Film Prejudice And Racism

The history of African Americans in early Hollywood films originated with blacks representing preconceived stereotypes. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, Birth of a Nation, stirred many controversial issues within the black community. The fact that Griffith used white actors in blackface to portray black people showed how little he knew about African Americans. Bosley Crowther’s article “The Birth of Birth of a Nation” emphasizes that the film was a “highly pro-South drama of the American Civil War and the Period of Reconstruction, and it glorified the role of the Ku Klux Klan” (76). While viewing this film, one would assert that the Ku Klux Klan members are heroic forces that rescue white women from sexually abusive black men. Griffith

In many ways technology makes access to academic work, research and employment easier and faster. However, I am concerned that technology is too often chosen over humanity. Historically,representations of African Americans in technological media tend to value "white" bodies at the expense of Black bodies (Stam and Spence, 1983). Further, recent studies show (Zickmund 2000), in fact, the ways in which some World Wide Web sites make it easier for hate groups to spread their misinformation, contributing to the devaluation of black bodies in technological media. Together, these media representations can be understood in terms of a digital devide between technological "haves" and

Harmful racial stereotypes have plagued the entertainment industry since blackface minstrel shows began in New York in the early 1800’s. Although the structure of minstrel shows changed over time; the images, blackface, and the caricatures of blacks continued. Early Hollywood films sustained the racist tradition of white actors performing in blackface with numerous silent movies that included white actors playing non-white characters in a particularly stereotypical fashion. Eventually non-white actors were allowed to play themselves in film, however they were cast in extremely prejudiced roles that degraded themselves like “the coon”, “the tom”, “the black buck” or “the mammy” for African American actors, and “the bandito”, “the greaser”, “Latin lover” or the “spitfire for Latino actors. Although there are some productive ambiguities within some of these roles, they are ultimately damaging.

Throughout this chapter, Korgen main arguments pertained to the media’s portrayal of Black and White biracial characters in movies. Typically the media portrays people with lighter skin to have more positive characteristics while people with darker skin more negative characteristics. Media is one first place young children get these images from and it can have a huge impression on them without even knowing it. They are placed within this social class of existence. “Viewers tend to pay the most attention to characters who share their age, race, and gender and those they wish they could be like” (Korgen, 2010, pg. 89). Biracial Americans go through the toughest scrutiny by both races on whether they fit into either group. I know my brother and sister have this issue from the time they were little especially my sister, she is lighter skinned and was never truly accepted by the black or white girls at school.

In early African American Cinema, filmmakers had a mission to move away from white perspectives on what it meant to be black (Stewart 225). Oftentimes, we would see black actors being portrayed in scenes as the antagonist committing crimes, as in the case of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. Soon after Griffith released the film, filmmaker Oscar Micheaux forever changed American Independent Cinema with his “response” film Within Our Gates, which helped start the advent of race films (NAACP 1). Some of the most notable race films were: The Homesteader, Body and Soul, and The Blood of Jesus. Such films were produced for all-black audiences that featured black casts. But that did not necessarily mean that they were directed and written by

Jacob Whitmer Professor Lopez English 1B 31 October 2017 Racism in Hollywood Race-based comedy provides stereotypical misconceptions with stereotypes that influence racial characteristics rather than denounce them. Racial differences that are joked about, encourages people to apply life to myth. Famous Hollywood comedy Rush Hour stars an Asian and African American as major roles as a “buddy cop”, but the difference in Rush Hour is that the protagonist and sidekick are both non-white actors. The series disguises stereotypes most people would find offensive, but are played off in a humorous manner. Humor is a rhetorical way of stereotyping because it gives people the ability to look past race and can understand others.

One common theme in 12 Angry Men is prejudice affecting a jury. In the play, a boy is arrested and placed on trial for the murder of his father. Due to prejudice, most of the jurors immediately think he is guilty because of his race and where he is from. 12 Angry Men truly exhibits what the 1950s justice system looked like. Through the storyline, prejudice is seen as a way of using stereotypes to explain how people behave.

“The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” ( LaVigne, Kelly). Our society groups people the same way and don’t consider their differences. For example individuals see a girl that’s skinny and automatically assume she’s anorexic or see a tall person and assume they’re good at basketball. Stereotypes effect the way people see the world whether they’re true or untrue. Stereotypes give a fixed mindset on things because humans feel it isn’t always necessary to be open minded and learn the information needed before judging.

Who is the harder in Australia? Samson and Delilah is the best movie of 2009 in Australia that was directed by Warwick Thornton. The main characters of this film are Samson and Delilah performed by Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. The purpose of the film is to highlight the issues is two young indigenous Australian living in an Aboriginal community. The film starts with when they live are changed then they fled the place where they live. This film is strongly shown the consequences of the European impact on Aboriginal Australian society by presenting injustice and uses camera work.

The depiction of ethnic minorities due to the color of people calls for criticism. The practice of authorities restricting the freedom of subordinates to their interest and the attitude of superiority towards the stereotyping of people of color depicted by John Ford films cannot be disputed. The films are full of ethnics and raise questions of the inequality of power. They also show multiple culturalisms through the involvement of many ethnicities as he views ethnicity as the most important human attribute which should be accompanied by tolerance and justice. Americans obtain their good reputation through ethnicity as the forced losing of cultural identity and getting assimilated to their merciless mainstream culture was what they enjoyed doing.

The movie “Crash” was about the different struggles people go through on a day to day basis regarding race and racism. A large amount of the movie was about power struggle between the races. There were people of all races who had power in different situations. One situation in particular, there was a black woman who worked at a medical clinic as a supervisor, when speaking on the phone with a white man about his father’s health struggles he asked to speak to the supervisor and was very upset to find out that she was the supervisor and that she was black and made many inappropriate racial remarks to the point where the women hung up on him. However, the race and power issues in this movie were not just between black and white people it involved all races as well as people of the same race coming from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

‘Movies make magic’, bell hooks writes in the introduction to From Reel to Real. ‘They change things.’ Much has been written on the idea that the depictions of groups of people (specifically minorities) in the media have a direct effect on how these groups are seen and treated - in film studies, but also in social studies and psychology. This applies to treatment both by members and non-members of their own group. Considering this power of film, it would make sense to expect directors to be aware and make ‘culturally sensitive’ films. At the same time, the importance of representation is routinely put to question through the debate about freedom of speech. In a culture that brims with cries about offence, how do we juggle social issues and free speech? This paper picks the debate over the freedom of storytellers against their social responsibility up again and suggests a new angle with new terminology that reexamines how we look at the problem. Looking at what is meant by the word ‘offensive’ as well as what kind of power film holds with regards to minorities, I will start by exploring the context of socially conscious film in academia and application. I am then moving on to discuss the idea of film as a system of interlocking aspects that are crucial to understanding culturally sensitive material but are often only considered separately - the industrial aspect, the context of the audience and the film with its language itself. Finally, I am going to introduce

The world of cinema was created with the purpose of displaying stories of White people, for White people and by White people. When it comes to African Americans the world of cinema has predetermined roles for them. These roles are the stereotypical uneducated slave, domestic worker, mammy, hyper sexualized harlot and tap-dancing uncle tom. These stereotypes given to highly talented and educated African American actors and actresses have evolved over the years but no matter the time African Americans in starring roles have to portray a stereotype of some kind in order to be successful in Hollywood.

Prejudice and discrimination is more than one occurrence in history or the actions of a single individual. The United States is a nation of immigrants plagued by hatred for one another. Our nation was constructed around the persecution of certain social groups, and unfortunately it still affects the nation today. The media, books, and movies instill the stereotypes that fuel the prejudice and hatred among citizens. Numerous times movies have chosen to use people of color to portray the villains and uncivilized beings in their films causing their idea of a villain to take place in the mindset of American people. Prejudice is rooted in our history and has become the nation’s deadliest disease, but to rid the nation of this plague one must first

Culture with in movies show us what is considered ‘normal’, even though most of it is stereotypical. Film often shows us how one might dress, act and speak when living in a different place or time. Usually if you look at movies about college it is non stop partying and drinking such as American Pie Beta House, while most college students would agree it is not at all similar to what is portrayed in the movies. While other films may portray college (law school) as something completely different such as Legally Blond.