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Racial issues have always been a serious problem in the USA. Commonly seen racial issues include racial discrimination, stereotypes, and profiling. Nowadays, many movies focus on racial issues. One of the examples is “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.” In this movie, Harold and Kumar are second-generation Asian Americans, and both of them experience racial biases in their daily lives. On one Friday night, they are deeply attracted by a White Castle advertisement; they decide to get some burgers at White Castle. However, they undergo various events related to racial problems on their way to the White Castle. In spite of this, they get their burgers that they crave for at last. As the plot unfolds, some of the different and similar personal traits and changes in their notion emerge. To name a few, the differences between Harold and Kumar are their characteristics, while the similarities are how white people identify and treat them and how their ideas change at the end of the story. First of all, in this …show more content…
Harold is conservative, introverted, and diffident. Such characteristics can be observed at the beginning of the movie when Harold fails to tell Maria, the girl whom Harold fell in love with at first sight, that he likes her. Also, his conservative characteristic serves as a curb keeping Kumar from doing something foolish. On the contrary, Kumar is impulsive, thrill-seeking, and authority-revolting. Such characteristics often get himself and Harold into trouble. For example, Kumar disobeys his father’s order and behaves flippantly on his med-school interview at the beginning of the movie. Likewise, during their trip, both Kumar and Harold get into trouble several times just because of what Kumar has done. Despite the fact that Harold and Kumar have different characteristics, they get along with each other well and add variety to each other’s
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.
Media such as movies, video games and television, in general, are all created to support some form of social context. This helps with generating popularity because people are able to relate to the form of media. In Greg Smith’s book What Media Classes Really Want to Discuss, he describes 6 different representational strategies that justifies people’s way of thinking. The trope that I will be amplifying is the white savior tactic. In addition, I will connect this strategy to the movie The Blind Side. There are clear examples throughout the film where racism and low-income cultures exist in which the white family is there to help. The Tuohy family from the movie “The Blind Side” serves as the white savior for the progression of Michael
Holden's idealism is first brought forth when he describes his life at Pency Prep. It is full of phonies, morons and bastards. His roommate, Stradlater, " was at least a pretty friendly guy, It was partly a phony kind of friendly..." (26) and his other roommate, Ackley is "a very nosy bastard" (33). Holden can't stand to be around either one of them for a very long time. Later, he gets into a fight with Stradlater over his date with Jane. Holden is upset because he thinks that Stradlater "gave her the time" and that he doesn't care about her; 'the reason he didn't care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron' (44). Holden not only sees his roommates as phonies and bastards, but he also sees his headmaster at Pency Prep as a "phony slob" (3). This type of person is exactly what Holden doesn't want to be. He strives to be a mature adult; caring, compassionate, and sensitive.
John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is that jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”. Both Holden and Juno possess views, attitudes and behaviours that contrast social norms, Holden resists conformity by avoiding his issues while Juno embraces reality and approaches her problems and Holden has a negative outlook on social influences while Juno has a carefree attitude toward social influences. J.D. Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye and Diablo Cody’s film, Juno both involve a main character who resists social expectations in their individual ways.
Race is, in fact, reestablished as an intrusive presence in American collective life in the second part of the play when Hwang 's father and other members of the community become victims of the 1996 Congressional investigation into the loyalty of Chinese Americans suspected of espionage and of obscure financial dealings with China, thereby imposing the reality of racism on a post-racial sensibility. (Botelho 92)
Two of them can be seen specifically in Harold, identity vs. role confusion and intimacy vs. isolation. Identity vs. role confusion is the psychosocial stage of development that Erikson said that adolescents go through. Identity in this stage of development is usually seen when adolescent define who they are and figure out what they value and direction in life. This can also be seen in personal relationships, sexual orientation, and ideals in adolescents (McAdams, 2009). Role confusion can be seen if an adolescent has lack of direction and definition of self or they seem unprepared for adulthood (McAdams, 2009). Harold can be seen to have role confusion throughout the movie. Harold does not seem to have a specific direction that he wants to take his life, other than faking suicides and attending strangers funerals. Harold seems extremely unprepared for adulthood, he shows no signs of looking for a job or a way to make money, he still acts rather childish, as his mother puts it. The only real self definition that Harold that could be seen as identity, is that he is preoccupied with
This was especially evident when they were being pulled over by a racist white cop. She felt that he could have done more to defend their rights instead of accepting injustice. There is also a Persian store owner, who feels that he is getting the short end of the stick in American society because his store was robbed multiple times. Then the Hispanic locksmith encounters racial slurs and discrimination, although he just wanted to keep his family safe. The partnered detectives and lovers of different races, one is a Hispanic woman and the other is a black male, who are dealing with his drug addicted mother who feels that he does not care enough about taking care of his family. In this movie, discrimination and prejudice are the cause of all kinds of collisions. We easily prejudge people with stereotypes, and we are concerned with our pre-thoughts of what kind of person he/she should be, we forget to actually get to know them. It is human nature to have some type of prejudices in one way or another; we fear the unknown. There are stereotypes that black people are angry or tend to be violent; white people feel they are the dominant race and discriminate against all; Asians are thought to be poor or ignorant, and people with higher economic statuses are distinguished to the working class
Just like any other racial stereotypes, Asian Stereotypes have been and always will be around in our society. The fact that Asians are allowed to be portrayed stereotypically in Media shows the lack of voices of this minority group. Asian stereotypes are taken lightly by others, and yet heavily by the Asian population. Whether one likes it or not, Asian stereotype does not disappear eternally. As individuals of intellectual specie, we have to acknowledge the power of a racial stereotype and the possibilities of it remaining to be an eternal issue. To allocate such problem to another perspective, we must aim to become aware of them, by viewing these Asian Stereotypical films of what your average American watches on TV or at the movies. Although when Asian characters seem harmless (Jackie Chan in “Rush Hour” series) or humorous...
The White Savior Complex is a damaging subconscious underlay of the Hollywood system, and more broadly all of western society. It is used to further separate the notions of “us” and “other” by creating a firm separation fueled by self-righteousness, and a sense of entitlement. Hollywood attempts to address race relations, but fails because of this trope. Kingsle, from the article “Does My Hero Look White In This?” described that both racism and colonialism are acknowledged, but not without reassuring that not only were white people against the system of racist power dynamics, but also were actively fighting against it in leadership roles (2013). In the remainder of my essay I will be commenting on many modern films and their use on this trope, and why subscribing to this filmmaking strategy is problematic.
I gave several examples where Asian Americans were used to play very simple characters. These roles were defined by stereotypes that exist in America. I also researched instances on counter actions taken by Asian Americans to protest against these negative images. My research also has examples of Asians that have succeeded in breaking through the racial barriers in the media.
One of the biggest issues depicted in the film is the struggle of minority groups and their experience concerning racial prejudice and stereotyping in America. Examples of racism and prejudice are present from the very beginning of the movie when Officer Ryan pulls over black couple, Cameron and Christine for no apparent reason other than the color of their skin. Officer Ryan forces the couple to get out of the car
Often racial injustice goes unnoticed. Television tries to influence the mind of their viewers that blacks and whites get along by putting them on the screen to act as if interracial relationships has been accepted or existent. “At the movies these days, questions about racial injustice have been amicably resolved (Harper,1995). Demott stresses that the entertainment industry put forth much effort to persuade their audience that African Americans and Caucasians are interacting and forming friendships with one another that is ideal enough for them to die for one another. In the text, Demott states “A moment later he charges the black with being a racist--with not liking whites as much as the white man likes blacks--and the two talk frankly about their racial prejudices. Near the end of the film, the men have grown so close that each volunteer to die for the other” (Harper,1995). Film after film exposes a deeper connection amongst different races. In the text, Demott states “Day after day the nation 's corporate ministries of culture churn out images of racial harmony” (Harper, 1995). Time and time again movies and television shows bring forth characters to prove to the world that racial injustice has passed on and justice is now received. Though on-screen moments are noticed by many people in the world it does not mean that a writer/ director has done their
In the film, Harold and Maude, many psychological concepts are used to develop the characters. Harold, a young man who is obsessed with suicide and the attention death receives, displays many interesting psychological concepts in his character. On the other end of the spectrum, Maude, Harold’s 80-year-old eccentric grandmother, displays another set of psychological traits that differs slightly from Harold’s. Together, the characters continue to exhibit more psychological concepts, some of which are linked to developmental psychology.
The director is able to show the constant connection between race and personal beliefs. The first racial issue that comes up in the movie involves two black guys who go to a restaurant, and one of them feel as if he was not treated the same way as the other white customers. He goes on explaining that many white people tend to feel Wong 2 threatened when they see them (other black men) walking down a sidewalk. In another scene, there was a Hispanic locksmith that caused Sandra Bullock’s character to repeatedly state that she wanted the locks changed again because she believed that he would give the keys to his amigos.