The Blind Side -- the racial contraversy
- Thread starter Bullgrit
- Start date
Rykion
Explorer
If you include TV shows there's at least a couple more for your list.
Webster -- White family takes in a black orphan.
Punky Brewster -- Old white man takes in a white kid.
Mark Chance
Boingy! Boingy!
Off the top of my head:
Good Times: J. J. and family more or less take in a young Janet Jackson.
Glee: White single mother takes in white son's pregnant, white girlfriend.
Silas Marner and that movie version of the same starring Steve Martin: Rich white man takes in white girl.
Harry and the Hendersons: White suburban family takes in Bigfoot.
Wow. It's almost like there's a variety of options out there.
Good Times: J. J. and family more or less take in a young Janet Jackson.
Glee: White single mother takes in white son's pregnant, white girlfriend.
Silas Marner and that movie version of the same starring Steve Martin: Rich white man takes in white girl.
Harry and the Hendersons: White suburban family takes in Bigfoot.
Wow. It's almost like there's a variety of options out there.
That 70's Show: Eric's white family takes in Hyde, who they later learn is half black.
King of the Hill: White family takes in a white teen (Luanne, a niece). Also, white cuckolded dad takes in a native american son without realizing it.
Maniac Magee: White kid is taken in by a black family, two different white families, a deer family, and an old white guy at different points of the book.
Babe: Dog family takes in a pig.
Land Before Time: Swimmer family takes in a ... whatever Spike is. I believe a Sharptooth gets taken in by some group in the sequels.
King of the Hill: White family takes in a white teen (Luanne, a niece). Also, white cuckolded dad takes in a native american son without realizing it.
Maniac Magee: White kid is taken in by a black family, two different white families, a deer family, and an old white guy at different points of the book.
Babe: Dog family takes in a pig.
Land Before Time: Swimmer family takes in a ... whatever Spike is. I believe a Sharptooth gets taken in by some group in the sequels.
Darth Shoju
First Post
Off the top of my head:
Good Times: J. J. and family more or less take in a young Janet Jackson.
Glee: White single mother takes in white son's pregnant, white girlfriend.
Silas Marner and that movie version of the same starring Steve Martin: Rich white man takes in white girl.
Harry and the Hendersons: White suburban family takes in Bigfoot.
Wow. It's almost like there's a variety of options out there.
You forgot My Favourite Martian: man takes in alien.
BrooklynKnight
First Post
Dont forget Ice Age 2, possums take in mammoth.
I can understand where the complaints are coming from, I mean this sort of plot has it's own entry on TV Tropes.org
Mighty Whitey.
Calling it racism is going overboard, but how would you like it if your ethnic group/gender/what ever, was very often portrayed as being unable to solve problems without some white person to help/lead/guide/educate you.
I doubt our Canadian friends (or european friends) would like being portrayed as being unable to solve any of their problems without the help of the US.
Do any of the women around here like watching movies where the women are helpless and need a man to do anything important for them?
Mighty Whitey.
Calling it racism is going overboard, but how would you like it if your ethnic group/gender/what ever, was very often portrayed as being unable to solve problems without some white person to help/lead/guide/educate you.
I doubt our Canadian friends (or european friends) would like being portrayed as being unable to solve any of their problems without the help of the US.
Do any of the women around here like watching movies where the women are helpless and need a man to do anything important for them?
The reason it gets labeled "racism" in America is the history of slavery, "The White Man's Burden," and post-slavery/pre-Civil rights America and the continued diminution of blacks by whites, right down to one of their favorite terms for us..."Boy."
So when we get repeatedly get stories depicting blacks as being dependent upon the kindness of wealthy whites, there's a knee-jerk reaction (by some, not all) that this is just more of the same old same old.
Again, oversensitivity to that trend tends to blind some to the fact that, sometimes, its a true story that a white person can be kind to someone of color and give them a chance.
So when we get repeatedly get stories depicting blacks as being dependent upon the kindness of wealthy whites, there's a knee-jerk reaction (by some, not all) that this is just more of the same old same old.
Again, oversensitivity to that trend tends to blind some to the fact that, sometimes, its a true story that a white person can be kind to someone of color and give them a chance.
Bullgrit
Adventurer
Interesting, though, that we can only come up with one example (Webster). And even looking at the TV/movies tropes page, the only examples that aren't weak stretches, are actually true stories.
It kind of seems like this is an example of a commonly believed concept, (there are many examples of "it takes benevolent whites to take care of a poor black"), that, in truth, doesn't actually exist.
Sort of like the old commonly beleived concept that D&D led to satanism, murder, and suicide. It was a known and accepted "fact" by many, (and we still get journalists trying to make the connection), but when actual evidence was looked for . . .
Bullgrit
Well, we actually also pointed out Diff'rent Strokes as well as Webster on TV.
The other examples are less common in film/TV and more common in literature or society. Twain and his contemporaries often depict whites who firmly believe that they are the saving grace of the non-white world. (Note: different authors did so for different reasons- mockery and satire; mere descriptions of real societal norms; espousing this as truth.)
"The White Man's Burden" was only partly about justification of American/European imperialsim (or in the case of Kipling's poem, the possible satire of it), bringing Christianity & Civilization to savages, etc., it was also practiced at the local level.
For example, there were the "enlightened" slave owners who baptized and educated their slaves (to a point) but fell short of actually manumitting them, for instance, claiming that without their largesse, the blacks would revert to savagery or indolence.
By the time we get to Webster and Diff'rent Strokes, some view those shows as just watered down versions of that same mentality. In their view, the fact that the series' main stars both had medical conditions that permanently rendered them childlike in stature and appearance provides a disturbing subtext in that they were black men who would forever be perceived as "boys."
The other examples are less common in film/TV and more common in literature or society. Twain and his contemporaries often depict whites who firmly believe that they are the saving grace of the non-white world. (Note: different authors did so for different reasons- mockery and satire; mere descriptions of real societal norms; espousing this as truth.)
"The White Man's Burden" was only partly about justification of American/European imperialsim (or in the case of Kipling's poem, the possible satire of it), bringing Christianity & Civilization to savages, etc., it was also practiced at the local level.
For example, there were the "enlightened" slave owners who baptized and educated their slaves (to a point) but fell short of actually manumitting them, for instance, claiming that without their largesse, the blacks would revert to savagery or indolence.
By the time we get to Webster and Diff'rent Strokes, some view those shows as just watered down versions of that same mentality. In their view, the fact that the series' main stars both had medical conditions that permanently rendered them childlike in stature and appearance provides a disturbing subtext in that they were black men who would forever be perceived as "boys."
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