Film Analysis : Save The Last Dance

Movies and entertainment outlets speak volumes about the current state of a nation’s culture. Cinematic creations in the United States allow small voices to be heard and controversial issues to be addressed. However, a repetitive and monumental issue continues to be addressed, yet continues to persist in our 21st century culture, racial inequalities. Since the inception of the United States, black men and women alike have been disenfranchised at the hands of the “white man” in America. Instead of continuing the conversation today, the issue is continually silenced referencing the successes and achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century. Nonetheless, an unfortunate reality looms upon this great land; racially based systems and structures continue to exist in 2015 the in United States. This paper synthesizes three films focused on racial inequalities in different time periods. Separate but Equal (1991), Selma (2015), and Crash (2005) illustrate how influential the Civil War amendments are, while serving as an uncanny reminder of how the racial prejudices during the 20th century continue to exist in our great nation today. Needless to say our nation has made great strides, but still has a long way to go.

The concept art imitates life is crucial to film directors who express their views on political and social issues in film. In regard to film studies, race is a topic rare in many films. Like America, many films simply refuse to address this topic for various reasons. However, more recently, Jordan Peele’s 2017 box office hit Get Out explicates contemporary race relations in America. In the form of an unconventional comedy horror, Get Out is intricate in its depiction of white liberal attitudes towards African Americans. In short, Get Out suggests a form of covert racism existing in a post- Jim Crow era. Similarly, Eduardo Bonilla- Silva’s book Racism Without Racists acknowledges the contemporary system of racism or “new racism,” a system

Race is defined as a category or group of people widely perceived as sharing socially significant physical characteristics or hereditary traits that set them apart. It is commonly accepted myth that the human species is composed of physically different groups and that these differences are assumed to be genetic. Race is supposed to be based on biological factors. However, the myth is debunked; it is scientifically proven that race is a social construction; although it is based on physical characteristics that presume biological base, most important biological differences between people are invisible and do not play any role in the definition of racial categories. There

There is also a great deal of research done on genetic differences versus perception. It was even proven that the concept of race is merely a social construct and not nearly as scientifically in-tune as many believe it is. A study conducted by Eric D’Arcy of Harvard University in 2002 on alleles revealed a substantial observation on genetic differences between races and a socially constructed perception. Scientists found that, while alleles that were region-specific did show up, they really only appeared and occurred in numbers barely enough to construct any sort of trademark. In fact, they were found only in about 1% of the people of that specific region.

In a film of “Race the Power of an Illusion, Part I The Difference Between Us”, it talked about the differences of races such as skin, eye, hair color. However, in our genetic, the human is not very different than we think but we had a similar genetic code. In the 1950s, the athlete champions were all black, and they were much better than any other. Maybe because of that some people think there are different structure bodies than other races. In this case, I think it could make sense that black people have better body structure than white. However, it is the wrong stereotype about skin color. The skin tone is continuously changing, and the reason why a human has different physical appearances is that of different genes we have. Depends on the

The principles of genetics and evolution show that race, biologically does not exist. The differences that appear in humans does not come from an allele that marks for a specific race. Usually most of the variations we see in humans comes from mutations that occur. The change in DNA is a major factor of variation in humans, it is something random which means certain attributes aren’t associated with a specific race. Another important thing to note is that all humans share the basic structure of DNA. This reinforces the idea that race is a social construct, not a reality of nature. Another main source of variation comes from gene flow (the movement of alleles to and from a certain location). Populations have always been moving from one place to another, and through this a trait can become more unique or more common. So there is less to do about

Using the language of the moving image, which includes cinematography, editing, sound, music and mise-en-scene, this essay will investigate the ideology of Racism in film. OxfordDictionaries.com describes racism as “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.” When we, the audience think of racism in film, we traditionally think of movies for adults and often overlook the sinister aspect of racism in children’s films. I have chosen to contrast a recent R-rated film with a G-rated Disney movie from the 1990s. Disney films, even up until the 1990s have persistently reinforced the image of blacks or latino and asian races as being below whites. The

This is interesting to me in that though everyone looks different, we are al vary similar at a the DNA level. Our differences are not so great. There are two historical perspectives on race and ethnicity among geneticist. One is that is a cultural and historical construct with no biological significance, meaning that there is entirely unique to a particular ethnicity. The other argument is that there are biological differences between different ethnicities. As the human genome was being sequenced, different frequencies of genes variants related to disease susceptibility, drug metabolism, and environmental response were found among different populations (). Even though there is a small difference in DNA from person to person, there is some biological distinction. The variations of these genes tend to be similar among certain

In the movie Save the last dance the film explores various issues current in the United States as well as all over the world. The movie explores peer pressure especially in a black dominant school population. Themes of Violence, adolescent pride and interracial relationships were greatly represented in the film. Also it touches on early parenthood, pressures of a low income environment, racial status, racial stereotypes and prejudice as well as loyalty to friends. Psychologically the movie represents Memory, Learning, Thinking, Motivation and emotion, Development, Sex and gender as well as Social realm.

There have been scientific findings that race is not biological. There are many things that make up a person and one-size fits all label does not always work. There is a huge difference between race and ethnicity. Every single person has a different makeup, as far as culture, ethnicity, and race. The world is changing so much, with immigration, culture, and social norms, we need to learn to change and adapt with them.

According to Charles Mills, race matters and is a category reflecting custom. These customs are broken down to racial classification matters. We as individuals associate race as a cluster of attributes. These attributes include physical and psychological/moral facets. When it comes to physical attributes, we focus more towards the skin, bone structure, hair color, and all biologically substances that human beings have naturally acquired. On the other hand, Psychological

Race is not a biological reality because there are no indications of some biological DNA that would have a certain outcomes of a race. The variation in skin tone comes from the mix of certain races. For example, the mix of black and white would result a skin color of Latino. However, the mix of white and yellow (Asians) will most likely result a child having more essential characteristics of white people. It is impossible to classify humans into races because human is making a new race every single moment from the combination of two people who come from different races. Light skin and dark skin have a lot to deal with the temperature, latitude and langtitude of the region. It could be characterized by a regions, instead of ethnic groups. Race

The English term ‘race’ is believed to originate from the Spanish word raza, which means ‘breed’ or ‘stock’ (Race). People use race to define other groups, this separation of groups is based largely on physical features. Features like skin color and hair don’t affect the fundamental biology of human variation (Hotz). Race is truly only skin deep, there are no true biological separations between two ‘racial’ groups. Scientifically speaking, there is more variation between single local groups than there is between two large, global groups; the human variation is constantly altering (Lewontin). The majority of today’s anthropologists agree that race is a form of social categorization, not the separation of groups based on biological

When thinking of a specific type of dance, the vast majorities of the time people generally relate and direct the art form to a certain type of culture or race. As times develop and cultures start to merge, people tend to try and get to understand other diversities. This happens especially when we look at various forms of dance, where the people of origin are no longer the only ones who strictly perform it. Shown in the movies “Save the Last Dance” and “Take the Lead” both show a great deal of racial status and stereotypes involving dance, where the minorities try their best to fit in. Proving themselves by showing how they can adapt to other cultures by the flow and movement of their bodies. Both show a great understanding on how people of different races can be brought together by something most people can relate to, dance. To what extent does race inform the dancing as portrayed in the films “Save the Last Dance” (2001) and “Take the Lead” (2006)? To support the following argument stated above, there are several sources that will be implemented throughout the essay found within the dance community (journals, articles and books).

Due to scientist’s interest in human genetic variation, human racial classification became a focus of scientific investigation by evolutionary biologists attempting to categorize individual humans based on presumed patterns of biological difference. Scientists had hoped to classify humans in the same way that they classified other species. These scientists attached hierarchical titles to these categorizations; they claimed that differences in skin color, physiognomy, and geography were associated with scientifically measurable differences in character, aptitude, and temperament (Smedley, 1998). However, studies supporting these claims have been unsound (Gould, 1981). Categorization of humans by racial and ethnic groups continues, as researchers must remain aware of this historical legacy of the science of heredity as the genomic era continues to develop (Bonham et al., 2005).