Replaying racism

I recently was drawn (backwards, kicking & screaming) into a debate about the movie "Avatar." My response to the film when it came out is here. It has been a few months (ok, several) and this year has been incredibly busy to boot, that I found myself struggling to recall the specific prompts that had made me respond the way I did, and why I consider the film racist. I was also holding back my tongue while speaking to members of my soon-to-be husband's extended family, not wanting to fight with them. My interlocutor told me he didn't see why the movie was racist, and that he left the film with a message of peace and better understanding between peoples.

The next day while watching tv I saw "Scandalize My Name," a film about the ways that McCarthyism wrought havoc on the black community and was often used as a justification for not supporting civil rights for all. Because communism supported rights for all, many civil rights advocates were dismissed as communists. One of the commentators said, "Racism is most dangerous when it is invisible."



That was it. That was exactly what I had been groping for in my argument over "Avatar." The film cloaks its racism so insidiously, allowing the "natives" to win but portraying them in degrading ways, always nature lovers, without science or technology, wearing simple clothing associated with barbarism or caveman style (loincloths, anyone?) and lacking the means to function in the modern world. They inevitably are ruled or dominated by someone from a more "sophisticated" world, a white militarized capitalist world, who infiltrates their community, learns their ways, and then leads them to victory (which they could not achieve on their own). Most insultingly, at the end of the film, the main character ATTAINS indigeneity, rendering it a commodity that can be won by the white man. The "secret ways", the indigenous identity, can be explored, discovered, and its secrets opened to a person who can become indigenous. All of these tired tropes and stereotypes abound in "Avatar," but they are carefully hidden and concealed so most walk out of the theater without realizing that yes, yet again, native peoples are being represented as backwards, timeless, nature lovers, unmodern, etc...and these tropes internalized by new, younger audiences who will then regurgitate them. This is unacceptable. Racism is dangerous, but fatal and insidious when it is invisible. That is truly frightening. We as audiences cannot be afraid to peal back the layers of the image to unfold the meaning within, and speak out against it.


I find it troubling that children and adults alike are watching this film and internalizing these stereotypes. Writing more blog posts is unlikely to change the world...but I must use my voice however I can to speak out against this continued exploitation and representation.

On Indigeneity and Avatar

E and I tried out Taro Sushi in Brooklyn yesterday; it was absolutely delicious and affordable. Despite being in an awkward location, Taro is a sweet little restaurant with kind staff. Highly recommend.

Later, we went to see the much-discussed film Avatar. The film portrays a disabled ex-Marine who takes over his dead twin's job as a researcher on a new planet. The new planet is named Pandora, with obvious reference to Pandora's mythical box. Jake, the central character, is able to mentally enter the body of a Pandoran 'avatar.' In his host body, Jake lacks the use of his legs, but in his Avatar form, he regains full use of his body. Jake takes to his Avatar form, and as required in his job, attempts to gain the trust of the Pandorans. The company sponsoring the giant science experiment and Jake's presence on Pandora is trying to get the Pandorans to move from their 'Hometree' so it can exploit the natural resources ('unobtainium') under the tree.

Before we go any deeper, this is a story that has played out all over the world. The rich, developed, scientifically advanced colonizer (in this story, the force is capitalism rather than nationalism) comes to take over the land and resources of the poor indigenous population who typically don't wear enough clothes, worship nature or something else that isn't recognized as appropriately religious, and in this case, literally live in trees.

Throughout the film, the company sends its employees out to obtain 'unobtainium' and they do so by destroying the lives and homes of the indigenous population. The employees wear military gear, further reinforcing tropes about colonialism and imperialism, as they appear more like an army or military than a private company. Repeatedly they refer to the native population as 'indigenous,' 'blue monkeys,' 'Aboriginals,' 'natives,' etc. Meanwhile the Pandorans are portrayed wearing loincloths, African-style beaded tops, Native American-like feathered regalia, and other easy targets of native, colonized populations. They worship Eywa (mother nature) and they believe in the networks of life that unite their planet. They do not have advanced technology, but wear wooden headgear, use bows & arrows, and don't appear to wear shoes. The filmmakers do not discriminate towards any one native group but construct a generalizing gloss mosaic of many native populations.

Our sympathetic hero begins to help the natives and become one of them instead of working with his company. While some Pandorans refuse to accept him, he learns their language, undergoes their rites of passage, and learns their 'ways.' Eventually they accept him as one of their own, and in the end (spoiler alert) he permanently remains in his Avatar form instead of his human form. This begs the interesting question of 'going native,' a la Kurtz from Conrad's insufferable "Heart of Darkness." Can one ever really assume a native identity, if one is not native? What IS such an identity? With the plurality of choices, individuals, and situations that exist within a single culture, is it truly possible for there to be one such cultural identity? What does it mean to be indigenous - is it a birthright or a choice, a political-social decision?

There are definitely some problems with this film, most notably its representation of indigenous populations (although Disney kindly allows the treehugging Pandorans to win in the end). It is disturbing to see the simplifying and grossly generalizing tropes of indigenous populations repeated and promoted - especially in a film so widely popular and viewed among today's youth.