Spike Lee The Influence Of Racism In Films

The n-word is considered one of the most vicious racial slurs in the English language today. True that the n-word is closely associated with slavery and the oppression of blacks. Even after the abolition of slavery the word still haunted African Americans, especially in more segregated areas; where blacks were viewed as inferior to whites. In recent years the n-word has become less of a malicious slur in parts of our country. Public figures who use the n-word run the risk of losing their jobs. However, since the 1960s African Americans have coined the term “nigga”, when addressing one another. The rise of hip hop culture also enhanced the use of the word-they felt as though they are using the word as a term of endearment. Critics of the

The N word has been around for a long time. Through slavery, the industrial revolution, both World War eras, and the modern era all the way up to right now. It has gone from meaning many different things ranging from burning or charring off, being a black person and exhausting land to a term that is racist, describes ignorant, uneducated, foolish individuals, to an endearing term between two people to describe their friendship.

The word “violence” holds a powerful meaning all around the world today. Violence today is political. This is causing racial tension caused by prejudice and discrimination of a person. Flashback time to the 1980’s, where we are able to see when one of the best films were created. Do The Right Thing,1989 by director and actor Spike Lee, is a film that explores racial tensions in many different ethnic groups in New York. Racial tensions was prevalent in a multicultural mix of races such as; African-American/Black, Italians, Caucasian/White, and Asian communities. The main racial tensions in the film were Italian-Americans and African Americans. Spike Lee uses anger, violence, and fear in Do The Right Thing to represent discrimination and racial altercations.

“ Some of these early productions have racial themes which reorganize the world in such a way that black heritage is rewarded over white paternity; they are schematic renunciations of the prevailing order of things in white American society where, historically, the discovery of black blood meant sudden reversal of fortune, social exclusion, or banishment.” (Gaines, P.3) Within the movie the amount of mistruths about African Americans was sad. Within the movie you notice that the blacks were always or seem to be yelling, acting uncivilized and doing

Often in many films that undermine African Americans, they are depicted as thief's, murders, or unintelligent. These images are used to show that African Americans are unlike their white counterparts. According to Friedman, "This formulation undermines the racially and sexually based violence toward African Americans, wiping out the memory of rape, castration, and lynching of slaves that occurred in the past" (Friedman). The development of African American films, or films that truly put African Americans in any type of positive light did not really start to occur until the 1970's or 1980's. Before then films were often negative in spirit. Paula Massood describes the Hollywood depictions of African Americans in the previous era as, "failing to recognize the sociopolitical changes in the American landscape. African American characters most often appeared within a southern setting, largely ignoring the black city space and culture that figured in the lives and the imaginations of a vast majority of African Americans" (Massood). However, in the following years the development and progression of African American films was able to be seen.

If a movie of this sort had such an emotional impact on me, it is no wonder people embraced these ideas back then. The use of new and popular media methods in those days was more than adequate in transferring the black inferiority ideas to the general public. Beginning at the early 19th century with the happy, dancing, toothless, drunken Negro with big, bold and white lips to the image of the mid 21st century African-American, the media has always used these images to convey inferiority. These images implied inherent traits in the black community. This whole community was represented in the new media as one who can not be collateralized and integrated in to society without being happily enslaved. Most of these images had great commercial values that made it all the more impossible for the rest of the nation not to embrace the African American stereotypes.

The history of African Americans in early Hollywood films originated with blacks representing preconceived stereotypes. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, Birth of a Nation, stirred many controversial issues within the black community. The fact that Griffith used white actors in blackface to portray black people showed how little he knew about African Americans. Bosley Crowther’s article “The Birth of Birth of a Nation” emphasizes that the film was a “highly pro-South drama of the American Civil War and the Period of Reconstruction, and it glorified the role of the Ku Klux Klan” (76). While viewing this film, one would assert that the Ku Klux Klan members are heroic forces that rescue white women from sexually abusive black men. Griffith

These are just some of the major cases occurring specifically in NYC, smaller pockets of racism were also becoming more frequent. “In between these more notorious tragedies, the number of everyday racial incidents in New York had begun to climb, especially as the decade was drawing to a close” (Sullivan and Boehrer 146). Due to the increase in police brutality and racism, it is no surprise, that Spike Lee, made this significant plague on society a feature point within the film. The picture in turn serves as a social commentary on how many people suffer on a daily basis, and how they manage to survive.

Historical purposes play a big role in why the “N” word should not be banned. Everyone has heard stories about slavery and what they were called or described as. This word cannot be hidden since it is already known in history where whites have used it as a negative term and there is no way of hiding it. The “N” word is always going to be refer to those African Americans who suffered. In “Straight Talk about the N-word Price”, Price stated, “A word with a particular racialized American history. But one way of getting at it is to have some critical and historical discussions about it and not pretend that it doesn’t exist. We also cannot pretend that there is not a double standard—that blacks can say it without much social consequence but whites

Derogatory words stem from perception. If enough people believe that N-word is a slur, then its meaning will have that connotation. However, if people keep viewing the N-word in a derogatory sense, then it will always hold that meaning of insulting black people. It’s double standard that people who cannot use the N-word, but more like who determines that become a social taboo. Look at Eminem and he is also part of mainstream culture, and why he can rap with the N-word? So, race is a factor but not a determining one. The attitude of people saying the N- word is to determine the meaning of the word. Whereas, when white people use the word, and they may abuse it, and makes the word become aggressive.

Make no mistake that slave owners came up with the word Nigger and it was only supposed to mean an individual, who is lazy, unwise, and good for nothing, but somewhere along the history lines of slavery the N word began to be used more as racial insult against the non-white Americans

Racism has been and will always be a great part of American history. Racism in America in my opinion meant and will continue to mean that we judge people by how they look and just because we have different skin colors it means that we have to be treated differently. Just because someone is darker than the rest of the people it does not give anyone the right to take away their freedom and even worse to buy them and consider them as property. In the US especially being of a different color is a wrong thing and although it shouldn't mean that we do not get the same rights but in the US it sadly means that. When people back in the early 50s and 60s went against the norm and spoke up in what they believed they would get tortured and killed. Even

Racism has occurred for many years and in many different societies. Some people choose to remain oblivious to it all while others choose to take a stand either for it or against it. Racism is a big

Who is the harder in Australia? Samson and Delilah is the best movie of 2009 in Australia that was directed by Warwick Thornton. The main characters of this film are Samson and Delilah performed by Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. The purpose of the film is to highlight the issues is two young indigenous Australian living in an Aboriginal community. The film starts with when they live are changed then they fled the place where they live. This film is strongly shown the consequences of the European impact on Aboriginal Australian society by presenting injustice and uses camera work.

The majority of the racism involved in the movie is towards the negro population. They are perceived as thugs, thieves and