Racial performativity is a theme that is visually perceived in various interracial films and gives the audience a sense of how characters in the film, despite their race perform in a different matter. The films Jungle Fever and West Side Story clearly depict this notion. Racial passing is also seen in novels, a great example is the novel Passing by Nella Larsen. This novel explores the lives of two African American women, Irene and Clare who have a confusing, yet intriguing relationship. Clare acts white and passes into this dominant race, while Irene lives in confusion on how Clare can easily pass as a white female. Clare’s actions clearly depict racial performativity. In Jungle Fever, the main character Flipper who is an African American …show more content…
White actor George Chakiris played the role of Bernardo. Although Chakiris did have features that would resemble a Latino man such as brown skin, his unnatural skin color made him look like an imitation. This also applies to Natalie Wood who played the character of Maria. Wood’s facial complexions are very different from the typical Puerto Rican. Maria and Bernardo’s facial appearances did not look very authentic. One can easily make assumptions on anyone, regardless of their race. Since the Latino race is considered to be a minority, people tend to make assumptions due to their lack of knowledge about the specific culture. Latinos are automatically considered to be people with brown skin. Due to this common assumption, the directors of the film decided to add the brown skin features. This mistake could have been easily fixed if the characters were played by true Latino actors. The artificial accents that these actors had also took away the meaning of the Puerto Rican identity. Throughout the film, the Puerto Rican characters spoke English with a heavy yet forged accent. Accents are another main stereotype that is commonly assumed among individuals who lack knowledge in other cultures. People tend to conclude that all Latinos talk with an accent because they are less educated than natural born Americans. The main goal of the …show more content…
Ed Guerrero, a film critic analyzes Jungle Fever in depth and makes various points. In the article, “Spike Lee and the Fever in the Racial Jungle” Guerrero stated: “As the rule goes, if a person has "one drop" of African blood or an African ancestor, then that person is considered black and thus loses the naturalized privileges of whiteness”. His statement meant that “one drop" of African American blood makes a person considered to be black. Even if the person is mixed with white and black, that person loses its white privileges and is thus not considered white by the community. Flipper’s wife Drew and daughter Ming are lighter in skin tone than the rest of the African Americans. If you compare the skin tone of Drew and Flipper, one can easily notice the difference in race mixtures. Flipper made a comment stating: “At least in my eyes, Drew and Ming are black. They look black, act black, so they are black!” This opinionated comment by Flipper proves that Guerrero’s statement on the “one drop” of blood significantly
Jedda, Australia’s first colour film, created in 1955 by Charles Chauvel deals with an Aboriginal child adopted by a white grazing family. As she grows up, Jedda is tempted more and more to return to her people. Seduced by the wild Marbuck, she partakes in the film's tragedy, played out against a spectacular landscape. This essay seeks to discuss the representations of the Australian landscape as portrayed in the film Jedda, highlighting the use of filmic techniques in these representations.
Film Historian Donald Bogle, the author of “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films,” offers compelling and informative examples of various stereotypes of African-Americans performers. He emphasizes on historical characteristics of gifted black actors/entertainers; renovating their roles to disseminate specific representations that are significant to the economics and history of America’s shifting environmental circumstances.
The other ladies in the short film talk about how they thought that she had a “ real problem with [her] ethnicity like [she] had a problem with the fact that [she] was born African-American (Reynolds). This, along with the documentary on Lacey Schwartz, shows that a person’s sense of blackness is very much a product of what others around them define blackness as.
Historically, people were granted certain rights and privileges based merely on their skin color. Persons of darker skin are often less opportune; persons of lighter skin are almost automatically glorified. However, with the mass interracial breeding, many African American descendants started to look “white” even though they were of “black” descent. Many “mulattos” used this to their advantage to acquire higher social status and respect. The act of identifying as a different race and hiding one’s true race is known as “passing.” In the short novel, “Passing” by Nella Larsen, it follows two childhood friends of mixed-race, Irene Westover/Redfield and Clare Kendry, who later reconnected later in their different adult lives; both appear to have light complexion but one embraces her ancestry while the other tries to “pass” as something else. The latter’s decision usually ends unpleasantly. So while it may seem beneficial to “pass,” the end result is that the truth will come out. Literary articles which critique “Passing” such as “Sororophobia” by Helena Michie and “Black Female Sexuality in Passing” by Deborah E. McDowell discusses the issues of passing. Juanita Ellsworth’s “White Negros” provide scenarios where skin color played a factor in education and professional experiences. Louis Fremont Baldwin’s “Negro to Caucasion, Or How the Ethiopian Is Changing His Skin” explains the different ways people pass and how it can be undetected. Blatantly “passing” as a different race can lead to catastrophe and should be avoided.
In “Flight Patterns”, Alexie shows that many people can be ignorant in getting to know someone just because of a preconceived idea based on someone’s skin color. People look past all a person has overcome and dealt with in life just because of the color of their skin. Stevens also aids this idea by saying that the media helps people see race distinctly because of leading roles in movies being often white characters and how even history stories focus on the white race. Both stories bring these issues to light and want readers to understand that there is still a problem with race relations and that media and preconceived ideas play a major part in blurring history and allowing us to forget that skin color is not the only thing that defines a
The Harlem Renaissance was a turning point for many African Americans. A vast amount of literature was created specifically for this group during this era. For the first time, African Americans were being told that it was okay to be proud of who they were. This new consciousness and self-awareness was prominent in many works of literature, but several writers began exploring the darker side of this movement with literature that concentrated on the negative aspects of race relations in America. Nella Larsen's novel Passing concentrates on this theme with the story of Clare, a tragic mulatto who "passes" as a white person. Not only is Passing representative of the plight of the tragic mulatto, it is also a novel that explores the complexities of human relationships.
In the novel, Passing, Nella Larsen presents two women, Clare and Irene who originate from the black community; however still yearn for an assured identity for themselves. Clare and Irene are childhood friends who even though being part black, are able to pass as white folk. Irene continues to be part of the black community and is considered a black woman, however this is on a superficial level. When it comes to her advantage, Irene occasionally passes as white. Clare on the other hand passes as a white woman; her lifestyle changed completely as to white standards and in. Although both women are in a dilemma regarding their true racial identity, they both wish to live as both black and white. Throughout the book, both women attempt to achieve an integrated identity, however fail do to so. Their failure in attempting to live a life both as black suggests and supports the idea that a person can only have one race as either black or white, not both.
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.
Race shouldn’t be the way how people are seen and treated. In the book “Dutchman and The slave” by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) demonstrates the racial problems of how people with different color see each other. The Dutchman and The slave misjudgement of race that all race with same color are the same. This judgement shows how the world see other people with different ethnicity, culture, and race different from them. This misunderstanding cause big wars and fights between people of different race. Dutchman and The Slave has a huge meaning surrounding the racial problems within the book which draws readers intention to refer with the world outside and how it 's the same and different. These two plays gives the diversity of the world and its inception.
In the film, Tina (the Latina) plays the love interest of the main character Mookie. Together, they had a child in which he does not care for often which leaves her very angry. However, when Mookie arrives in her home, he immediately tells her to take her clothes off, and after one protest she complies. In media, the stereotype for the Latina is that she is sexy, fierce, and loud - this movie did not portray the Latina any differently. Perhaps it was out of context for this type of movie, but in general I wish there was more representation of Latinas in different roles. Growing up, I have never seen a Latina in the fields of academia, medicine, business or anything except for housekeeping, which can be discouraging to a girl’s self-esteem. The Latina women I have been exposed to were all known for their looks or assets and not their personal talents. For instance, Sofia Vergara often plays the ‘spicy’ Latina and most people acknowledge her for her beauty and not her acting. While this may not be entirely negative, it still only portrays a slim view of what Latinas are and what they do or stand for. While the issue on the surface may be that Latinas are hypersexualized, the deeper implications are that placing a label to define Latinas under one category limits their abilities and fails to acknowledge the variations of all the different Latina
Passing by Nella Larsen was written in 1929 during the height of the Harlem Renaissance movement. The novel focuses on shifting racial boundaries and the pressures of white-dominated society. The term "passing" carries the connotation of being accepted for something one is not. The title of the novel serves as a metaphor for a wide range of deceptive appearances and practices that incorporate sexual, gender, and racial passing. Passing could refer to sexual passing where one disguises their true sexual identity practiced by lesbians and gays in a society. This term can also be related to racial passing which is where a person classified as a member of one racial group (African American) also can be accepted due to appearance as a member of
There are a myriad of racial stereotypes found in Charles Chesnutt’s “The Passing of Grandison” that several authors examine through the critical race theory that expresses details of races across cultures. Aspects of the African American race throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s that drew attention of critics were surrounded by the belief that “whites were destined by God or nature to rule over people whose physical characteristics denoted innate inferiority” (Carter 70). One critic, Frederickson, tends to lean away from the idea of said belief and explains slavery as being the result of “legal and cultural vulnerability” (Carter 70). Stereotypes of slavery addressed in Chesnutt’s short story are that slaves were content with their lives, southern gentleman are all chivalrous, and that African Americans do not
I think this play is a lot about what does race mean, and to what extent do we perform race either onstage or in life:
Later on in the movie she has her locks changed and the guy that changes them is a Spanish guy. She ends up accusing him of selling her spare keys to fellow gang members because he dressed similar and looked like the people who robbed her, she is stereotyping this man. Stereotyping is assuming that all members of a group are going to act and be the same. She fails to realize that his exterior does not reflect who he truly is. He is a hardworking father trying to make a living to keep his family safe in a world that is working against
African cinema has evolved in multiple facets since postcolonialism milieu. Post-nationalist African cinema has transformed into a more complex network that simultaneously incorporates both global and national issues alike. Modern post-nationalist films aim to aim to repudiate a homogenized notion African Cinema while highlight the diversities in African cinema, unlike antithetical early nationalist variants which portrayed a generalized African identity. These post-nationalist film makers advocate the need for utilizing new film languages and ideals suitable to the contemporary cultural, social, political and economic situations of different African countries. Certain developments have been instrumental to this gradual cinematic evolution