These are my responses to various articles and comments on this subject.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2010/01/is_blue_the_new_black_why_some.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122203276.html
The majority of the ‘whites’ are the bad guys who ultimately take an inglorious beating with the survivors leaving in chains… the natives win! Then there is a healthy dose of inter-species love and the main man even chooses to give up his white, human form for one of the natives.
I think he gave up his CRIPPLED, human form for a SUPER HUMAN form and a community who lived a lifestyle that he liked better than his old one and lived on planet infinitely cleaner than his home planet.
So what if he was “white”. What if he was latino and the helicopter pilot was white? Would it make a huge difference? What if the tall skinny guy was Japanese. What difference would it really make?
I might be wrong (was half asleep watching the movie. eggnog) but there didn’t seem to be many black people in the military. And if this was a multi-national corporation running the show, why weren’t there more people of more nationalities?
Some of the other comments seem upset that the natives had to rely on a “white” outsider to save their butts. Of course they needed an outsiders help. Up to this point they had no idea the earthlings would consider attacking them for no apparent reason. They had no idea just how big and how powerful their weapons and vehicles were. They know nothing about human technology and therefore would never have thought to launch a surprise attack in the floating mountains because they would not know the magnetic field would give them an advantage. Without the help of a human (no matter the color) they would not have had a chance.
I see nothing racist about the movie.
Annalee Newitz, … io9, criticized “Avatar” for depicting yet another white man as a hero in the liberation struggles of oppressed people of color.
They never saw him as a white “Man” until near the end of the movie. And they weren’t “human” PEOPLE. They were aliens. For all we know the Navi consider the pattern of white spots on their skin to be the deciding factors of “race”.
“”"a white guy manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes its most awesome member.”"
Again, they never saw him as “white” or even “human” until the end. They probably wouldn’t even comprehend the “white guy” “black guy” foolishness and would tell us we’re morons for making such a big deal out of it.
“”A “race traitor” to his fellow humans, Sully leads the cat people in thwarting the military invasion. “”
Considering the Na’vi aren’t of the human species, it would be most accurate to call him a Species Traitor.
“”You can tell some cat people are Native Americans, for instance, because, as Newitz describes them, they “wear feathers in their hair, worship nature gods, paint their faces for war, use bows and arrows, and live in tribes.” “”
If I recall there are people from the southern tip of africa to the northern tip of Alaska who do one or all of the above. Native North American’s do not have a monopoly on of those things.
“”Newitz concluded: “Speaking as a white person . . . I’d like to watch some movies about people of color . . . from the perspective of that group, without injecting a random white . . . character to explain everything to me.” “”
Well, speaking as a person who lives in an apartment and drives a car on paved roads… when I watch documentaries about people <strike>of color</strike> from a very different society I find it helps to have someone from an english speaking culture to explain the important parts to me. It doesn’t matter what color they are. They could even just do a voice over. I just don’t need to see their skin.
“”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.”"
Did this guy miss the end of the Avatar movie and most of the District 9 movie?
Jake did not cease to be white. He ceased to be Human! He ceased to be an earthling.
Wikus spent the whole move helping the alien so the alien could turn him back into a human. From the first signs of transformation he was desperate to regain his pure human form.
At the end of Avatar Jake willingly chose to permanently leave his human body. No going back. Why go back to being a parapalegeic on a toxic planet earth when you could be a big blue ninja and have sex with cat-woman? Even if he didn’t fall in love with the Na’vi woman he still would have stayed.
There wasn’t anythng particularly “white” about Jake. His character could have been black, greek, gypsy or Japanese and it would have had ZERO effect on the story. If Jake was played by Bruce Lee would you say he ceased to be Chinese? Ceased to be a U.S. Citizen? Ceased to be light-skinned?
“”Seegz wrote: Did anyone notice that during Sergent Scarface’s “we gotta flush out them blue savages” pep-rally, it was a person of color who verbally rooted in appreciation of it?”"
That’s because that person of color was HUMAN and he saw the Na’vi as ALIENS. Not as “other” <i>people</i>(humans) of color.
Even in the U.S. and caribbean there are people of one color(african american, bahamian, jamaican, chinese etc) who hate people of another color(mexican, hatian, dominican, japanese etc)
“”Bcbgrl33 wrote: I also just can’t believe that not only did Sully become a magical negro, the Deus Ex Machina was brought on by Mother “Earth” listening to HIS prayers even though Ny’teri said she didn’t take sides. Well I guess she never took sides if you weren’t a magical white man in “blue face” Ugh Thanks for this post”"
Jake told the tree to look into Sigourney Weavers memories and what it saw there about humanity’s greed, lack of respect for life, and overwhelming atomic firepower would make it realize it had no chance for survival unless it helped the Na’vi.
I swear, people need to actually PAY ATTENTION to the dialogue and stop being distracted by the special effects.
