I think the 3D made the movie otherwise it would have totally hated it. Again another sci-fi movie whee blk people either don't exist or "assumed" to be the native people cause they have a difference skin color. The only blk people to be scene where very much in the background with no speaking parts.
On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 2:03 PM, angelababycat <asrobin...@mindspring.com>wrote: > > > Well, I beat the blizard and saw Avatar yesterday afternoon. Besides the > Digital 3-D killing my eyes after about 45 minutes, yes, this was the one > thing that irked me about the story: same old average white guy to the > rescue (or Will Smith--I could see him in this role easily), accomplishing > things even the greatest and bravest of the natives had not, and attracting > the girl who could have any native man she wanted. It was truly annoying. > > But it also was a beautiful, beautiful movie to watch, and delivered the > standard on-the-edge-of-your-seat scifi/action movie suspense to keep you > engaged mentally and visually a la Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. I loved it and > look forward to getting the DVD so I can see it in HD without the eye > strain. > > Angela > > --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com <scifinoir2%40yahoogroups.com>, "Tracey > de Morsella" <tdli...@...> wrote: > > > > > > When > > < > http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avata > > r> Will White People Stop Making Movies Like "Avatar"? > > > > > > <http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2009/12/naviwhiteguilt.jpg> > > > > http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2009/12/500x_naviwhiteguilt.jpgCriti > > cs 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 <http://io9.com/tag/whitepeople/> . 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? > > > > Avatar imaginatively revisits the crime scene of white America's > > foundational act of genocide, in which entire native tribes and > > civilizations were wiped out by European immigrants to the American > > continent. In the film, a group of soldiers and scientists have set up > shop > > on the verdant moon Pandora, whose landscapes look like a cross between > > Northern California's redwood cathedrals and Brazil's tropical > rainforest. > > The moon's inhabitants, the Na'vi, are blue, catlike versions of native > > people: They wear feathers in their hair, worship nature gods, paint > their > > faces for war, use bows and arrows, and live in tribes. Watching the > movie, > > there is really no mistake that these are alien versions of stereotypical > > native peoples that we've seen in Hollywood movies for decades. > > > > And Pandora is clearly supposed to be the rich, beautiful land America > could > > still be if white people hadn't paved it over with concrete and strip > malls. > > In Avatar, our white hero Jake Sully (sully - get it?) explains that > Earth > > is basically a war-torn wasteland with no greenery or natural resources > > left. The humans started to colonize Pandora in order to mine a mineral > > called unobtainium that can serve as a mega-energy source. But a few of > > these humans don't want to crush the natives with tanks and bombs, so > they > > wire their brains into the bodies of Na'vi avatars and try to win the > > natives' trust. Jake is one of the team of avatar pilots, and he > discovers > > to his surprise that he loves his life as a Na'vi warrior far more than > he > > ever did his life as a human marine. > > > > <http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2009/12/avatarwhiteguilt.jpg> > > > > http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2009/12/500x_avatarwhiteguilt.jpg > > > > Jake is so enchanted that he gives up on carrying out his mission, which > is > > to persuade the Na'vi to relocate from their "home tree," where the > humans > > want to mine the unobtanium. Instead, he focuses on becoming a great > warrior > > who rides giant birds and falls in love with the chief's daughter. When > the > > inevitable happens and the marines arrive to burn down the Na'vi's home > > tree, Jake switches sides. With the help of a few human renegades, he > > maintains a link with his avatar body in order to lead the Na'vi against > the > > human invaders. Not only has he been assimilated into the native people's > > culture, but he has become their leader. > > > > > http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2009/12/danceswolveswhiteguilt.jpg > > This is a classic scenario you've seen in non-scifi epics from Dances > With > > Wolves to The Last Samurai, where a white guy manages to get himself > > accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes > its > > most awesome member. But it's also, as I indicated earlier, very similar > in > > some ways to District 9. In that film, our (anti)hero Wikus is trying to > > relocate a shantytown of aliens to a region far outside Johannesburg. > When > > he's accidentally squirted with fluid from an alien technology, he begins > > turning into one of the aliens against his will. Deformed and cast out of > > human society, Wikus reluctantly helps one of the aliens to launch their > > stalled ship and seek help from their home planet. > > > > If we think of Avatar and its ilk as white fantasies about race, what > kinds > > of patterns do we see emerging in these fantasies? > > > > In both Avatar and District 9, humans are the cause of alien oppression > and > > distress. Then, a white man who was one of the oppressors switches sides > at > > the last minute, assimilating into the alien culture and becoming its > > savior. This is also the basic story of Dune, where a member of the white > > royalty flees his posh palace on the planet Dune to become leader of the > > worm-riding native Fremen (the worm-riding rite of passage has an analog > in > > Avatar, where Jake proves his manhood by riding a giant bird). An > > interesting tweak on this story can be seen in 1980s flick Enemy Mine, > where > > a white man (Dennis Quaid) and the alien he's been battling (Louis > Gossett > > Jr.) are stranded on a hostile planet together for years. Eventually they > > become best friends, and when the alien dies, the human raises the > alien's > > child as his own. When humans arrive on the planet and try to enslave the > > alien child, he lays down his life to rescue it. His loyalties to an > alien > > have become stronger than to his own species. > > > > 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. > > > > < > http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2009/12/district-9-whiteguilt.jpg> > > > > http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2009/12/500x_district-9-whiteguilt.j > > pg > > > > 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 > > < > http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/07/31/race_the_final_frontier/ > > > > 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." > > > > Sure, Avatar goes a little bit beyond the basic colonizing story. We are > > told in no uncertain terms that it's wrong to colonize the lands of > native > > people. Our hero chooses to join the Na'vi rather than abide the racist > > culture of his own people. But it is nevertheless a story that revisits > the > > same old tropes of colonization. Whites still get to be leaders of the > > natives - just in a kinder, gentler way than they would have in an old > Flash > > Gordon flick or in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars novels. > > > > When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race > in a > > new way? > > > > First, we'll need to stop thinking that white people are the most > > "relatable" characters in stories. As one > > <http://remingtons.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/avatar-totally-racist-dude/> > > > blogger put it: > > > > By the end of the film you're left wondering why the film needed the Jake > > Sully character at all. The film could have done just as well by focusing > on > > an actual Na'vi native who comes into contact with crazy humans who have > no > > respect for the environment. I can just see the explanation: "Well, we > need > > someone (an avatar) for the audience to connect with. A normal guy will > work > > better than these tall blue people." However, this is the type of > thinking > > that molds all leads as white male characters (blank slates for the > audience > > to project themselves upon) unless your name is Will Smith. > > > > But more than that, whites need to rethink their fantasies about race. > > > > Whites need to stop remaking the white guilt story, which is a sneaky way > of > > turning every story about people of color into a story about being white. > > Speaking as a white person, I don't need to hear more about my own racial > > experience. I'd like to watch some movies about people of color (ahem, > > aliens), from the perspective of that group, without injecting a random > > white (erm, human) character to explain everything to me. Science fiction > is > > exciting because it promises to show the world and the universe from > > perspectives radically unlike what we've seen before. But until white > people > > stop making movies like Avatar, I fear that I'm doomed to see the same > old > > story again and again. > > > > <http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2009/12/dunewhiteguilt.jpg> > > > http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2009/12/500x_dunewhiteguilt.jpg > > > > Dune image via leywad > > <http://leywad.deviantart.com/art/Dune-Ride-the-sandworm-119340616> . > > > > > -- Get Social and Follow Me: Join me on Facebook http://facebook.com/mikestreet Follow me on Twitter Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/streetforce1 Join the Harlem NY Community http://www.facebook.com/harlemny and at http://HarlemSocial.com
