Spoiler
Show
in real life, just bc we don’t receive all sides of the story, it doesn’t mean our side is the only one that is valid. in a story, the side(s) that the writers choose to give us is the side that is meant to be the reality we accept unless they specify otherwise.
the equalists were portrayed as a terrorist organization that eventually indiscriminately bombed the city, tied up and planned the cultural genocide of an already almost extinct population, and their leader was actually a bender filled with self-hatred due to childhood abuse
a lot of the oppressions listed here are vague and i could easily flip them around. pro-bending is a form of bender privilege? i could draw parallels to how gladiators fought for the entertainment of others and were by all means underprivileged, how this fictional sport barely paid, how mako had to get a second job that also revolved around bending (oh and btw: getting a job based on an innate talent is not the same as systemic privilege, a person who is able to lift weights will get a job at a construction site quicker than someone who can’t, a person who can shoot lightning out of his fingers will get a job at a powerplant over someone who can’t) and his second job also did not pay well
meanwhile, the nonbender the writers choose to introduce to us is asami, who is adored, invited to fancy galas, who’s father is the most successful man in the city, and despite being established as a good and kind person, hates the equalists and eventually turns on her own father because of it.
if the writers want us to think that nonbenders are oppressed, why write a character like asami? why wouldn’t they show any civilian nonbenders protesting (outside of the incidence with tarrlok, but the analogy of an oppressor marginalizing the oppressed falls apart again when tarrlok arrests mako and bolin with them and later admits to staging the entire event to bait korra - no sign or mention of a desire for ‘bender supremacy), why wouldn’t they have that homeless nonbending man talk about his oppression instead of telling the main cast that he lived with both homeless benders and nonbenders
why would they choose to show us gangs, who are units formed out of a lack of privilege so severe that it turns malignant? why would they make the equalists such *******s? it’s possible that the writers will choose to write about the nonbenders actually being oppressed next season, that is true. but as of now, it is not clear, and even if it were it’s not an issue relevant to the real world the way poverty is