Social Issues in Education

I am quite the movie buff and I love this type of study- pop culture in the media and social issues in the media, so this post may be quite long.. : )

Two summers ago, I took a Popular Culture class at HBU and as a part of the course we examined the major Social Movements of the 60s in movies and TV shows. One of the movements we studied was the Civil Rights movement and then what came after that in movies, the Hip Hop culture. Both of these had a lot to do with the roles black people held in TV shows and movies. Often, when there is a multi-racial cast in Hollywood, the black person is the comedic relief. The most current example I can think of is the new Bruce Willis movie, Cop Out. Bruce Willis is known as this hard core action hero but in this movie he is paired up with Tracy Morgan, a black comedic actor. Instead of the black actor being the serious action hero, he is the comedic relief. Of course there are the serious black actors, but they are fewer and much farther between than the black actor who picks the roles that fit into the stereotypes. Hollywood's highest paid actor is Will Smith, but to really see Hollywood's values as it pertains to the roles black people should fill, one should look at Will Smith's roles in the past. Among his top 10 highest grossing movies are Men in Black I and II, Hitch, and Sharktale. In all of those movies Will Smith is the comedic relief. Don't forget that that specific type of role is how he got his start on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Of course, there are exceptions to this, namely Morgan Freeman or Forrest Whitaker. What this teaches us is that Hollywood doesn't take the black actor seriously enough to give them serious roles that are Oscar worthy. All the TV shows that I see now that have a purely black cast are comedy shows, like all the Tyler Perry TV shows/movies.

All this to say, blacks clearly have not gained equality when it comes to the entertainment industry. Who knows if the black actors choose these roles, or if these are the only roles offered to them, but in any case, these are the results. It is hard to look at the black women roles in TV and movies because they not only have to combat the race issues, but also sex issues in the entertainment industry.