Structural Disadvantage In John Landis Trading Places

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The funny thing about the stock market is one person sells, and the other buys, but they both think they are astute. One can either make millionaires in the stock market or lose everything. Either way someone is losing and someone is winning. In Trading Places, by John Landis, brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke own a successful brokerage firm. They watch a an encounter between managing director Louis Winthorpe III and a street hustler, Billy Ray. After the encounter, the Dukes make a wager to se what would happen if Louis and Billy switch Lives. Louis is framed as a thief and drug dealer, and Billy is bailed out of jail and given all of Louis’ money and possessions. In his struggles as a newly poor man, Louis befriends a prostitute who “makes …show more content…
In Trading Places, structural disadvantage is depicted by the origins of both Louis and Billy. Louis is a third generation Harvard graduate who has never done manual labor in his life. On the contrary, Billy was born into a poor, broken home where they had to struggle to survive. Due to structural disadvantage, African Americans are not given the same opportunities as their white counterparts. It is also proven that once someone is born into a social class, it is very likely that they will stay in the same social class for their entire lives. This is one of the reasons that structural disadvantage continues to exist to this day. African Americans also receive less funding to schools that have a high percentage of black students. On average the college enrollment rate for black students is 10 to 15 percent less than a white students. With more white students attending schooling, more white students are moving up social classes causing structural disadvantage to continue. Trading Places is an extremely funny movie about the switching lives of a successful brokerage manager and a deadbeat homeless man. However, even though the movie ends with billy becoming rich, the film still reinforces racism in ways such as racist aesthetic, racial stereotypes, and structural disadvantage. Trading Places would be an amazing movie if it did not reinforce many disturbing racist

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