals for casting changes and an all-out boycott, one accusation recurred: whitewashing.

And how could the casting be perceived as anything else? The Avatar cartoon features a distinctly Asian- and Inuit-inspired fantasy world, inhabited by a bald, staff-wielding monk who uses his mastery of natural elements to overcome an evil, war-hungry empire. It's Journey to the West lite.

So how did a beloved children's cartoon become a symbol of mainstream media's anti-Asian racism? According to some Asian Americans in the entertainment Industry, the explanation is simple: money.

"It's not that [film producers] are prejudiced. They are just very risk-averse," says Guy Aoki, co-founder of watchdog group Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA). "They want to go with something that is a sure thing, which means they won't go with an actor who is a person of color."

And this tendency is depicted in the casting choices for Airbender. Director M. Night Shyamalan and Paramount Pictures executives cast three little-known white actors in lead roles to portray characters whose cartoon manifestations resemble Asian and Inult-type people. British-born Indian actor Dev Patel, of Slumdog Millionaire fame, plays a central role as - surprise - the villain.

Asian Americans have difficulty proving that they are a "sellable commodity" for these big-budget movies, Aoki says, and this plays into a vicious cycle of limited opportunities for Asian American actors to break out.

Hollywood has a long history of aversion to casting Asian American actors in larger roles: notable yellow facing classics include The Good Earth (1937) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). More recently, in 21 (2008) and Dragonball Evolution (2009), the underlying source material featured prominent Asian American characters, but ultimately white actors were cast in the lead roles.

Valerie Soe, assistant professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, says Hollywood executives underestimate the intelligence of moviegoers in thinking Asian Americans won't be perceived as embodying the concept of the rentable "Middle American."

"A lot of people making the decisions are not in touch with current popular culture," says Soe, also an independent filmmaker. "Mainstream media needs to step up and acknowledge that there are already changes [happening] out there."

In fact, a number of Asian American films have achieved mainstream success. The Harold & Kumar films are a key example. According to Box Office Mojo, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) raked in over $18 million across 2,100 theaters nationally. The sequel Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) was the No. 2 film in its opening weekend and grossed over $38 million nationwide. Comparatively, indie film Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), directed by Justin Lin, garnered nearly $4 million in only about 400 theaters nationwide.

Given these hints of progress for Asian Americans In media and given the growing visibility of Asian American politicians, authors and athletes - how is it that casting practices like Airbender's still prevail? More importantly, what must the Asian American community do to make real progress in the industry?

In Aokl's view, "there's not enough pressure from the Asian American community. The Asian American community has never supported the arts ... They don't ever say, 'Hey, what are you doing not including us in this project?' "

According to Aoki, Asian Americans in positions of creative power are choosing not to write Asian American stories. He questions the cohesiveness of Asian American pride, especially in light of Airbender and Dragonball Evolution - two Asian Americandirected films that feature blatantly whitewashed casts.

Chi-hui Yang, festival director with the Center for Asian American Media, says that for an Asian American director to create and cast only Asian American roles would be too predictable. He says it's possible that these directors are trying to make more unexpected decisions in order to stand out.

For example, Yang says, black cinema enjoys a more viable degree of "racial marketability" because it draws on an alreadyexisting pool of recognized actors and proven money-making formulas. In comparison, the "dynamics within Asian American casting [are] not as established" - that is, Asian American talent is not "a marketable category to choose from." This is unfortunate, Yang says.

But there is much more idealism in the indie community.

Soe advocates for filmmaking outside of mainstream media and challenges her students to find and pursue inspiration via unconventional channels.

"In the past, there were a lot of bad stereotypes and lot of horrible caricatures in mainstream media," she says. "My students need to understand the desire to make their own stories and to not rely on Hollywood to tell their stories."

Impelled by this kind of independent story-telling impulse, Marissa Lee and fellow Avatar blogging friends launched Racebending.com, a grassroots website devoted to protesting against the Airbender movie.

The original intent was to get Paramount to revise the film's cast. However, now that the cast is locked in and filming underway, the next goal is to prevent the movie from succeeding at the box office. The plan is to launch an aggressive marketing campaign targeting film critics, parents and Avatar fans prior to the film's release, tentatively set for summer 2010.

"If we fight for more equality from Hollywood and we treat this casting as a slap in the face," Lee says, "then in the future, we might be able to stop it from happening again."

Racebending. com, along with established advocacy groups like MANAA and East West Players, fight for fair representation in media in hopes of enabling Asian Americans to shatter Hollywood's glass ceiling. MANAA pushes for more positive and consistent Asian American representation in all types of media, striving thereby to expand opportunities for Asian Americans in the entertainment industry.

As the release of Airbender approaches, my main source of disappointment is the missed opportunity to see interesting Asian American characters on the silver screen. Even as a somewhat jaded adult, I was inspired by the simplistic purity of the Avatar cartoon and its refreshing use of Asian cultural elements. I just hope my niece will have more opportunities to see positive examples of Asian Americans in media than I did when I was younger.

Maveric Vu is a new editor at Hyphen and thinks he would make a great Airbender.

To learn more about the Lost Airbender casting and to take action, go to hyphenmagazine.com/take-action.