Equality for All
Stanley Kramer’s film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, is about an interracial marriage between a black man and a white woman as well as the generational divide between the alarmed parents of both races and the optimistic young couple. There are aspects of the film that can be construed as progressive and influential for the era, the film more accurately serves as a reflection of the larger socio-political context of 1960’s America in regards to both attitudes of antagonism and acceptance of interracial marriage.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner addressed a forbidden subject during the pinnacle of cultural changes in America. This film is brilliantly put together, and part of that reason is because of the outstanding cast.
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The film influenced members of the American public to consider the possibility of interracial dating in their own lives and to re-examine their own biases. The film was not as progressive as it potentially could have been since it avoided serious confrontations with racism while maintaining elements of white dominance in order to attract white audiences.
He states very explicitly, “I know that the white man made the black woman the symbol of slavery and the white woman the symbol of freedom. Every time I embrace a black woman I’m embracing slavery, and when I put my arms around a white woman, well, I’m hugging freedom” (Cleaver, 170 ). Therefore, Cleaver explains his attraction to white women as an attraction to the long established symbols of freedom and racial supremacy. This idea is comparable to the symbols of freedom in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. “Toplin argues that love and the ability to choose a mate without restrictions symbolized freedom in Kramer’s film” (Harris and Toplin, 707).
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner accurately reflects how fears surrounding interracial marriage also greatly concerned many blacks in American society. Fear being one of the more important underlying messages that is
The audience who viewed this film was primarily younger adults, having enough knowledge to understand society as well as the initiative to try to make a difference in the racial inequalities of the time period. This film definitely made the general public think about and question social norms and customs, and could have ultimately aided the civil rights
In the movie “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, Johanna (Joey) and John boarded an airplane from Hawaii to San Francisco. Joanna comes from a background of a Caucasian wealthy family and John comes from a background of an African –American working class family. Joanna is a classy, sophisticated colleague who met Dr. John Prentice who was holding a lecture at Hawaii University and was attending a party at the Deans. At the beginning of the movie, Johanna and John arrives at the San Francisco airport, check their luggage out with the bagger, and began talking amongst each other. At this point, both characters are building rapport. Next, they caught a taxi, from the airport and rode within the city of San
The film “Guess who’s coming to dinner” surprised me. It was surprised me that a white girl and a black man would get married. It was surprising because in the 1960’s it wasn’t normal for a white and black person to get married. It surprised me that the mom was okay with their marriage so easily because I expected the mom to be like the dad and say no, but the mom was okay with her daughter marrying a black man because she knew it would make her happy. It stood out to me that Joanna didn’t care what her parents thought and told her parents that they were still going to get married even if they said no. It stood out to me that they were getting married so fast because I thought everything was happening really fast too just like their parents.
If I could host a dinner party and I could invite anyone. I would invite Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Huey P. Newton. Martin Luther King Jr. led the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and also in the 1960s Malcolm X was a national minister and spokesman of the Nation of Islam and Huey P. Newton led Black Panther Party in 1966 through 1987. I would invite these three men because they led different organizations to gain equal rights for African-Americans in the 1960s. They had different views on getting equal rights. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. believed in peaceful protesting and turning the other cheek but Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton believed by any means necessary that means they will do anything and everything to get equality. I would ask questions about how did they organization’s start and how they overcome all of the naysayers. I would serve roasted chicken and water served as a drink. We would talk about their deaths and did they felt they could have done more before they died. Also, we would talk about the current situations with African-Americans. I feel like we could use different tactics to get the job done. I think they will be upset how blacks are treated by society today. They probably thought after their deaths African Americans will be treated with more
The Hollywood movie “Guess Who” (2005) is a remake of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967). Both film’s premises are about the same situation of an interracial marriage. The original revolved around a daughter bringing her black fiancée to meet her white middle class family. This was a touchy and even controversial subject in 1967 but the film became an award winner. The 2005 update switches the roles around and with a stroke of genius we now have a white fiancée meeting a black family.
The dichotomy between the black boyfriend and the white girlfriend’s parents highlights racial tension that has been heating up over the last few years. With the United States’ change of power this January, there is much uncertainty on many social issues, and Peele’s film speaks on some of the ongoing tension. As Moonlight, a film that also highlights the troubles of life as a minority individual won the Oscar for Best Picture already this year, Get Out offers another, yet alternative, gaze into the perceptions and realities for people living in fear of their unknown state. With this in mind, the film has already sparked some interest from a few black
In 1967 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner premiered and it was undeniably innovative at the time of its production. It’s portrayal of the relationship between a white woman and a black male, and the attempt of both white and black families to understand and accept such a coupling, no doubt made waves just three years after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The film sought to showcase the social structures that intertwined race and relationships and the stress felt by both blacks and whites alike surrounding the subject. The piece properly reflects the greater socio-political background of the country in the 1960s regarding the dueling opinions of opposition and acceptance surrounding interracial marriage.
The film Our Family Wedding illustrated the diversity among and between families. The film depicted the views of different generations within a family and how an interracial marriage affected them differently. The film explores new contemporary marriage trends and challenges traditional family roles and marriage trends. This paper will explore different demographic trends as it relates to the social constructs of class, race, and gender, survey the recent trends and changes towards contemporary marriage, and study the changes in the family relationships within the film. Conclusively, this film analysis will use textbook concepts and examples in the movie to establish a framework for the diverse family system and the changing marriage.
Stanley Kramer’s film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, explores the controversial issue of interracial marriage and reflects society’s prejudicial views during the 1960’s. In the 60’s, the concept of an interracial marriage was foreign. At the time, it was considered illegal sixteen states for two people of different races to wed.(Kramer 1967). Joanna Drayton, the white daughter of a wealthy newspaper editor, and Dr. John Prentice, the son of a black mail man fall deeply in love after ten short days together in Hawaii(Kramer 1967).The Drayton’s are wealthy and reside in the suburbs of San Francisco, where roughly only twelve percent of the town people are colored (Kramer 1967).Whereas, Dr. Prentice is from a low class family who live in Los Angeles. Statistically, the white race composes the majority of the middle and upper class.
James Baldwin’s short story gruesomely paints the picture of how racism and sexuality are linked. The story takes place during the civil rights movement in the United States (Gorman 119). During this time, African Americans were still being oppressed, and white people were angry that they were making progress in society. This often lead to brutal attacks and sometimes death. In the story, the narrator, Jesse, is having difficulty having sex with his wife and compares her to the black women that he has sex with. As the story progresses, the problem emerges with the killing of a black man who is dismembered by a white man right before young Jesse’s eyes. Instead of seeing this as a horrible experience, Jesse takes on the attitude of those around him. Through characterization, point of view, and symbolism, James Baldwin’s story, “Going to Meet the Man,” demonstrates the connection between sexuality, particularly masculinity, and racism.
Certain stereotypes have stood the test of time, no matter how many strides for racial equality have been made. Sandra Bullock’s character made the statement about the relationship between white and black people: “If a white woman sees two black men walking
Even though the film was meant to funny, it did make me think about different cultural preduice and obstacles interacial relationships may face. Over all I enjoyed the film it poked fun at racial prejudice and brought some good topics to the table. However, I wish they would have take the opportunity to have gone deeper into racism and brought it out into the open for people to
Changing Views Out of all of the films we have watched in this class so far, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” certainly contained the greatest number of value statements. I appreciated how the film conveyed many of its value statements, both intentional and possibly unintentional, indirectly. This film, being released in 1967, was very much a product of its time in some ways, but very forward thinking in others.
Interracial marriage has traditionally been viewed as a means of expressing a hatred of oneself, of escaping something in one’s culture or self that one no longer wants to identify with. Jacki Thompson Rand describes the outcome of this phenomenon in an essay on her experience as the child of an interracial marriage. She explains how her mother married a white man in an effort to make herself more white, and therefore more legitimate: “My mother 's marriage to my father was a racial love
In this essay I will be looking at the representation of interracial relationships and how these relationships have been portrayed in cinema from 1903 up until present. I will be discussing the how miscegenation has been represented to audiences over the years as a problem, and something that is unnatural. This essay will be anasyling scenes from movies such as Birth of a Nation, and What