You Can Not See...It's Beneath The Surface

Nakamura describes a part of the movie in Minority Report(pg. 118), where John Anderton, who is played by Tom Cruise, has his eyes replaced so that digital devices cannot trace his identity. Andertons' eyes are replaced with Asian eyes, but he is not aware of this until shopping in Gap, and he is addressed as Mr. Yakamoto, after having his eyes scanned. This part of the movie is compelling to me, because it diminishes certain stereotypes people may have about race, in regards to the way they "think" Asian eyes "should" look or that a "white" man cannot possibly be Asian. When Anderton is walking out of the store saying to himself Mr. Yakamoto?, it is kind of comical, because he may not get caught by having his eyes scanned, but you know he's thinking the last name is a dead give away in society. It's interesting how when it comes to organ replacement, people don't generally think about race, or at least I've never heard about it. Or maybe if organ replacement is necessary for ones survival, people stop being so ignorant, and realize that we are all created the same, but each have unique features.

This topic made me think of a movie I recently watched named Surrogates. In the movie, Bruce Willis is searching for the person causing "real-life" people to die while operating their "surrogate" robots. Mind you these people stay in their houses while controlling these robots, which are out working and roaming the real world. People who live on the outskirts of town, are considered "outsiders", because they do not want to partake in the new society of surrogate robots. The leader of the "outsiders" is a powerful, big, mean looking, African-American man. However, we figure out the leader ends up being a robot, and is run by an old "white" skinny man, who first created surrogates.

This movie ties in with the other, in that people have preconceived ideas about who people are based on race alone. In the first movie there is a white man who could not possibly be Asian, because of his features?! In the second movie there is a black man who could not possibly be a scrawny old "white "man underneath, because he appears so powerful?!? Maybe this is why there is so much fascination with avatars in the virtual world, as people are not judged on their RL appearance.