Is Avatar Racist & Sexist ?
According to http://www.boxofficemojo.com, Avatar has grossed over $1 billion dollars and has the potential to break James Cameron’s 1997 hit film Titanic. However, I have read articles in the UK newspaper the Telegraph and the Associated Press criticizing Avatar.
The consensus is, Avatar is racist because it is another white male saviour film. Will Heaven’s argument is, since the five lead blue alien characters in Avatar are all actors of colour the film is racist. Heaven believes Cameron chose the actors of colour specifically because he views people of colour as inferior to white folks.
Heaven says the Na’vi tribe’s clothing incorporates African and Native American cultural symbols.
Also, some people on the internet are arguing the film is racist because the protagonist Jake Sully sleeps with the Na’vi princess Neytiri .
The critics argue the white man isn’t just conquering the aliens he’s conquering women as well. Does Avatar promote misogyny the idea that a woman needs a man? We are in a feminist era, do women really need men anymore?
Some folks compare Avatar to Disney’s cartoon Pocahontas since the film skewed the facts about the native American genocide. The real Pocahontas, her life was more tragic than the Disney cartoon version. Pocahontas married a white man John Rolfe and moved to England.
After Pocahontas was baptized, she was given the English name Rebecca. In 1617, Pocahontas died at the tender age of twenty-one of small pox and pneumonia.
Another point to consider is, Avatar is just a silly popcorn science fiction movie and is frivolous entertainment.
According to Heaven, he argues that Avatar is similar to Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves” and Tom Cruise’s “The Last Samurai.” In both Costner and Cruise’s movies, the white male learns that white culture is racist and he save them from themselves.
I must confess, I am not a science fiction fan. My predilection is towards watching depressing romantic dramas, period pieces, documentaries, and romantic comedies.
Gayblackcanada 
I’m a man of color and I dont know if it’s racist or not but to be honest the movie isnt that great. They say it took him 14 years to make the movie I could have done it in 1 day. The movie has the typical “Hero” plot. The same as Rocky and other Hero movies. Basically, like all hero movies he trains and becomes better than the rest, gets the woman and save the infidels. If you want to see the movie just click on my name (you’ll only be disappointed) I rather watch The Lovely Bones again 🙂
I thought the movie was awful in terms of plot and dialogue. And the “race” issue was one that struck me during the film. It had nothing to do with blue people vs. white people. What bothered me was that the blue people were thinly veiled tribal members from movies we’ve all seen before featuring black or native tribes.
One of the things that struck me on the race front was that the lead actors in the tribe are black and the humans are white (Michelle Rodriguez is hispanic- noted). The combination of African-type tribe stereotypes, a tribe that is physical and spiritual, but not so much intellectual and the fact that the actors portraying the tribe’s leaders are black left me feeling uncomfortable indeed.
And I’m hardly a poster child for political correctness- just a person with eyes.
Liz your analysis of Avatar is correct. Yes, you are correct the entire Na’vi tribe in the movie are actors of colour. All the lead actor in Avatar except Michelle Rodriguez are white people.
I do understand where the argument arises from but come on…seriously. Why can’t a movie just be a movie…why must everything become a subject of racism.
My god…a white American soldier…how stereotypical is that!? If I was an Armed Forces man I would be terribly offended…how dare they! And the wheelchair…we should all be appalled that they would glorify a physical handicap the way they have. Maybe our thoughts would be better directed to those that get injured (and god forbid, lose their lives) in the theatre of war fighting for our freedom
It’s comments like these that make me hope that one day black people take over the world…maybe then I too can play the infamous race card.
I wish everbody could stop over-analyzing everything and trying to create racism out of nothing.
Don’t forget the fact that the aliens in the movie are blue and for good reason…because they are aliens.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. After all, it’s there to entertain us all…regardless of race.
I the tribe was suppose to be representative of African, native americans and other peoples that live closer to the land. I, for one, loved the movie. I though the message was a refutation of the rational, capitalistic society for people that are true to land and nature. Yes, that idea in itself is worn out, but if you have seen Cameron’s other films, he always has that theme of the central character going against some kind of convention.
It is a fairly typical story, and it may seem like it is the white soldier who “saves” the na’vi. But maybe it is the other way around. They give him a body with legs, and a culture and a way of thinking that radically changes him, and both metaphorically and literally give him new life. It is possible for the Na’vi to have saved the white soldier? I think so.
The movie had so many underlying messages, and I think it is not the typical movie about the aggressor, which in this case was capitalism and violence. It can be compared to Pocohontas, but this time the white didn’t win, and Pocohontas turns John Smith into an native.
PS Lovely Bones was an excellent book that should have never been made into a movie. Briony? Really??
I agree with LC. The movie had a lot of underlying messages. I thought the movie was about greed and lack of over-sight first. The head of the RDA Corporation felt he could do whatever he wanted. Earth was so far away that no one was monitoring him.
Another message was tied to the conflict between the Colonel and the scientists. The Colonel thought that a military solution would be fast and easy (Bush and Iraq?). The scientists and a couple of RDA security forces knew the Na’vi and disagreed with the military mission.
Sully at first helps the Colonel and gives him information that helps the RDA military mission. However, the Na’vi teach him and then accept him as a Na’vi. He decides he prefers the way of life of the Na’vi and must help preserve it.
Avatar is like Dances with Wolves in that the protagonist is taught and accepted by another culture and decides he prefers that culture. The audience in both movies cannot help but understand and agree with his decision.
Sully uses the ways of the Na’vi to help lead them against the RDA forces. He tames a Toruk, which unites the Na’vi, as it did in the past. Without Sully, the Na’vi perhaps would have conducted guerrilla warfare until they had a leader who could defeat the RDA forces. Sully’s presence gave us a quick Hollywood ending. 😉
I didn’t realize that the Na’vi were portrayed by actors of colour. Bottom line is that people who watch Dances With Wolves or Avatar get an appreciation for another culture. They also get anti-greed and pro-environmental messages.
If some people leave Avatar thinking that it is another white male saviour film, I respect their opinions. However, I think the vast majority leave the theatre thinking about the other messages, which are good messages.
I understand your arguments Chris Francis and Lc that Avatar is about a plethora of issues. However, I have to question James Cameron’s motives. I just wonder at the back of my mind why the white heterosexual male need was necessary? Why couldn’t the Na’vi save themselves? Is Cameron saying the Na’vi require white male guidance in order to succeed? I think the movie reinforces white heterosexual male dominance.
The selection of the actor who plays Sully says more about our society than the director. Cameron isn’t the only director who usually casts white heterosexual able-bodied males as their protagonist. Also, I don’t agree that the movie portrays the Na’vi as inferior.
White heterosexual able-bodied males are usually the protagonists of Hollywood movies, because those are the protagonists that most people are used to seeing and expect to see. Does that say something about our society? Sure it does.
Our society is not perfect when it comes to racism, sexism, homophobia, and recognizing the abilities of disabled people. We are getting better, but still have a long way to go.
The fact that the protagonist’s decision is critical to the outcome of the movie is a standard plot device. In mass appeal movies like this, the audience wants the protagonist to be the hero.
“Heaven believes Cameron chose the actors of colour specifically because he views people of colour as inferior to white folks”. That is a serious allegation. What do the actors say about this? How do they feel about their relationships with Cameron and how the Na’vi were portrayed?
If you gave movie-goers a questionnaire after the movie about how they viewed the Na’vi, I doubt that many of them would say inferior. Technologically inferior, I suppose yes, but superior in every other way.
When people of colour say that they don’t like how the Na’vi are portrayed, I respect that. I have less respect for conservative columnists who are trying to to deflect attention from the movie’s message about environmentalism, particularly given the current conservative fight against scientific evidence of global warming.
MY friend, you are an ambulance chaser and are a major part of whats wrong with this ever expanding baby sitter nation/society. its a movie (a great one at that), I don’t see why you can’t look at the pros of you really have all this time on your hand, meaning a man (forget colour) who sees the wrong doings in his own people and decides to side with the great good regardless of the consequences he may face. please find something more productive with your time then creating issues that don’t need to be aired. OR of you want to play your sad games, lets play…. how about all those “white” people going to help the people of Hati….. or how about the Underground railroad…. was that more real life “white Man” savior propaganda…. no, its people helping people regardless of the colour of the skin because it is the right thing to do!
You, my friend are the one being racist, because you took a perfectly good film and turned it into a negative concept, for what ever reason, you have nothing better to do with your life.
Chris Francis, is on the right track and maybe you Mr. Douglas need to go to those courses then send KKK or any other racist people to. It is unfortunate that people like yourself have to means to reach so many other naive people and further your mindless “woes-me” cause, good luck in the real world when reality hits you.
Hey,
I landed onto your blog after reading the feature on the star about how Avatar has racist connotations.
I’d like to debate you on this issue (me being against, with you being for).
The debate will be in the comment section of the provided website/link, should you decide to agree. I think all of these critics are just being TOO sensitive.
I sincerely look forward to hearing from you & will post your last comment as the beginning of our (potential) discussion/debate.
Peace,
– knowledge
btw, I’m a fellow York student.
I don’t agree with Will Heaven’s column and I question his motives. Heaven says “Avatar is artistic evidence of the ugly mindset which underlies so much of Left-wing thinking today: the belief that only the superior Western liberal is fit to lead the world into a better future.” When Bono, Geldof, and others raise money to fight AIDS or promote changes to trade, conservatives cannot argue against those goals. So, instead, they attack the messenger.
Are conservative columnists really concerned about the portrayal of the Na’vi? Or is that argument primarily a way of discrediting the movie and its environmental message?
Heaven also says the movie promotes “triumphant bestiality”. “Take, for example, the relationship between the ethnic Na’vi and the animals which inhabit Pandora. Every interaction between them involves an act of quasi-consummation.”
The movie is a fable where everything is presented clearly and forcefully. We talk about our connection to the Earth – on Pandora, you can see the physical connection. It was not presented as a sexual act. It was a way to clearly contrast the Na’vi connection their environment with the RDA staff (human) treatment of it.
Heaven is partly repackaging the Vatican’s objections to the movie.
The New York Times has a column that disagrees with Avatar’s message, but in a less offensive way. It is “The Messiah Complex” by David Brooks.
“I must confess, I am not a science fiction fan.” OMG! Why do say things that will hurt me lol.