Film, or the concept of it, has been around since the beginning of the 18th century. The lens of the camera has captured some of the most beautiful things, but also the most prejudice. Stereotypes of races, ethnicities, and gender have always been around but widely seen as acceptable when the crisp, new films were showing them. Almost as long as there has been film, there have been people fighting for equality to be presented on the big screen. Danez Smith is one of these modern fighters in his free verse poem “Dinosaurs in the Hood.” As Smith uses his words to create a poetic trailer for this stereotype free movie, he tells the story of a young African American boy but rather being focused on his color, he focuses on his heroic actions when …show more content…
fighting wandering dinosaurs. Smith starts the poem with a communal invitation to make a new movie, one that viewers have never witnessed before. He uses juxtaposition when he says the movie will be “Jurassic Park meets Friday meets The Pursuit of Happyness,” creating a creature movie with the influence of “hood boys” (Smith, Dinosaurs in the Hood,line 2). In the last three lines of the first stanza, Smith uses imagery to paint the scene of an African American boy playing with a toy dinosaur as he gazes out his window to see a T.Rex because “there has to be a T.Rex.” Smith is saying that if this was a stereotype filled movie it would have to have a T.rex in it due to the overuse of that certain beast,but leaves the question open to if the dinosaur is stereotyped what African American cliches of the boy have to be in the film? Bluntly, Smith states in stanza two “don’t let Tarantino direct this” due to his overuse of racial slurs and violence. Then he goes on to explain the metaphor of “the boy with the gun.” In another poem by Danez Smith, he shares alternate names for black boys such as “going, going, gone” and “a mother’s joy and clutched breath.”(Smith, Alternate Names for Black Boys,10,17) Both poems refer cliche of little boys with broken dreams makes adult fathers with wandering feet. The boy toils with his own life and ironically the boy is the gun, a foreshadow to his untimely death, because of the stereotype that African American children are violent and sadly the “spitting image” of their absent father. This is not the first time this poet has brought up the violent patterns of African Americans in the entertainment world. In his poem “Sideshow” he states, “Is it not the same play? The same plot & characters? The curtain rises, then: a womb a boy a night emptied of music a trigger a finger a bullet” This means that no matter what, over and over, colored men are viewed as violent criminals with violent deaths.
Explicitly, Smiths declares “Fuck that” referring to the overused stereotypes in the film industry and expresses that the kid is not playing with a T.Rex, but a Brontosaurus or Triceratops, to him proving divinity and freedom, his own type of religion.
The cliches begin to crumble in the third stanza when lesser-known dinosaurs are roaming the streets. He uses dinosaurs to show that unlike every other prehistoric creature movie made, colored men and women can fight them off too. Smith proclaims what can and cannot happen- such as the Wayan brothers, the epitome of stereotypical African Americans in a sitcom, cannot be featured in this movie. Along with colored stereotypes, there cannot be the cultural molds of Asians and Latinos. Other groups are mentioned to bring light to the fact this is not just a race issue, but an ethnicity issue as well, going far beyond the color of one’s skin. Smith simply expresses he does not want any of that “racist shit.” He uses explicit language and colloquial vocabulary to create a conversational tone and a fiery passion with his harsh
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words. The characters of this film are “royal folks” (Smith, Dinosaurs in the Hood,19) It is about people, people not being who they are portrayed as in the long history of art, separating art from reality and not letting only one side of the story get told. Smith goes on in the fourth stanza to say that this is the story of minorities that save themselves standing next to the addicts,exiles, and children of slaves. It is the broken people that are the heroes of this story. A shift is noticeable beginning in the fourth stanza because the poem changes from what the poet wants the movie to be to what elements the movie is prohibited to have. The poet claims he does not want a “hmong sexy hot dude” to save the day with “a funny yet strong, commanding black girl buddy-cop” then uses Will Smith and Sofia Vergara as an example. The preceding lines go on to say that there will grandmas taking out Raptors while sitting on her porch and for once a movie will not obsess over violence, race, and status, only normal people doing amazing things. The attitude of the poem is prominent in the fifth stanza as Smith mockingly jabs at the film industry, professing that Cicely Tyson, a famous actress and model who played powerful roles throughout her career, has to make a speech.
Smith also demands that Viola Davis, another actress famously known for appearing in sad, gloomy movies, has to save the day- very unlikely of her. She uses a black fist Afro pick, a symbol for both African culture and the shattering of the “superhero” stereotype, to finally kill the dinosaur. “But this can’t be a black movie” and Smith says it cannot “cause black people pain or or be about black people pain” (Smith, Dinosaurs in the Hood, 26,28).These underlying theme of this poem is buried within these lines. People are more than their past, and stereotypes can be broken. The theme of this poem is stereotypes are not set in stone. People, or a group of people, can evolve and must not be oppressed by the cruel hands of prejudice. This movie must not be about African Americans “long history with having a long history of hurt” or reminiscing in past cruelties of slavery, prejudice, and moving to the back of the bus. Only a colored boy who fights a dinosaur. Race should not be the theme or the issue in this movie, we have seen far too much of those, and no one can say “nigga” to justify
that. The last stanza bashes one of the most timeworn cliches in film history. Smith says there are no stereotypes of “chicken” in his move and no more familiar bullets in the hero. Perhaps the most uncommon motive in this movie is “nobody kills the black boy, and nobody kills the black boy and nobody kills the black boy” (Smith, Dinosaurs in the Hood, 32).The repetition of this strong phrase and the poet’s lack of punctuation creates an energy of passion that speeds up so the reader feels the intensity of the message being portrayed. Lastly, Smith ended this poem by recalling the only reason he wanted to make this movie was for the beginning scene anyway. A young African American boy not bound by stereotypes and whispered worries of who he will be, endless possibilities sparkle in his eyes. Danez Smith empowers readers and challenges one of society’s oldest issues in “Dinosaurs in the Hood,” a free verse poem about change. Perhaps one day this movie could hit theaters worldwide and alter the lives of colored children everywhere desperately trying to find themselves. Even better, let there be a sequel made challenging the stereotypes of women, LGBTQ, and other minority groups desperatly waiting to save the day.
Over the past decades, Hollywood movies have brought out the representations of racial inequality through out various themes of racism and stereotypical ways. One frequent type of racial inequality is that there is a culture or race that is belittled, under-privilege and inferior while the other is superior and high in order. In “The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won’t Die” by Matt Zoller Seitz, He identifies the term “magical negro” as: “a saintly African American character who acts as a mentor to a questing white hero, who seems to be disconnected from the community that he adores so much, and who often seems to have an uncanny ability to say and do exactly what needs to be said or done in order to keep the story chugging along in the hero’s favor” (408) and in Mitu Sengupta “ Race Relations Light Years from the Earth” the author examines the movie Avatar as a racist film, and focuses on how it resembles the “white messiah” stereotype. The term “white messiah” is known as a white individual who hold superior power, according to David Brooks of the New York Times, “a stereotype that white people are rationalistic and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic, and that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades” (Sengupta 213). Both articles dwell and explain the two terms and how it portrays the themes of racism and stereotypes through two elements, known as author’s purpose and main idea. These elements effectively convey the theme because it prevents our thoughts from being scattered by a broad spectrum of ideas and instead, it tells you exactly what is going to be discussed throughout the article.
Over past decades, Hollywood movies have brought out the representations of racial inequality through out various themes of racism and stereotypical ways. One frequent type of racial inequality is that there is a culture or race that is belittled, under-privilege and inferior while the other is superior and high in order. In “The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won’t Die” by Matt Zoller Seitz, He identifies the term “magical negro” as: “a saintly African American character who acts as a mentor to a questing white hero, who seems to be disconnected from the community that he adores so much, and who often seems to have an uncanny ability to say and do exactly what needs to be said or done in order to keep the story chugging along in the hero’s favor” (408) and in Mitu Sengupta “ Race Relations Light Years from the Earth” the author examines the movie Avatar as a racist film, and focuses on how it resembles the “white messiah” stereotype. The term “white messiah” is known as a white individual who hold superior power, according to David Brooks of the New York Times, “a stereotype that white people are rationalistic and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic, and that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades” (Sengupta 213). Both articles dwell and explain the two terms and how it portrays the themes of racism and stereotypes through two elements, known as author’s purpose and main idea. These elements effectively convey the theme because it prevents our thoughts from being scattered by a broad spectrum of ideas and instead, it tells you exactly what is going to be discussed throughout the article.
This film represents our indigenous culture and regardless of what happens we can find good in a situation. Together the black and white community can come together and achieve more than they could ever do by themselves.
The film starts with an uprising after a white storeowner kills a black teenager. This incident Highlights Prejudices. The teenager was labeled a thief because of the color of his skin and the unjustifiable murder causes racial tensions that exist as a result of the integration of the high schools.
It is often the case that media and more specifically, film, perpetuates the stereotypes of black men. These stereotypes include not showing emotion, being physically aggressive, embrace violence, supposed criminality, associated with drug use, lack a father figure, sexually exploit women, and others. In the film, Boyz n the Hood, Tre’s father, Furious Styles, encourages Tre to demonstrate loyalty to other people in relationships, resist aggressive behavior, and foster and exhibit sexual responsibility. Thus, throughout the film, Tre challenges the society’s stereotyped norms of black masculinity and what it means to be a black man.
... that the film opens with. While the story may be slightly dramatic and pieces of the story “coincidentally” seem to fall into exactly the wrong place at the wrong time causing the tragedies in the film to happen, the events in this film are entirely capable of being a reality. Racism and prejudice continue to be prevalent issues in our society, but like Anthony, we can learn to overcome anything that holds us back from putting unity into practice and making our world a better place for everyone.
White people and rappers during the late 1970’s and 1980’s seem to be offended when asked about their role in the hip hop community. They think that black people are becoming a part of a cultural movement and they should join in. The heated responses from the white people in the film are typical answers. They symbolize people who are afraid. The white people are joining a movement that is becoming more and more popular. Black communities feel like others are joining in on their fun. They seem to not enjoy people of another race
During the semester, race is a big part of the lectures. In class, we talk about how race is distinguishing physical characteristics used to place people in different racial categories (Jensen). The biggest concern with race is racial inequality. Racial inequality is the inadequate or unfair treatment of minorities in areas like income, education, employment, health, the criminal justice system, and media. The article written by Rebecca Keegan from the Los Angeles Times newspaper discusses the inequality of race in media specifically movies. This article relates to the unfairness in films because minorities are poorly portrayed in the majority of films. More often than not, minorities are the “bad guys” in films. They are caught up in criminal activity and live in poorer neighborhoods than the majority. The article gives numerous statistics proving and exploiting that there is indeed racial inequality depicted in films. Also the Keegan touches on how minorities are underrepresented in films in the way that they usually do not have as many speaking lines compared to the white actor/actress.
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
If this movie were to be summarized in one sentence, one may say that no matter who you are, everybody holds preconceptions and stereotypes against other people. For example, in this movie, an upper-class white woman sees two black men so she clings to her husband, showing she is scared of them. Even though this woman had no idea who they were, she still jumped to a conclusion that they were going to harm her because of the color of their skin.
... model for how the entertainment and media industries depict black people must change. Despite the progress that blacks have worked toward since the days of slavery, society continues to give in to the monetary benefits of producing self-disparaging entertainment and media. It is not only up to the directors, editors, producers and writers to establish this change, but it should also be the demand of the people, or the consumer. If the images of black people in the media are improved the outlook within the community will improve as well. Not only will positive goals and achievements become more realistic for black people if the media outlets discontinue their practice of equating blacks with aggression, lawlessness and violence, but a greater good will also result for whites, which would be represented by a true autonomy and equality in American society.
Over the course of approximately one-hundred years there has been a discernible metamorphosis within the realm of African-American cinema. African-Americans have overcome the heavy weight of oppression in forms such as of politics, citizenship and most importantly equal human rights. One of the most evident forms that were withheld from African-Americans came in the structure of the performing arts; specifically film. The common population did not allow blacks to drink from the same water fountain let alone share the same television waves or stage. But over time the strength of the expectant black actors and actresses overwhelmed the majority force to stop blacks from appearing on film. For the longest time the performing arts were the only way for African-Americans to express the deep pain that the white population placed in front of them. Singing, dancing and acting took many African-Americans to a place that no oppressor could reach; considering the exploitation of their character during the 1930's-1960's acting' was an essential technique to African American survival.
... supremacist gang, to rioting in an Asian owned grocery store, to finally brutally murdering someone. We observe as family ties become increasingly strained in every way, the viewer can easily conclude that Derek’s racism as well as his eventual influence on his younger brother ultimately contributed to their own downfall. As controversial as this movie maybe for the offensive language and brutal violence, it is a movie that deserves to be seen, and even discussed. It really provides insight into some factors within society that cannot be contained by the law or even deterred by even the harshest punishments. Even though American society is becoming more modernized as time goes by in terms of tolerance, racism will unfortunately always be prevalent in society and inevitably it will also lead some individuals to violently express their distorted mentalities.
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
... is the brutality of hate and racism. The emotions running high in the movie makes it powerful and moving and the death of Derek’s younger brother Danny Vinyard is shocking enough to bring tears to many viewers’ eyes. The movie ends with Danny’s voice reading his paper out loud and he ends his paper with a very important quote by Abraham Lincoln. This quote shows how Danny’s, as well as Derek’s, mindset changed from the beginning of the movie to the end. When hearing this quote it leaves the viewers in awe that Danny finally started to look past his hateful ideologies but ends up dead because of the lifestyle him and his brother decided to lead. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained we must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature”.