Race in Cinema

Topic: Race in Cinema

Reverse Racism in Cinema

            It seems as though we haven’t come that far from the days of red/black/yellow face. These days there seems to be reverse racism present in cinema as well. I watched a film years ago called, “White Chicks” in which Shawn and Marlon Wayans (both African-American actors) portray two stupid white female twins. Their faces are painted white, they wear blonde wigs, and their tone is that of an intellectually challenged ‘Paris Hilton’ type. I don’t see how this is any different than someone putting black makeup on their face and I actually found it to be offensive and a double-standard. Robert Downey Jr. recently portrayed an actor wearing black face for the shooting of a movie called, “Tropic Thunder.” In which, he also adapted the stereotypical mannerisms and traits of a southern black man. It seems as though we haven’t come very far at all in terms of respecting racial identity on screen. I’m not saying there needs to be uproar every time someone dresses as a character outside of their own race, but we should think before we allow ourselves to become jaded to racial disrespect in our society. I understand that both of these movies were comedies and were not using black/white face in a serious or dramatic way as in “The Jazz Singer”, but it still parallels the inappropriateness of that era. If we are to move on from this disrespect in the past, we need to study and remember it and not replicate it, even in a funny way.

            The hard part about this issue for me is that I did enjoyed Tropic Thunder and Robert Downey Jr.’s performance in it. He is one of my favorite actors of all time. Ben Stiller, who wrote and directed “Tropic Thunder,” said to Downey, “If anyone can pull this role off, it’s you.” I agree that RDJ is probably one of the only actors today who could pull that role off and get away with it, though it still doesn’t make it right. Throughout the movie there are many racist remarks, making reference to things like fried chicken, “The Jefferson’s”, crawfish, and other African-American stereotypes.

            Another thing to think about is when people of the wrong nationality are cast to play a character with similar racial features, such as in “Memoirs of a Geisha”, in which Ziyi Zhang (an actress of Chinese decent) plays a Japanese Geisha. I actually knew Japanese people who were offended by this, especially because the film was about such an ancient tradition and a staple of Japanese culture. You would think that a director such as Rob Marshall, who directed “Memoirs”, would want the film to be as authentic as possible and without offending the people he was making the movie about. The reason for his choice in casting was most likely due to the fact he felt he couldn’t find an actress of Japanese decent to portray the lead Geisha. It’s a difficult predicament for a director, ‘Do I go with the girl who is the best actress or one that is the most historically and racially accurate?’

            In conclusion, we are still making strides to guard against racial disrespect in film, but more needs to be done. I’m not someone who is easily offended, but when I see two African-American men dressed up in ‘white face’ to make fun of white people, it upsets me. I would expect black people to feel the same way if someone did the reverse today. I believe the reason it was excusable in “Tropic Thunder” was because the film contained another actually black actor, who called Robert Downey Jr.’s character out on his stereotypical and semi-racist choice to wear ‘black face.’ We all need to look a little closer at what we choose to be subjected to in cinema and ask ourselves, ‘Is this as innocent as it seems?’