Popular Culture In The Age Of White Flight By Eric Avila

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All of these conflicts created white suburbanization with the help of film noir and places like Disneyland. In his essay “Popular Culture in the age of white flight”, Eric Avila states that film noir and Disneyland caused a cultural transformation after World War II (3). Film noir showed the social disorder of the city and Disneyland created the suburban order that promised to remove people from the chaos of the city. This of course only catered to the white middle and upper class families. Film noir used the techniques of shadows and lighting to show the dark dismal world of crime and violence that the early to mid-twentieth century represented. As Professor Avila states in his week 7 lecture, film noir showed the anxiety of the 1940s concern …show more content…

Waldie states in his book Holy Land about suburban homes, “92 percent of the residents believed this suburb is a desirable place in which to live” (11). This desire to escape the city enforced by film Noir gave rise to a myth that turned away from the racial tension caused by the creation of these perfect white neighborhoods. As film noir was exposing the concerns of racial and sexual promiscuity, Disneyland offered a suburban retreat, as Eric Avila states, “Disneyland offered a suburban antithesis, modeling a new sociospatial order that took shape along the fringes of the urban core” (4) . With its removal of people and land to construct freeways and a parking lot – Disneyland became the definition of white suburbia. Walt Disney created an area of absolute spatial order, promoted the nuclear family, and had racial stereotypes and distinctions. Disneyland’s location in Orange County further promoted its exclusivity to the nuclear white family. As Disneyland created the myth of suburban whiteness, the minority groups around it faced slum clearance and