Friday, November 22, 2013

Double Bubble Second Post for the Day - "Race" is a new genre of film?

The Best Man: Holiday is a film about a group of friends who get together to celebrate the Christmas season.  Hi-jinx, drama, romance, and all types of things occur and everyone has a grand ol' time (at least that's what I gathered from the trailer).  Sounds like a pretty standard, high budget, Hollywood film.  Yet, Holiday has been dubbed a "race" film rather than say a RomCom (romantic comedy) which it most certainly seemed to be.  The reason it was considered a "race" film you ask?  Well it just so happens that the main cast is made up of primarily black actors/actresses.  Sound a bit ridiculous to you too?  If not, let me try and explain why.  Shaun of the Dead, one of my all time favorite movies, is about a group of people living in London trying to survive a zombie apocalypse.  The cast is made up almost entirely of white actors and actresses.  Do you know what genre Shaun of the Dead is considered?  Comedy.  But wait, if Best Man Holiday is a race film cause the case is mainly black, then shouldn't Shaun of the Dead be considered one if the cast is mainly white?  Unfortunately it doesn't work like that.  You see, a mainly white cast is, at least according to our society, "normal" and what we've come to expect from big budget films because that's what we've been exposed to.  So when something like Holiday comes along, it's different and strange and as human beings we must categorize it as such.  Now I haven't seen the movie, and I probably never will, but after watching the trailer I can safely assume that it doesn't address the issue of race in a way that would justify it being called a race themed movie.  There seems to be this very annoying, very prevalent double standard that our society encourages when it comes to race.  I distinctly remember and article I read a few years back when Peyton Hillis, former running back for the Denver Broncos, was the subject of "reverse racism".  Hillis, a white man from Arkansas, plays a position in football that is, for the most part, mainly played by black athletes.  He claims that in his time in Denver he was the told that he would not be playing running back because he was white.  It was dubbed as "reverse racism".  I'm sorry, but to me, "reverse racism" doesn't even exist.  We didn't need to dub it anything other than racism, cause that's exactly what it was.  You know what "reverse racism" is to me?  It's acceptance.  "Reverse racism" should be the opposite of racism, it shouldn't even take race into consideration.  And yet, because it was a white man being discriminated against it was given a new name.  Why does Best Man Holiday have to be pegged as a race movie just because the cast is mainly black?  Why is what happened to Peyton Hillis considered "reverse racism" instead of just racism?  These are thing that exist because of this double standard, and honestly, something needs to change.  I don't know what and I don't know how but I can't be the only one who's getting a bit sick of this.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with you, and it's sad that things have to be framed as such when things are considered "different." I think that Best Man Holiday and movies like it are considered to be "race movies" just because yes, we as people do see the need to categorize everything (which is bad at times) and because of the other reason that we talked about in class, being that because the movie has a mostly black cast, "it's a movie that only black people will relate to." However, I agree that we need to step out of that way of thinking (because in reality, wouldn't the directors and the movie industry make more money as well if they don't say things like "race movies," to make it appeal to a broader audience?).

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