Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Journal #5: Black and White

In the article "Our 'white people problems' problem : why it's time to stop using 'white' as a pejorative" by Noel Murray, I have to agree with the author's statement, "the use of 'white' as a tag of shame has the inadvertent but real effect of reducing 'non-white' elements to mere ornamentation". If someone says that a movie looks very "white", than that means that any "non-white" character is meaningless to the story and is thus only there for looks, like a lamp or a couch. This might not be the intention of saying that a movie looks very "white", but it does very effectively illustrate how slippery of a slope racism is. A good example from the opposite end of the spectrum would be to say that the movie "Roots" is a "black" movie. That would mean that the "white" characters in the movie did not play an integral role as slave traders and owners. I would have to say that the "white" characters in the movie played a very integral, albeit negative, role. I'd be willing to bet that there are more than a few African-Americans that have strong opinions about the role that the "white" characters played in the movie, which would make them more than mere ornamentation.  We need to be careful about how much of an influence we let race have on our lives.

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