Save The Last Dance Analysis

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Recommended: Stereotypes and judgement

The movie “Save The Last Dance” directed by Thomas Carter, is a story about a white female named Sara, who moved to south Chicago to live with her dad after her mom had died in a tragic car accident during Sara’s audition for Julliard, school of dance. Sara doesn’t get accepted into Julliard and starts school in south Chicago which is located on the rougher side of town. At this new school, Sara meets Chenille and Chenille’s brother Derek, who are both African-American. Chenille and Derek take Sara to a club which is completely out of her element because this club centers their dancing around hip hop and Sara only has experience in ballet and contemporary dance. Derek agrees to give Sara lessons on how to dance hip-hop. While teaching her …show more content…

Nadra Kareem Nittle (2016) says that “stereotypes are characteristics that are put on groups of people based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.” Stereotypes can be positive or negative, but in this movie they’re mostly negative. In the beginning of the movie, Sara is on the phone with her friend that she grew up with, telling her about her new school. Lindsey, the friend, automatically asks “Have you seen anyone get shot yet?” By asking this, Lindsey is implying that since Sara lives in the “ghetto”, she will most likely witness a shooting which is a stereotypical assumption. Another example of stereotypes is the scene where Derek meets his friends at the restaurant and they talk about Sara and the gang bang they’re about to do. Malakai, Derek’s friend exclaims “White women don’t bring nothin’ but trouble”. Another friend at the table says “All women bring trouble”. Malakai made a stereotype by singling out one group of people and the other friend corrected the stereotype by using the term “all”. Yet even though the friend may have corrected it, the stereotype is still that women in general bring trouble. At the same scene, while talking about the drive-by they were going to perform, Derek is trying to talk Malakai out of the idea. Malakai says to Derek “A black man’s life is all about madness and mayhem.” By stating this, he is feeding into the stereotype that African-American men all think that being in gangs and participating in drive-by shootings are acceptable. Derek, who is trying to become a doctor, is the opposite of that stereotype. The last example of stereotypes that I found in the movie was when Sara and Chenille are sitting in a waiting room together and got on the conversation about Sara and Derek’s relationship. Chenille then talks about how she agrees with Nikki in the fact that Sara is “taking one of the only good black men away from black women”. Specifically, Chenille says

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