The Legend of Korra, Book 5: It's canon. Deal with it.

[Reddish Mage]

I still think we're expecting a little too much from a show commissioned by a network dedicated to children, designed for children and written by a handful of people who might very well not be completely clued in in the historical, political and social dynamics of minorities living under discrimination, social reform and political turmoil in times of great changes in the very fabric of reality. Expecting a bunch of artists and TV writers to portray these things accurately when so many heavyweights in the intellectual milieu have wildly different opinions about these matters, in turn leading to different conclusions, seems a bit ingenerous... Especially considering that to the average target viewers, what matters is to have a plausible conflict situation that stands up to the scrutiny of him and his mates, possibly showcasing some cool bending techniques... And as many holes we might want to poke at it from the vantage point of a higher education or a couple of decades of newspaper, I still think the plot does that sufficiently.

For a show to take on these issues at all is laudable. However, if we ignore the tone and just look at the content of what Season 1 suggests we get the following message:

Racism, bigotry, is a simple problem caused by preening camera-hogging men doing something once or twice. It is solved immediately by electing a member of said minority as a preening camera-hogging president.


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Also benders and non-benders of Avatar world have always led a tightly integrated existence, and we've seen plenty of evidence that non-benders regularly attain the heights of martial prowess as well as political office. Anti-bender sentiment is a sort of momentary flare up, and racism as such is utterly alien to this world.

Actually come to think about it, it isn't. ATLA addresses it a lot more with Fire/Eath nation (not to mention Air nation genocide). Tribalism is big in Avatar world, but having bending looks more like being double jointed than being dark-colored.