Tv + Movies on Tv, blacks being portrayed as top dogs unlss they need a villaim
By suspenseful
@suspenseful (40193)
Canada
October 22, 2007 6:16pm CST
This is not about just the president of the company in movies or Tv being Black, it is about the trend where the police chief is black, the head of the good rebels being Black, the good moral guy being black, the only one who shows righteous indignation at getting mad at the bad guy being black. In fact the only time they do not have the black man as being the one on top is when they need an "evil white man" to be head of the criminal organization. Like I watched Eragon, and the leader of the rebels was a Black Man, and then I also watched Blood Diamond and even though the bad guys were Black (It was in Africa below the Sahara) the big honcho, the real bad guy was of of course "the Evil White Man." who was manipulating a civil war so he could sell more weapons.
Even when there is a bad black man, he has a justified reason for his actions, unlike the evil white man who is a despicable character to begin with. He was born bad.
Now I remember when not that long ago, the good guy at the top could be White, Black, American Indian, Japanese, Chinese or whatever, but now he always seem to be Black and even if he is not, he seems to be the most moral and right guy in the show. Do any of you find this disturbing? Should there not be a balance?
3 people like this
5 responses
@miaocecilia (80)
• China
23 Oct 07
wow,what a discovery!but i think it's okie,maybe that means black actors are increasing~
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
23 Oct 07
I do not mind them increasing, but do they always have to play the police chief and the head of the corporations, and the moral guys?
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
23 Oct 07
I think they are afraid. I wonder why if the show is in California, why they do not have a Mexican-American or a Chinese as a police chief, if the show is based in Kansas, or where the Indian Territories used to be to have an American Indian as a police chief, or in New Mexico or Arizona, the same and not just on a reservation? Why not get the police chief from he majority of the people who are in that State, as they do in real life, instead of finding the one black guy or woman in the academy and making him or her chief because of whatever reason they have.
1 person likes this
@miaocecilia (80)
• China
23 Oct 07
hah~you'd better ask those film directors to find out the reason~!i wanna know the answer too.
2 people like this
@3lilangels (4639)
• United States
23 Oct 07
well it doesnt bother me at all but i do think there should be a balnace though,but i dont see that happening yet.the bad guys should be of all colors and not just one,to me it would be better to mix the races as well.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
5 Nov 07
There has been a definite shift over the decades away from the portrayal of the white man being the good guy all the time, but I have not noticed any monopoly of the black guy being the top man all the time.
I have no problem with the good guy being black, white or any other ethnic origin, at least it makes the film a little more realistic.
@GardenGerty (160612)
• United States
23 Oct 07
The pendulum always swings too far one way or the other. Yes, there should be a balance, but then again, that can lead to quotas. I do not know how to approach this. I know good and bad people of all kinds, and that is the real world.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
23 Oct 07
The trouble is movies and Tvs are not the real world. They are the wished for world. So if you want a woman president, you will put a show where a woman rules the white house. If you want African-Americans to be heads of corporations and be the Marine drill sergeants or the Colonel that NCIS connects, the tv and movie people will write Blacks as those characters. What will happen is that the blacks will try harder for those parts and believe they deserve them, and those white kids who are influenced by Tv, will not try so hard and so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
@mamasan34 (6518)
• United States
23 Oct 07
I honestly haven't really noticed that. Of course I haven't been watching too many movies as of late. I guess I need to pull my head out of the computer and watch some tv lol! In the past, I remember that many asian leading roles, asians weren't allowed to play them, they dressed caucasian men and women in those roles. I watched Sayonara with Marlon Brando which is one of my all time favorite movies, and Ricardo Monteban was playing a Japanese man. I didn't understand it, because the leading lady was actually Japanese, but this was one of the tail end movies of that era. I remember Bruce Lee had to wear a mask when he was cast as the Green Hornets assistant Kato because they didn't think the public would approve of an asian man as a leading character in a show. Times have changed so much. I think that it is more balanced now. Maybe I am wrong.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
23 Oct 07
It has not balanced, it has shifted to the blacks being the moral good guys, and even if they are not in charge, their words hold more weight. I do not believe that all the white men are immoral hedonists, but many Tv shows seem to give that impression. I know how things have changed, but I wonder if it is because the ACLU said that Black people must be portrayed sympathetically, that we have this. I remember when the Italians did not want to be shown as mobsters and gangsters, well they did not follow that rule too closely and we still have shows where there is some old Italian mobster guy.
