Another great example of hidden (or maybe not so hidden) cultural bias. This type of mythology is so deeply ingrained in our perceptions of the world that sometimes you are not even aware of it. Thanks for linking these three current movies together in this interesting and timely posting.

Here is an equally valid point of view. As people in a position to be saviors, i.e., people with power and influence, we need role models who use that power and influence to help others who are oppressed because of their race, religion sexual orientation, etc. In fact, in some circumstances we in the majority ought to go to extraordinary lengths, risking our own safety, to help other who are oppressed because of their minority status.

My wife and I were members of a treaty rights support group in Wisconsin in the early 1990s, mostly white people, who took risks to help Chippewa Indians fight for their treaty rights over a period of several years. Finally the Wisconsin Supreme Court restored most of those rights, and the Indians said they couldn’t have done it without us (and the white lawyers who worked for them pro bono). We don’t take all or even most of the credit for that triumph–the Indians showed tremendous courage, diplomacy, spiritual strength, and even Herculean restraint in the face of very ugly attacks by mobs of bigots.

During World War II, when European Jews were being hunted and slaughtered by Nazis and collaborators, many white people took huge risks to help protect Jews from Nazis. Thank you, because those particular Jews couldn’t have survived without their lily-white saviors. Those saviors were the role models for Harriet and me when we helped the Chippewa win their treaty rights.

The most damaging movies are fact-based ones that distort the facts and shift the credit away from the courageous oppressed minorities, as was the case in Mississippi Burning (I didn’t see it, but I read that the white federal agents got more credit than they deserved). But the image of a white individual helping oppressed minorities in itself isn’t damaging if it inspires other majority members to come to the aid of oppressed minorities.

Not only the narrative of the white male as the savior of the Na’vi but also the parallel with how America behaves with its “enemies.” We first destroy them in search of or to protect a special energy source and then we are the ones who have to help them figure out their future because they can’t do it on their own.

And in the case of the Na’vi it was also almost funny to see that no matter how different they tried to make this blue people, they still ride “horses” and wear feathers!

Congrats on bringing this issue out!