Savior Trope And The Modern Meanings Of Whiteness: Film Analysis

Matthew W. Hughey, the author of “The Savior Trope and the Modern Meanings of Whiteness”, argues that the cinema has always been catered toward an ideology of the white supremacy. Likewise, Freedom Writers (2007) self-evidently appear as a majoritarian narrative by having Hilary Swank starring as Erin Gruwell who play as the enthusiastic white female teacher who help change the lives of the students of color. However, along the movie there is a subtle switch of importance from the teacher to these students as they strive to achieve a higher education. Although the film takes the same approach of a “white savior” movie, it is a deception to gain more viewers for the general audiences to reconsider the issues of stereotypes and racism within

The cinematic display of the American Barbie doll as having blonde hair, blue eyes, and idolize as a priced item of femininity as compared to the Latina doll in which Eva says “in America, a girl can be crowned as a princess for her beauty and her grace” whereas “a Aztec princess is chosen by her blood” implicitly contrast the cultural differences in terms of their color and value. As she adoringly stares at these dolls, Eva’s father bought her a pair of boxing gloves, instead. Her father taught her to fight for whomever said that “they are not equal in their beauty and their blessing”, which indicate a harsh and brutal environment within their community. One day when Eva is peacefully waiting for her father to walk her to the bus stop, she witnesses her teenage neighbor, Roberto, shoot at his own front yard. Without any specific reasons behind the scene where her father was arrested at his own home as the police burst into his living room, it appears to be misleading toward the fact that he was arrested because he commit a crime when Eva says that all he was trying to do was “fight for our own”, in other word, defend their own people. Eva’s counterstories explicitly display a cultural aspect of the Hispanic community, which implicitly trying to defy the unrighteousness of retaliation and resistant against the white. Yet,

Yosso, the author of the Critical Race Counterstories Along the Chicana/Chicano Educational Pipeline, Chicana/o suffer all through the “educational pipeline” from elementary to graduate schools due to implicit and explicit racism and stereotypes against the “socially and racially marginalized communities” in the United States (6). Moreover, she specifically focuses upon the counterstories of these students. She claims that the “Chicana/o communities have long experienced the explicit and implicit effects of racism through social institution such as schools” (2). A counterstories acknowledges the unequal educational access for the students relating to the lack of their success rate throughout the educational pipeline. As opposed to the counterstories, a “majoritarian story implicitly begins from the assumption that all students enjoy access to the same educational opportunities and conditions” (4). Yosso claims that “like White privilege, majoritarian stories seem invisible” and “instead of stories, they appear to be ‘natural’ part of everyday life” (10). Similarly, the film subtly implies the white privileges through its counterstories. Although experiential knowledge is less value due to the lack of statistical evidence and logical reasoning, the narratives do serve to highlight the important aspect of the lives of People of