ipl-logo

Falling Down Supremacism

1573 Words7 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay 1992 la riots journal articles

When director Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down began filming in 1992, Los Angeles was experiencing the worst riots in American history, resulting in the destruction of thousands of buildings and the deaths of hundreds. Through it all, Falling Down was produced on location, providing the world with a skewed, twisted recount of the past. Indeed, Falling Down provides an alarmingly accurate portrayal of the white male self-victimization narrative seen within the years of 1992, 1965 and the future in the character of D-Fens, a frustrated man who hopes for a time gone-by while blaming others around him for his failings. The irony of the film is palpable throughout; a privileged citizen parading the streets with weaponry and anger, terrifying those around him - ranging from the immigrant to the fast-food worker, all of which are far less privileged than D-Fens himself - only to raise his hands in the air as if to say, …show more content…

The supremacist is impressed by his bag of guns, declaring “I’m with you. We’re the same.” D-Fens responds in disgust and soon after kills him. Here, the hypocrisy displayed by D-Fens illustrates the grand contradiction between the past, present and future. An overt revisitation to the racial past of the white supremacist elicits a dismayed response from D-Fens, yet he will cut through a Korean man’s store and treat him with the same lack of respect a white supremacist may give to a person of color. The scene parallels D-Fens and the white supremacist in such a way that reveals an ultimate truth: the racial past has never disappeared. It has only manifested itself in different forms of anger, aggression and victimization. No white male wants to be labeled as a racist, and yet they cannot but blame their problems on those of color. At the end of the day, both want only to return to a time where they need not worry about minorities and

Show More
Related
2445 Words | 10 Pages

Trudell asks the audience to recount an ugly period in U.S history in order to gain a better understanding of the devastation that took place. For centuries, the Government has built an image of the Native people as one of uncivilized savages and though the years has portrayed them as the cause of the average American’s suffering in order to bring genocide against them with minimal resistance for the public. When a culture or race is villainized based solely on that criteria it create a climate of hate that entrenches itself in the minds of the people and is passed down through the generations. People are no longer driven by facts, but instead feed into the racial rhetoric of which they have become accustomed. The film highlights the need for change to the way the people are treated by their Government.

Read More
588 Words | 3 Pages

When examining “Crash” and “7 Seconds in the Bronx” we observe the injustice the injustice individuals face resulting in unforgivable offenses. When examining both stories it becomes apparent that between stereotypes, authoritative discrimination, and economic hierarchy, it is tough to be of a minority background. Stereotypes are an unfair representation that has been developed about a person or a race. In “Crash” we see the struggle of being a minority. We see this in the beginning of the story when Anthony and Peter, both young adults of colour, could see Jean clenched onto her husband and purse when passing them in the streets as she pre disclosed the assumption they

Read More
679 Words | 3 Pages

X also goes on about how it is not the white man who is evil, but the collective white man that has been evil. This shows a change in Xs’ ideals and builds upon the idea of integration vs. separation. He sees integration as possible, but still stands by the idea

Read More
1053 Words | 5 Pages

Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer (2009:342) argue in the Du Bois Review that “racism is much broader than violence and epithets” and reveals itself in common, everyday microaggressions. In May 2010, a string of assaults on elderly citizens of Asian descent by black individuals transpired in the San Francisco Bay area (Shih 2010). CBS San Francisco ran a segment covering the attacks featuring an interview with a 21-year-old black man named Amanze Emenike, who had a criminal history of juvenile robbery and theft (CBS 2012). CBS uses Emenike’s history as a basis for theorizing the motives driving the black attackers in the May 2010 attacks. This news segment sheds light on troubling portrayals of black men and people of color in mass media as all being dangerous criminals, as well as the stereotypes fueling racism amongst minority groups.

Read More
1022 Words | 5 Pages

The Fast and Furious franchise is a box office hit that exemplifies America’s dominant cultural narrative and the constructs of ethnicity and race within our society. Exclusively, focusing on the second film in the series, 2 Fast 2 Furious, we can assess the representation of race and ethnicity through the lens of rhetorical critic bell hooks. The characters that will be analyzed in this film are Monica Fuentes, a female character depicted as Hispanic, and Rome, the illustrated black male sidekick to Brian O’Conner. Both characters fit into bell hooks’ definitions of “the other” as they are depicted as ethnicities or races that are marginalized and considered a minority within society. In bell hooks’ book, “Black Looks; Race and Representation,” she discusses the ways in which our dominant cultural narrative contributes to the ongoing cycle of

Read More
1381 Words | 6 Pages

The book challenges Americans and how they treat American Values. The book exposed the truth of the white race and how they treated the black race. Throughout the novel white Americans did not value equality or progress and change. In Black Like Me whites did not believe in having a society the ideally treats everyone equally. When John Howard Griffin gets a ride from a white hunter, he tells him “I’ll tell you how it is here.

Read More
1876 Words | 8 Pages

White Fragility is a term coined by Dr. Robin DiAngelo meaning “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves.” DiAngelo believes white people in North America live in a social environment that insulates them from race-based stress, due to their privilege as part of the cultural majority. The idea of white fragility entails that members of the Caucasian race do not struggle as much as minorities and, through their ignorance, they believe they understand and can relate to the struggles minorities endure on a daily basis. Director Jordan Peele demonstrates this concept of white fragility through his thriller suspense film, Get Out. This film to transports the viewer to the perspective of the white dominance in America towards minorities and how powerful their role of control is in the U.S. Through projecting some of his own fears, Peele approach this horrifying reality through dark plot twists and comedic satire.

Read More
418 Words | 2 Pages

Moreover, demonstrate consequences are taken to oppress racial and ethnic minorities to keep them in a subservient position. Overall, this film has provided me with a visual depiction of how stereotypes are a mental tool that enforces racial segregation and self-hate. The label of “White” became a necessity for Sarah Jane to achieve in society. To attain it she needed to move to a new city, change her name and deny her mother.

Read More
809 Words | 4 Pages

This eye opening and staggering film directed by Paul Haggis (Crash 2004) portrays the collisions between the people of different ethnicities, races and cultures. Haggis bases the film in a city where most people have cars where most people have cars, Los Angeles, and where people rarely brush against or interact with one another unless there’s a situation that forces them to do so. It gathers the lives of those with completely different backgrounds that intersect with each other in the span of 36 hours. Paul Haggis is to be applauded for taking audiences on a rollercoaster of emotions from the start of the film to the very end. The characters in the film are hidden behind metal and glass where no one in LA even touches or brushes past you.

Read More
464 Words | 2 Pages

The argument throughout the article then shifts to the concept of color and how race is represented in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Similar to Lanser’s previous arguments, she describes one side of “yellow groups” in a way that comes off as offensive and harmful to minorities (430). She depicts the “inscribed racism” throughout the story incorrectly with vague examples that do not specifically tie into the argument (429). The lack of specificity in her examples creates ambiguity in the argument and overall destroys the claim for the reader. Lanser’s article combines a radical feminist approach with vague examples which leads to a

Read More
765 Words | 4 Pages

This framework emphasizes the importance of regarding white subjects in relation to the racialized others, as “white identities are both externally and internally constituted [...]” (ibid.), meaning that they are not only constructed within themselves but always in relation to and to distinguish themselves from non-white subject positions. The interrelation between the external and the internal constitution of white identities are examined in an attempt to understand “race anxieties, guilt, terror [...] [and the] repetition [of certain behavioral patterns]” in white subjects (ibid.: 746). In the psychoanalytic framework of Critical Whiteness Studies, it is assumed that “race as a fiction is seated in deep-rooted white anxieties” (Nayak: 748) and that it “is the tortured result of splintered fantasies projected onto an imaginary Other.”

Read More
1084 Words | 5 Pages

The creation of the white racial hierarchy had to occur in order to categorize the United States, preventing disorder . However, because of the terrible creation of “acceptable terrorism” in America, the inequitable racial structure created by the rich white male, and the unjust atmospheres where black citizens experienced social injustices because of the melanin in their skin, it is apparent that white supremacy groups, like the Ku Klux Klan, in the United States had a negative impact on the communities of color, especially Africans & African-Americans, within the American society. In America, white supremacy was terrible, with its humanitarian threats toward the public. When placed under different conditions and white bias, the creation of acceptable

Read More
671 Words | 3 Pages

The story represents the culmination of Wright’s passionate desire to observe and reflect upon the racist world around him. Racism is so insidious that it prevents Richard from interacting normally, even with the whites who do treat him with a semblance of respect or with fellow blacks. For Richard, the true problem of racism is not simply that it exists, but that its roots in American culture are so deep it is doubtful whether these roots can be destroyed without destroying the culture itself. “It might have been that my tardiness in learning to sense white people as "white" people came from the fact that many of my relatives were "white"-looking people. My grandmother, who was white as any "white" person, had never looked "white" to me” (Wright 23).

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.

Read More
1198 Words | 5 Pages

As the realities of race – who is white and who is not-shift over time and according-to class, language, location, and various other factors, it becomes increasingly clear that people should not be the object of attack. People raced as white are not the problem, the problem is white supremacy, white privilege, and white empire. People of all races contribute to these social, political, and legal ills, and people of all races can unite to destroy

Read More

More about Falling Down Supremacism

Related Topics

Open Document