YOU people

Topic: Tropic Thunder
Conflict: A white man, playing a black man, playing a black character.

In this movie, Robert Downy Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, a white man who decides to undergo surgery to become black so he can play a black character in a movie. In the movie, this move is seen as extremely contraversial because why not just cast a black man in the role.
I think this movie is hilarious and it is a step further than just a "minstral show" where white people dress in black face. This man, Kirk, actually pigmented his skin to be black. He even goes so far as to "act black" even when not shooting the movie in order to stay in character.
My favorite part of the movie is where Kirk says, "What do you mean, you people??" to another character. To this, Alpa Chino, an born black man replies, "What do YOU mean, you people?" The character who said "you people" in the first place didn't actually mean 'you black people' but Kirk was playing the stereotype of the racially sensitive black man when he isn't even black. Chino, is just getting fed up with the whole thing.

This brings up so many things: One being the whole black face issue and couldn't they have just hired a black actor to play this role (something I would bet a lot of people thought while watching white actors play black characters). Also, what does it mean to be black... This white man is doing everything in his power to be black and he is really only playing to stereotypes. I personally think that comedy is the best way to talk about race, because it's so uncomfortable - why not laugh about it.

It may not be the best movie ever, but it certainly has it's very funny points... watch it! =]

Racist

I am in a creative nonfiction writing class, and in the inspiration of this class I wrote an essay about my identity and what it means to be black. In a part of my essay I wrote that if I could cornrow hair or use a hot comb, would this make me more black... The point in this was saying that clearly these things do not make a person black or not, in all actuality white people can do these things as well. These are just things people associate with being black... A boy in a bar was actually suprised I didn't know the "Single Ladies" dance...

Anyway... I was workshopped last week. This means that in the week prior my class read my story, and this past Thursday everyone critiqued it in class. A few people actually called me racist. I was amazed! We aren't allowed to speak during our workshop so I couldn't defend myself; I just had to sit there and take it. It was an incredibly awkward situation for these white students to be calling me racist against blacks, when clearly I am sitting there in my dark skin.

After class I spoke with my professor, a black man. I told him I couldn't believe that people were calling me racist, when I was clearly commenting on the rediculousness of stereotypes. He told me that he thought the things I wrote were hilarious, because I was right... these things do not make a person more or less black. He said that what happened, is what happens when the topic of race comes up... People freak out. He said when people see things like this, they automatically think, "Racist!" This seems very true. Race talk does make people uncomfortable, and in attempts to be "PC" everything becomes off-limits.

I just found it all interesting. It was an awful feeling being called racist to my face and having no way of responding. And that someone could possibly think I was racist towards my own race...

Night of the Living Dead

So, flipping through the channels I came across another old movie, Night of the Living Dead. It's a typical horror movie with flesh eating zombies... The fun thing is: the leading role is played by a black man. This movie was released in 1968, which makes this an actually accomplishment. During the movie showing the director spoke (a white man) and he said he didn't even give much thought to the fact he had a black man as his lead; he didn't mean it as any kind of statement, he just picked the guy who gave the best audition. What made this an even greater moment for Hollywood is that this movie went into production right after MLK Jr. was killed. The director said it was at this moment he realized what he was doing.

I though the movie was cool because, from what I saw, there was no stereotype in action. He was the hero of the movie, not the "black hero". What I mean by that is; I didn't get the impression any of the other characters focused on his race at all.

And from what I read the movie did alright; it made between 12 and 15 million dollars in the first 10 years. This is probably very well concidering it didn't have much of a budget. And at this time there were no movie ratings in place so little kids could go see it. The little kids were basically scared shitless; I just thought this was funny. Kids now probably wouldn't bat an eye at it. I do love corny scary movies.

Apparently this movie is no longer copyrighted (or w/e it is that keeps people from posting it online):

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2956447426428748010#

You can find it on Hulu as well.

Last funfact: This movie was inspired by the novel, I am Legend, which was made into a movie starring Will Smith. =]