In the article “’Avatar’ is part of
important discussion about race” by Courtland Milloy, he argues that the movie
‘Avatar’ is discriminating against colored people, and that the white man
always ends up being the hero. I agree and disagree with Mr. Milloy. I agree with
his argument that the Na’vi are looked down upon by some white characters in
the movie and are treated as if they are lesser than man, just as most white
men did to the Native Americans, and other colored races at one point. I also
disagree that Jake Sully is just another white man hero.
Milloy says “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"”. This depicts how the white
men treated the Native Americans; also Milloy says that the white men
contribute to the “liberation struggles of oppressed people of color.” Although
this is true in the movie, it doesn’t last.
I disagree because, Milloy states that
the main character is just portrayed as a just another white hero, but the
character isn’t looked at as just another “hero”, in fact, he isn’t much of a
hero at all. The main character Jake Sully causes most of the downfall in the
movie and has to correct what he did wrong, but he isn’t the initial hero, he
is no different from the Na’vi people. Sully doesn’t act in an arrogant way to
express himself better than the Na’vi people, in fact, he chose to become one
instead. This creates equality between the two different worlds, abolishing the
difference between the two races.
