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Aug. 2nd, 2004 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sirenssongI just read a VERY interesting article that has really gotten me thinking.
Why No Outcry Over Stereotypes Of Whites?
By: Tonya Jameson
Source: The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
White people - rise up.
I can't believe that, more than a month after the Wayanses released
"White Chicks," the only public criticism has come from a white
country singer who was defending a comedian in blackface.
In the film, Marlon and Shawn Wayans play bumbling FBI agents who
basically don whiteface to impersonate two rich white sisters. The
movie parodies Hampton socialites, but it also perpetuates stereotypes
that apply to whites of any economic level: whites can't dance,
they're nonconfrontational, and the women are clueless and easy.
Blacks still face cultural stereotypes in entertainment, but picking
on whites is annoyingly pervasive in entertainment geared toward
African Americans. Too many young black comedians rely on the same
stale white people jokes. Many black-oriented sitcoms, such as "The
Parkers," have token stereotypical white people. But few whites speak
out.
OK, one. But if Ray Price is the voice of the concerned, then white
people are in trouble. The 78-year-old country singer came under fire
after a comedian in blackface opened his Louisiana show in July -
that's July 2004, not July 1940. Criticism from the Lafayette chapter
of the NAACP prompted Price to complain about the double standard
regarding the Wayans' film.
At least blacks had someone to challenge Price. Whites don't have a
group such as the NAACP watching the media and speaking out against
how whites are portrayed in entertainment. About the only groups
speaking up for whites are white supremacists - and their credibility
is, well, you know, zero.
I was recently an adviser at a summer camp for high school students.
One exercise involved the high schoolers dividing into their ethnic
groups. The goal was for them to define their culture, identify what
makes them proud and create a performance that illustrates pride in
their ethnicity.
As it happens each year, the Caucasian group had a difficult time
defining their culture and finding things to be proud of.
"White Chicks" gives these students one less reason to be proud.
An NAACP for whites could speak out against "White Chicks" and provide
an alternative voice to the movie critics who praised the film.
The 1986 movie "Soul Man" came under some criticism from the NAACP. It
starred C. Thomas Howell as a white student who posed as a black man
to win a minority scholarship to Harvard.
The NAACP's national office sent letters advising its chapters to ask
members not to support the film. Benjamin Hooks, NAACP president at
the time, publicly criticized the movie.
Granted, the protest of "Soul Man" wasn't a national boycott, but it
was better than nothing. And nothing basically is all I've heard
regarding criticism of "White Chicks."
It doesn't even take something as egregious as a white person wearing
blackface to anger African Americans. In the last year, journalists
criticized white reporters at two newspapers who wrote stories in
hip-hop vernacular. The game Ghettopoly was pulled from youth-oriented
retailer Urban Outfitters because some black clergymen and the NAACP
complained it stereotyped blacks.
Yet "White Chicks" can degrade whites and rake in nearly $50 million.
I'll admit the movie has some funny scenes. The "You Got Served"-style
dance-off at a night club and the big black guy singing Vanessa
Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" cracked me up.
Those moments, however, don't excuse the movie's obvious stereotypes
and the more underlying notion that two black men can somehow teach
white females how to be better women. In the movie, the Wayans
brothers pose as the Wilson sisters and teach real white socialites
how to stand up for themselves against other snobby rich girls and how
to dump an undeserving boyfriend.
Negative portrayals of whites in entertainment isn't as detrimental as
the consistent degradation of blacks in the media. I doubt a white man
lost a job at Bank of America because he couldn't dance. But the
silence from whites regarding television shows, movies, comedians and
music that belittle white culture sends a subversive message to
Caucasian kids that they shouldn't speak up when their ethnicity is
being insulted.
I want white children to take as much pride in their culture as I take
in mine.
---
Tonya Jameson: tjameson@charlotteobserver.com
---
(c) 2004, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.). Distributed by
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
Why No Outcry Over Stereotypes Of Whites?
By: Tonya Jameson
Source: The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
White people - rise up.
I can't believe that, more than a month after the Wayanses released
"White Chicks," the only public criticism has come from a white
country singer who was defending a comedian in blackface.
In the film, Marlon and Shawn Wayans play bumbling FBI agents who
basically don whiteface to impersonate two rich white sisters. The
movie parodies Hampton socialites, but it also perpetuates stereotypes
that apply to whites of any economic level: whites can't dance,
they're nonconfrontational, and the women are clueless and easy.
Blacks still face cultural stereotypes in entertainment, but picking
on whites is annoyingly pervasive in entertainment geared toward
African Americans. Too many young black comedians rely on the same
stale white people jokes. Many black-oriented sitcoms, such as "The
Parkers," have token stereotypical white people. But few whites speak
out.
OK, one. But if Ray Price is the voice of the concerned, then white
people are in trouble. The 78-year-old country singer came under fire
after a comedian in blackface opened his Louisiana show in July -
that's July 2004, not July 1940. Criticism from the Lafayette chapter
of the NAACP prompted Price to complain about the double standard
regarding the Wayans' film.
At least blacks had someone to challenge Price. Whites don't have a
group such as the NAACP watching the media and speaking out against
how whites are portrayed in entertainment. About the only groups
speaking up for whites are white supremacists - and their credibility
is, well, you know, zero.
I was recently an adviser at a summer camp for high school students.
One exercise involved the high schoolers dividing into their ethnic
groups. The goal was for them to define their culture, identify what
makes them proud and create a performance that illustrates pride in
their ethnicity.
As it happens each year, the Caucasian group had a difficult time
defining their culture and finding things to be proud of.
"White Chicks" gives these students one less reason to be proud.
An NAACP for whites could speak out against "White Chicks" and provide
an alternative voice to the movie critics who praised the film.
The 1986 movie "Soul Man" came under some criticism from the NAACP. It
starred C. Thomas Howell as a white student who posed as a black man
to win a minority scholarship to Harvard.
The NAACP's national office sent letters advising its chapters to ask
members not to support the film. Benjamin Hooks, NAACP president at
the time, publicly criticized the movie.
Granted, the protest of "Soul Man" wasn't a national boycott, but it
was better than nothing. And nothing basically is all I've heard
regarding criticism of "White Chicks."
It doesn't even take something as egregious as a white person wearing
blackface to anger African Americans. In the last year, journalists
criticized white reporters at two newspapers who wrote stories in
hip-hop vernacular. The game Ghettopoly was pulled from youth-oriented
retailer Urban Outfitters because some black clergymen and the NAACP
complained it stereotyped blacks.
Yet "White Chicks" can degrade whites and rake in nearly $50 million.
I'll admit the movie has some funny scenes. The "You Got Served"-style
dance-off at a night club and the big black guy singing Vanessa
Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" cracked me up.
Those moments, however, don't excuse the movie's obvious stereotypes
and the more underlying notion that two black men can somehow teach
white females how to be better women. In the movie, the Wayans
brothers pose as the Wilson sisters and teach real white socialites
how to stand up for themselves against other snobby rich girls and how
to dump an undeserving boyfriend.
Negative portrayals of whites in entertainment isn't as detrimental as
the consistent degradation of blacks in the media. I doubt a white man
lost a job at Bank of America because he couldn't dance. But the
silence from whites regarding television shows, movies, comedians and
music that belittle white culture sends a subversive message to
Caucasian kids that they shouldn't speak up when their ethnicity is
being insulted.
I want white children to take as much pride in their culture as I take
in mine.
---
Tonya Jameson: tjameson@charlotteobserver.com
---
(c) 2004, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.). Distributed by
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 02:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 03:47 am (UTC)You wouldn't happen to be Sharon, from the Peter Stebbings Yahoo!Group, would you?
no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 05:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 05:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 05:54 am (UTC)I'm a Caucasian, but I've felt discriminated against, and not just because I'm female. Just because I'm white, it doesn't mean others can think I might be racist, and just because I look strongly German doesn't mean I sympathize with Nazis. Gah.
Thanks for letting me rant.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 06:08 am (UTC)No problem. :)
The thing that gets me is that NAACP = National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.... tecnically isn't EVERYONE a colored person? As my philosophy professor said, white is a color, too. It's not like we're clear. EVERYONE is a colored person of some sort.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-04 05:10 am (UTC)I get ticked off by this double standard that nobody even thinks of.