It'd be way more accurate to have the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom people be Asian and the Water Tribe folk darker skinned. Not sure about the Air Nomads though.

Asian culture is a big influence on the Avatar World so the more accurate they are, the better.

zanhar1: The Air Nomads were inspired by Tibetan and Buddhist cultures !!!!

I'd prefer characters that were intended to be Eastern Asian to be played by Eastern Asians (Toph, Jeong Jeong, etc.). But characters like Ty Lee and Aang would be a better off played by Caucasians (well, at least Aang, 'cause Ty Lee is a minor enough character that I wouldn't really mind either way).

^^ That's what I thought but I wasn't sure.

But I can see Aang as a Caucasian like GoldenCoast because he is lighter skinned.

the show was based off asian culture so it would be much better if their cast was diverse as well.

the water tribes were based off sireniki and inuit culture with a mix of other indigenous cultures including native americans AND south asians. why leave them out? also, just because they're lighter skinned doesn't automatically mean that they're caucasians. ty lee is from the fire nation the fire nation was heavily influenced by asian cultures.