James Balcer, Chicago Alderman, Says "Avatar" is Anti-Military & Anti-American in Portrayal of Marines

Alderman James Balcer of Chicago's 11th Ward, has launched a campaign against blockbuster movie "Avatar," directed by James Cameron. Not only has the movie been accused of having a racist subtext, now Balcer is asserting that the movie is anti-military and anti-American. Balcer, who is a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam was told CBS Chicago that he hates the film's message. Let me paint a picture for you. In the movie, an army of mercenaries, led by a villainous Marine, invades the planet of Pandora and wreaks havoc on the peaceful "blue people,"Na'vi all because of the deposits of a precious mineral.

Balcer told CBS2 Chicago that the film makes Marines "look like lunatics." In reality, he said, "We are a good, generous country that helps people." He was asked if the film is anti-American and anti military, Balcer said, "Well, they never mentioned America but when you have the eagle, globe and anchor -- the Marine Corps emblem -- it has to be America."

For me, having watched the movie with my kids, I found it had more a racist subtext and pointed out quite clearly, as we have seen in countless other movies, the "white man" swoons to take over, but somehow one has a change of heart and manages to save the day. Isn't this what history has portrayed through the years from Christopher Columbus who miraculously discovered the New World, though these "strange lands" were already inhabited, to others including Crawford Long, the Southern doctor credited with discovering anesthesia? Long used black slaves as his guinea pigs to experiment on until he got it right.

Let me use the land of my birth, Jamaica, as an example. There were Taino indians (also known as Arawaks) living there when Christopher Columbus and his mass marauders landed from Spain on May 4, 1494.  The Tainos were portrayed in history as a gentle race. They were short, rather stout, with straight black hair and flattish noses. They were copper-colored and were very skillful fishermen. The Spaniards made slave out them and subjected them to inhumane treatment. There were reportedly 60,000 Taino Indians when Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica and within 50 years they were all dead. So, this notion that the white man is the "savior" of people of strange lands have gone on for ages.

Still, "Avatar" has continued to shatter box office records. To date, according to Box Office Mojo,  the movie has grossed $1.34 billion, second to another James Cameron movie, "The Titanic," which had a total haul of $1.8 billion worldwide.