The positive attitudes towards Black in the movies which I am going to analise.

In this post I want to focus on the positive attitudes towards Black people In three movies.

The Help

1.     I think that the most positive attitude towards Blacks in the movie the help has Skeeter, who writes the book about the discrimination. He treats the black maid as the member of the family. This attitude derives from the way in which she was upbringing. The maid, which I have mentioned above thought her the tolerance and self-acceptance.

2.     Another character who does not discriminate blacks were Cellia who treats  her maid as friend. She is grateful that Minnie helps her to recover after her nervous breakdown.

Something the Lord made :

1.     In this movie we can observe the relationship between the white doctor and black assistant. The doctor is aware of the fact that without Vivien he would not be able to achieve such great success. The  friendship between Blalock and Thomas is very difficult they couldn’t expose it in front of the public.

Ruby Bridges :

In this movie we can observe the relationship between black little girl and her teacher. The teacher believes in the girls capabilities. She is indulgent and commiserative towards her. 

Race and the movies according to 'the Black image in the white media' (Time to Kill)

The author of this book touches upon the movie which I've watched recently it is titled A Time to Kill. It is about the black man who want to revenge on white people who raped his child. What I found unusual in this movie is that White people are described as inhuman, merciless and uneducated people from lower-class.  What is more,  more those white people tend to  base their actions on the old-fashioned stereotypes. On the other hand, we can also able to observe the attitude of the white attorney for him the race does not matter in those case.  In this movie we can observe white people who are persecuted because of the fact that they defend the rights of Blacks.

In my B.A paper I want to focus on the issue of discrimination from slightly different perspective. I would like to pay attention and highlight positive attitudes of Whites who understand that the color of a skin is not a factor that determines person’s personality and the level of intelligence.

Anita 

The Black image in the white mind.

When I was looking for the books which I include in my bibliography I came across the book which suits perfectly to my topic. The book's  main topic is the media and race in America. Contemporary mass media has a great influence on people's minds. The author of this book tries to answer to some crucial questions about the portrayal of the black people in mass media : 

''What is the current state of White's attitudes towards Blacks?, How do the media influence the culture? What are the new hidden codes of racial difference and hierarchy?'

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The book describes the ways of presenting black people in the Media.  First of all, the author focus on the presence of black people in the News.

It turned out that the majority of stories presented in the News are devoted to White people.

Whites were twelve times more likely to have a network newsstory to themselves than were all the other ethnic groups combined (75.5 percent versus 6.3 percent).

At the most general level the color pattern of the news conveys a sense that America is essentially a society of White people with minorities.

The main focus of the eleventh chapter is devoted to the issue of race and movies. I will pay the attention to this topic in my next post.

Anita

Writting course.

During the last week I had a pleasure to participate in the writing classes which was conducted by Tiffany Debicka. We acquired useful knowledge about writing process. The main focus of the course was to teach us how to plan our work efficiently.  I learnt some useful techniques for example free writing or clustering. I am going to use those when I will be writing my B.A paper.  

It turned out that it is very useful and can be helpful in exploring our topic. What is more, we learnt about rhetorical strategies and how plan the content of our B.A paper. We examined for example Thruman Show and I realized that sometimes small details can be crucial when we interpret movie. It turned out that even minor event at the beginning of the movie or the sound track can be a source of information and the  important point to analyze.  I did not realized that for example that color can play crucial role.  

I am grateful that I could participate in those classes because it changed my approach towards writing. What is more, I realized that there are some important steps in writing process which we tend to omit. 

Anita

Something the Lord Made, Far from heaven, Ruby Bridges

I want to present 3 film which touch upon the issue of discrimination:

                                                       

Something The Lord made :

It is a film about The doctor Alfred Blalock and his Black assistant Vivien Thomas. Alfred and Vivien achieved a great success in surgery they bypass surgery. In this movie we can observe the attitude of doctor towards Vivien, he believes in his abilities. Doctor  because of Vivien broke many rules (for example he allowed Vivien  to participate in ground breaking operation). In my B.A paper I want to focus on the relations between Alfred and Vivien.  This movie is based on real story.

Far from heaven.

The film tells the story of white woman who was betrayed by her husband.  Cathy is well-known and respected in the community. When she found out that her husband has an affair she found the consolation in the friendship with black gardener- Raymond.  The film shows the reaction of community when their relationship saw the light of the day and attitude of Cathy towards black people.

Ruby Bridges :

It is a film from 1998 which tells a story of the first black girl who attended to school for white children. In this movie we are able to observe the attitude of white teacher towards girl who is impressed by her skills and violent demonstrations of whites who are against interracial schools.

The Butler (2013)

The Butler is the second movie which I decided to analyse in my B.A paper. The film is 2013 American historical drama, directed and produced by Lee Daniels. Loosely based on the real life of Eugene Allen. The film tells a story of black butler who serves eight presidents over three decades. He is a eyewitness of the most important events in American history ( for example : the civil war, mass demonstrations of blacks, war in Vietnam ) We meet Cecil (main character) when he was 8, he worked with his father on cotton plantation (South).  His father tried to oppose the landowner, and consequently he was shot. After this traumatic event Cecil decided to leave his home and seek better future. He ends up as the butler in the White House.  The movie shows two different perspectives on racial discrimination. On one hand, we have Cecil who wants  to lead calm and decent life.  He was a servant in the white house but he was not humiliated by his employers.  His job was appreciated and he received good salary, so he had an opportunity to maintain his family. On the other hand, Louis Cecil’s son Louis didn’t agree on racial discrimination and racial segregation.  Ha was a freedom rider, he takes part in Freedom Riders (civil rights activists travel by mixed racial buses to challenge local laws and customs). The movie shows to strictly different approaches towards the issue of discrimination, the old one versus the new one. What is more we can are able to observe two different attitudes of white people towards blacks. I would like to focused on this issue in my B.A paper. I will try to write about this subject In my next post. 

'The Help'

I decided that I will write my B.A paper about discrimination.  It is an issue which generates a great deal of heated debates even nowadays. Discrimination is an action which leads to the  exclusion of individual from social life or rights deprivation . Recently, I have watched a film about this issue titled ‘The help’. It is an American drama directed and written by T.Taylor and adapted from Kathryn Stockett’s novel.  The film is about young white woman who struggles for rights of black people and black maids who are constantly persecuted  because of their race.  This film shows two different perspectives and ways of perceive black people by white members of community. On one hand, we have the prejudices and discrimination in many ways for example toilets which are made only for blacks.  On the other hand, we are able to observe the main character who struggles with the injustice. What is more, the films shows thoughts , feelings and real experiences of black community members.  Black people fight for the good living conditions and opportunity to education, but they aren’t able to make their dreams come true because of the lack of money and perspectives. In my opinion this film would be a great material to analyze in my B.A work.