In Cinethetic Racism, Matthew Hughey
discusses the Magical Negro (MN). Hughey
states that the MN is typically a lower class, uneducated black person who
always ends up saving and transforming “broken” whites. In that sense, the MN is seen as a servant,
and we can feel bad for them if something happens; however, we are not able to
place ourselves in their shoes. An
obvious example of the MN (and I think we mentioned this in class) is Bruce Almighty. Although Morgan Freeman plays a superior
character (God), he is portrayed as the janitor. Before talking about this in class, I assumed
that he took on the role of a janitor because God is supposed to be someone who
serves us and gives us a helping hand when needed. I saw it as more of a religious thing rather than racism. However, after taking a closer
look, I can definitely see how this would be considered “new racism." Although Morgan Freeman is
playing God, he is still serving and helping a white person, and his janitor
outfit only reinforces the idea of a servant which goes back to slavery.
With that in
mind, has much really changed since minstrelsy?
This new type of racism that Hughey discusses reminds me of Bonilla-Silva’s
colorblind racism. Because blacks are
being given these roles, racism must no longer be an issue. Although there might be more instances of
blacks taking a more important role in the media, they are typically a stepping
stool for the white characters.
So, I think
we have come a long way in terms of racism.
However, the issue still exists. Since
the media heavily influences us, I think the change needs to start from
there. Yes, minorities are given bigger
roles now, but the racism is still there.
It’s just more subtle. With that
said, I guess the bigger question would be what can we do to further reduce racism,
specifically in the media?
In order to reduce racism, especially in the media is stop depicting them as criminals in the news.There is this stereotypical view that blacks and Latinos are all bad people and are seen as trouble makers. In movies and television show it is easy to depict them as such. I think recently television has gotten better with showing blacks as highly educated and professionals but the problem is they only show one or two people like that. These characters often come from upper middle class families that is not realistic to everyone in the world. In movies often we see black people playing small roles in movies and not the protagonist. Blacks should be able to play the protagonist and not the antagonist or the magical negro.
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