For example, in the movie "You've got Mail," Tom Hanks's whiteness prevails to the viewer when Dave Chapell, who plays an african american character, comes into play. This notion, known as tokenism, may go unnoticed or the viewer may forget the subjection of whiteness as soon as Dave Chapelle goes off the screen.
Pg. 53 of the textbook touches on the movie "White Men Can't Jump," where the stereotype of "whiteness" is brought to the reader's attention. When the whiteness theme from these types of movies emerges whites appear to be less in touch with their physicalities than other races, in this case it is african americans.
In movies such as "White Men Can't Jump, whiteness subjection is typically not forgotten about, because it is the story line of the movie. In movies such as "You've Got Mail" it is easier to forget about the subjection of whiteness because the movie is not solely based upon the whiteness concept.
Another movie similar to the concept of "You've Got Mail" is "Saving Private Ryan" where Matt Damon is a white man with the lead role of a soldier, and has a friend in the movie who is a black soldier. This movie is an example of when another race is tokened in to divert the attention of a racist film.
Below is another movie with tokenism. "Dreamgirls," starring Beyonce Knowls and Jennifer Hudson, both african american women, predominantly stars african american individuals. In the trailor below, I found 1-2 white individuals, who played small roles and who are probably also placed to divert attention from a racist theme.
Pg. 49 of our book says we can not pretend that racial concepts are exempt from contemporary american society. There is an ongoing importance of race which is linked to the culture and politics in America. When examining this concept, in order to better understand how America deals with racism today, I would like to use the example of our recently elected president, Barack Obama.
We can not ignore the fact that our american history withholds the memory of the slavery of african americans. We can not deny the fact that until now, we have never had an african american as the president of the United States.
In 1972, the movie "The Man" demonstrated simply the idea that there would ever be an african american president. This notion was not neglected then, and it is lavished today. We are very aware that our recent elect is a first fot history, and although it may be seen as a step forward in society, we recognize this as just that- "a step" because he is not another white man as president. A preview of this hope in 1972 for the first african american of the U.S is below:
Stereotypes
Stereotypes don't discriminate. From the term "valley girl" to whites not being able to dance, stereotypes are just as predominant as ever. Although they may shift with time, they are still always plentiful. Pg. 51 of our text states that people who are now commonly considered to be white were not always considered so in the past. For example, Irishmen were once known as alcoholic, mean men. Walking down the street today, you probably would not be able to depict an Irishmen to an american born citizen, and even if you could you probably wouldn't make a judgement. The movie clip below demonstrates what might happen if the individual cultures who make up the melting pot of the United States were placed together in a different country. It is a good demonstration of stereotypes that Americans may have of other cultures. However, when these cultures are admitted into the diversity of the United States, they are frequently overlooked. Why is that?
It is because as Americans we are more accepting of cultures coming into ours, vs. us self-emerging ourselves into other cultures. This is easy to see in movies, when tody there are main characters of all races and ethnic groups. An example of this is the movie Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan. Here you can see that an Asian, Jackie Chan, and an african american, Chris Tucker, are the main characters. This movie is greatly accepted into our culture, and stereotypes are put aside.
