Talk:Anti-bending Revolution/@comment-180.194.169.201-20120618132342/@comment-75.206.238.249-20130602054011

How Amon would probably counter that:

>The Air Acolyte is subordinate to the Airbending culture. He himself is a non-bender, but he repesents Bender interests, & is little more than a puppet. At any time, Aang or Tenzin could theoretically boot him from the monastary or whatever, and presumably declare him unfit to represent the Air Nomads on the council.

>That was many years ago, times have changed. In fact, at the time, there was only 1 Waterbender from the Southern Tribe to choose from AT ALL, & we don't know whether or not she was offered the job before Sokka.

>Once again, the Earth King, despite not being a Bender himself, propogates a culture of Bending Superiority. His generals, his Dai Lee, even his ceremonial leaders were all Earthbenders. Additionally, during the Hundred Years War, the Earth King was just a puppet of Long Feng, and Earthbender. The Earth Kingdom's leadership has also been fraught with disunity, oppression, & failure to protect its subjects.

>He would most likely hold Hakoda up as an example of what can be accomplished in a culture that has been purged of Bending.

>Not sure about Arnook.

See, you are falling into a logic trap that I like to call, "Black president, therefore no racism." When you're talking about who is or who is not oppressed, the answer is significantly more complicated than "are there any high-profile individuals of subpopulation X?" We also saw this during the Hundred Years War. In spite of the fact that the Fire Nation aggressively oppressed the other styles of Bending, there were a few non-Firebenders that they allowed into high positions:

>Mrs. Morishita

>Kori Morishita

>The Dai Lee

This does not invalidate the claim that, in general, the Fire Nation oppressed Earthbending (& Waterbending, & Airbending). That said, of course Amon is going to distort the facts, he's trying to get people to follow him. If he takes a moderate position, people are less likely to want to help him change things.