Reaction Paper

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.