How To Perpetuate Racism In Film And Film

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There are many unanswered questions regarding racism. Do we learn racism? Do we learn how to perpetuate racism? Is it intentional? Is it unintentional? The answer to all of these questions is that it’s complicated. Racism is one of the most complicated and profoundly important issues in America’s history, and in order to begin to understand why racism exists in the media, one must have a good understanding of where it started. The topic of Hollywood perpetuating racism in society has been controversial yet supported by mounds of evidence that suggests so. It could be seen that the media and film both play a central role in communication to the public on what happens in the world; in turn, this plays an enormous role in shaping behavior, and …show more content…

During the early stages of mainstream film and media, it could be analyzed that the information that were available to viewers could directly impact their beliefs, emotions, and behaviors towards the film’s intended message. This can be evidently seen through the movie, Tarzan, the Ape Man, from 1932, where its’ narrative will always epitomize the history of racist demonization of African Americans as ‘savage, ignorant, thieves, and rapists’. This shows how this film is one of many that directly contributed to the rampant racial prejudice that exists today. So, the harmful depiction of African Americans were problematic, because these films were successful and as a result, provided a segregated society where film was the only outlook that provided white Americans to the distorted life of African …show more content…

Every immigrant group was stereotyped, but the history of prejudice, hostility, and ignorance towards African Americans has insured a unique longevity to the stereotypes. White America’s conceptions of Black entertainers were shaped by minstrelsy’s mocking caricatures and for over one hundred years, the belief that Blacks were racially and socially inferior was fostered by legions of white performers in blackface. Tarzan, the Ape Man was a racially-driven film that has been a product of that era. One notable feature were when the film’s finale featured pygmies who were actually Caucasian dwarfs in black-face make-up. There remains content in Tarzan, the Ape Man that is salient in its addressing of racial issues, blatantly intentional, and advocating it in a pejorative manner. It could be seen that addressing it through black-face has greatly influenced its’ white audiences in their perceptions of their

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