Movie Character Analysis: 42, The True Story of An American Legend In 2013, a director named Brian Helgeland came out with a movie called “42”, an inspiring, true story about the life of Jackie Robinson and his role in breaking baseball’s color barrier. The story begins in the mid 1940s, when Major League Baseball was a “white’s only” sport and african americans could only play in a separate league by themselves. In this film, legendary Brooklyn Dodgers manager, Branch Rickey (played by Harrison Ford) brings a new, unorthodox opinion to the table. He wants to bring in an african american baseball player from the Negro Leagues, to come play for the Dodgers and to eventually break down baseball’s unspoken color barrier. To accomplish this task,
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Racism is something that has been studied for many years, however we don’t truly know why it happens or where it comes from. There are many theories of racism that give different ideas of where it has come from. In her book, Towards the Elimination of Racism (Katz. 2013.), Phyllis Katz describes how there are several major categories of racism. Katz splits the major categories into two separate parts, the first being “victim-system control” and the second being “degree of embeddedness”. As we focus on her theory of “victim-system” control, Katz describes it as, “the extent to which a theory locates the root or cause of racial injustice: as within the environmental control of its primary victims or within the larger social structure.” The author continues by talking about how minorities really don’t have the same abilities as whites to control, order, or alter their own life chances. She explains in this theory that because of differences in community or culture, whites often are born with much better “chances” than those of color. In An American Dilemma (Myrdal. 1995.), Gunnar Myrdal talks about how there is something called the “White man’s Problem” (p. lxxxiii). Myrdal continues and says that the “negro problem” isn’t a problem from the blacks themselves, rather it is a problem from the whites because “practically all the economic, social, and political power is held by the whites” (p.lxxxiii). He ends by saying “The Negro’s entire life, and, consequently also his opinions on the Negro problem, are in the main, to be considered as secondary reactions to more primary pressures from the side of the dominant white majority” (p.lxxxiii). These ideas by Katz and Myrdal are seen from the very beginning of film, when Jackie’s negro league team stops to fill up their bus with gas. During this time, Jackie goes to use a bathroom, but the white man tells
Racism is something that has been studied for many years, however we don’t truly know why it happens or where it comes from. There are many theories of racism that give different ideas of where it has come from. In her book, Towards the Elimination of Racism (Katz. 2013.), Phyllis Katz describes how there are several major categories of racism. Katz splits the major categories into two separate parts, the first being “victim-system control” and the second being “degree of embeddedness”. As we focus on her theory of “victim-system” control, Katz describes it as, “the extent to which a theory locates the root or cause of racial injustice: as within the environmental control of its primary victims or within the larger social structure.” The author continues by talking about how minorities really don’t have the same abilities as whites to control, order, or alter their own life chances. She explains in this theory that because of differences in community or culture, whites often are born with much better “chances” than those of color. In An American Dilemma (Myrdal. 1995.), Gunnar Myrdal talks about how there is something called the “White man’s Problem” (p. lxxxiii). Myrdal continues and says that the “negro problem” isn’t a problem from the blacks themselves, rather it is a problem from the whites because “practically all the economic, social, and political power is held by the whites” (p.lxxxiii). He ends by saying “The Negro’s entire life, and, consequently also his opinions on the Negro problem, are in the main, to be considered as secondary reactions to more primary pressures from the side of the dominant white majority” (p.lxxxiii). These ideas by Katz and Myrdal are seen from the very beginning of film, when Jackie’s negro league team stops to fill up their bus with gas. During this time, Jackie goes to use a bathroom, but the white man tells