Can blacks be racist? On the surface, you’d think that was a no-brainer. Of course, anyone can be a racist! But if you based your answer off the upcoming thriller Lakeview Terrace, you’d discover that racism, at least according to the Hollywood braintrust, is limited to a very specific type of person.
At first glance, it appears the director, Neil LaBute, has turned a major stereotype on its head. The film’s antagonist is — get this — a black racist. Could it be Hollywood is finally breaking one of its most cherished molds? Seldom are minorities portrayed as bigots; in Tinseltown, white males are the ad hoc evil. Sure, Crash toyed with that assertion, but fell short with its wishy-washy “We’re all racists” premise. But for the most part, Hollywood has portrayed racism as the white guys’ problem.
So the character in Lakeview Terrace played by Samuel Jackson goes against the flow. Right? The LA Times Entertainment section even leads with the story: Samuel L. Jackson character upends stereotypes in ‘Lakeview Terrace’. Wow! Maybe there’s hope for Hollywood. Until, from the same article, we discover that this racist is…
- An SUV-driving (see: CARBON-EMITTING),
- LAPD cop (read: corrupt, abusive, power-hungry pig) who is
- Politically Conservative (meaning: ALL-THAT-IS-EVIL-ON-THE-FACE-OF-THIS-EARTH), and who
- Hates liberals (i.e., COMPASSIONATE, TOLERANT, PEACE-LOVING, GREEN-GOING, CHILDREN OF THE EARTH)
Gee, how… STEREOTYPICAL!
Perhaps the filmmakers (unintentionally?) make a relevant point: Ideology is more important than skin color. Blacks can be racists. So can Asians, whites and Hispanics. But why oh why are racists always portrayed as ideological conservatives? So while anyone can be a racist, political conservatives are ALWAYS A-HOLES! Oh well, I guess some bigotry will always be tolerated…
I just watched a trailer about it, looks pretty exaggerated to me. Damn, white neighbors.
Of course, CONSERVATIVE is synonymous with RACIST, BIGOT, HOMOPHOBE, ISLAMOPHOBE, INTOLERANT,…
And LIBERAL is none of these. So if you want to have a racist in the movie, he must be a Conservative.
I’m going to put out a petition on the use of the suffix ‘-phobia’ and variations thereof. Anyway, I think the answer is in the question. Ideas have consequences. And anything which asserts a set of ideas over another (morals, etc) is considered the epitome of evil or something.
So yeah.
What movies show white males having racist issues in today's time not stories set in the past.
Just off the top of my head: Ed Norton character in American History X, State trooper in Frozen River (discriminates against Indians), cops in Bulworth, Clint eastwood's Gran Torino character, Borat. And for realworld equivalence, how about the Professor Gate's fiasco: white cop arrests black man. That's gotta be raaaacismmmm!