Avatar: Most Racist Movie of All Time
April 27, 2010 by Dr. Ibram H. Rogers
Na'vi purposefully depicted with braids (Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
After watching Avatar for the first time this past weekend on DVD, I must say that it is the most racist Hollywood movie of all time.
This is not an over-reaction. This is not an over-statement. This is not my passion speaking. The movie that is billing itself as the best of all-time is in fact the best—in terms of racism. Birth of a Nation has nothing on Avatar.
Avatar, like The Blind Side, is a White Savior Flick. And of all of the racist plots that have long dominated Hollywood films, the most racist and treacherous plot is undoubtedly the White Savior Flick. There are two glaring reasons for this. First, these movies do not just echo racism’s central ideological position—that Whites are superior—but it takes another paternalistic step to intimate that since Whites are superior, non-Whites are dependent on Whites for their livelihood. Second, since many of these White Savior Flicks are either based on true stories and/or the White Saviors are depicted as the good guys, the racism goes down pleasantly and easy in our consciousness.
In other words, the best drugs are those that provide a powerful high and are easy to consume. In comparison, to a repulsive film like Birth of a Nation in which the racism is like a shot of heroine, White Savior flicks go down painless, like pills of ecstasy. Since it goes down easy and people walk away happy, more people are willing to watch it, more people are unwilling to challenge and repel the racism.
So if the White Savior Flick is the most racist plot saturating Hollywood films, then Avatar is by far the worst of all the White Savior Flicks. Think about the plot of Avatar in racial terms. A white male is the central character. In comparison to his brother with a Ph.D., he is an outcast of White society. He is the worst of White society. He is at the bottom of the hierarchy in White society and his inability to walk symbolizes this. Do not be fooled about his disability. You must see it in figurative terms as a fundamental part of his character. He is disabled not just physically in White society, but generally. Said differently, he is “disabled Whiteness.”
This “disabled Whiteness” is sent to another planet called “Pandora,” which early in the movie is described as worse than “hell.” Who lives in this hell? The Na’vi reside there, an indigenous species called “natives” by the Whites. Who have been called “natives” by Whites in history? Native Americans, Africans, and Asians when Whites were colonizing those areas to secure natural resources worth tons of money, just as the Whites were colonizing Pandora to secure a valuable resource. Thus earlier on, the connection between the Na’vi and Native Americans and Africans are made. To add to that connection, the Na’vi are configured as these physically superior beings, just as African people have been conceived of in European racist thought. This physical superiority (Blacks are better athletes, dancers, and lovers) is in fact an inferiority though since it demonstrates that Black people are closer in the being chain to animals since animals are considered the most superior physical beings on Earth. In addition, central principles in Native American and African culture are attached to the Na’vi, such as the traditional African religious concept that all things exude a spiritual force and the Native American reciprocal relationship with nature.
In sum, the Na’vi are called what colonized non-Whites have been called, they are visually depicted with locs and braids as these physically imposing beings (as Whites have conceived of Africans for centuries), and they even imbrued them with elements of African and Native American culture.
Now, the central character, which again symbolizes “disabled Whiteness” is charged with learning the ways of the Na’vi. If Na’vi culture is conceptualized on the same level as White culture, then one would think that if someone is an outcast and failure in one, he would be an outcast and failure in the other, unless they provide some character trait that explains how he could lose in one and win in the other. But there was no explanatory character trait. The only primary characteristics we knew about this guy before he tried to learn Na’vi culture was that he was White, disabled, and a soldier.
So “disabled Whiteness” begins to learn the ways of the Na’vi. “Disabled Whiteness” learns the culture of the Na’vi quickly, becoming one of the most “abled” of the group. For a time, there is this constant demonstration and switch of “disabled Whiteness” or “low-quality Whiteness” becoming “high-quality Na’vi.” The racist contrast and message is mind-blowing. At the same time, the main character tries to teach the Na’vi the ways of the White man, but of course that is difficult for them to learn (aside from English). In other words, it is easy for Whites to learn non-White culture, but difficult for non-Whites to learn White culture. That positions White culture, once again, as superior.
Eventually, he mates with the daughter of the chief, who of course wants a piece of superior Whiteness. Later, he “conquers” the most vicious animal on Pandora, and when he lands and approaches the people, many are astonished and begin bowing to the power of Whiteness as if he is a God. The movie ends with “disabled Whiteness” managing to compel the God of the Na’vi to do something that God had never done before. He becomes the spiritual leader too, as the White savior saves the Na’vi from annihilation (A side note: Another racist ideas comes to the fore hear that Whites can only be defeated by the super-natural—non-White people can not defeat Whites with their intelligence without the help of their Gods). In the end, “low-quality Whiteness” becomes the “highest-quality Na’vi” on the planet. The incredible and audacious performance of White superiority in this film has no equal in Hollywood history.
Let’s think about this racist performance and message for a second. Since it is the middle of the NBA playoffs, I want to use a basketball analogy. There are two basketball teams: the Blacks and the Whites. On the Whites, there is a guy who is considered the worst player on the team. So he leaves the Whites and decides to join the Blacks. If he rapidly becomes the best player on the Blacks, then what does that say about Whites? What does that say about the Blacks? That the White team is so far superior than the Black team that the worst White player will become the best player on the Black team—or to put it in racial terms, as a college friend once told me, the worst White person in the world still thinks he or she is better than the best Black person in the world.
That situation, which is the basis of the plot in Avatar, is the pinnacle—it is the most tyrannical idea in the ideology of racism. It says that not only is the White race superior to all the other races. But the worst White person is far superior to the best people of all the other races. The trash of White society is the treasure of Black society. Only in a thoroughly racist country is the plot of Avatar even believable.
Avatar is the most racist movie of all-time.
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