Viola Davis has established herself on the hit drama, “How to Get Away with Murder” as the leading woman. Her character, Annalise Keating is a top notch Lawyer and professor for a class called How to Get Away with Murder, living a fast paced life as a mentor for five aspiring lawyers along with her personal drama. Keating’s life soon begins to crumble to pieces as she soon realizes her husbands part in the local murder mystery of a student named Leyla, their affair, the girl’s pregnancy, and that the murderer might be her husband. In a show full of intense drama Viola Davis has managed to perform with such conviction bringing her character to life, she has convinced the viewers that she is a force to be reckoned with, taking all that life has …show more content…
Her gratitude influences the audience to understand there is a struggle for African-American women in the industry, however there are few writers who have acknowledged this issue and done their part to secure these women a fair chance to shine. She goes on to describe them as people, “who have redefined what it means to be beautiful, to be sexy, to be a leading woman, to be black.” Davis uses words such as redefined” to share with the world the new image that these writers have offered as black women have been restrained. Davis stresses on the fact that black woman have struggled to obtain leading roles because they were not the ideal definition of beauty typically seen by network heads and common viewers. When sharing that these writers have redefined what it is to be black she opens the audience’s eyes to see that they are not who society has portrayed them to be, that being a minority does not make you the inferiority and that is the beauty of these shows as well as the opportunities that actresses have been given. They have been given the opportunity to be fierce, demanding, intelligent, beautiful, and most importantly black. For the audience members familiar with Shonda Rhimes’s show, How to Get Away with Murder they have come to love Viola Davis’s character Annalise Keating, a top notch lawyer in control owning every case with brilliance and demanding every student. She shows the world the perfect image of a strong independent …show more content…
She broadens peoples understanding of the struggles being faced in the industry, persuading us to feel as though we have a responsibility to humanity to ensure that everyone including minority actresses are seen as equal to other actresses. She then shares gratitude for those who have done their part to make a change and those who are now the face of this change. This persuades the audience to look for guidance in the role models of writers and actresses working hard to bring diversity to networks in order to understand and support the change. Her speech was so persuasive because in addition to the issues she argues, she accepts an award given to a black actress for the first time in history adding to the moment and showing the audience that the industry is capable of
The movie also showed the successes of Anna May Wong’s sinister dragon lady, Suzie Wong and the ’50s geisha girls and the Asian-American anchorwoman of today. One of the anchorwomen who was interviewed spoke about the stereotypes of exoticism and docility that have affected the perception of Asian-American women. She spoke about how her boss didn’t like when she stood up for herself and made radical decisions to cut her hair.
It shows that there is no difference between white and colored people, but it’s so hard for people to get past the physical features to realize that we are all equal. Ethel was right when she said two colored men would help two white women, and those white men knew she was right. Those men knew Ethel had a point and now they had no choice but to help her and her friend. When Ethel was in the hospital, she had two doctors who mistreated her leg injury. Her wound was severely infected because the two doctors never helped her, and her leg could have been amputated.
“She still today never told me she loved me…never… never in her life … it’s too hard to explain,” says Anthony Sowell as he mentions his mother while he is being interrogated by Cleveland Homicide Detective (Sberna). The classic neighbor that every family wishes to have, friendly, helpful and caring was holding back numerous secrets. In Anthony Sowell’s actions of the rape, beatings and murder of 11 innocent women, he demonstrates the qualities of a human monster while showing how nurture creates a personality as well as proving that humans are capable of creation more fear than those who are written about in fiction.
Hopefully, the rest of America will begin to appreciate her contributions to Hollywood. She was overlooked in Hollywood because she was shown lots of subtle and not so subtle racism which caused her to have limited opportunities in Hollywood. People need to know about Dorothy because she’s just one of the many unknown celebrities in the more cultural side of Hollywood. If the world gets to know a little bit more about other cultures unspoken heroes then we will be able to come together. Dorothy doesn't just speak for the underappreciated of the black community she speaks for all cultures unknown idols. She has proven that one day they will no longer be unknown or underappreciated that they will find their
Have you realized how much the world plays a lot in racial background? Not everyone is the same, but isn 't that what makes all of us special? There are several movies that helped me to realize how important race is but the Imitation of Life spoke to me the most. Lora is a single white Broadway mother who met Annie and her daughter at a festival. Annie becomes the maid and a care taker of Lora’s daughter Suzie. Both mothers deal with motherhood and different ways. Lora wants to be famous and ruins her relationship with her daughter. Sarah Jane struggle with being black. Overall the purpose of Imitation of Life is to inform the differences between being black and white in America. When I think of motherhood the first thing that comes to my
How does “evil incarnate” talk to his mother? Does he scream and scold the defenseless women on the end of the line, or does he joke lightheartedly and reassure her of his safety. Taken out of context and given no background, into a person’s personality and values become subjective to the viewer’s scrutiny. Making a Murderer follows the life of Steven Avery, a man who has had a convoluted and troubling experience with the Manitowoc county justice system. After being released from prison for a crime he did not commit, he is soon put on trial for the murder of a young Autotrader photographer two years later. From the public’s limited scope of news reports, the Avery family is depicted as the uneducated, poor junkyard family that lives on the
Another impressive thing took my attention, throughout the sharing process, participants developed a level of trust that allowed them to be honest, open with one another, and respect each other's point of view. Few influential words mentioned by the participants include “being invisible”, “disregarded”, “ignored, holding oneself back from progress, being a color person”, and “white holding the ground”. The significant point I noticed in the film, people have become more accepting of the fact that racism is prevalent in America, so they have less hope that society can be changed, and are more focused on promoting positive change in the individuals. In addition, my role as a counselor is to create an atmosphere where my clients can express their thoughts, feelings, actively listen, and learn from the different perspectives offered by within the world-views.
Each character has a distinct personality, but understanding them, the reader develops an opinion as to if said character is capable of committing the crime. Both women put up a strong and somewhat cold front, however, they are easily swayed by their emotions and haunting past. "It was no good trying not to think of Hugo. He was close to her. She had to think of him - to remember…"(Christie 79) Vera Claythorne constantly thought about her initial crime, her guilt built up so much that her mental state deteriorated. This factor makes it difficult to perceive Claythorne as the mastermind; although she 's a very smart woman, her inability to think straight and shake off the guilt from her former felony, makes her an unlikely suspect for murder of the nine before her. Mary Debenham reflects that emotional instability as well, however, she is capable of
In today’s society, pre-existing assumptions and stereotypes of other ethnicities and individuals play a large part in the way we see others. This social construct of stereotypes has placed restrictions on many people’s lives which ultimately limits them from achieving certain goals. In this sense, stereotypes misrepresent and restrict people of colour to gain casting within the Hollywood film industry. The issue of how casting actors to certain roles and how these actors are forced to submit and represent these false stereotypes is one worthy of discussion. White Chicks (2004), directed by Keenan Wayans, illustrates this issue through the performance of Latrell, performed by Terry Crews, and his performance of the hyper-sexualised “buck” will be a prime example in this essay to discuss the racial politics and stereotypes in Hollywood casting.
Ann Perkins, Jones’ character, is supposed to be an ethnically ambiguous person and in reality, Rashida is biracial (Glamour). Leslie Knope, the white protagonist of the series, frequently uses words like ‘exotic’, ‘tropical’, and ‘ethnically ambiguous’ when complimenting Ann. The ‘compliments’ also act as the only instances where race is spoken about in reference to Ann’s character. One would believe that Leslie’s constant complimenting of Ann is beneficial to viewers with a biracial identity, but there are some serious problems with Leslie’s behavior. There has been an historical and recent fascination with ‘mixed’ children. This fascination has crossed over into fetishizatoin of biracial or mixed children and people. Biracial people are seen less as people and more as a kind of spice that bell hooks mentions in her work “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance” (21). They are something that helps liven up the blandness of the pervasive white culture. Another harmful aspect of Ann’s depiction relates to her class. In Edison’s work, she notes that “biracial individuals living in a middle- and upper-class environments are more likely to be perceived as biracial (rather than black) than those living in working- and lower-class environments” and that “‘color blind’ portrayals of middle- and upper-class Black and biracial characters support the notion that race no longer matters (at least for middle- and upper-class people)” (Edison, 302; 304). Ann’s character is a successful college-educated nurse which is not problematic until one realizes that her race is never truly discussed. This feeds into the stereotype that race does not matter and that all people in the U.S. have the same opportunities. Again, the lack of racial representation leaves one character the duty of depicting a whole group of
The Diversity of the writers, Cisneros, McKay and Lee, all express life, struggles with being a minority in America. You see them identifying how society sees’s them and they accepting their heritage. You see them struggle to form a bridge of how their cultural heritage and the American culture will co-exist within themselves and
The TV series “Orange is the New Black” is a captivating series Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) who is the ‘star’ of the show. Piper is a public relations executive with a career and a fiance when her past suddenly catches up to her. In her mid-30s she is sentenced to spend time in a minimum-security women's prison in Connecticut for her association with a drug runner 10 years earlier. This Netflix Original series is based on the book of the same title. Forced to trade power suits for Prison Orange, Chapman makes her way through the corrections system and adjusts to life behind bars, making friends with the many eccentric, unusual and unexpected people she meets.
My group’s umbrella topic focuses on race. My group will be discussing race and diversity in the media and in populated areas. I decided to question what effect the lack of diversity has had on theatre. With the world’s eyes on the actors on stage, the theatre has a large influence on its audience. The media and populated areas, such as cities, also have that power of influence. Growing up my childhood consisted of the theatre. I have a connection to the stage and off the stage. In my time working with my school’s theatre, I have seen a lack of diversity. I have experience and an interest in theatre. In my time of exploring the theatre culture, I did not come across much diversity. Two years ago I listened to the musical Hamilton:
Even though racism isn’t as bad as it was then but it is evident even in today’s world that it still exist. It really can make people feel lesser that what they are and just overall make them feel bad. No one wants to be treated like an outcast, we all just want to be treated equal in value. A relevant social work issue that I saw in the film was an example of how a racist person might come into your office one day but you just can’t turn them down because of your personal values. As a social worker it’s up to us to help the different types of people overcome their personal issues and we have to realize everyone was raised differently than others. When Ms. Elliot was doing the exercise you can see the kids and adults struggle with being discriminated against because they weren’t use to it. No one wants to feel like less than what they are because it starts to takes an effect on them. For example, when the students received good feedback from the teacher their test scores went up but when she gave them negative feedback they went down. Emotionally, for me the film was very inspirational seeing little kid learn how to treat people at a young age. Most of their parents probably were white and or racist and for Ms. Elliot to instill in them what it meant to treat each other equally was amazing. It influenced me because as a mother I have to teach my daughter certain things while she is younger
This is the story of Piper Kerman, and how her personal story from being in prison relates to that of other female offenders. Kerman came from a well educated family, who were mostly doctors, lawyers, or teachers.“Much to the skepticism of my father and grandfather,” she writes, Kerman had majored in theater (Kerman, p. 4), and graduated from Smith College in New England. After college, her classmates and friends were going off to their graduate school programs or new jobs. Kerman, however, decided to stay in Massachusetts. She felt unmotivated pursuing a career in theater, and did not have an interest in truly continuing on with her education. Furthermore, she also felt that she did not have a “meaningful career” (Kerman, p. 4). Kerman wanted to be an independent woman and experience, experiment, and live her own life. She got an apartment with a fellow student, and started “waiting tables at a microbrewery” (Kerman, p. 5). She fell into the habit of partying, which for Kerman, was the beginning of a lifestyle that would eventually lead to something far bigger and more dangerous than she had ever imagined - and one which ultimately led to her conviction. In 2003, Kerman pled guilty to charges of money laundering and drug trafficking.