Naka on Wood

“When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like Avatar?”

wordsandsteel:

If we think of Avatar and its ilk as white fantasies about race, what kinds of patterns do we see emerging in these fantasies?

In both Avatar and District 9, humans are the cause of alien oppression and distress. Then, a white man who was one of the oppressors switches sides at the last minute, assimilating into the alien culture and becoming its savior. This is also the basic story of Dune, where a member of the white royalty flees his posh palace on the planet Dune to become leader of the worm-riding native Fremen (the worm-riding rite of passage has an analog in Avatar, where Jake proves his manhood by riding a giant bird). An interesting tweak on this story can be seen in 1980s flick Enemy Mine, where a white man (Dennis Quaid) and the alien he’s been battling (Louis Gossett Jr.) are stranded on a hostile planet together for years. Eventually they become best friends, and when the alien dies, the human raises the alien’s child as his own. When humans arrive on the planet and try to enslave the alien child, he lays down his life to rescue it. His loyalties to an alien have become stronger than to his own species.

These are movies about white guilt. Our main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color - their cultures, their habitats, and their populations. The whites realize this when they begin to assimilate into the “alien” cultures and see things from a new perspective. To purge their overwhelming sense of guilt, they switch sides, become “race traitors,” and fight against their old comrades. But then they go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed. This is the essence of the white guilt fantasy, laid bare. It’s not just a wish to be absolved of the crimes whites have committed against people of color; it’s not just a wish to join the side of moral justice in battle. It’s a wish to lead people of color from the inside rather than from the (oppressive, white) outside.

[more here]

Why are you people ruining my mindless movie watching experience w/ context and insight?

reblogged from wordsandsteel

knocking down the glorified view of white people

igather:

guerrillamamamedicine:

Bigler ran a study in which children read brief biographies of famous African-Americans. For instance, in a biography of Jackie Robinson, they read that he was the first African-American in the major leagues. But only half read about how he’d previously been relegated to the Negro Leagues, and how he suffered taunts from white fans. Those facts—in five brief sentences were omitted in the version given to the other children. After the two-week history class, the children were surveyed on their racial attitudes. White children who got the full story about historical discrimination had significantly better attitudes toward blacks than those who got the neutered version. Explicitness works. “It also made them feel some guilt,” Bigler adds. “It knocked down their glorified view of white people.” They couldn’t justify in-group superiority.Bigler ran a study in which children read brief biographies of famous African-Americans.

reblogged from igather

News & Notes- A Farewell 2 A Fav

One of my all-time favorite radio shows, NPR’s News and Notes is having its last show today. Too sad. I love this show!

News & Notes is a show that tells news from an “African American Perspective” and I catch it on Clark Atlanta’s jazz station 91.9 FM (a cool place to hang your radio dial). They tell stories about Hazel Scot, the first black woman to have her own TV show in the 1940’s (It didn’t last too long, she was blackballed by Hollywood. But imagine a black woman on TV in America in the 40’s and only in 2008 did someone write a book about her- News & Notes is where I heard her story). They profiled a movement of women in Liberia that went on to play an integral role in ending the violence ravaging their country in war time. These are only 2 examples of what I’ll truly miss about the show— the varied perspectives and points of view they brought to the table (and these 2 examples don’t do it justice— they really covered news and stories from every corner of black life. I”m just too lazy to list others).

It’s on NPR so I guess you could say there’s a bit of “liberal” slant if you’re one to categorize, but listening to the show I got the idea that there was no concern about advancing an ideology or a specific take on black life. They just wanted to tell true stories about the millions of people that are born black (however that manifests itself) and the world they live in. I haven’t seen any broadcast on tv or radio attack news and stories from such varied angles as this show. I know there’s always the internet/google, but News & Notes brought a myriad of viewpoints under one roof. Not to mention the host, Farai Chideya , is a class act who really knows how to get to the heart of any interview in very little time all while displaying a genuine interest in whatever the topic may be. Oh, and did I mention the great music interludes?  They put me onto alot of good stuff.

Sigh, it will be sorely missed.

PS Farai just put up a farewell blog