"These are movies about white guilt. Our main white characters realize
that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA
people of color - their cultures, their habitats, and their
populations. The whites realize this when they begin to assimilate
into the "alien" cultures and see things from a new perspective. To
purge their overwhelming sense of guilt, they switch sides, become
"race traitors," and fight against their old comrades. But then they
go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once
oppressed. This is the essence of the white guilt fantasy, laid bare.
It's not just a wish to be absolved of the crimes whites have
committed against people of color; it's not just a wish to join the
side of moral justice in battle. It's a wish to lead people of color
from the inside rather than from the (oppressive, white) outside."
"Think of it this way. Avatar is a fantasy about ceasing to be white,
giving up the old human meatsack to join the blue people, but never
losing white privilege. Jake never really knows what it's like to be a
Na'vi because he always has the option to switch back into human mode.
Interestingly, Wikus in District 9 learns a very different lesson.
He's becoming alien and he can't go back. He has no other choice but
to live in the slums and eat catfood. And guess what? He really hates
it. He helps his alien buddy to escape Earth solely because he's
hoping the guy will come back in a few years with a "cure" for his
alienness. When whites fantasize about becoming other races, it's only
fun if they can blithely ignore the fundamental experience of being an
oppressed racial group. Which is that you are oppressed, and nobody
will let you be a leader of anything.
This is not a message anybody wants to hear, least of all the white
people who are creating and consuming these fantasies. Afro-Canadian
scifi writer Nalo Hopkinson recently told the Boston Globe:
In the US, to talk about race is to be seen as racist. You become
the problem because you bring up the problem. So you find people who
are hesitant to talk about it.
She adds that the main mythic story you find in science fiction,
generally written by whites, "is going to a foreign culture and
colonizing it."
"
2009/12/21 Cameron Childress <camer...@gmail.com>:
>
> I guess... What is the author's core point here?
>
> -Camero
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