White Supremacy And The Imaginary Other

As an anthropologist, my biggest takeaways from the study of other cultures are a deeper understanding of my own culture and traditions, of the world in general, and myself as a human being.  Archaeological and anthropological investigation reveal that all human societies, historical and modern, face similar problems and situations.  Looking through the lenses of other cultures, the anthropologist finds a storehouse of alternatives in the way these universal problems can be and have been approached. 

Given such understanding, it's virtually impossible not to acquire a nuanced appreciation for diversity.  Diversity is the well-spring of human creativity, and creative solutions are what define us and sustain us as a species.  For this reason, scientists like myself greatly value and are seriously interested in diversity.  Wondrous variety is our candy store, and we are indeed grateful to understand that in all populations there exists variation, and variation within that variation.

Regardless of how well we understand variation, we are all, scientist and layman alike, biased to one degree or another by the cultural lens through which we draw our own frames of reference.  This tendency toward bias is known as 'ethnocentrism', or 'judging another society by your own values and standards.'  Unlike anthropologists, a great swath of humanity does not get its exposure to other cultures via direct experience.  

Not everyone is anthropologically inclined, and few reside outside their borders beyond military service or infrequent vacations.  Rather, they choose more familiar, comfortable routes: entertainment in the form of movies, television shows (and commercials), the Internet and/or "fair and balanced news."  Unfortunately, this also facilitates the perpetuation of stereotypes, and often provides the audience with extremely inaccurate portrayals of other cultures; not to mention its potential for innumerable forms of propaganda.  

When observing or describing culture, one thing that all anthropologists do is look for cultural patterns.  I've noticed a particular disturbing pattern of ethnocentrism in the form of a familiar Hollywood trope.  Michael Dorris published an article in the New York Times, on February 24, 1991, about the popular Oscar winning film Dances With Wolves.  Excerpts from the article,  Indians in Aspic, illuminate this subject brilliantly: 

"The Sioux and Lieut. John Dunbar, the character enthusiastically played by Kevin Costner in "Dances With Wolves," meet auspiciously: He's naked, and that so disconcerts a group of mounted warriors that the naive young soldier lives to tell the tale, a sort of Boy Scout Order of the Arrow ritual carried to the nth power.  Dunbar, renamed Dances With Wolves, quickly earns merit badges in Pawnee-bashing and animal telepathy, and marries Stands With a Fist (Mary McDonnell), a passionate young widow who just happens to be a white captive cum Campfire Girl of impressive cross-cultural accomplishments.  Eventually the "With" family strikes out on their own -- the nucleus of a handsome new Anglo tribe -- sadder, wiser and certainly more sensitive as a result of their native American immersion."

 "Mr. Costner follows in a long tradition of literary and cinematic heroes who have discovered Indians. Robinson Crusoe did it off the coast of Brazil, Natty Bumppo did it in New York State and everyone from Debra Paget ("Broken Arrow," 1950) and Natalie Wood ("The Searchers," 1956) to Dustin Hoffman ("Little Big Man," 1970) and Richard Harris ("A Man Called Horse," 1970) has done it in Hollywood.  Usually these visits do not bode well for the aboriginal hosts -- just ask the Mohicans. Appreciative white folks always seem to show up shortly before the cavalry (who are often looking for them) or Manifest Destiny, and record the final days of peace before the tribe is annihilated. "

"Readers and viewers of such sagas are left with a predominant emotion of regret for a golden age now but a faint memory. In the imaginary mass media world of neat beginnings, middles and ends, American Indian society, whatever its virtues and fascinations as an arena for Euro-American consciousness-raising, is definitely past tense.  Thematically virtually all of these works share a subtle or not so subtle message: Indians may be poor, they may at first seem strange or forbidding or primitive, but by golly once you get to know them they have a thing or two to teach us about The Meaning of Life."

  

"The tradition goes back a long way. Europeans like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl May (the turn-of-this-century novelist whose books, a mixture of Louis L'Amour and the Hardy Boys, have been a rite of passage for generations of German youth) laid out a single range for Indians to inhabit: savage-savage to noble-savage. Indians embody the concept of "the other" -- a foreign, exotic, even cartoonish panorama against which "modern" (that is, white) men can measure and test themselves, and eventually, having proved their mettle in battle, be dubbed as natural leaders by their hosts...." 

 "...Dunbar is our national myth's 'every-man' -- handsome, sensitive, flexible, right-thinking. He passes the test of the frontier, out-Indians the Indians, achieves a pure soul by encountering and surmounting the wilderness. Yet, if "Dances With Wolves" had been about people who happen to be Indians, rather than about Indians (uniformly stoic, brave, nasty to their enemies, nice to their friends), it might have stood a better chance of acting as a bridge between societies that have for too long woodenly characterized each other.

Native Americans have been cast as the 'Imaginary Other' many times, for many years.  It's hardly necessary to list examples.  Most of us have vivid memories of dozens of movies, and television shows throughout our lives, that promote this very stereotype.  A pattern of this strain of ethnocentrism was also discussed, in the form of a familiar Hollywood trope:

Consider the popular film The Last Samurai.  In a nutshell, Tom Cruise (our national myth's 'every-man' -- handsome, sensitive, flexible, right-thinking) plays Nathan Algren, a disillusioned civil war veteran hired to kill the samurai.  Algren is instead captured by the Samurai after an auspicious meeting involving a 'mystical sign' in the form of an interpreted vision.

He soon falls in love with a Japanese woman, a passionate young widow of a man he recently killed, and becomes infatuated with their lifestyle.  Algren quickly earns merit badges in speaking Japanese, and ninja-zen samurai combat skills, and eventually switches sides.  He passes the test of honor, out samurais the samurai, and achieves a pure soul by encountering and surmounting the wilderness within himself.  

In the end, Algren returns to the village to be with the Japanese woman (who completely forgives him), having finally found peace in his life, leaving his former existence behind.  As you can see, the Imaginary Other doesn't need to be Native American at all.  They merely need to offer "--a foreign, exotic, even cartoonish panorama against which "modern" (that is, white) men can measure and test themselves, and eventually, having proved their mettle in battle, be dubbed as natural leaders by their hosts...." 

To illustrate this point, let's look at the film Avatar.  Sam Worthington (our national myth's 'every-man' -- handsome, sensitive, flexible, right-thinking...Director James Cameron described him as "being a guy you'd want to have a beer with") plays Jake Sully, a disillusioned, disabled former Marine who becomes part of the Avatar Program. in order to infiltrate the alien Na'vi, on the Planet Pandora, after his twin brother is killed.  Jake's avatar is attacked by a 'thanator' and flees into the forest, where he is rescued by Neytiri, a female Na'vi. Witnessing an auspicious mystical sign, she takes him to her clan, and Scully is initiated into their society.

He soon falls in love with Neytiri, and becomes enamored with the Na'vi lifestyle.  Scully quickly earns merit badges in Eco-terrorism, and Toruk taming (dragon-predators), and eventually switches sides.  He passes the test of the Na'vi Nature Gods, out aliens the aliens, and achieves a pure soul by disdaining the material world and overcoming the destroyer within himself.  

In the end, all humans are expelled from Pandora and sent back to Earth, after which Jake is transferred permanently into his avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls, returning to Neytiri and leaving his former life behind.  Have you begun to think of other examples yet?  The Imaginary Other takes many forms, but all serve the same function.

**Note** It doesn't escape my notice that these are all examples of practical application of the Hegelian dialectical method.  This is often described as 'thesis, antithesis, synthesis' or 'problem, reaction, solution' in the sense that relation between the three abstract terms of the triad, also known as the dialectical method, is summarized in the following way:  (1) a beginning proposition called a thesis, (2) a negation of that thesis called the antithesis, and (3) a synthesis whereby the two conflicting ideas are reconciled to form a new proposition.  Additionally, these are also patent examples of the transformative 'Hero's Journey', an important archetypal mythological narrative. Although extremely relevant to the topic overall, these are discussions for another day, and not the particular angle I'm taking here. - RM

In the film Point Break, Keanu Reeves (our national myth's 'every-man' -- handsome, sensitive, flexible, right-thinking) plays former Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback and rookie FBI Agent Johnny Utah. Utah is assigned to investigate a string of bank robberies by the "Ex-Presidents", a gang of adrenaline-junkie surfers that rob banks while wearing face-masks depicting former US presidents to disguise their true identities. He uses a surfer girl to infiltrate the gang, and after a rocky start, the gang leader auspiciously recognizes Utah as a college football hero.

He soon falls in love with the surfer girl, and becomes intoxicated with the hedonistic thrill seeking lifestyle.  Utah quickly earns merit badges in night surfing, and high altitude, low opening parachute jumping, and eventually switches sides, letting the gang leader escape after a lengthy foot chase.  He passes the tests of the establishment, out extremes the extremists by jumping out of a plane with no parachute, and achieves a pure soul by facing and overcoming his temptations.

In the end, Utah is reunited with the surfer girl, arrests the gang leader, and walks away, throwing his FBI badge into the ocean, leaving his former life behind.  Okay....that's plenty of examples, you get the picture.  Let me get back to the point.

Within all populations there exists variation, and variation within that variation.  When it comes to ethnocentrism, the same holds true.  Ethnocentrism exists on a wide spectrum.  The examples listed above fall somewhere within that 'distribution'/along that line.  When it comes to the portrayal of the Imaginary Other as a means of propping up racial insecurities, the far end of the spectrum looks something like this and/or much much worse:

It shouldn't have escaped your notice that all the films discussed were/are hugely popular.  No doubt all are or will be considered 'classics.'  It's important to understand that one big reason that this type of negative reinforcement and dysfunctional cultural programming is the form our entertainment takes is because it pays!!   As for other reasons....another discussion for another day.

Look....I'm not telling you to stop watching movies.  I'm just making you aware of one small way that your world and reality are being shaped while you do.  Why do I do that?  Because, once you know, you can never go back.  That's important, because problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them.

We've got all kinds of Imaginary Others out there right now.  They've been foisted onto 'the movie-watching audience' we call 'the right," "conservatives," "evangelicals," and other labels that never seem to catch-all correctly.  I refer also, once again, to the great swath of humanity that does not get its exposure to other cultures via long term direct experience.

You've heard the opening salvos, the rants, and the incrimination against the latest Imaginary Others.  Some are fairly new, others are uncomfortably familiar, like the illustrations above.  It's those "Mexicans, Muslims, and LGBTQ...liberals, the blacks, and don't forget Jews...refugees, women, and Chinese folks tooooooooo!!!"

Some people believe it so much...the myth of the bogeyman Imaginary Other....that they will turn to almost anyone to protect them.  They will embrace lifelong enemies, and compromise their stated principles.  When you encounter these fear mongers, remember the anthropologist's motto:  "Friends Don't Let Friends Be Ethnocentric."

RM