Avatar: Not Racist, But Hollywood Might Be...Even Against Whites

Finally saw it. The 2D version though - but it was obviously a movie made for 3D. I'll get around to it. Now, is it racist? No, Avatar isn't racist but the prevailing culture of Hollywood is proving to be. At one time it most definitely was, so one could accept that the thinking hasn't disappeared just yet. We already know that leading roles for blacks are few and far between, and there are only a couple leading black names out there. One article included this rationalisation:

Robinne Lee, an actress in such recent films as "Seven Pounds" and "Hotel for Dogs," said that  "Avatar" was "beautiful" and that she understood the economic logic of casting a white lead if most of the audience is white.

The problem with this rationalisation is that blockbuster movies featuring white dominant casts are sold to all audiences around the world - and not just white audiences. Indeed, non-white audiences have been subject to white dominated US television and feature films for quite a long time, and have lived with it. Spike Lee only came out with Do The Right Thing in 1989 - still a relatively recent development and the idea that audiences can only consume material featuring their own race just doesn't compute.

Oprah, Will Smith, Tiger Woods (too soon?), Michael Jordon, Denzel Washington, Friends, Sex in The City,  The Wire, and a host of other examples, can be cited as stars and features that have a broad appeal simply because they are marketed that way, are very good at what they do or because they are part of the same species (i.e. Human). I, as a black man, have watched countless films with non-black leads (or no non-whites whatsoever) and  have yet to turn into a pumpkin as a result. 

White & American
But the idea that mass appeal equals white, dominates American media. This seeming insistence that white (and white blonde in particular for women) sells is manifest in the 'Blonding' of Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Lindsay Lohan, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Morrison (House MD) as their careers have evolved - or to help their careers evolve? Yes, it appears that even if you are white you have to be the right kind of white to have appeal. 

Jamaican songstress Tami Chynn, former label mate of Lady Gaga, also went blonde, but perhaps too late,

Chynn claimed that her Chinese-black ethnicity hurt her in an industry where musical genres tend to be race defined. "My label made it very clear to me that they were not sure what to do with me because I was a seemingly white girl who was not white but also Chinese and Black," she said. "An (atypical) Jamaican girl is exactly what made them love me and exactly what made them not know what to do with me. That is why the first album was released in Japan only," she explained.

The gatekeepers seem to be convinced that ethnic groups (and that includes whites) only buy products from 'their own'. We know this not to be true, though it may be true to a limited extent. That said, I suggest that much of what we see in 'society' is not society but the perspective of society and its various groups manufactured by film makers and advertisers as they define markets with stereotypes and conceptual targets. 


But the bias doesn't end there. Earth is apparently made up of only one nation: The United States of America. Cameron had the opportunity to portray not only multi-ethinic characters, but multi-national characters, the plot being depicted as a Global initiative and expedition. But true to Hollywood only Americans are heroes - whatever their race (Michelle Rodriguez is Hispanic American), and the only country on earth is the USA. The main character, Jake Sully, was played by Australian actor Sam Worthington, why couldn't he simply have been an Australian Earthling? Would Americans explode upon hearing an Auzzie accent? I think not.

Avatar itself was a critique of racial prejudice (amongst other things) but, perhaps unwittingly, perpetuated prejudice in its production more than its presentation. The dominant group tends to see itself as the standard, normal - the touchstone of humanity, and is usually oblivious to its own bias. Everyone else is a novel addition to the wonderful world of 'diversity'. However, we can't ignore Cameron's efforts to make a movie with a 'universal conscience' or the unavoidable limitations of one man's universe.

Cartoons: An Animated Discussion

I love cartoons. I've never stopped watching them. Batfink, Top Cat, Captain Caveman, GI Joe and of course Scooby Doo, all when I was a kid (not to mention the Flintstones - and then junk like the Osmonds - ugh). More recently, it's Dragon Ball and DBZ, The Last Airbender, Spongebob Squarepants, Jimmy Neutron and The Powerpuff Girls. But I've noticed something - cartoons nowadays are made for adults. I'm not talking about The Simpsons or Family Guy - they are clearly adult themed. But the stuff for kids is adult targeted as well. So before you accuse me of being immature enough to still relish my Aang and Goku, it's not my fault - the writing is so good and they put references in these toons that only 20 or 30 somethings (and even older) could understand.

 For babies or Baby Boomers?

Powerpuff Girls - man Mojo Jojo is the greatest supervillain ever. The humour is fantastic - the colours and slapstick clearly appeal to kids. But the episode called The Beat Alls was a Baby Boomers flashback. The arch villains of the PPG's unite to form the Beat Alls (because they were to 'beat all' others). Well into the evil ensemble's reign, Mojo Jojo was lured away by a Japanese primate, and this of course dissolved the fab troupe. If you don't get the reference yet - it's the Beatles - broken up when Yoko Ono came along and poached Lennon (or so the story goes).

Jimmy Neutron features lots of music, and usually copyright friendly very recognizable versions of popular groups or songs - like Blink 182. There was a very Benny Hill-like chase scene complete with the strikingly similar music in one episode. It included the requisite line of pursuit sped up and goofy as ever in true Hill style. You'd have to have a few years under your belt to get that reference and some of you reading this probably don't know who Benny Hill is! In which case you get my point.

They could never catch this guy - is he Osama?

Death

Then there's death. In GI Joe, no matter how much firepower they threw at Cobra - or vice versa - nobody ever died. Cobra soldiers always parachuted out of their personal flight vehicles just in time, everytime. Then of course after the standard fierce battle and foiled run for world domination, Cobra would escape. The young kid would then shout 'Duke, they're getting away!', Duke would respond 'It's ok. We'll get them next time'. In todays cartoons, bad guys drop like inner city drug dealers. DBZ, Goku, the hero actually died. My all-time favourite episode of DBZ is when Goku returns from the 'other world' after 7 years. Man it was tear jerking - you have to know the story to understand.

I think the first kids cartoon I saw where folks died was Batman Beyond. I was wasn't shocked, it was actually relieving. The idea that no matter what you did, the badguys would always get away conveyed through GI Joe - and most other cartoons where it was always the same villain (like Mumrah, Skeletor and Hugo a Go Go) - was a bit disturbing.

Sometimes a punk needs to get smoked! Come to think of it - did Monstar ever get sent up the river Styx? It makes me wonder what the heck Mumrah was fighting for, cause it was only ever the Thunder Cats on a piece of desertified rock fighting Mumrah for no apparent reason.

Women

There was always only one girl in old-school cartoons. One girl in Thudercats, in He-Man, Silverhawks, The Smurfs and GI Joe. And no one ever seemed to have a romantic interest in her. It was just weird. Why were girls alway outnumbered in older cartoons? Well not always, Scoob and co had some equality of the sexes going on. Spongebob, however, features only one female main - Sandy the butch squirrel. But that raises something rather contraversial.

Hidden Genders?

Wearing his heart on his head?

The Spongy One has had some questionable content. One of the early episodes had Spongbob asking Patrick to be his valentine with a giant chocolate heart-shaped balloon. Kinda odd for children's telly. Spongebob declared in one episode that he 'wasn't on the menu' - what did he mean by that? Maybe the child rearing episode might shed some light. Himself and Patrick raised a baby clam and Sponge became a busy housewife complete with rollers and night dress while Patrick was the tie-wearing, suitcase carrying Dad/husband. Could it be a reference to gay marriage? Squidward is a quintessential urbane character who likes ballet, modern dance and was the make-up artist for a motion picture endeavour - ahem?! You tell me. Then there has been repeated rainbow imagery in Spongebob. From rainbow wigs, 'imagination' rainbows and pretty pattie rainbows.

The colours of an agenda?

In case you don't know, rainbows are the universal gay emblem. I'm not saying the Sponge is gay, just noting what I see in one of my most favourite cartoons. But even if he was gay, that wouldn't be the problem, rather it would be in the transparency (or lack thereof) of the agenda. Then again Bugs Bunny would frequently lay wet kisses on Porky the Pig and Elmer Fudd.

Race

At some point, kids cartoons began to be about 'real' issues (mind you Charlie Brown always was - but I don't think CB was ever for kids as it bored the tar outta me) like crushes and romance, discrimination, single parenting and death and divorce etc. A some point cartoons began to reflect the kids who watched them. More female characters took the fore (As Told by Ginger, Kimpossible, Totally Spies and PPG for example), and there was even some amount of racial diversity. I still think there is a white heavy leaning on the race front - but the new Transformers Animated has a distinctly minority heavy cast, particularly Black and Asian characters.

In some ways cartoons avoided race by having non-human characters. But c'mon, we all know Panthro's a black dude. And Smurfs defintely aren't black cause no black guy would walk around shirtless in white leotards and a jaunty white beret (not according the US black culture). We all know Disney hasn't portrayed a black lead character (though a black female lead is waiting in the wings). The closest they came was the Lion King, and Mufasa died like all black characters do - and he was a lion - so that doesn't count.

I like the turn most cartoons have taken. But it does have a dark side. Are we using kids programming to programme kids? Sometimes the content seems too adult. Whether its overly sexy, underwear prancing, anorexia inducing Brats or the amazing power Power Rangers had to make 4 year olds kick you in the shins. If Spongebob is gay and there is a hidden agenda to advance the cause or promote tolerance (which is not a bad thing if unhidden) is it the right platform to do this? Shouldn't cartoons be just about entertainment? The worst thing old-school cartoons did was plant the desire for kids to join the special forces and kill the never dying enemy....hmmm.

I still love cartoons. Can't imagine I will ever stop. But...here's the pun you've been waiting for....you draw your own conclusions. Booyah!

Kanye & The VMA - Publicity Stunt!

Many have probably seen the footage of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech for best female music video at this year's MTV VMA's.  He, now infamously, declared that Beyonce deserved the Moon Man but has since offered a rambling though emotional apology.

So why a publicity stunt? Well, it's been done before, probably more times than we know but I'll cite two examples both involving the same accomplice: Marshall Mathers a.k.a Eminem. We all know about his collaboration with Sacha Baron Cohen to promote the  Bruno movie. Cohen was lowered from the ceiling, bare butted, onto a disgusted Eminem. The sad part is, many thought it was spontaneous. How do you spontaneously get lowered from the ceiling at a massive awards show...onto Eminem? John Mayer, maybe. Oh, where did this take place? The MTV Movie Awards. Are we seeing a common denominator here?

Next up was the so-called triangular feud between Eminem, Mariah Carey and her toy boy husband, Nick Cannon. What was the product? Carey's new single at the time, Obsessed, which really could have been about any old freak. If Obsessed is about Eminem, then Vision of Love is about Kermit the Frog. Now the beef allegedly continues and new beef-related tunes and lyrics from Eminem are out there. But we just don't care anymore. At any rate the point was to sell, sell, sell. 

Now, back to Kanye. Firstly, why was West allowed to storm the stage? Why did no one try to escort him off? Do they not have stage hands, protocol, backstage managers? Further, the camera was so situated as to catch Beyonce's shock at the very moment his spontaneous announcement was made. How did the cameraman know he should be beside Beyonce just then? Like much of today's Hollywood publicity, the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred. Fiction and reality apparently make more money than fiction alone. Just look at the Iraq War. But this is what the US economy is all about - disaster capitalism. Sell a product without letting anyone know what they are buying, or even that they are buying anything at all.

As long as the ratings go up and the Benjamin's flow. Everybody wins. Kanye is not losing money because of this incident. I wouldn't be surprised if he releases a new tune about the whole harrowing affair. I wager it'll be called Man in the Moon or Swift Me Off My Feet - uh, uh, uh. Remember, you heard it here first! 

So, what was the product this time? Well, it just so happened that the fresh-out-the-oven Jay Leno Show premiered in time to feature who? Kanye West. Coincidence? I think not. What better way to garner viewership and ratings than to have the loony who's been grabbing YouTube by the eyes for the past 24 hrs. This is where Kanye made his  blubbering apology. After the mad rush to YouTube the video disappears and the only place to go to see it again is back to the source. More money is made.

The casting was perfect. Kanye has a decorated history of TV meltdowns, none more famous than his 'George Bush hates black people' post-Katrina declaration. Classic. The goal of course, to kickstart Leno's new NBC show. We know that any PR, no matter how disgusting, only brings notoriety and more money. Hilton's 'leaked' sex video, Tommy Lee had one too as did a slew of other celebrities once they realized it could bring in some cash. 

Conspiracy theory? Well frankly yes. But it's not a secret. Corporations have openly conspired to get your money - as much of it as you will give them (and some you don't want to) and they spend millions on advertising, PR and this new integration of reality and PR in order to get billions. Smart. New. Old.  But it got our attention. We will forget about it in 2 1/2 days. In fact, you're probably wondering what the heck I'm yammering about.

You get my point. Keep an eye out for the next shenanigan.

Transformers 2 Post Mortem: Entertaining Crap With a Neo-Con Agenda!

On its face Transformers 2 was exactly what it was supposed to be: entertainment, action, pointless shots of cool dudes walking in slo mo, everybody running from explosions in slo mo, scantily clad anorexic white girls & badly formulated premises moving a shaky plot-line forward with the help of dopey slapstick characters.

It was a badly edited string of action clichés in CGI. Awesome! Total guy movie.

Now what was Transformers really about? It was about 1 thing: Advertising. What were they advertising you ask?

3 things:

1. The American Military Industrial Complex

2. General Motors

3. The Republic Capitalist Agenda

No I'm not nuts and no I'm not reading into things too much. Trust me, I'm not paranoid they are really after you! ;O).

Ok seriously. America's military is comprehensively paraded throughout the film: satellite technology, nuclear subs, aircraft carriers, attack drones (which, by the way, routinely kill mourners and their families in Pakistan), tanks, aircraft, response time and more, all conveniently in the Middle East - or a place that looks just like it (Egypt really but who's counting?). The advancement of tech was even illustrated in the geriatric Blackbird, JetFire. They made being a soldier look very cool and dying for your country a very action-packed career option! So kids, join the army - now!

General Motors gets some great mileage out the film too. Primarily through the twins and Sideswipe. The twins are the Chevrolet Trax (Mudflap - the red one) and the Chevrolet Beat (Skids - the green one) and Sideswipe is a concept car (according to this site). The compact cars are no arbitrary choice. With the market wanting more fuel efficient cars and not the massive gas guzzlers GM usually turns out of the assembly line - Skids and Mudflaps are the hope of GM - even if they are the most embarrassing black stereotypes since JJ in Goodtimes.

Now the fact that these two commercial entities (yes the military is commercial) are getting massive airtime is no accident. They both need and make lots of money. And that brings us to the Republican Agenda.

The philosophy embedded in Transformers (that you, the weak in mind have been thoroughly programmed to accept and that I, with my superior paranoia, can detect from miles away) is anti-diplomacy, kick-butting military might at all costs whenever and where ever we want. Kinda like what happened with Iraq.

The movie even took shots at Obama, having him hid in a bunker and his emphasis on diplomacy trashed obliquely by Optimus Prime and squarely by Sergeant Lennox. The Main message via the Suit, eventually sent parachuting into the desert, was that diplomacy sucks and military force rules! Why? Cause war makes money. That's right Transformers is all about selling cars and making war. Or as the neo-cons would put it - business as usual.

Yes people, after Transformers 1 and 2 you will happily accept that war is life and America (and one British soldier) is the saviour of the world. Just give it time. Now if you don't sell out completely you will at least have developed marginal sympathy for the American Commercial cause. Trust me, right after the movie I had an inexplicable urge to enlist with marines and buy a Chevrolet. How do you explain that?!