Is Avatar Racist???

How is it racist? If anything it's disapproving of the way white people treated indigenous peoples in countries they colonized or took over.

That is a very interesting article that definitely has some solid points. As a white American, I typically follow the trend of being someone that subconsciously treats those lead roles as "blank slates for the audience to project themselves upon". However, making the audience relate to the main character is a crucial part of having a successful movie. In America, the majority is white, thus a white main character is what will please the majority of the audience. That being said, I don't think that every main character in this type of movie scenario should be white, but it is what would seem practical to the movie-makers.

Run Far wrote:

Annalee Newitz thinks it is:

http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar

"Critics have called alien epic Avatar a version of Dances With Wolves because it's about a white guy going native and becoming a great leader. But Avatar is just the latest scifi rehash of an old white guilt fantasy. Spoilers...

Whether Avatar is racist is a matter for debate. Regardless of where you come down on that question, it's undeniable that the film - like alien apartheid flick District 9, released earlier this year - is emphatically a fantasy about race. Specifically, it's a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people. Avatar and scifi films like it give us the opportunity to answer the question: What do white people fantasize about when they fantasize about racial identity?"

Read more at the link above.......

Yes because white people have never exploited a native culture for their natural resources and our consumption habits are perfect...

White people exploiting others have gotten the planet to this point. Imagine if some other race had been in charge 300-400 years ago...

You need to read the article before posting. Exploitation isn't the main discussion.

photofinishes wrote:

White people exploiting others have gotten the planet to this point. Imagine if some other race had been in charge 300-400 years ago...

The source of Western Europe's power was industrialization. It's not logical to think about another race being in charge without industrializing.

The environmental progression of civilization is universal and has little to do with race: from hunter gatherers who have sacred respect for the land, to farmers who mold it to their needs, to industrialists who strip it for raw materials and pump waste back into it, and finally to post-industrial economies that are so wealthy that they can actually consider restricting resource exploitation.

Just look at the trouble we're having coming to an agreement on carbon emissions. It's the non-white nations that are unwilling to restrain their use of carbon fuels if it means that they cannot develop economically and escape poverty.

Big Red wrote:

You need to read the article before posting. Exploitation isn't the main discussion.

Sorry for the hijack.

I do think it's correct to see both films as white fantasies about race, but I don't think that the fantasies are racist.

Lee's is a well-written piece.

Guy finds himself in a 7 foot tall body, and after clumsily stumbling around, first thing he does is go play basketball. You be the judge.

I try not to read too much into movies, generally that's a time when my brain likes to take a break and be entertained.

kartelite wrote:

I try not to read too much into movies, generally that's a time when my brain likes to take a break and be entertained.

Exactly. If someone wants to read into the storyline of a movie, make connections that don't really exist, and play psychiatrist, then so be it. The vast majority of people just want to check their analytical side at the door and simply be entertained.

In all honesty, I think the people who moan the most about "white guilt" are speaking more about themselves than anyone else.

this movie is about colonialism, which isn't explicitly about race, but rather this idea of "cultural superiority" that Europeans had. Like, "we're helping these stupid savages become civilized like us! Also we're exploiting their resources and killing millions of them (shhh)."

Puhleez! wrote:

[quote]kartelite wrote:

I try not to read too much into movies, generally that's a time when my brain likes to take a break and be entertained.

Exactly. If someone wants to read into the storyline of a movie, make connections that don't really exist, and play psychiatrist, then so be it. The vast majority of people just want to check their analytical side at the door and simply be entertained.

In all honesty, I think the people who moan the most about "white guilt" are speaking more about themselves than anyone else.

You do realize that the point of movies as well as books is for the author or creator to display an IDEA or OPINION about a subject. They mask it as entertainment only so that they can get their point across. The point of the movie in addition to generating revenue is for James Cameron to express his thoughts and vies on colonialism.

To answer the poster's question, I don't think "Avatar" is racist.

Is "Avatar" clumsy? Yes. This is the author's point: that the film's theme was trite and condescendingly paternalistic like films that share its theme: "Dances With Wolves", "Little Big Man", "Last of the Mohicans", "A Man Called Horse."

I enjoyed the edginess of "District 9" much more (from its title, an obvious allusion to District 6, which unlike the above tired themes, hasn't been commented upon much in popular culture, to the use of insect-looking humanoids).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_Six,_Cape_Town

Yep.

I am sure other races could have come up with worse practices than the genocide of natives and the enslavement of tens of millions for centuries.

Thanks God the whites were in charge and instituted these benign practices and thank God white people like you are so understanding of history

I saw it in a movie theater that was about half black, half white, and half hispanic. At the end of the movie, everyone clapped.

But this was the 3d version, so maybe that had something to do with it.

I was rooting for the humans during the entire movie. They were trying to be diplomatic at an astronomic cost (1 month of delayed production) and risk to their well being (the Avatar were killing them) until the humans had no choice but to use some fire power. I will say they got a little carried away by continuing after they had the tree down. But seriously those Avatar were very frustrating to work with. But you can't blame the humans, who wouldn't be a little irrational at the point were a guy who you thought was on your side decided to back stab you by being a double agent?

keep_going wrote:

I saw it in a movie theater that was about half black, half white, and half hispanic.

Le piège est tendu...

maybe all the whites were hispanic