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“He who has the gold makes the rules.”
-Tyler Perry-
Gone are the days of black face minstrel shows ‘Amos & Andy’ and ‘my name Jose Jimenez the Mexican astronaut;’ where have those racist caricatures gone? If you watch the Super Bowl you probably seen the commercial sponsored by a famous foreign furniture company. Their commercial had a white male throw a Black woman on a small table. The couple simulated the sex act! The commercial’s ‘message’ was for viewers to buy their tables.
Take a serious look at films that feature African-American actors. Talented Black actors are generally depicted as clowns, oversexed, sports jocks, ruled by domineering man-hating over weight Black females and are career criminals. These films focus on perceived negative attributes of the African-American community primarily Black men. Black movies are overloaded with pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, one parent homes with fathers in jail, dead, on the run, Gay or getting high. Seen any Black movies lately that dealt with horror, science fiction, or contain serious intellectual content? They exist but are few and far between.
What Black films made you think? Save for a few Spike Lee movies, this kind of films featuring prominent African-American actors has been largely absent from Hollywood. Is Hollywood simply afraid of generating controversy that will make viewers realize that being Black isn’t all about sports, sex, drug abuse, cursing and criminality?
Movies about Latinos/Asians fare little better. Many directors, producers, and directors continue to cast Latinos/Asians in subservient roles. They seem to ignore the fact that former hit television program ‘Desperate Housewives’ stared Latino actors. Asian men are portrayed as nerdy computer types who never get the girl; Asian women exotic sex sirens. Andrew Lam’s timely article ‘The Bamboo Ceiling: Hollywood shuns Asians…’ is a must read.
Cinematic giant Orson Wells’ 1958 landmark masterpiece ‘Touch of Evil’ starred Mexican policeman (Charlton Heston) with white wife (Janet Leigh) is still considered a sexual taboo breaker even by today’s film standards. Not every country has this problem; at the time of this writing on PBS two steamy interracial love affairs are taking place simultaneously; one on ‘The Paradise’ the other ‘Downton Abbey’ both British and involve black men and white women; and they don’t just talk and hold hands either.
If you think that Hollywood is only hard on racial groups think again. Movie makers make certain religious groups special targets. Does the ‘Da Vinci Codes’ and subsequent spin offs come to mind? Movies that negatively portray the Catholic Church are another Hollywood staple though becoming less, thanks to the vigilance of such anti-defamation groups like Catholic League for Religious and Civil rights. This organization is doing a splendid job of going after Hollywood types who defame the Church.
Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films and Samuel Goldwyn respectively purchased the movie rights of ‘The Magdalene Sisters’ and ‘The Crime of Father Amaro’ both movies unjustly attacked Catholicism. Catholic League president Dr. William Donohue commented that, “Harvey Weinstein of Miramax is known for such anti-Catholic movies as ‘Priest,’ ‘Butcher Boy,’ ‘Dogma,’ and ‘40 Days and 40 Nights.’” He’s added the Venice Golden Lion winner ‘The Magdalene Sisters.’ “This film was based on the allegedly cruel behavior of Irish nuns who maintained homes for wayward girls and their babies in the 19th and 20th centuries.” Conditions were harsh by today’s standards though not uncommon in their day. Historians have recounted that Protestant-run institutions were similar.
Director Peter Mullan once said; “There is not much difference between the Catholic Church and the Taliban…the worst thing about the Catholic Church is that it imprisons your soul, your mind and your d***.” Many film critics compare Mullan’s work to late Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl’s.
Meyer Gottlieb and Daniel Birman Ripstein have bought ‘The Crime of Father Amaro’ for Samuel Goldwyn Films. It is a fictional account about a priest who impregnates a 16-year-old girl and an old woman who feeds the Eucharist to her cat!
Italians are routinely portrayed as soulless Mafiosi’s. In Steven Spielberg’s Shark’s Tale an animated kiddie flick the gangster sharks has Italian accents and names. In the movies ‘China Girl,’ the Godfather trilogy and other so-called Hollywood ‘classics’ Italians are lambasted mercilessly. Since most Italians are Roman Catholics Hollywood gets to berate two groups for the ‘price’ of one.
Overweight persons, Protestant fundamentalists, Catholics, and Italian Americans are among the very few groups that Hollywood stereotype and slur without paying the consequences. Two groups remain untouchable Muslims and Jews.
According to Los Angeles Times writer Howard Rosenberg, “TV has been teaching the American public since the 1940s. Movies, however, have been providing informal sex education since the turn of the century. But what have movies taught about minority teen relationships? Seldom have movies seriously explored minority love. But they certainly have exploited minorities, particularly in the realm of interracial sex;” isn’t this American racism is all about?
This trend started during the silent film era. Back in the day it was common for pretty Mexican/Native American women to curry favor from young white pioneer men/cowboys in exchange for sex. It’s common to see young minority women in film act as sex providers for young white males undergoing their so-called sexual rites of passage. You never see young minority males on the prowl in search of young white females.
‘The Greaser’ film series and D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film classic ‘Birth of a Nation,’ both depict minority men as sexual predators lusting after white females. Griffith took so much heat with Birth of a Nation that a year later he made his film ‘Intolerance’ an attempt to refute some of what his earlier film preached. I’ve seen both movies. ‘Intolerance’ didn’t defame African-Americans; it was open season on Counter-Reformation Catholics.
Television shows where young Black men/white women interact Black males are Gay, devoted guardians or ‘good friends;’ if they’re dating/married they never kiss; intimate sex – a definite ‘no-no.’
In the film ‘Bad Boys’ Esai Morales rapes the Ally Sheedy character. The cases I’ve listed are recent examples of minorities being manipulated by Hollywood as aforementioned sexual predators in search of white female flesh.
Hollywood is a closed shop. Original works are unwelcome. The same holds true for stage plays, books, the Internet and screenplays that depict religious figures in a favorable light are routinely rejected upon submission. What can viewers do to stop Hollywood’s wrongful stereotyping? This writer would like to make these recommendations:
• Boycott offensive movies.
• Write strong letters of protest to offending studio executives and the FCC (Federal Communications Commission).
• Offended racial and ethnic groups should protest to through their own civil rights organizations (NAACP, Italian-American Civil Rights League, National Council of La Raza, etc.).
• Push for legislation that would place spurious movies under the same statutes at the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• Tech savvy religious people should develop their own internet service over the World Wide Web.
• Television stations example being Mother Angelica’s world famous EWTN network that fosters a positive approach to religion (Catholicism) should we widely supported by like minded people.
The big shot executives that own/operate media industries are in the business of making money but don’t care how. Do what St. Saint John Paul II did when he didn’t like a particular TV show; he changed channels. God bless; stay warm.