The runaway success of Avatar (1.6 billion dollars made 32 days since its release: Box Office Mojo) has countless people talking about the film. Apart from your standard issue movie reviews and special effects showcases there have been several articles diving deeper into the film, detailing characterization, plot and theme. Some had noticed the striking similarities between Avatar and films like Dances with Wolves and Pocahontas. For others Avatar suffered from racist undertones with the Na’vi being used as a proxy for people of color. One term that’s been heavily used in those articles is white guilt to describe the motivations behind Avatar’s storyline. I had seen this phrase mentioned before in news articles or blogs, but never fully grasped the meaning.
According to Wikipedia white guilt is:
…the concept of individual or collective guilt often said to be felt by some White people for the racist treatment of people of color by Whites both historically and presently.
This really doesn’t make sense to me. I’m not one for guilt in general, preferring my life to be motivated by more positive reasons, so feeling guilty for someone else’s actions (present or buried in the past) is just ludicrous. Perhaps its because I don’t believe in original sin, but I don’t think one should be responsible for the actions of others if you weren’t there as it happened or even alive when it occurred.
It appears to me that white guilt is a predominantly American term tied heavily to the times of black slavery and the decimation of the Native Americans. That got me thinking of other countries which might suffer from their version of this “guilt”.
Spanish Guilt?
When it came to the decimation of an indigenous people no one was more efficient than the Spaniards. The Conquistadores took over the Americas for God and country, fighting or converting anyone who stood in their way. They were one of the main reasons for the decline of the Incans, Aztecs and Mayans, bringing disease and violence to these peoples doorsteps.
With a pedigree like that there should be some sort of spanish guilt floating around. I scoured the ‘Net looking for it, but failed to come up with anything similar. I didn’t find an equivalent term or an apology from the government of Spain for the actions of the conquistadors or anything that would run along the same lines as white guilt.
Then I started thinking about my own heritage. My parents are Cuban (if you couldn’t tell from the title of this blog) tracing their ancestry to Spain itself. Never once did I remember any discussion of guilt for the actions of the Spaniards in the Americas or even in Cuba. For me it has always been a piece of history to learn, never a chip to carry on my shoulder for the rest of my life.
I agree that learning from the mistakes made in our past will prevent them from repeating, which is the only way a culture can truly grow and move forward. What I don’t agree with is carrying those mistakes like an albatross around our necks, chaining us to the past. If we color everything with the same brush how are we ever to determine the true state of things? For those constantly looking to jam their square peg perspective into the round hole of everyday situations please remember, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist or that minorities aren’t being oppressed in this day and age, but I believe that American culture would do a lot better by focusing less energy on transgressions from the past that no one can undo and channeling it into the changes needed to prevent them from ever happening again.
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