Django Unchained: Racial Stereotypes

Although Racial Stereotype is something we experience daily, people should not be quick to judge or make conclusions based solely on skin color. Not every stereotype is true. Staples introduces himself by using the words “first Victim” by doing so he sets a picture in the mind of the reader that when he came up behind the lady on the street, something was going to do happen to her. He is faced with different stereotypes that he experiences daily from different races. Throughout the essay Staples makes the argument that racial stereotype is wrong .Staples explains his thesis through narratives of incidents in his life. He gives details of numerous accounts of people mistaking him for a thief or mugger.

Racial stigmas exist everywhere we look including commercials, shows, and movies. There are many influences that come from media outlets that lead society to critizes races and ethnicities by portraying them in having stereotypes as well as discriminating against a specific group, and lastly advertising biased thoughts. For example, the show Fresh Prince of Bel-Air displays African American stereotypes. At the same time, the film American History X which represents the effects of discrimination African Americans and Mexicans. And, the Volkswagen Polo commercials that displays prejudice thoughts against Middle eastern.

Recently there has been a lot of debate over the topic of professional sports teams changing names due to discriminatory images. Should teams be forced to change their name or should they be allowed to uphold their traditions? Teams such as the Washington Redskins should not have to change their names.

Through the use of images, films, and other media outlets harmful stereotypes are often times created. One of the many challenges that American cinema endures is the inability to correctly portray characters of color. Film directors have formed a habit of creating and defining characters in a way that the audiences can easily identify with, thus leading to the reproduction of racial stereotyping. Black characters have generally been stigmatized throughout the course of history as aggressive, inferior, and irrational beings. These common stereotypes are perpetuated through the use of redundant film clichés that have a significant impact on society’s popular image of blacks. Within the article In Living Color, Michael Omi claims that despite progressive changes in America pertaining to race, popular culture is still responsible for damaging racial stereotypes and racism. Whereas, within Matt Zoller Seitz article, The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won’t Die, he discusses film clichés such as “Magical Negro” that uses an African American character for the sole purpose of acting as a mentor for their oblivious white counterpart. However, Get Out, a horror satire on the micro-aggressive black experience, directed by Jordan Peele, debunks these racial stereotypes centered around black men. The film subverts the use of racial stereotypes, as it rejects America’s depiction of common black men behavior pertaining to their criminalized lifestyle, masculinity, and aggression in

Racial stereotypes more or less affect our perceptions toward race, and judge people in a certain frame unconsciously, as Omi set forth in In Living Color: Race and American Culture. It greatly impact the images of minorities on the visual media, which the most direct medium to reflect the popular beliefs. Even though the “racist beliefs” have “just recently being reversed”, the portrayal of minorities on visual media is still not exemplary (Horton, et al “PORTRAYAL OF MINORITIES IN THE FILM, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRIES”).

the officer that declared him as a burglar. As a result, colored people feel the need to take justice into their hands by protecting themselves with weapons.

Another behavioural tendency that exposes one as a racist would be if one is verbally abusive, threatening, or ridiculing while using derogatory language towards a particular group of people in the community based on their race and cultural belief and practices. Stereotypical comments and racist propaganda such as symbols, signs, and graffiti is another form of behavioural character of a racist. For example, many stereotypes have a belief that all Asians know martial arts such as Kung Fu and that they all come from China. Similarly, most stereotypes believe that an African American’s first instinct is to fight or kill someone if they do not see eye to eye typically because they believe that all African Americans come from poor and violent backgrounds.

He and his fellow army regiment start building a cabin for shelter in the winter. After a few months of building, they finally finish before the winter gets too harsh. When the winter does finally get harsh they are forced to spend most of their time inside eating Fire Cakes. But, one day some officers wanted to have everyone line up for duty and that's when Master Bellingham found Curzon once again forcing him to be his slave. In the Officer's house, Curzon finds out that Master Bellingham had bought Isabel.

The next racist stereotype in Dumbo is the crows. Their leader is named Jim Crow and they are all black and constantly smoking. Wells recognises and defines this repeated racial stereotype; They all look scruffy and are shown as intellectually inferior. They all have southern accents using slang words, speaking in a stereotypical, jive talking manner. Eleanor Byrne & Martin McQuillan describe these traits saying the crows

The main character, Candide, has his world flipped upside down, and it all begins with getting thrown out of his kingdom because he was found kissing the lovely Cunegonde. He spends the entire book trying to find his way back to her. When he does find her again, he sees her as extremely ugly and seriously considers going back on his promise to Cunegonde that he’d marry her. However, Candide should decide to marry Cunegonde to ultimately honor himself.

Pangloss, who Candide reunites with, is injured and miserable with syphilis, but he justifies the illness by connecting it to the voyage of Columbus to America, bringing wonders like chocolate into Europe (Candide, 8). Candide himself continues to believe in Pangloss’ philosophy no matter how dire his situation. From being separated from Cunegonde, to leaving El Dorado, Candide relentlessly rationalizes his situation. His arguments with the pessimistic scholar, Martin, consisted mostly of his optimistic take on various situations; however, Martin constantly is proven right in accordance with his pessimistic view. One such instance is when Candide evaluated Paquette and Girofleé as a happy couple, but was deeply mistaken as Paquette confessed to him all her troubles up until now.

Well first things first, it is safe to say that it would be exceptionally hard to come by a black director who would be granted the budget to shoot a film such as Django Unchained, which ironically parallels the character of Django in the film, the one in ten thousand “exceptional nigger.” A main issue with this film is this concept of the “exceptional.” Obviously, Django Unchained is far more based in fiction and fantasy than in solid history, but what places this in a moral gray area is the way society is often taught about slavery in America, and how wounds are often reopened by those attempting to close them by simply saying “get over it, it was a long time ago.” To be told this over and over again, all their life, and then see a famed white male insinuate something along the lines of “what if your ancestors had been “exceptional niggers, imagine

The movies came out at a time when the country was at unrest in regards to new age racism. Racism today is well documented through the use of social media s compared to the past. In addition, the time period in which the movies were set people were afraid to express their opinions on racism due to fear of retaliation from the whites but this is not the case today. People are expressing their opinion in regards to racism be it through social media or peaceful protest such as the popular kneeling by Colin Kaepernick a football quarterback. The

Whether you believe it or not, racial discrimination is not a controversial matter of the past and has a profound impact on society. Nowadays we still inherit unconsciously misconceptions and prejudices that happen to be unnoticed in our day by day. Consequently, in order to raise awareness upon the connotation of this matter, we must educate people on behalf of assertiveness and comprehension. Therefore, it is remarkably important to acknowledge: the negative impact of racial discrimination on the individual and society, the necessity of derogating misconceptions and the values of cultural diversity.

Django Unchained is a film that follows the story of Django, who was a slave turned bounty hunter, and Dr. King Schultz, who is a bounty hunter. Schultz purchases Django in order to make him a freeman, due to the information he has about his bounty for Schultz. In return, the only goal Django sets out to achieve is finding and rescuing his wife, Broomhida, after they were separated in a slave deal. Schultz and Django come to find that Broomhida is located at the location of the famous Calvin Candie, who is a cotton-field owner. Schultz and Django then come up with a plan to rescue his wife from Candie.