“Whether 'Avatar' is racist is a matter for debate. Regardless of where you come down on that question, it's undeniable that the film - like alien apartheid flick 'District 9', released earlier this year - is emphatically a fantasy about race.”

American journalist, editor, and author

Annalee Newitz is an American journalist, editor, and author of fiction and nonfiction. They have worked across technology, culture, and media since the late 1990s, and are known for writing, editing, and shaping coverage at several major outlets. From 1999 to 2008, Newitz wrote the weekly syndicated column Techsploitation. They were culture editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian from 2000 to 2004, later became a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2004, and co-founded Other magazine with Charlie Jane Anders. Newitz went on to lead io9 from 2008 to 2015, then its successor Gizmodo, and has also written for Popular Science, Film Quarterly, and Wired.