Mississippi Masala Essay

it was like to be black in the 1930’s in the Mississippi region of the

This movie based off of a southern family living in Memphis, Tennessee will show you a true taste of southern hospitality. In every film you have your list of characters along with their personalities and most importantly their motives. Along with the certain qualities of every character comes the ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos which stands for the goodness of a film and/or ethics goes hand in hand with the sender of a film, Pathos which is the passion and emotions of a film which goes hand in hand with the receiver, and lastly the logos which is the logic/information that sends a message. Each rhetoric sends a message and surely puts a movie together.

Idi Amin, holding military power and eventually acquiring the position of head of state in Uganda in the mid-late twentieth century, is recognized as one world’s most notorious leaders and is believed to be responsible for the deaths of one hundred thousand-five hundred thousand human rights individuals. Amin’s rule is characterized by nepotism, ethnic persecution, and much corruption. During Amin’s rule, he was also responsible for expelling the Indian culture by demanding all individuals of the nationality to leave the continent of Africa. Mississippi Masala, released in 1991 and directed by Mira Nair, tells the story of an Indian family that fleeted Africa to the United States during the reign of Amin. While the plot concentrates on the morals, beliefs, and portrayals of the Indian culture during that particular time frame, it does so through the up’s and down’s of the romantic relationship between Meena, whose family migrated from Africa to the United States, and Demetrius, an African American carpet cleaner who was born and raised in Mississippi. The couple’s relationship is greatly scrutinized by Mina’s family as well as society; however, the end of the film reveals that one’s skin color does not speak to the content of their character.

“Mississippi Burning” is based on the investigation of a missing persons case which turned into a murder case in Mississippi that involved three young students who were civil rights workers involved in Freedom Summer of 1964. Two of the students were Jewish and one was an African-American whom came down to Mississippi from New York City. After the students did not return home the parents pushed for media attention since the Mississippi Police were not doing any investigations. The FBI then had to get involved with the case. Little did the parents know that the police were the ones who actually committed the murder of their children. This film shows us the oppression towards African-Americans, specifically in the south.

Jackson, Mississippi is a diverse place. A dwelling of lost potential and jagged roads. The sweet smell of borderline segregation and fearful crime rates have become a smudge charcoal drawing that depicts Jackson. While some of these allegations are honest, the city is more complex than one central setting. As well as the residents within and near its city limits. Jacksonians convey a feeling of strong patriotism towards their sector, either complimenting the specific stereotypes or continuously trying to disprove it. The city can be organized by three locales: North Jackson, South Jackson, and small towns surrounding

balanced, realistic depictions of blacks in America The film is about a Chicago family who

The unlawful nature between both races runs it s course, to lead a fragile impact, which is mainly highlighted through the film and

My ethnography will be the study of a microculture within Mississippi. I will examine a more progressive, openminded movement that has taken root in Jackson, the capital of Mississippi. The heart of this movement seems to be based in Fondren which is a relatively older part of the city. I will be observing part of this culture at a store called Fair Trade. This is a store that sells a variety of things from literature to clothing and incense as well as items such as crystals handmade toys and other oddities. The store sells items that would typically be classified as hippie or new age items and is rather popular in the Jackson or at least Fondren Area. Fondren is generally regarded as the area of Jackson with the most progressive and new age

With societal events like the “#BlackLivesMatter” movement, and the increase of police brutality cases that seem to pop up every week, the call for more black films has never been more necessary. Aside from “Straight Outta Compton” the most recent black films that I’ve seen, which highlight the importance of feminism, representation, and/or contain a historical message that advocates for the end of racism, include, Philippe Falardeau’s “The Good Lie”, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “Beyond the Lights”, and Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave”. I had heard about “The Good Lie” from several people, however I continued to put off watching it, because I feared it would be like another stereotypical Hollywood film about their idea of Sudan. However, after finally biting the bullet, I found that the tale of group of Sudanese orphans overcoming adversity and coming to the United States to try and better themselves as well as their familial relationship and rely on one another to stay sane through the process of adapting to a new environment, was incredibly humbling. A similar feeling of apprehension occurred when told about “Beyond the Lights”, however, I found that it was astounding in the same sense as Brandy’s Moesha could feel so intensely, so did Noni, the film’s protagonist. I found her story, about being a tool for her mother to live vicariously through, into developing into her own woman with the help and love of her romantic interest.

[1] Before I start this essay, I feel the need to remind the reader that I find slavery in all its forms to be an oppressive and terrible institution, and I firmly believe that for centuries (including this one) bigotry is one of the most terrible stains on our civilization. The views I intend to express in the following essay are in no way meant to condone the practices of slavery or racism; they are meant only to evaluate and interpret the construction of slavery in film.

Mira Nair’s Mississippi Marsala is a tale of a new generation’s desire of the exotic other, and the previous generation’s aversion to the others. Meena in particular has a strong sense of unhomeliness; she is torn between the nation she now lives in, the nation she spent her childhood in, and the nation of her ethnic traditions. Her father, Jay’s drive to get back to his home of Uganda, and her mother’s pull to stay in the United States has left Meena with a feeling of ethnic confusion and a drive for her own individual persona. The collective unconscious felt by both Meena and Demetrius’s family is one of strong traditions, this in part keeping them away from fulfilling their jouissance. Meena and Demetrius’s families continue to separate

Quentin Tarantino’s film Jackie Brown, released in 1997, challenges the pervasive stereotyping of not only blacks but specifically black women. Nowhere is the cinematic devaluation of African Americans more evident than in images of black women which, in the history of cinematography, the white ideal for female beauty has overlooked. The portrayal of black women as the racial Extra has been fabricated through many semblances in the history of American film. Film scholars and feminists alike have long been plagued with lament for the negativity and stereotyping that sticks with black women in American cinema. In this paper, I will argue that Jackie Brown highlights and stresses the racial variance of the female African American protagonist,

For my final essay I plan to write about the filmmaker Mira Nair and how she explores the theme of tradition versus modernity shown through generations. In three of her films Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala and The Namesake this theme is reoccurring. In these three films Nair uses the family to show the juxtaposition of tradition and modernity especially through the different generations presented. Tradition and modernity are addressed in a verity of ways in these different films. Specifically, in Monsoon Wedding Nair discusses arranged marriage versus a love marriage, to do so she uses two couples particularly but shows a range of couples from different generations. In Mississippi Masala Jay has had a rough past with Africans leading to

Due to cultural expectations he is made to believe that Indian women are incapable of following dreams that does not go in line with cultural views. After their many fights once he sees her ‘play ball’ he is able to appreciate her talent and is even motivated

Daughters of The Dust, directed by Julie Dash, provides audience with a “whole new concept and setting” that captures the lives of descendants of slaves still living in the rural islands of the IBO Landing. It portrays the conflict between a family amongst its own members, the religions portrayed on the island, and the doubts of moving to the mainland. Dash uses Daughters of The Dust to bring audiences to a realization of transition of the Peazant family during the early 20th century and is a very comparable story to those whose family have migrated from their own homeland countries to move to the United States (the mainland) in search of a better life for their families; sometimes leaving behind their heritage and cultures. With such a different concept brought into the Hollywood film industry, Daughters of The Dust was indeed intended to “heal our imperialized eyes”, meaning that this film is meant to open our minds to a new view of African American people that we have never seen before because of the Hollywood and societal influence of stimulus and stereotypes demeaned upon the African American community.