Avatar: Racist or Indigenous Anthem?

Many critics have discussed Avatar as being racist following the themes of racial paternalism. Films like Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai and many other movies feature a White Male protagonist coming to the rescue of helpless indigenous people. In fact, Avatar's story is not very origional on its surface and would seem to follow in the footsteps of these movies but once taken from a broader perspective we may begin to see something different. I wanted to offer up a perspective held by many Afrocentric people.

Interestingly, despite Avatar's criticisms of Racism, many afrocentric viewers wildly embrace the film. For many within the community, it is limiting to look at the movie through the lens of race alone as it speaks additionally and more profoundly to spirituality. This is different from how preceding movies that have a similar story line approach the story of oppression. Many in the community feel the film speaks to a colonized indigenous spirituality.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the movie lies in who is the Hero of this movie? Where as one most often discussed reading of the film would say the white male saved indigenous cultures or the 'world' (again), many in this group would feel that mother earth saved herself or Feminine Energy was the Hero or simply, God (Ewa) prevailed. Within Kemetic (Ancient Egyptian) Philosophy (the dominant philosophy of Afrocentric communities) this would be considered the 'Maat Principle'. It can also be viewed through the African concept of Ubuntu.

Maat is the personification of the concept of harmony, justice, truth, and order. In Avatar, Maat would be the disembodied 'Ewa'. Within Ancient African spiritual systems, women's roles are seen as essential and powerful unlike how many Western religions conceptualize feminine spiritual roles. In the film, it is the feminine spiritual energy by way of Ewa (as well as Gayle, Nytiri and Nytiri's mother) that save Jake Sully and brings the planet back to balance. Ewa uses Jake as a batteling arm of her defense. If there are any heroes in the movie then it would either be Nytri for her spiritual obedience or the collective of women. In this way it speaks more to indigenous epistemology (ways of knowing) and spirituality which holds women in equal standing (or higher) to men. The film is seen as a presentation of an imbalance of spiritual energy represented as masculine and white though it is not always the case. Jake the white male is redeemed by converting his spiritual energy into being more in line with the Universe (ewa/maat) and indigenous epistemology. It speaks then to a certain transcendence of race where it is less a race war than a philosophical or spiritual journey/battle. Even a battle of 'Truths'. (Those who objectify and have an ocular centric epistemology, who operate in divisive binaries and are control/ego driven, violent vs those who embrace the unseen spiritual realm as valid guiding 'truths', see a connectedness to all things, respect for all life etc).

One need only look at Jake's battle scene with the Colonel to know that had Ewa not stepped in, the Na'vi would have lost their battle against the soldiers. It is ewa that saves the Na'vi with the help of spiritually obedient women and later, a spiritually obedient Jake Sully.

Because of the communitarian vs. Individualistic themes it can be looked at through the lens of Ubuntu philosophy and is rooted in Ethics and Spirituality. Dr. Clifford Christians at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign's article "Ubuntu and communitarianism in media ethics" is helpful in understanding this concept from a media perspective. For those in the Afrocentric Ubuntu philisophical paradigmn, it is believed "I am, because we are." This reflects a belief in the connectedness and balance of all things (people, environment, spirit etc). This philosophy would trump race as the connectedness extends beyond skin color. Jake Sully is only able to be triumphant because he aligned himself with Ubuntu/Maat/Ewa --not the other way around.

Afrocentric scholars use the film to spread spiritual teaching, and community organization. Additionally, many African American scholars use Avatars as their online avatars or wallpapers to signify their alignment with the Navi. There have been some that advocate for playing the video game (despite the terrible reviews the game faces in the industry). See Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBaJtaIV0cA

For spiritual teachers of the Afrocentric community the the Xbox version of the Avatar game is preferred then to the Wii version not only because of a more sophisticated game play and aesthetics but because the Xbox version allows the player to choose to be Navi or a Soldier. The wii forces you to play as a Navi. It is seen as a far more powerful indication spiritually to CHOOSE to defend communitarianism than to be automatically preset to play within it. By necessarily having to play as a Navi one loses a potential spiritual lesson and value in the journey. This is the same criticism of 'inherited' religion which many turn on people who simply follow the religion they are 'born into' without critically reflecting on the path. Here it is believed that the game's rules supports a particular ideology and mastering the game really signifies that a particular ideology has mastered you. Winning as a Soldier then is a victory of the game's liberalism and individualistic ideological half of the game. Winning as a Navi is a victory of the game's ability to enforce communitarianism.

Even if taken on its surface, many African Americans are not burdened by the fact that Jake Sully is white because of his disability. Because he is symbolically marginalized some of his privileged is eclipsed. In Pandora, his whiteness offers him no advantages and he is very dependent on the native culture. He is 'like a baby' a spiritual baby, in the beginning of the movie but he grows in his maturity.

Tony Browder, an egyptologist and historian has looked at Avatar through an Afrocentric lens and can offer additional insight on this topic. He sits on the shoulders of scholars like Asa Hilliard.Various communities have embraced Avatar for its various socio-cultural interpretations. I offer you this new perspective to consider, critique or embrace.

Media Representation and the break down between Africans and African Americans

The John Fiske article 'Act Globally, Think Locally' is timely for me as I think about bridging the divide between Africans and African Americans. Fiske mentions Edward Said's Orientalism work in which Said discusses the articulations of the other and the simultaneous self articulations of the West in its representations. Africa has always been represented as uncivilized, over run with animals, primitive, disease infested, poor and lacking any type of industrialization. Because of these colonialized images Blacks in the West often come to think of Africa in these terms. We never see for example pictures like this one:

The picture above is of Johannesburg --the richest city in Africa. There is a facebook group dedicated to breaking down this 'Orientalism' by presenting new types of representations of Africa. Because of the power differential as mentioned by Fiske, only one culture's articulation is being presented. As such what we 'know' about Africa is through a fractured lens. See the racist cartoon clips above. Pay particular attention to the lyrics in 'Civilization' the song that says 'bingo bango bongo I'm so happy in the congo..."etc. This compilation shows the blackness diasporically in contrast to whiteness with blackness being uncivilized. The cartoon spells out a particular definition of Civilization that is Western and drenched in ideological baggage. Even if we were to accept the definition of 'civilization' as presented, Africa is never shown as living up to that definition even as they have cities like the one presented above.

Fiske often makes mention to the third world within the US (african americans) in his discussion of Rodney King. News media frequently portrays blacks as violent, lazy welfare queens, hung up on bling culture. Because of power difference in media ownership etc. these stories of African Americans seem to travel further than African Americans self representations which tend to stay more localized. The same occurs with Africans. Equally important is the fact that African American passport ownership is low, so the likelyhood of African Americans having the opportunity to self represent in person is low. The result of all of this is that the diaspora sees itself through otherized notions and fails to be able to see the oppressor's hand or the similarities in each other. When Africans come to see Africans as 'rich' it is through the lens of hip hop and thus the 'third world' in the US becomes the 1st world in Africa....To them we are just simply Americans.

What follows is that African Americans will start to present Africans according to these See Coming to America. The only full clip I could find is not in english. See also the intro scene where music that has a Kenyan influence interlaced with the sounds of Animals near the palace. Other scenes in the movie borrow from other regions to construct the fictitious country Zamunda. Africans in Black cinema have been shown through binaries of uncivilized or Regal. Monarchy is a common representation though the countries of allusion are mostly republics etc. Neither the common experience nor the contemporary one is presented. The presentation of regality should be noted that it is not always rooted in historically accurate accounts but more closely linked to purity myths and romanticized 'authenticity'. These types of representations have been purposed to empower African Americans in the face of white supremacy and a denial of cultural history and heritage. Meanwhile many Africans find these representations to be offensive and off base. Africans in a similar way will present African Americans as they see them on hip hop music videos. As I show in my picture posted below from my trip to Ghana, the image of 50 cent and other billboard topping rap artists are more accessible than other forms of African American expression.

From my conversations, many Africans believe African Americans to be rich, violent, promiscuous etc. Just as much as African Am

ericans (especially pan africanists) perform Africans, Africans perform African Americans. Terms like Nigger, however have unstable meanings as they circulate. From one interview with a Rawandan the term Nigger is a positive thing which they might relate to someone who has big muscles or a lot of money. Nigger has become a way of identifying with African American culture but is detached from its historical roots. They believe after all that it is African Americans that are representing themselves in the ways that they see them all too often.The picture above is of a shop in Malawi that sells their local version of Hip Hop attire. The N word has been connected with Hip Hop in other regions as well as with the lampooning in Tokyo Breakfast seen here .Tourism advertisements also show instances where Africa articulates itself through the lens of exoticism and otherization as the West has identified it. See the Tanzanian Tourist Board's commercial here. It is no surprise then that in the year of the census few 'Africans' who have lived here for years will see any relevance in the label African American and likewise few 'African Americans' who historically are Africans will see any relevance in the label 'African'. The tensions that divide the diaspora are in many ways are because of the issues Fiske raises. "Repre

sentation is control. The power to represent the world is the power to represent us in it or it in us, for the final stage of representing merges the representor and the represented into one" (Fiske 285).