APERITIF: What 'Avatar' is trying to say about the future of being 'White' in America, PT. 1

Congratulations to K. BIG!!

I'd also like to congratulate all the hypemen who brought 'The Hurt Locker's' post-Box office presence back to center stage by penning the ultimate metanarrative: directordivorcegate-2010.

(Forget that lackluster list of contenders--the real award should go to you!)

But Bigelow v Cameron beefs aside, my personal (and, largely, FAILED!) 'Precious' campaign aside, please allow me to sip my Hater-ade one mo' gain.

Despite all my pro-Laz sentiments, here is why I've been a begrudging follower of James Cameron's 'Avatar'. WARNING: It sounds feminist and ABW-ist in all the expected places, and you're going to need to stay with me: I detour.

'Avatar' is trying to say something that I find really interesting. You may disagree. You're allowed. But here's the takeaway that's come to irk me about this celebrated pic: this isn't your typical intergalactic broo-ha-ha. This is a troublesome commentary on 21st century performance of dominant masculinities--particularly 'white' masculinity.

But before I get into my reasons for reading 'Avatar' in this way, let's pregame with a seemingly strange return to director Neil LaBute's 2008 picture, 'Lakeview Terrace.'

(Don't suck your teeth! I will give you a Sam Jackson side eye so quick...) 

(via @LouisVuittonBum)

'Lakeview Terrace' took a beating from critics when it hit theaters only weeks before President Barack Obama's election, but IMHO there are some very eerie parallels between the commentary presented in this flick and its supposedly 'upscale', sci-fi tech advanced kin, 'Avatar.'  

If you've never seen 'Lakeview Terrace', but plan to, here's your spoiler alert.

Samuel L. Jackson's cop character is an LAPD officer and widowed father of two. He lives in the same neighborhood where Rodney King was beat nearly to death by white LAPD cops on March 19, 1991.  This next piece of information is extremely important to understanding Abel Turner's otherwise 'unjustifiable' rage toward his new neighbors. 

But first, how is Abel Turner, a Black LAPD officer possible? 

Well, he's supposed to represent the ultimate Black masculinity. By that I mean he's supposed to dutifully avenge the blood of Rodney Kings everywhere--brethren who have been either personally or psychically brutalized simply because they exist in the way of the white supremacist psychosis ingrained in American personal and political consciousness. Such psychosis was utterly apparent in the early 1990s. 

Documentation of state surveillance of Black communities on the whole during this time produced some strong anti-cop sentiments among Black folk. Even in the context of art, this was the age of chronicling life in the 'hood as it played out under the thumb of post-Hoover paranoia, recent Reaganomotricks, and Bush Regime I. (Think 'Boyz N the Hood', 'Menace to Society', NWA, 2Pac, West Side Connection, RICO and on and on and on...) Only a few steps into the future, more stories of police brutality, 'gang' violence, turf wars, mandatory minimums and communities post-crack would come barreling out. 

In light of all this, Abel is an older man trying to keep it straight, narrow and noble. (Kinda slick inversion of Cain and Abel.) His age in relation to his new neighbors (Kerry Washington and Patrick Wilson) suggests that the 1980s and 1990s were not the only wave of bull-shiitake he's witnessed. 

In becoming a cop, he occupies this dual-role in a literary/historical sense. On the one hand he exists as potential traitor, yet on the other, he is a could-be avenger of the Black communities that have been so thoroughly and systematically terrorized by racism. But here, also is a space where he can 'legally' fulfill his patriarchal purpose as a protector-provider-[insert patriarchal expectation here] of the community and maintain some stability for his own family while still loyally serving the community.

On a couple of occasions in the film, he assumes the posture of community elder, even in the course of detainment and arrest. Here is the dialogue between Jackson's character and the apprehended Damon Richards. Richards has just been called in for threatening to kill his wife and child.

Samuel L. Jackson as ABEL TURNER:  
Look in my eyes. Look in my eyes!
  
ABEL:
ls this gonna happen again?
  
Caleeb Pinkett as DAMON RICHARDS:
No!

ABEL:
What?

DAMON:
No, sir! No! 
I swear to God, no!

  ABEL:
God ain't here, you swear to me.

DAMON: 
I swear. l swear to you, sir!

ABEL:  
Now, you be a man, understand?
l don't give a shit what your situation is!
You take your responsibility.
  You be a father to that baby, you got me?
  

 Jay Hernandez as JAVIER VILLAREAL:

Abel!

ABEL:
If I have to come back here,

I'm gonna be the one doing the shooting, you understand?

DAMON:
Yes, sir.

ABEL:
Detective Villareal.

JAVIER:

Yes, sir.

ABEL:
 Put some restraints on this young man.

But do it gently, please.

JAVIER:

Absolutely.
 

This obligation to the community-at-large weighs on him even harder in light of his wife's death. Despite his career choice, he couldn't perform the function of 'protector' in his own 'domestic' sphere. 

Samuel L. Jackson as ABEL TURNER:
Today's the third anniversary of my wife's death.
When Marcus went back to school,
she became a home-care aide.
Mostly old people.
Alzheimer's patients, stroke victims.
I don't know how in the hell she did it,

but it made me kind of glad that
that's what she did, you know?

Sort of, you know, balanced things out,
you know?

Patrick Wilson as CHRIS MATTSON:  
How's that?

ABEL:

Well, you know,
because of what l do on my job.
Three years ago to the day, I get a phone call.
My wife's been in a head-on collision.
Some guy high off his ass,

going 90 miles an hour
the wrong way on the 101 
They took her to Hollywood Memorial.

She died on a gurney in the hall
because somebody forgot to tell them she was the wife of a police officer,
so they treated her by pigmentation

CHRIS:  
How do you know that?

ABEL:

Because l know things.

He couldn't fulfill these expectations for his own wife, and because of this failure on his part, he believes, she's become a liability of State Supremacy. Despite his careful posturing, he failed to protect her. And THIS, ladies, gents and germs, is the simmering rage we walk into when Abel Turner meets the Mattsons, played by Kerry Washington and Patrick Wilson. For Jackson's character, the Mattsons are a 20th century death wish because of their interracial marriage.

Patrick Wilson's character is repeatedly being challenged by elder Black men who do not believe him capable of fulfilling his (patriarchal) 'role' as a provider and protector of this surrogate (in Jackson's case) or real (in the Black father in law's case) Black daughter. Patrick Wilson, for lack of better wordplay, is an encroachment for Abel Turner. He is a new age threat to the Black family--the personal sphere Jackson's character could not keep sacred.

Abel and Lisa Mattson's (Kerry Washington) father-in-law don't very much trust Chris Mattson either. Take this uncomfortable interaction between Wilson and co-star Justin Chambers (Grey's Anatomy):

(Chambers) DONNIE EATON:

Hey, Chris.

(Wilson) CHRIS MATTSON:

What?

DONNIE:

You hit the total jackpot, man.

I so want to date a black girl.
I'm working my way up, though,

doing the Pacific Rim thing right now,  
if you get what I mean.


CHRIS:

Well, good luck with that.

There's a sense that these elder Black men's suspicions are justified. Jackson's part as terrorist-in-uniform, then, is not simply unfounded paranoia gone postal, it's a reaction to fear of the future. Chris is genuine, but what about the Donnies? (I'm sure Justin got at least a sliver of heat for his role--his wife in real life, actually is Black.) What is Chris going to do when his Lisa and Chris Jrs are confronted with the Donnies? This is what Abel and Lisa's dad want to know.

If this response is any indication, Abel Turner may still look crazy, but hardly as crazy as before. Chris is going to have to do better. 

It's one thing to marry a Black girl from Oakland (of ALL places!)--it's a whole 'nother ball game to understand AND challenge AND measure up to patriarchal standards when re-inscriptions of her identity are made 'on her body' by the dominant culture. (I'd get into the fundamental errors in "protecting her", but we'd be here another 7 days worth of posting...)

So for this reason, I'm conflicted about whether 'Lakeview Terrace' really missed its mark, lost audiences, or simply came out at a time when folks were too busy touting phrases like 'post-race', 'post-racial' and comparable mess to realize what was deeper than one Black man's isolated embitterment.

The strife Abel goes through in this film is OH-SO-VERY much like that of beefed up war manic, Col. Miles Quaritch, to whom we are introduced in James Cameron's 'Avatar' (except--surprise!--Stephen Lang isn't, um... 'Black'...). In the next post I'm going to swap out Chris Mattson for Jake Sully, and substitute Lisa Mattson with Neytiri.

then VOILA! Col. Miles' personal 'white' man burden--'Avatar's' proposal for a 'new' 'white' masculinity vis a vis Jake Sully.

Tea Party-ers might want to hold their hats.