Birth Of A Nation: Racism In Film

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Within the three movies we have watched so far, racism has played an important role. “The Birth of a Nation”, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, and “Redtails” all take place during the 1900’s, when racism was widespread. According to Dictionary.com, racism is defined as: “a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement,usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.” Although all three movies take place in the same time period, we see different scenarios. In the first movie, “The Birth of a Nation”, it is centered around the Ku Klux Klan and fighting against …show more content…

Taking place in 1915, “The Birth of a Nation” is about two families, the Stonemans and the Camerons. The Camerons own a cotton plantation while the Stoneman family is from the North. The Stoneman father is an abolitionist and he owns a very uppity African American housekeeper. As time progresses we see war coming and eventually we get to see the birth of the Ku Klux Klan. “The Birth of a Nation” is considered the most racist movie due to things such as the black depiction, in which many roles were played by white actors who painted their faces black. Within this movie, the African American men are viewed as hyper-sexualized and primitive. We see this when Elsie leaps to her death to keep from being hurt or even raped by Gus. We also see extreme racism when the African American lawmakers appear shoeless and drinking whiskey, such as the scene where they approve of interracial marriage. This movie hypes up the “threat” of having African Americans in power positions and it depicts African American men in a hyper-sexualized, primitive state. In conclusion, it is easy to understand why this movie has earned the title of the most racist …show more content…

“Redtails” is similar to “The Birth of a Nation” in the sense that there is war; however, it is more similar to “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” in the fact that there is not a prevalent amount of racism within this movie. Because the movie has all African American men as the major roles, it was not released right away due to many unsure how to market such a movie in the 1900’s. Within this movie, we see an all African American world war two unit, called the Redtails. The Redtails not only fight the Nazi’s in war, but also fight racism at home. The movie also focuses onto the men as individuals. One man is a highly aggressive fighter, but also a rebel. One gets captured by Germans and another has a drinking problem. An additional man is badly injured in a plane crash. The man is flying and somehow gets covered in gas. He crashes his plane and it explodes, leaving him severely burned, which leads to him getting sent home. The pilots eventually get more recognized toward the end of the movie. This movie is based off of the Tuskegee Airmen. It does not have too much racism within it and seems as if it is more focused on African American men equality within the armed forces. During this time period, African American men were not seen as full citizens at home and they are constantly dogged on throughout training. Although this movie does have some subtle hints at racism, throughout the storyline, we get to

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