gottadobe it actually makes for an interesting re-examination of To Kill a Mockingbird through the lens of that article. asdfjkl, read the article she posted and tell me what you think about my comment here.
gottadobe it actually makes for an interesting re-examination of To Kill a Mockingbird through the lens of that article. asdfjkl, read the article she posted and tell me what you think about my comment here.
I agree. Although, I'd have to reread it to have an intelligent conversation about it. And, also now knowing what to look for.
More recent movies I've seen mentioned are "Django Unchained" and "12 Years a Slave".
I also found a really interesting peer reviewed article from the Journal of Black Studies on the "magical negro" that @soudesafinado mentioned.
I love "Glory," and have never viewed it as a white savior film. To me, the white people in it are secondary, although I can see how others don't view it that way.
I first noticed the real WSF concept with The 13th Warrior and The Last Samurai. Avatar is another great example. I find it really hard to choke down needing Tom Cruise to come in and save an entire group of people from themselves/other Tom Cruises. The fact that the WS is often better at things in the POCs' culture after appropriating it rankles me to the point where I can't watch those movies anymore. It grates. Yes of course you'll be the best samurai/ alien fighter/ whatever to ever live after this musical montage because you're WHITE!
There are so many instances when white people coming in to a culture were not saviors. Why doesn't Hollywood ever bother with those stories so people can get some perspective?
I cannot imagine the "bitch, please" look that would overtake my face if some random white woman demanded I show her my phone at a godamned fast food restaurant (or anywhere). "This is my store" my ass, lady, it's a KFC. People ain't there for your homespun charm and "good deeds." They're there for the colonel's chicken.
Since I am also a white woman, however, I know that won't ever happen to me. But I'll put on my bitch, please face and shoot it in her general direction regardless.
I cannot imagine the "bitch, please" look that would overtake my face if some random white woman demanded I show her my phone at a godamned fast food restaurant (or anywhere). "This is my store" my ass, lady, it's a KFC. People ain't there for your homespun charm and "good deeds." They're there for the colonel's chicken.
Since I am also a white woman, however, I know that won't ever happen to me. But I'll put on my bitch, please face and shoot it in her general direction regardless.
I'm so late to this conversation, and this may be a really stupid question that brings me many flames, but I'm going to ask anyway: If I (as a white woman) see this happening am I: 1) Being a bit of a WS by saying something to the woman that is bothering the guys? Or: 2) Part of the racism problem if I don't say anything? Not that the guys would need me to defend them, but I'd want to say something to let people know that Leanne doesn't speak for all white people.
I first noticed the real WSF concept with The 13th Warrior and The Last Samurai. Avatar is another great example. I find it really hard to choke down needing Tom Cruise to come in and save an entire group of people from themselves/other Tom Cruises. The fact that the WS is often better at things in the POCs' culture after appropriating it rankles me to the point where I can't watch those movies anymore. It grates. Yes of course you'll be the best samurai/ alien fighter/ whatever to ever live after this musical montage because you're WHITE!
There are so many instances when white people coming in to a culture were not saviors. Why doesn't Hollywood ever bother with those stories so people can get some perspective?
/end off topic rant
How is the 13th Warrior a WSF? You have a hispanic man playing an Arabic man who helps a bunch of Vikings kill Grendel.
Post by iammalcolmx on Dec 21, 2014 6:51:27 GMT -5
Monsters Ball is the biggest WSF EVER! I hate that fucking movie. She has a sexual relationship with a racist FFS. Next thing you know he pits out his Dad, names a business after her, gives her a car, and eventually a place to live. Meanwhile her black family all dies. Man fuck that movie.
I cannot imagine the "bitch, please" look that would overtake my face if some random white woman demanded I show her my phone at a godamned fast food restaurant (or anywhere). "This is my store" my ass, lady, it's a KFC. People ain't there for your homespun charm and "good deeds." They're there for the colonel's chicken.
Since I am also a white woman, however, I know that won't ever happen to me. But I'll put on my bitch, please face and shoot it in her general direction regardless.
I'm so late to this conversation, and this may be a really stupid question that brings me many flames, but I'm going to ask anyway: If I (as a white woman) see this happening am I: 1) Being a bit of a WS by saying something to the woman that is bothering the guys? Or: 2) Part of the racism problem if I don't say anything? Not that the guys would need me to defend them, but I'd want to say something to let people know that Leanne doesn't speak for all white people.
For me the WS part is her putting it on blast about what a great white person she is by her actions. I don't think it is WS to just say something to a friend that is expressing racial stereotypes.
She could've handled this situation beautifully, when "friend" says something about kids being up to no good. She could've just replied "looks like nothing abnormal to me." And let her friend extrapolate on how two kids sitting at a table is "troublesome" beyond them being black.
She clearly, on some level, agreed with her friend. Otherwise she wouldn't have walked over and forced those boys to prove they were just a pair of innocent kids. This is just another glaring example of how black folks aren't given the benefit of doubt ever.
And afterwards, she's such an arrogant ass she made them pose for pictures with her. She's obnoxious and racist and totally blind to both.
Apparently the heat was too much. She removed the post from her Facebook page. One of the boy's mothers as very upset that Leigh Anne didn't ask permission from any parent of the boys to post the photograph. I would have been livid if those boys were my children.
It's all about an outsider (white man natch) coming in and saving a planet of natives. It's particularly interesting because he's also the savior of a whole society of women who have spent centuries breeding to create him.
I think this is the worst type of racism in some ways, because it is a genuine blindness. Its not like KKK "I hate black people" which is obviously awful but it is almost an easy battle in comparison. With this lady, its an assumption of superiority so deep inside that she is absolutely unaware of it. I 100% believe all she thought she was doing was being awesome and non racist and wonderful, but she remains totally oblivious to how shitty her actions are.
Monsters Ball is the biggest WSF EVER! I hate that fucking movie. She has a sexual relationship with a racist FFS. Next thing you know he pits out his Dad, names a business after her, gives her a car, and eventually a place to live. Meanwhile her black family all dies. Man fuck that movie.
I remember exactly 1 scene in that movie and nothing else. You know which one I mean. There is not enough eye bleach in the world...
I didn't watch the help but I read half the book and I couldn't finish because it made me so uncomfortable and mad. It's written by a white woman. Okay, not the worst but this white woman alternates between naratting as a white woman (the protagonist of course) and the other black women (the help of course). And she makes the black women have an uneducated southern speech pattern but the southern white lady has a flat speech pattern.
And of course the whole book is set up so that the white protagonist is going to help the help by doing this heroic and dangerous thing of interviewing them and writing their stories down "so the world can learn of their downtroddeness" (and she can become a published author).
But, and here's where I lost it, she lost the notebook where she kept her notes and interviews!!! Which could have gotten the ladies she interviewed killed!!!! I'm guessing she found it and no one got killed by her stupidity but I couldn't go any further into the bumbling white savior narrative and had to stop the book.
The issue I have is sharing it on facebook. If she wants to be a busy body and stick her nose into other people's business that is on her. It wasn't the worse thing in the world. BUT by sharing it on FB it makes me question her motives big time. She didn't do it to help those boys out. She did it so everyone would see her as white savior again.
Monsters Ball is the biggest WSF EVER! I hate that fucking movie. She has a sexual relationship with a racist FFS. Next thing you know he pits out his Dad, names a business after her, gives her a car, and eventually a place to live. Meanwhile her black family all dies. Man fuck that movie.
I remember exactly 1 scene in that movie and nothing else. You know which one I mean. There is not enough eye bleach in the world...
Monsters Ball is the biggest WSF EVER! I hate that fucking movie. She has a sexual relationship with a racist FFS. Next thing you know he pits out his Dad, names a business after her, gives her a car, and eventually a place to live. Meanwhile her black family all dies. Man fuck that movie.
I remember exactly 1 scene in that movie and nothing else. You know which one I mean. There is not enough eye bleach in the world...
That is all I remember from that movie as well. bleechh... I can't watch movies because shit like this sticks in my mind ::shudders::
It's all about an outsider (white man natch) coming in and saving a planet of natives. It's particularly interesting because he's also the savior of a whole society of women who have spent centuries breeding to create him.
I dont know if Dune would count, mainly because its about so many things, but in this case, Paul is literally a "white saviour". He is basically the messiah. I understand how it could be looked at as a WS book, but most of the others are "oppressed people of colour get saved by a white man" whereas Dune is "Bunch of witches using special drug try to make their own controllable messiah using breeding but end up with a renegade who turns out to be a total magic jesus who can see the future". I mean, he doesn't "save" the fremen by being white, and in the later books, he pretty much destroys them anyway. If he saves them at all, its because he is Jesus 2, Electric Boogaloo.
So I guess its either not a WS movie, or one turned up to a million lol.
It's all about an outsider (white man natch) coming in and saving a planet of natives. It's particularly interesting because he's also the savior of a whole society of women who have spent centuries breeding to create him.
I dont know if Dune would count, mainly because its about so many things, but in this case, Paul is literally a "white saviour". He is basically the messiah. I understand how it could be looked at as a WS book, but most of the others are "oppressed people of colour get saved by a white man" whereas Dune is "Bunch of witches using special drug try to make their own controllable messiah using breeding but end up with a renegade who turns out to be a total magic jesus who can see the future". I mean, he doesn't "save" the fremen by being white, and in the later books, he pretty much destroys them anyway. If he saves them at all, its because he is Jesus 2, Electric Boogaloo.
So I guess its either not a WS movie, or one turned up to a million lol.
LOL! Reeve summed up my thoughts on this matter accurately.
i just watched A Time To Kill last night and wondered why it wasn't on the list. If To Kill A Mockingbird, is I dont see why ATTK isnt on the list too
i was thinking about ATTK when reading that list, and I think it's an interesting one because it is a WS movie, but the black main character (can't remember any of the names) said to him "I chose you because you're one of them."
To me, it was almost a WS movie that critiqued the WS genre at the same time. Eta: fixed iPhone autocorrects