Though Denzel Washington won an Oscar for Training Day in 2001, Sexton contends that this was merely an “awkward…cultural redress” for the lack of proper acknowledgement regarding his work in “respectable” black roles, such as Malcolm X (40). By rewarding a rather stereotypically fraught performance with the highest acting honor, the Academy sends a rather disturbing message regarding what they “deem accomplished black cinema” (45). Though Fuqua is a black director who “may call the shots,” the “financial underwriters…have the first and final word;” and unfortunately, “production…remains firmly a white monopoly” (48; 47). With Hollywood maintaining an overly “white-washed” executive head, we are rewarded with black representations that merely
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The Sheriff only acknowledges Tibbs’ title as detective “after it is confirmed by Tibbs’ presumptively white captain in Philadelphia” (43). In Training Day, Jake “snatches Alonzo’s badge from his neck” and proclaims, “You don’t deserve this,” removing Alonzo’s object of power and self-righteousness (55). The white man has both the ability to grant the black man’s value and strip it away. However, In the Heat of the Night is still a standard buddy-cop film with the typical “reconciliatory [and]/or recuperative attributes,” while Training Day “rewrites the script…promoting instead the obligatory vigilance of whites towards the treachery of blacks” (52; 50). Though written forty years later, the latter produces an even more jarringly racist representation for it lacks the all-powerful “fade out kiss” that, on some level, suggests mutual respect. Jake does not accept assimilations to Alonzo; while Gillespie tells Tibbs “You’re just like us,” Jake tells Alonzo, “I’m nothing like you” (qtd. 53). Training Day depicts Jake against Alonzo; the white against the black; the good against the bad. Black and white distinctions are made to maintain a rather fantastical separation between good and
The Sheriff only acknowledges Tibbs’ title as detective “after it is confirmed by Tibbs’ presumptively white captain in Philadelphia” (43). In Training Day, Jake “snatches Alonzo’s badge from his neck” and proclaims, “You don’t deserve this,” removing Alonzo’s object of power and self-righteousness (55). The white man has both the ability to grant the black man’s value and strip it away. However, In the Heat of the Night is still a standard buddy-cop film with the typical “reconciliatory [and]/or recuperative attributes,” while Training Day “rewrites the script…promoting instead the obligatory vigilance of whites towards the treachery of blacks” (52; 50). Though written forty years later, the latter produces an even more jarringly racist representation for it lacks the all-powerful “fade out kiss” that, on some level, suggests mutual respect. Jake does not accept assimilations to Alonzo; while Gillespie tells Tibbs “You’re just like us,” Jake tells Alonzo, “I’m nothing like you” (qtd. 53). Training Day depicts Jake against Alonzo; the white against the black; the good against the bad. Black and white distinctions are made to maintain a rather fantastical separation between good and