Perpetuating Values Of Racism As Seen On The Silver Screen

Perpetuating Values of Racism: As Seen on the Silver Screen Global box office revenues hit an all time high of $38 billion US dollars in 2015 (Child). The Hollywood film industry is a highly lucrative business that seemingly offers something for everyone: romance, thriller, tragedy, fantasy, comedy, action, and so much more. However, the industry has an extensive history of favoring the white, straight male, which leaves minorities to feel wrongly represented. Hollywood films do integrate different races, but there remains to be one constant; the white race. While it may seem as if the film industry has come a long way from the racism-filled motion pictures of the past, there are reoccurring themes that instill white superiority more subtly (but still powerfully) in film today. The film industry capitalizes on continuing the values of racism in society by producing films that use stereotypic representations of minorities, ‘whitewashing’, and the white savior plot line. First, the film industry maintains white superiority in Hollywood as the majority of roles offered to ethnic groups are limited and stereotypical. Stereotypes in film are a result of what Adichie, a novelist, calls a â€Å"single story† that is assigned to a group by mainstream media. Adichie clarifies that a â€Å"single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete†. Ethnic groups are reduced to an oversimplified idea and set of expectations onShow MoreRelatedThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison2146 Words   |  9 PagesInstead of making the plot of â€Å"The Bluest Eye†, center around events of overt racism or such African American issues in order to address the looming specter of slavery and race, the focus of the book and this analysis of The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison presents readers with a more complicated and ultimately deeper portrayal of the effects of racism via an emphasis on the way self-hatred plagues the black characters. In the narrator’s description of how the Breedlove family was ugly, it is stated inRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison2396 Words   |  10 PagesDevin West AP English 11 Mrs. Mariner â€Å"The Bluest Eye† Unlike so many works in the American literature that deal directly with the legacy of slavery and the years of deeply-embedded racism that followed, the general storyline of Toni Morrison’s novel, â€Å"The Bluest Eye†, does not engage directly with such events but rather explores the lingering effects by exploring and commenting on black self-hatred. Nearly all of the main characters in †The Bluest Eye†, by Toni Morrison who are African AmericanRead MoreBlack Naturalism and Toni Morrison: the Journey Away from Self-Love in the Bluest Eye8144 Words   |  33 Pagesmenacing force that attempts to reduce Min to a whispering shadow and to twist Jones into a crazed wolf who has lived in basements too long; for Petty, filthy tenement-lined streets such as these are more than symbols of oppression, inequality and racism--they are the instruments themselves. Does this mean that by focusing on the influences of environment in literature we are labeling our main characters helpless victims? Absolutely not. In The Street Lutie Johnson fights the ghetto with a determination