Some see racist theme in alien adventure 'Avatar'

[Flatty]

"Since the film opened to widespread critical acclaim three weeks ago, (http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/some-see-racist-theme-alien-adventure-avatar-ap) hundreds of blog posts, newspaper articles, tweets and YouTube videos have said things such as the film is "a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people" and that it reinforces "the white Messiah fable."

...

"It's really upsetting in many ways," said Lee, who is black with Jamaican and Chinese ancestry. "It would be nice if we could save ourselves."

...

"When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race in a new way?" wrote Newitz, who is white."

[rainy]

Blah blah blah. There will always be someone who sees something in something that upsets someone in some way.

[Nitty]

Genau mister Regnerisch :D

[senorblinky]

I second that, Rainy.

People can find whatever they want to look for, the converse is also true, but better said in afrikaans, "Daar is niemand so blind soos die man wat nie wil sien nie (translated: no one is as blind as the man who does not want to see). I once illustrated the principle to my grandmother by finding the devil in a Trustbank cheque.

People actively seek correlations between the fictional world of movies and constructs they've made to interpret reality (which is the absolute right thing to do and its the reason why most cry when it's sad or cheer when they're happy), now they've found a cross-section, where two points intersect - a point in the movie (A) matches a self-made construct (B), but that does not necessarily mean A equals B, it's just a coincidence. Sometimes it's deliberately engineered into the story to give the cinephiles a kick and to convey deeper meaning, but when people come with "That's racist because of this, and that's blasphemous because of that" then i am not really interested in their backward thinking or opinions, because those are the easiest things to spot, and as i mentioned before, you can find it in anything, if you look for it.

Then again, it takes all sorts.

[Vortex]

I'm fed up with having WHITE writing paper all the time, and pens that write in only black or colored!

And what is with wedding dresses being white? Who says a colored or black wedding dress isn't just as good an indication of purity? What made white so perfect?

Who needs bleach anyways? Why does my laundry have to be whiter than white? I demand brown!

:tard:

sigh

[Thumponius]

Brown streaks? Eeeuw.

This whole racism thing is purely a pigment of everyones' imagination. Get a grip.

[Nitty]

Ag no Thumps :rofl:

[SintaxErr]

Yet they say nothing about District 9... :hmmm:

[Arbythep00nage]

you could read so many things into the movies its just silly. I watched it again on Monday and I think their racist claims are unfounded, it makes the natives out to be pure and the white people to be greedy and destructive.

[Noodle]

It's not only white people though, it's humans against "savages".
Guess they never figured out the humans were the bad guys??

[GeroW4lll]

I once illustrated the principle to my grandmother by finding the devil in a Trustbank cheque.

...and as i mentioned before, you can find it in anything, if you look for it.

I get the find it anywhere thing Blinky, but Trustbank really was that evil though.

[Flatty]

I wanted to see what you all had to say before I commented. Blinky, I am impressed - you make me feel inadequate.

I was watching Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle just three nights ago. Right from the first scene, where the Dean interviews Kumar - he mentions the fact that Kumar is an African. A play on white conceptions about race and people of colour all being the same. Throughout the whole movie there is a gang of white hooligans victimizing people of colour. The white police force is blatantly racist. At the end of the movie, Harold triumphs over his white aggressors, telling them to do their own dirty work.

The whole theme of that movie is about people of colour - black, asian, and indian - standing up against the tyranny of white racism. The theme is blatantly bandied around throughout the whole movie. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_&_Kumar_Go_to_White_Castle)

The central theme is not even mentioned in the Wiki link I posted above. Oh, because it portrays white-on-colour-racism and the "coloureds" are the victors we must just accept that it has a message. It's not even subtle. The theme is in your face!

Van Wilder 2 sees the same Indian actor walking off with the white girlfriend of his white aggressors.

Was there an outcry about that movie, or are we supposed to accept the underlying message that white people are no longer cool, and that people of colour will walk off with our women because of it?

Getting to Avatar: from what I understand we have an alien race. Not black, not Chinese, not Indian - ALIEN! Where do these people get off?

You know what I think, honestly? I think Chinese, Indian & Black people who feel the need to continue harping on about racist undertones, even after all the advances made to stifle racism in the last century, have inferiority complexes. Maybe they feel that their eyes are too slanty, or that they smell like a walking curry pot, or that their noses are too flat? I don't know. It's a massive chip. Maybe they feel that no amount of bling, or geekery, or 22" tyres will ever give them the competitive edge in the looks stakes?

Chinese people are renowned for their intelligence, Indians for their business sense, and black people for their appendages. We are different, clearly so. That is the wonder of living in this beautiful world. The world as a whole has spent the better part of the last century trying to bring about racial equality to right the wrongs of the past. Is it not enough that white people sit by quietly while their "coloured" friends make fun of them in movies, walk off with their women, and even rule the most powerful nation in the world? Do we have to endure narrow-minded insights into what is evidently one of the most beautiful creations of all time?

Racism is here to stay. We ARE different. You like rice, you like curry, you like chicken, you like noodles, I like steak. So what? Some people don't cross the racial borders when it comes to sex, some do. It's a free world. Do what the eff you want to do and get over your chip, you numbnut!

[senorblinky]

Some people are racist, some aren't.
Some are extremely naive, and some are realistic.
Some people share their own values (and morals) with others, but the values of others may differ. That's when someone illustrates the values of a racist or a bigot, when he sees his values (and IRONICALLY enough, his MORALS) as superior to the values of others. When you start making those distinctions, there is a little label you can stick on your own forehead.

On this website, we all share a set of values, but personalities vary vastly and not all the values are the same, but that is not the issue, since the most important values intersect, which is why the community works.

Take a look at your friends, both here and out there - those value sets are extremely close to one another, and THAT'S what makes the relationship work, not because this one is funny or that one is pretty or he is popular or she puts out often, no. You are friends with those people because you share value sets. That's why red necks stick together, same value sets. That's how the KKK was formed, same value sets.

My own problem is with the folks that honestly believe there is only one set of values, and that is their own. That is nonsense. Those folks see the rest as the problem, when they are in fact the only problem. I have an eclectic collection of friends, some differ from each other like night differs from day, some are jewish, some are atheists, some are indian, one is black, several are geeky, some are gay, some are chauvinists, some are bi-polar (annoyingly so), some are very young, some are really old, some are very naive, and some think they know everything, and some of them are GINGERS!
These are my friends, and i love them. Purely because we have the same views on the important stuff, and that will ensure that we'll always be able to sit next to the fire together.

The world is a big place, there are many different colours, creeds, beliefs and other extraordinary things out there. No one is superior to anyone else. And to bring it all back to the Avatar discussion - it's just so easy to find fault with others, it's so simple looking for the odd one out, it is so easy to get on a high horse and shout about inequality in subtext, but all you end up doing is annoying those that didn't see it in the first place, because they weren't looking to find inequality, they weren't looking to find racism or anything along those lines. They were there to watch a spectacular movie in 3D...

[Noodle]

... you like noodles....
All people like Noodles! :gimmehug:

[Thumponius]

I am just going to do what I please, when I please and as I please, as long as it doesn't, knowingly, hurt people. Someone, somewhere will always get upset by any action, inaction, spoken, unspoken whatever I do so tough. They must deal with it. I am only responsible for what I do or don't do.

I am white (mainly because there is only bloody snow here at the moment!!). Deal with it people.

[Arbythep00nage]

Check and Thumpy laying down the law!
You sure you arent a pointy blue eared alien dude? :p

[Thumponius]

If I was I would raygun your rocket...:P

[GeroW4lll]

I am white (mainly because there is only bloody snow here at the moment!!).There's plenty of sun down here dude...