Prejudice And Racism In 'Blazing Saddles'

Mel Brooks takes prejudice, a ordinarily taboo subject, and turns it into a film that depicts the pure ridiculousness that is prejudice and racism in Blazing Saddles. The film allows for a subject which is rarely talked about, to be brought to light in a humorous manner, in turn bringing people of different backgrounds together to laugh at the absurdity of prejudice attitudes and morals. I believe that giving people the opportunity to comprehend the illogicality of different views in an extremely public way is the best way to change a person’s attitude. In the film I was able to identify countless different stereotypes together with how those stereotypes were handled, I was also able to identify why the people were afraid of certain people. …show more content…
One of the first stereotypes of the movie occurs when one of the white men asks the African American men to sing for him and when they begin to sing it is not a song they are “supposed” to be singing since the white man believes they should only be singing “slave” songs or spirituals like, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the movie, from the beginning viewers understand that all the white men believe they are superior to the African Americans, but that the African American men are more intelligent than the white men give them credit for. The intelligence of one of the African American men is shown when Bart, the sheriff plays chess with Jim (The Waco Kid) and wins; chess is perceived as a prestigious game that only the most intelligent of people know how to play so for an African American to not only know how to play but to be decent enough to beat a white man, disproves the stereotype that the African American men working on the railroad are unintelligent. I believe this minor victory for Bart is a major point in the movie, while easily overlooked with all of the humor present in the movie, it is one of the key components in showing how simply silly prejudice attitudes