Recently, the hot bedded discussion of racial tensions between American citizens has boiled over to an increasingly dangerous point. Tensions have led to a plethora of racially charged violent acts all over the country, which I believe has caused a huge division of the united states, not only racially, but politically as well. From an excerpt in chapter 11 of bell hook’s Whiteness in Black Imagination, her main argument was one that since the white and African American communities are already separated by location, such as, ghettos and project housing areas that both races are born into a society in which they both fear each other based on past actions their ancestors committed. While I agree with the main concept that this tension is caused …show more content…
At one point the film has a scene where two cops pull over an African American couple who are on their way home. Both cops step out of the car and we immediately see that one cop is extremely aggressive towards the couple and the other is much more surprised and confused. The situation eventually escalates to the point where one cop begins to sexually assault the African American lady and the other cop stops him and the couple is let go. After this scene, we view the cop who did not assault the lady as a good down to earth human without any biases towards anyone else. However, later on in the movie we again see him as a good person when he chooses to pick up the African American man who is hitchhiking. When the two men begin to talk the hitchhiker makes a joke wich the officer does not understand. The policeman takes this joke personally and tensions start to rise. At the climax of these tensions, the hitchhiker reaches into his pocket for an object which we do not see but is assumed to be a gun by the policeman. The screen cuts out and we hear a loud BANG echo. The African Americans body is then seen to be dropped out of the car and the officer drives away. The first message I got from reading this scene was that no matter how well-intentioned you are, a gap in communication can turn violent in an …show more content…
She said that since segregated African Americans interact less frequently with white Americans their imaginations run wild with horror as they recall their tragic history. The recent hit movie Get Out directed by Jordan Peele gave credence to this largely ignored theory. The movie depicts the horrific tale of an African American boyfriend who goes to meet his girlfriends white family in a cabin. The family turned out to be racists who want to enslave him and control his body. This movie brought the little-discussed issue of human trafficking to the forefront of Hollywood films. Another theory from hooks' excerpt is that validated by getting Out is that the gap African Americans feel from whites is largely ignored by America. In her own words hooks said, “there have been heated debates among students when white students respond with disbelief, shock, and rage, as they listen to black students talk about whiteness, when they are compelled to hear observations, stereotypes, etc., that are offered as “data” gleaned from close scrutiny and study”. This idea is shown in getting Out when the kidnapped man’s friend, who is an African American TSA agent, is laughed at by the police. He tries to tell them the horrific tale of his friend
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
The police officer is a fundamental illustration of how stereotypes are created by discrimination and fear when he was described as “nervous because of the neighbour-hood, who is suspicious because of the car and because he has been trained to see an unshaven man in blue jeans as a potential thief” The main character expects to be helped by the police officer but instead he is seen as a thief because he is unshaved, he wears expensive clothes and drives a Mercedes Benz. All those things together got him in trouble. Because of that he gets shot trying to show his identity. His mistake was that instead reaching for his wallet it was to put his hands up when the police officer told him that. The police officer was sure he is a “typical street thief” and thought he was reaching for a gun and shot him, which ended the character’s life. He was just wanting to prove who he really
Officer Ryan is a white bigoted police officer who has a clear hatred of African Americans. The scene depicts Office Ryan pulling over a vehicle, because it looks like one that was reported stolen. However, after running the plates, he knows the vehicle is not stolen, but using his Legitimate Power, he pulls the vehicle over anyway. Like most power, legitimate power is based upon perception and reality, and the ability to influence others based on their status, and the right to comply. However, once the stop is initiated, he then engages in Coercive Power, and sexually assaults the female passenger, Christine Thayer, as her husband, Cameron Thayer, watches helplessly. Ryan hatred of blacks is so intense that he does even care that he has just committed a crime in front of his partner, a partner who knows that he has just crossed the line. Officer Ryan has no respect for blacks, and used racial profiling as a means of pulling over and harassing the couple. When a person with authority uses their position to force someone to comply with what they want, by using acts of threats and intimation is coercive power.
Touching upon one specific case of this growing problem, she incorporates “Michael Brown,” who was an “18-year old unarmed black man shot down by a white police officer.” As heartbreaking as it sounds, it has happened on several occasions to men similar to “Michael Brown.” Accordingly, Myers formulates that it “is the same story. It is just different names.” Myers logically lists the other names of several black men who unfortunately fell victim to hate crimes, (Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin), as well as flashing their images on the screen. Not only does Verna Myers use imagery in order to show that there is an evident issue with brutality and racism, but she knows it will tug on her viewers heartstrings. Likewise, this makes her audience become wary and sympathetic towards the situation at
It states “Peele’s expertise in ‘Get Out’ is using these small, everyday instances of making someone, accidentally or on purpose, keenly aware of being an outsider to create an ever growing feeling of hostility.” The frequency of the microaggressions makes the audience uncomfortable, which brings to their attention how frustrating it is to receive comments like those. The whole purpose of the movie is to bring attention to racism, one of the biggest issues in our society, in a creative, effective way.
The entire film is based on significantly different racial opinions, opinions of different writing styles and stereotyping of different people in general. Race is a huge issue in the film and many stereotypes are made.
All through time, the world has been racist and intolerant of people different from themselves. Countless millions have suffered due to the bigotry of people that couldn't understand change or differences among one another. There was a time when any soul that wasn't blue eyed and blonde haired in Germany, anyone with darker skin where immediately classed as inferior and not human. Even now, when you are not aware, racism is still a considerable problem. But sometimes it isn't one person being racist against another, but rather one person being racist against them self. The movie crash shows good examples of how racism against oneself, caused by fear and misunderstanding, is just as malevolent and evil as racism against another person. Fear is what makes people act racist. Farhad is one of many examples in the movie of a person who recognizes his own race and paralyzes himself through his own fear. Farhad believes that since he is Persian he is immediately being persecuted against and cheated. He flips out at the gun shop when the owner was insulting him which just furthers his fear of Americans. After the events on 9/11, which are referenced a lot in the movie, Farhad thinks that anyone who is Middle Eastern isn't welcome in America. Even after the gun shop owner was rude; his shop was destroyed by racist people who hated him. It is this same fear of being cheated because of his race that makes him very untrusting to people he doesn't know. He calls a lock smith to come fix his door because it won't lock. He immediately thinks that Daniel is trying to cheat him and steal money from him just because of his past endeavors.
America has been thought of as a place represented by fairness, mixed culture, power and the dream of having a better life for everyone, whether a person is white, black, brown, and yellow. However, the truth is that racial groups have been segregated by the white-centric media or government of the American society, and that has widened the psychological and geographical distances between the two groups, Asian and black, and has encouraged ignorance and hatred. On the other hand, there are many conflicts between Asian and Black, due to their different cultures, experiences, and educational backgrounds. From the book Native Speaker, we can see how these different cultures, powers and identities deepen Asian-black mistrust, misunderstanding and ignorance, and sometimes these irreconcilable conflicts develop into hate-crimes.
Often racial injustice goes unnoticed. Television tries to influence the mind of their viewers that blacks and whites get along by putting them on the screen to act as if interracial relationships has been accepted or existent. “At the movies these days, questions about racial injustice have been amicably resolved (Harper,1995). Demott stresses that the entertainment industry put forth much effort to persuade their audience that African Americans and Caucasians are interacting and forming friendships with one another that is ideal enough for them to die for one another. In the text, Demott states “A moment later he charges the black with being a racist--with not liking whites as much as the white man likes blacks--and the two talk frankly about their racial prejudices. Near the end of the film, the men have grown so close that each volunteer to die for the other” (Harper,1995). Film after film exposes a deeper connection amongst different races. In the text, Demott states “Day after day the nation 's corporate ministries of culture churn out images of racial harmony” (Harper, 1995). Time and time again movies and television shows bring forth characters to prove to the world that racial injustice has passed on and justice is now received. Though on-screen moments are noticed by many people in the world it does not mean that a writer/ director has done their
"Crash" is a movie that exposes different kinds of social and multicultural differences, giving us a quick example of how these conducts affect our society. Two of the behaviors observed, are Prejudice and Stereotyping. Identified as the causes of where all the events eradicate.
For this assignment, I decided to watch “Crash”, a movie set in the streets of Los Angeles California and that shows the lives of various individuals with different cultural backgrounds. The movie starts with the scene of a car crash between an Asian woman and a couple of detectives near the sight of a murder, as the African American detective Graham Waters walks around the scene he stops because he saw something that shocked him, and from there a flashback begins. The first relevant scene shows, Anthony and Peter, two African Americans individuals walking down the street talking about racial discrimination. As they talk a couple passes by them and the two decide to steal their car. This causes a chain of events affecting the lives of many
In the first scene when Cameron is introduced, two white cops get a call about a stolen car. The openly racist cop, Officer Ryan, pulls over Cameron and Christine’s Lincoln Navigator, although it is obvious that their Navigator is not the stolen vehicle. The cop thinks he sees the couple participating in a sexual act while driving. When he approaches the car to ask for registration and license, Cameron and Christine laugh and find the whole situation humorous. Officer Ryan then asks Cameron to step out, and although Cameron obeys, he acts confused. He is obviously not drunk or wanting trouble (in the movie it even states that he is a Buddhist), and he declares that he lives only a block away. When his wife comes out of the car protesting the absurdity of the stop, the officer tells both of them to put their hands on the car so he can check for weapons. The cop then humiliates Christine by feeling her up between her thighs while Cameron is forced to stand by and watch. In this scene, Cameron does not protest but unbelievingly stares at what is happening to his wife. He is in a vulnerable situation because if he objects, he and his wife could be arrested and his reputation ruined. When the police ask Cameron what he should do with what they did in the car he slowly says, “Look, we’re sorry and we’d appreciate it if you’d let us go with a warning, please.
His opinions of today’s society and camouflaged racism are evident throughout the movie. It’s a movie for each viewer to judge and interpret. In Get Out, the main character, an African American male named Chris is in an interracial relationship with his girlfriend Rose. The opening scene is them preparing to go visit her parent for the weekend.
One of them was racist and would use his authority to exploit minorities. During a traffic stop, the movie director and his wife were pulled over for allegedly performing felatio on her husband. During this stop, the racist cop thought they were drunk, so they were taken out of the car. During the pat down of the wife, the racist cop sexually assaults his wife reaching his hand up her cocktail dress. The director did not say anything when the officer felt up his wife because he was worried about his social role. Social role is a set of expectations for a certain group or type of person. In this case, he was a director and worried that his social role may be tarnished if he were to argue with this police officer. We saw that later in the scene he and his wife began to argue because of
This was especially evident when they were being pulled over by a racist white cop. She felt that he could have done more to defend their rights instead of accepting injustice. There is also a Persian store owner, who feels that he is getting the short end of the stick in American society because his store was robbed multiple times. Then the Hispanic locksmith encounters racial slurs and discrimination, although he just wanted to keep his family safe. The partnered detectives and lovers of different races, one is a Hispanic woman and the other is a black male, who are dealing with his drug addicted mother who feels that he does not care enough about taking care of his family. In this movie, discrimination and prejudice are the cause of all kinds of collisions. We easily prejudge people with stereotypes, and we are concerned with our pre-thoughts of what kind of person he/she should be, we forget to actually get to know them. It is human nature to have some type of prejudices in one way or another; we fear the unknown. There are stereotypes that black people are angry or tend to be violent; white people feel they are the dominant race and discriminate against all; Asians are thought to be poor or ignorant, and people with higher economic statuses are distinguished to the working class