Films that we watch and enjoy present racism that is subtle and strategically positioned that allows audiences to believe there is no racial aspects that affect blacks and whites from having a relationship. This hegemonic idea allows audience to enjoy racists films, with some extremely degrading ideas flying over their heads.
Lee Antz presented some great insight on black and white buddy films in “Hegemony in Black and White: Interracial Buddy Films and the New Racism" and their attempt to conceal true racism for entertainment by mainly “allowing” the black character to have actual substance.
From the opening of the film, Etan Cohen, director of ‘Get Hard’ sets the image of the characters. Opening scene takes place in Bel-Air, a luxurious …show more content…
An evident moment of this takes place in the film when Darnell is trying to help James get protection in prison. They were going to meet with the white gang which required James to put on a front that he was a racist. This lead to Darnell giving James a pass to use the n-word. There has been so much discussion around people other than african-american people being able to say that word due to it’s extremely negative history. The fact that a black man was going to just “allow” a white man to use a word that white people used as a derogatory term to impress racists truly exemplifies that society really believes that racism has been diminished. “The ability to initiate and institute such changes requires that the American people believe that racism has been overcome and that inequities in economic and social progress are the consequence of culture, biology, or individual life choices.” (Artz, 1998)
There is a scene at the beginning of the film where Darnell knocks on the window, James assumes he’s being robbed. States “He would have done that even if he had been white.” They present racial discrepancies but then use an explanation to camouflage it to be less of a racial focused occurrence.
Artz explained that this new racism is incorporated into films with four characteristics. These four characteristics which create black appreciation for films are placed into the story that gets white audience members approval of existing race issues and relationships between blacks and whites. (Artz,
Lee Antz presented some great insight on black and white buddy films in “Hegemony in Black and White: Interracial Buddy Films and the New Racism" and their attempt to conceal true racism for entertainment by mainly “allowing” the black character to have actual substance.
From the opening of the film, Etan Cohen, director of ‘Get Hard’ sets the image of the characters. Opening scene takes place in Bel-Air, a luxurious …show more content…
An evident moment of this takes place in the film when Darnell is trying to help James get protection in prison. They were going to meet with the white gang which required James to put on a front that he was a racist. This lead to Darnell giving James a pass to use the n-word. There has been so much discussion around people other than african-american people being able to say that word due to it’s extremely negative history. The fact that a black man was going to just “allow” a white man to use a word that white people used as a derogatory term to impress racists truly exemplifies that society really believes that racism has been diminished. “The ability to initiate and institute such changes requires that the American people believe that racism has been overcome and that inequities in economic and social progress are the consequence of culture, biology, or individual life choices.” (Artz, 1998)
There is a scene at the beginning of the film where Darnell knocks on the window, James assumes he’s being robbed. States “He would have done that even if he had been white.” They present racial discrepancies but then use an explanation to camouflage it to be less of a racial focused occurrence.
Artz explained that this new racism is incorporated into films with four characteristics. These four characteristics which create black appreciation for films are placed into the story that gets white audience members approval of existing race issues and relationships between blacks and whites. (Artz,