I'm taking a class called African Americans in the Media this semester and my teacher brought up a topic about racism with made-up characters. Her lecture focused on two characters in this summer's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
The characters, named Skids and Mudflap caused some controversy when many believe their characters to be racial caricatures of African Americans. According to the Huffington Post, the characters "constantly brawl and bicker in rap-inspired street slang. They're forced to acknowledge that they can't read. One has a gold tooth."
Here are a few clips of the twin robots:
The conversation in class made me think of other characters where I have seen this happen and I instantly thought of Space Jam. For those who have not seen that classic movie starring Michael Jordan, it involves a race of cartoon aliens who try to take over the Looney Tunes for their theme park in outer space. When the Looney Tunes recruit MJ to challenge the aliens in a basketball game, the aliens take the skills of other NBA stars like Charles Barkley and Muggsy Bogues to become better.
When the tiny aliens turn into mammoth monsters, they morph from little pip-squeaks to what in my opinion is another caricature of African Americans. Not only do they talk in "street slang," the caricature is perpetuated even further because they are playing basketball — clearly an African American stereotype.
Here are a few clips of the "Monstars":
I love Space Jam. It is one of my favorite movies from my childhood. But clearly African American caricatures have not changed since the movie came out in 1996. This summer's Transformers sequel made that very clear. My question is why do writers or directors feel the need to make Skids and Mudflap sound like they came from the ghetto? What purpose does that serve for the film? And it is obviously not unintentional. Michael Bay knew what he was doing when he created those characters.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Great story, one little problem
A clip from ESPN's award-winning show Outside the Lines caught my attention on ESPN.com over the weekend. It caught my attention mostly because it is a compelling story, but after a closer look, it contains a slight racist connotation.
The story is a about a senior high school football player from central Mississippi named Kaleb Eulls. On Sept. 1, Eulls perhaps made the biggest tackle he will ever make, but it was not on a football field. Eulls tackled a 14-year-old girl who brought a loaded .38 caliber semi-automatic gun onto Eull's school bus and threatened to kill other students.
After the bus driver pulled over and Eulls -- who has verbally committed to play defensive end at Mississippi State next year -- was able to get some of the other students (including three younger sisters), Eulls saw the girl drop her guard for a split-second and lunged at the adolescent, which caused the gun to fly out of her hand. Eulls grabbed the gun and ran out of the bus, saving 22 lives in the process.
The whole piece is basically a tribute to Eull's heroic efforts, and deservedly so. But there are a few lines from reporter Rachel Nichols in the piece that many might now notice, but it is another blindly racist sentence that is very prevalent in today' sports media.
It starts with the first line in the video — "Here in central Mississippi, they often measure young men like Kaleb Eulls in touchdowns. They measure them in yards, passes and tackles, but last month Eulls changed exactly what it meant to make a play."
This is not something many would notice as racist, but a closer look says otherwise. By saying players like Eulls are only measured by their athletic performance, it furthers the stereotype that African American athletes can only be judged on how well they play a sport.
One of the last lines in the video adds to the first statement, "Scores of local officials have thanked Eulls as well. Older men who used to only know him by his jersey number. Used to only measure him by statistics. Now they measure Kaleb Eulls by the tackle he made far from the football field. By the faces of the children on that bus."
It is nice to show that he is now well known around the community, but he had to save peoples' lives to be known as someone other than the guy who had 200 yards of offense last game.
Would Nichols have worded her introduction any differently if it was a white person who did this? Maybe not. But it was an African American and reporters have to be careful when wording stories to keep any kind of racist connotation out at all times.
It is a great piece and a great story. I am not taking that away from Nichols at all. But little blurbs like that is all it takes to perpetuate racial stereotypes. Many viewers have gotten so used certain stereotypes that a few phrases like the ones in this piece just go right over our heads.
The story is a about a senior high school football player from central Mississippi named Kaleb Eulls. On Sept. 1, Eulls perhaps made the biggest tackle he will ever make, but it was not on a football field. Eulls tackled a 14-year-old girl who brought a loaded .38 caliber semi-automatic gun onto Eull's school bus and threatened to kill other students.
After the bus driver pulled over and Eulls -- who has verbally committed to play defensive end at Mississippi State next year -- was able to get some of the other students (including three younger sisters), Eulls saw the girl drop her guard for a split-second and lunged at the adolescent, which caused the gun to fly out of her hand. Eulls grabbed the gun and ran out of the bus, saving 22 lives in the process.
The whole piece is basically a tribute to Eull's heroic efforts, and deservedly so. But there are a few lines from reporter Rachel Nichols in the piece that many might now notice, but it is another blindly racist sentence that is very prevalent in today' sports media.
It starts with the first line in the video — "Here in central Mississippi, they often measure young men like Kaleb Eulls in touchdowns. They measure them in yards, passes and tackles, but last month Eulls changed exactly what it meant to make a play."
This is not something many would notice as racist, but a closer look says otherwise. By saying players like Eulls are only measured by their athletic performance, it furthers the stereotype that African American athletes can only be judged on how well they play a sport.
One of the last lines in the video adds to the first statement, "Scores of local officials have thanked Eulls as well. Older men who used to only know him by his jersey number. Used to only measure him by statistics. Now they measure Kaleb Eulls by the tackle he made far from the football field. By the faces of the children on that bus."
It is nice to show that he is now well known around the community, but he had to save peoples' lives to be known as someone other than the guy who had 200 yards of offense last game.
Would Nichols have worded her introduction any differently if it was a white person who did this? Maybe not. But it was an African American and reporters have to be careful when wording stories to keep any kind of racist connotation out at all times.
It is a great piece and a great story. I am not taking that away from Nichols at all. But little blurbs like that is all it takes to perpetuate racial stereotypes. Many viewers have gotten so used certain stereotypes that a few phrases like the ones in this piece just go right over our heads.
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