Talk:Bending arts/@comment-4816926-20120412230406/@comment-4888161-20120416030537

Actually, waterbenders are based more off of Inuit culture. That's definitely a different race.

And the other countries are different as well. China and Japan are both Asian cultures, but they aren't the same race. They would likely be insulted if you considered them that, as not all Asians are the same. The skin color of the water tribe people proves they are different from the other nations. The other three nations may be based off of Asian culture, but they too are all considered different races, albeit all Asian based. But it's still different.

As Mysteria said, people from/descended from different nations have different bending potential in their genes. Otherwise the airbenders (for example) couldn't have been almost wiped out, as every carefree bender from the South Pole, Fire Nation, etc. would have been born airbenders instead of the element of their respective nations. But instead, the possibility of elements for benders is limited to the Nations they are descended from. That is race.

There is no other alternative to explain this, so I don't understand why anyone would still continue arguing against this. After all, this is 100% cannon based of what we saw in the show. Again, I'm not saying it's all race. But that is what decides which elements a person is eligible to bend if they become a bender.