Examining Race-Related Aspects of James Cameron’s Avatar

Examining The Race-Related Aspects Of avatar While discernable that many who saw the germinate Avatar were more than satisfied with it visually, I found it fire that I heard little about the p surge or characters. After all, as a writer, these elements, to me, be what chip in or break the outcome. After going to see the critically acclaimed film, I was left with a shrill feeling of injustice regarding the films track d decl be issues. The problem I had with the film is the c one timept of a washcloth male entering into a world of ethnic people (in this case, aliens), with the sole intent of apply them for his own personal gain.Not only has this all too familiar story been procedured again and again, only when also, the outcome is always the same. While I do non believe that the film endorses racism, I do believe that certain racial ideologies play a major role in the film. Whilst some may argue against that geological period, by simply breaking dump the story, it is simple to make the connections. Regard slight of if it was intentional or not, in that location ar some obvious racial undert bingles in Avatar, and they should not be ignored no matter how impressive the graphics are.In the circumstantial clip I have chosen to analyze, Jake, the human who joins the Navi to fight against his own kind, has returned to Pandora after being labeled a traitor and losing the trust of the Navi. To gain it back, he immediately tames a Toruk, a red dragon who the natives are in truth alarming of. The dragon had neer been tamed by anyone from the Navi clan. The ability and heroism just spewing from Jake makes it have the appearance _or_ semblance as though he is the only one with the answers that the Navi guide to save Pandora. The picture show transitions to the clan praying to the Hometree, despite their knowledge of the tree having never taken sides.In the midst of all of this, Jake comes flying quite a little on the red dragon, the sun beaming b ehind him, illuminating his path. Then comes the very demeaning imaging of Jake dismounting the dragon in front of the Navi, while they practically bow to and worship him as if to say, You are superior to us, after all Jake certainly assumes as much, because he soon starts yelling about how this is our land, and they need to do what he says to save it. While watching the film, I first began wee-weeing a lot of parallels to class discussions of how Columbus and the Spaniards conquered America. In Avatar, human corporation is mining a valuable mineral on Pandora, an Earth- want moon that is inhabited by the Navi, an alien hie. In the late 1400s, despite also having find an wide-cut race of people, the Spanish found gold in America and began mining.Once it became difficult for them, they enforced slavery upon the natives of the land, and mercilessly killed them upon resistance. In the article Sex And Conquest Domination And Desire On Ethnosexual Frontiers, Joane Nagel reminds us of the intercourse powerlessness of many native women, and reports that sexual exchanges were often coerced, involving rape, forced prostitution, and slavery. In Avatar, the human scientists uncover that underneath Hometree, the Navi clans dwelling, lies the richest deposits of the mineral that they value, and by the end of the film, are ready to annihilate it and its inhabitants. This, to me, is an example of racism in how the humans were willing to treat the Navi (kill them) in read to acquire more gold. While elements are diverse, Columbus conquest of America strays not so far from the plot that drives Avatar a civilized race relentlessly compromises what they deem to be an rude race.It can even relate to how American factories are built in foreign countries to avoid specific labor laws. As Americans, how can we justify that the people working in foreign countries assembling our iPhones are equal to us? If so, wouldnt we demand that they deserve equal pay? The ideology of t he self- propereous, superior race and their ultimate disregard for all others is, sadly, an overused theme present in this film and our audiences should be seeing less of it.Despite all humans being expelled from Pandora in the end, a uncontaminating male, in this case, Jake, Avatars protagonist, gets to be the boss in the end. In exchange, he gives up his body, his culture, and every human aspect about him. The one thing he fails to let go of is his superiority. With the film ending like this, and not allowing one of the reliable Navi to ultimately prevail, a subconscious message is being delivered. Just like in Dances With Wolves, a clean-living male goes native and soon ends up as the great leader.In just triple months of immersion in their culture, Jake learns overflowing about the Navi (their folkways, their animal-taming skills, and even the secret to their ultimate test of warrior prowess, something no other Navi has mastered in five generations) to become their leader in their struggle against genocide by his own former allies. Hometree even answers a prayer of Jakes, and she had never answered prayers of the natives, her own people, even once before thusly. An inte stick arounding contrast is set up to disguise the fact that Jakes character is representative of racism.On one side, there are the power-hungry, militaristic humans who show no moral restraint against the Navi. Their opposition is Jake and the rest of the humans who want peace with the natives. While the first group is presented as obviously racist, most would draw the conclusion that the second group, the protagonists, must not be. While the characters themselves are not racist, the age-old duster messiah fable is. This story has played out in American race politics several times. Progressive, wide blank males were responsible for Indian removal and schooling replacing Indian genocide, and segregation replacing slavery.Each time, it seems that supporters of innovative policie s just have to say, Look, Im progressive. Im not like those old-fashioned racists, and then they simply cannot be deemed as racist. This is the trend in our society that the outcome of Avatar is glorifying. Forms of racial achievement have been changed over time, but have never been ended altogether. To be fair to the humans of Avatar, the Navi and their entire planet ended up regarding the humans as a disease with which there can be no peaceful existence.Their solution is, simply, the expulsion of humanity from the planet, or in Jakes case, culture transfusion. Forced assimilation with the native culture in Avatar is almost too familiar to how their still exists an ideology in America that foreign residents must assimilate to the etiolated culture. Forgotten is that every white citizen of America is descendant of some foreign culture. America should be a melting pot for all cultures, and if James Cameron, the film director, manufacturing business and writer of Avatar, had trul y agreed, perhaps the outcome of the film would be different.So did James Cameron write and direct this because he is a racist white male? No. But does James Cameron even acknowledge that his film carries racist undertones? No. The casting for the film had his seal of approval, so why were actors of color used to lay out the Navi people? The Navi may be tall, blue aliens, but they seem to resemble the noble savages in older Hollywood movies theyre played by actors of color, they live a primitive lifestyle in harmony with nature, they sport tattoos and dreadlocks and exotic jewelry, and they have courage and athleticism but not necessarily reasonableness or ambition.Most importantly, why does white Australian Sam Worthington star as the cultural infiltrator? Cameron has more than once stated that Avatar is meant to encourage people to respect each others cultures and differences, and while that may be the overt meaning, he fails to touch on the issue of racial superiority. Again, C ameron did not sit down and consciously make a decision to write a racist film. However, he did indirectly use the film to express his white liberal understanding of anti-racism. Really, his sop ups are just a kindler, gentler, more sponsor racism.If not, perhaps the Navi would have saved Jake instead of being in fitting of saving themselves. Avatar doesnt ask the moral question of Should the natives be conquered? It asks, How should the natives be conquered? Had the film been written and directed by a person of color instead, there may have been an opportunity to avoid this. Columbia College professor Kristin Pichaskes excerpt, Historical And Political Framework Race, Colonialism And African Cinema discusses how most filmmakers are Western white males who control the portrayal of Africans, or minorities, in cinema.In addition to holding the purse strings, Western interests controlled the production infrastructure. As recently as 1993, Diawara would write that Africa lacks fil m-processing laboratories, sound-dubbing and synchronizing studios, and editing facilities, a fact which significantly limits an African directors ability to complete a film on his own terms, in his own clownish and within a reasonable span of time (1993 vii).While this is not universally true at this point (the facilities he describes now being available in South Africa and also rendered somewhat obsolete by the development of high-definition video), it is certainly true that most of Africa suffers from a dearth of film infrastructure and that this creates yet some other form of dependence on the West. Having to rely on the West for the skills that they cannot afford, the absence of African directors involved in the depiction of their culture is blatantly apparent.Perhaps James Cameron was not the right person to direct Avatar, as he cannot truly understand the racial ideology that his film is perpetuating. However, if an African director were given the opportunity, a white Weste rn moneylender who demands that he cater the story to white audiences will undoubtedly be musical accompaniment him. Present day racist ideologies are best understood when comparing them to Magic Eye images unique images concealing a seemingly hidden, 3-D picture.While some people see the 3-D image right away, others have to look for a while before they can find it. Some people never do find it. However, once you know that the 3-D image is there, you end up wondering how you didnt see it in the first place. The racism depicted in this film is a lot like a Magic Eye image. It is a fantasy story about race told from a white mans perspective, for white people. I believe this to be true after simply flavour at the history of Camerons films Titanic, Aliens, and The Terminator all contained predominantly white casts.Had he intended his films to be seen by a racially diverse audience, Im sure he would have had enough common sense to diversify his cast of characters. Avatar is also at th e end of a very long history of similar films. Avatars storyline has been compared to that of Dances With Wolves and Pocahontas. In all three films, white male characters realize they are unhappy with the treatment of the others, but go beyond assimilating and skim off to leading the people who they so recently oppressed.Since there have been so many films spanning all genres sex act the same story, when will the white directors begin to use the issue of race in a different light? African-American scholar Donald Bogle, who literally wrote the book on how black people have been visualized throughout Hollywood history (Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies amp Bucks An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films) says that while not overtly racist, it is a movie that hasnt yet freed itself of old Hollywood traditions, old formulas. If I were to have written a film like Avatar, I would have made the Navi completely capable of saving themselves by reversing the power roles of Jake wit h the clan. It would mean straying from an age-old format, but also, challenging the racial insecurities of the white audience that the film was intended for. Would the film be as popular if the natives of Pandora did not possess traditional, savage-like qualities? The apposition of the film Avatar with historical events such as Columbus onquering America, and also, overused tales of the white protagonist bringing a race of savages to victory predates most steps towards civil rights equality. Filmmakers of minority races are far and few between, and are often funded by white Westerners when directing. With every film in Hollywood being produced by the white man, will our society ever see things from the point of view of a minority race? If no, then Hollywoods inability to realize that the decision to continue producing the same point of view is interfering with our societys ability to think outside of racial boundaries.