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Representation of minorities in american cinema
Racial biases throughout history
Representation of minorities in american cinema
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Writer’s Statement My intended audience is the young generation. This includes students, teenagers and young adults. This is because with the young generation and their use of social media, we are able to express our thoughts and backlash at controversial news via the internet. The young generation is also the future of the world, as we grow up into influential adults. This is why I think it is important to educate young people about the arising issues about society including stereotyping and whitewashing in films. To support my statement, I utilized rhetorical questions to engage the audience and to persuade them to think about the issue. I included definitions and information about unfamiliar terms to help the audience understand the issue and give it more meaning. I also used various examples to give the audience context to familiarize themselves with and relate to. As the issue is centred around film and media, I decided to make a short film for my presentation. I inserted movie clips as examples and as proof of incidents of whitewashing and stereotyping to back up my statements. These examples show that whitewashing does happen and is …show more content…
By whitewashing the main protagonist, sometimes the real-life back story is of the main character is entirely ignored. Hollywood films tend to forget and disregard other cultures, but implement stereotypes instead. These stereotypes continue to generalize and portray some of the worst in ethnic groups with offensive representations. As the entertainment industry have a wide audience, these unrealistic depictions can leave a bad impression of these ethnic groups, and therefore contribute to racism. This is why I chose movie as a genre to base my film on, as the entertainment industry has a huge influence on society and the media, especially the young generation. Because of this, these racial issues and depictions of cultural groups in Hollywood need to be
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.
As showed in the film, Latino American often misrepresented and underrepresented both in front of and under the camera. American Hispanic often portrayed as lazy, unintelligent, greasy and criminal. Hispanic women often pictured comfortable sexuality as prostitution in film production; while Hispanic actors limit to criminal characters such as drug dealers, gangster, and provide the power for the white American. Audiences have less interaction with Latino in their real world might be easily framed by media images regarding the race and ethnicity. The lack of Hispanic history and culture understanding allows these media portrayals to change and form unfavorable behavior and attitude against Latino communities.
The movie 'Ethnic Notions' describes different ways in which African-Americans were presented during the 19th and 20th centuries. It traces and presents the evolution of the rooted stereotypes which have created prejudice towards African-Americans. This documentary movie is narrated to take the spectator back to the antebellum roots of African-American stereotypical names such as boy, girl, auntie, uncle, Sprinkling Sambo, Mammy Yams, the Salt and Pepper Shakers, etc. It does so by presenting us with multiple dehumanized characters and cartons portraying African-Americans as carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, savage Brutes, and wide-eyed Pickaninnies. These representations of African-Americans roll across the screen in popular songs, children's rhymes, household artifacts and advertisements. These various ways to depict the African ?American society through countless decades rooted stereotypes in the American society. I think that many of these still prevail in the contemporary society, decades after the civil rights movement occurred.
Whenever you're watching a movie or a sitcom there always seems to be some form of stereotype incorporated within their concept, it could be either good or bad. The cultures that are associated with this assignment are Latin and Greek American cultures which has four screenings. The four movies include Fools Rush In, The Wedding Planner, Dora the Explorer, which are a part of the Latin American Culture, My Big Fat Greek Wedding which was a part of the Greek American culture. In the movie Fools Rush In, you see a fiery latina played by Salma Hayek who comes from a very religious family, her family is also very big and when they celebrate they go all out just so they can have some fun. Isabel’s love interest Alex is from a completely different
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.
The Ugly Truth, a film which was released in 2009, displays many particular stereotypes and gender issues which we find within American society. Gender is made up of socially constructed ideas which are reinforced by society in regards to what it means to be masculine or feminine. We first learn gender from our parents; however they too had to first learn it from their families and society. Within the American society, the media takes on a large role in creating gender norms. The media is made up of films, magazines, television programs, and news papers. The Ugly Truth, although a funny film, perpetuates these stereotypes and ideas of gender provided by our society.
Not all African Americans are thugs and people that do not work. A lot of them have successful careers and have put in the time and effort to have good work ethic and be good people. African Americans have had a difficult history in the American film industry. During the early 20th century of filmmaking, blacks were stereotyped as not worthy of being in films, and they were only certain types of characters such as servants, mammies, and butlers. From several decades of filmmaking, African Americans have been sought out to be trouble makers, incapables, intellectually limited, and also lazy. Although blacks have won Academy Awards for acting, screenwriting, and music production they still find trouble in getting quality roles within the film industry. (Common Black Stereotypes)
Racism as defined by Encyclopedia Britannica as “the ideology that humans are divided into separate entities called races and that some races are innately superior to others” is one of the world’s major issues and we cannot deny the fact that it still persists in the modern world. Many people are not aware of how much racism still exists in today’s society. Some people thinks of it is a way of life. Others think of it it as an offensive expression that shows closed-mindedness. Racism comes from different ethnicity, cultural morals, beliefs, and the physical appearances. Another issue that is related to racism are stereotypes involved in various racial slurs. Stereotypes are known as a generally held fixed concept or idea over a definite person, group, or thing. “A standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion and prejudiced attitude.” Stereotyping puts people in a negative image, and then racism comes into play. It agitates the people affected by these generalized concepts. Racism is so ubiquitous that it has became part of today’s culture and became invisible yet many people experience it still. It is everywhere, it can be seen in the media and in one’s own community. Since the issue of racism has been going for centuries, various films were made to bring awareness to people. It is reflected in these films and other art forms as well especially in dance. Racial stereotypes were created for certain dance styles such as ballet is for white people and that hip-hop is for black people only. Using sources from dance studies and other scholarly articles, this essay will prove that racism is strongly presented and portrayed through both white protagonists in th...
The audience I decided to target was mostly kids, but it’s also strongly directed towards adults and young adults. I focused the most on persuading kids because kids are our future and kids will grow up with the idea of
In terms of discussing racism most of the historians exclude the events United States took part in during the time frame of the World War II. A particular race that had been mistreated during the World War II was the Japanese Americans in 1945 by the Untied States. In the film, Race: The Power of an Illusion mentions the segregation Japanese American went through, “The fact that they were seen as non American, enabled many Americans to see them as, uh, as the enemy, and to strip them totally of their civil liberties and to put them in, in internment camps during World War II.” The Americans felt threaten by the Japanese American, in which they were all forced to leave their home and live in camps. The film, Something Strong Within exposed the
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...
During the 1930s, the movie industry was predominantly run and funded by the Anglo Americans including playwrights, producers, actors, actresses, and other casting member. Westerns were popular during the ‘20s and ‘30s, and in these movies, Caucasian men were acting as Asian American rather than hiring Asian American. As Hollywood movies industries progress further with focusing on greater audiences and making more profitable. They movies industries began to introduce other characters. At the beginning of late ‘50s and ‘60s various minority roles were introduce into the Hollywood movies. Most of the roles were stereotypical and marginalized by one dimensional such as servant, housemaids, etc. It’s about Cambodians, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Indians Indonesians Laotians, Malaysians, Thai and Vietnamese all are coming together in same continent. Last fifteen years after World War II Vietnamese in the United States still suffered from the pain of exile of their identity in media and movies. They are the people who are former generals, former peasant spies’ school teachers, and physicians, but in movies they play servant characters. Asian American makes 10% of population in California but out of 10% only 1% is in television. Every movie shows Asian women as girlfriend of white man. They are always shown sexualized character...
In general, Media can be defined as a broad range of mass communication which includes internet, television, radio, and other mediums that have plausible influences to the audience. Nowadays, as the urbanization takes place; the consumption of mass media has become apparent as current trends. Certainly, media plays a profound role in shaping our perspective, attitude, and idea as we are exposed to the media very significantly in variety of forms. According to the “Miss Representation”, American teenager in average are exposed to media approximately about 10 hours and 45 minutes per day. Thus, it is often the role of the media to shape our perception and emphasized the expectations of societal norms in the context of representation. Based on Oxford dictionaries representation is “the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature”. Briefly, the paper will discusses “I Luh Ya Papi” a music video by Jennifer Lopez to further exemplify the gender norms or gender binaries in society, the effects of music video on gendered violence, portrayal of heterosexism in media, cultural and racial stereotypes depiction, and the consequences of the male patriarchal system.
The author and I are experiencing the same point of view on how the media influence people around us. This article is not only written for any particular group, race, ethnicity, gender, etc… I think as a human being, this article is related to all of us. The author has done an outstanding job for all of us by describing as people how the media represent a big problem for our society or our community. I learned a valuable lesson from this article, which I also discovered that central Africa women must have hips, but because of the western image that value is no longer applicable. I also encourage everyone to stay focused and love their culture while watching some TV shows because it is easy to forget about who you are and adopted another way of doing things you never used to do before.