Avatar- Racism Reaction Paper

Dylan Brady

Mrs. Morrell

EnglishIII

9/12/12

                                                            Racism in Avatar

            In the movie “Avatar”, racism is show everywhere according to a discussion on the Washington post about the signs seen by viewers who were rather disturbed about this movies point of view about Native American people and the white people.“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."(Courtland Milloy 1)  The point of view discusses the extermination of a native tribe for the sake of money and power on the white man’s planet. This is the main topic that upset viewers, and things such as images closely related to Native Americans, and showing the white man as the evil that destroys all life that is peaceful around them. These themes are good examples of how most critics would be upset with the movie “Avatar”

            The first theme to discuss would be the theme of racial differences in “Avatar”. Most points view of Native Americans were people who were kept as peaceful and one with the earth and nature, which is exactly the same in this movie.  The white man is the antagonist who comes and ruins the land of the Native Americans, and is known for abusing the Native Americans. Jake Sully, a marine in the USMC is assigned to become part of the Avatar and make them move from their current location to other so the humans can mine under their location to get rich, but the avatar don’t want to move at all, and refuse to. "Sully has the power to choose between being a dominating Sky Person or a Na'vi victim, which in the end yields greater power -- the audience's empathy. Only white men are privileged enough to have such choices." (Courtland Milloy 1).  These points of views are some that people saw about the white men going up against the Avatar.

            “The next point of view I would want to make would be the proving evidence of naitive American tribe members in the movie. One such post would be on their clothing and hair styles. 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."

In addition to Native Americans, I saw some cat people as black people in disguise. This racial effect is cleverly accomplished by using certain speech patterns and body language. One cat man spoke with a West Indian accent, for instance.” (Courtland Milloy 1).

             This quote shows the evidence of mankind vs the native American tribe, as the director was trying to portray the Native Americans as a more alien form, but he did get his inspiration overall from these people.

            Overall, the evidence of a Native American relation going up against the feared white man is very standard for these types of movie genres. In my opinion, the reason they do this is to give you that point of view from the Native’s side, not to be raciest. These points and quotes do though, prove that the movie “Avatar” could be viewed as racist.