In tough inner-city schools students bring guns to class, wear baggy clothes and discuss their gang rivalries. Teachers are helpless to control these classes. They are forced into early retirement, take sick leave or even committ violent acts. The only thing that can turn these misfit teens around is a nice, non-threatening white lady...
At least that's how it is in the media.
Take a look at the two video clips below. One is the trailer for the 90's movie Dangerous Minds, the other is a parody of the "white lady" genre of movies that came out after Dangerous Minds was released. The parody video points out the dominant discourse surrounding the portrayal of white lady teachers. What are some of the stereotypes being made fun of in the clip? How accurately do these films portray school life? What are the messages being sent to the viewer? Most importantly, when are you going to teach me how to dance?
Dangerous Minds
White Lady
The stereotypes being made fun of in the clips are white people are not the average person they can do the most difficult jobs. Another stereotype is black people care more about violence than their education. These films portay school life very accurately. The message being sent to the viewers are if we learn to work together we can accomplish the goal were all aiming for.
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ReplyDeleteOne stereotype being made fun of is regarding how black people are supposedly loud and emotional. In the parody, Nice White Lady and the trailer of Dangerous Minds, you can see black students being loud and rowdy. In Nice White Lady, you see a black female student being emotional and expressing herself to the white lady without any hesitation.
ReplyDeleteAnother stereotype I spotted is basically summed up by what the white lady says in the parody, “I’m a white lady, I can do anything”. As Ms. Draper already mentioned, we usually see a white lady as the catalyst for a good change in the environment of the tough inner-city schools.
Another stereotype is about how black people (predominantly students) wear loose clothing and play basketball (as seen in Dangerous Minds).
I have never been to a tough inner-city school, however, some of what the films portray such as spray-painting on walls, skateboards in schools, and disrespect toward teachers is portrayed accurately to some extent.
The message being sent to the viewer is that whenever you have a problem with the school (too much violence and low literacy rate) – bring in a nice, white lady who will solve all your problems and get the students to study better. The white lady will go against all odds to get the job done. By the way, the Freedom Writers is another movie that explores the same theme (of feel-good, white lady teacher).
The stereotypes being made fun of in one of the clips is that minorities often are violent and disruptive. This is the case when most of the students are portrayed in fights and carrying weapons. I felt that racism was present, but between the minorities. They reason they got into these fights is because of their colour, or race. In the film freedom writers, this was the case between the Black students and the Latino students.
ReplyDeleteAlthough that this is often exaggerated, cases like these do exist but they are not accurately represented. For instance rather than getting into fights instantly after engaging eye contact, as portrayed in these films, they wouldn't act to this extent in real life. I feel the stereotype previously mentioned above plays a role in the decision of how to portray these minorities in the film.
I don't think that the message is as literal as it is put in the parody. I think the message is questioning the stereotype that a nice white lady can solve anything. I interpret the tone of this message to be sarcastic, it is saying that a white lady can go against all odds because of the fact she is white.
This is a step in the right direction, in order to get rid of this stereotype.
In both of the videos the stereotypes being called out are the famous white ladies, ‘there are the only ones who are tolerable to these situations’, the black kids, ‘from the hood’, the Latinos, ‘violent gang members’, the ignorant low class, the principle who does not give a ‘crap’, and the list may go on and on.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that schools are portrayed accurately in the media, because I have not encountered someone with a weapon in school like a gun. I do not think that principles do not take care of their schools and look after their students, because it is not a good look to the district to have uncontrollable students. Students who do not seem to care about school, and all treat their teachers like useless people, does not sound accurate to me. As well as having a class “full” of students who don’t care, there must be about 5 students who care at least. However, the violence issue may seem accurate in some form, because I have hard about three major fight in our school that involves ambulance and the police.
I have to say though that movies exaggerate certain situations to make the environment believable. But I would have to say the message is that the white women are super heroes in our everyday lives in teaching.
By the way, I could show you how to dance Merengue or Bachata, you could create an assignment too, where every student has to show you there traditional dances from their country. This is where you should allow the text language “lol”, laugh out loud.
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