Let's talk about "White savior narrative in film"

Hiring a white actress for an Asian-themed movie DID give the impression that "they just couldn't find an Asian actress" when they must be available... but, it was a Hollywood production, not a Japanese production, so they're allowed to do whatever they want.

The Japanese version would not have featured a single person of color or white person. They would be completely East Asian actors.

Honestly, we need more white saviors in movies. White people are freaking awesome.

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Well when it comes to movies like Avatar, The Last Samurai and Dances, with Wolves, since the white characters are betraying their own people, it makes for a more powerful story, compared to no betrayal at all. I feel that that is what makes those stories powerful, and people are bothered by it just because of this white savior movement that is going on, which I think has gotten people to perhaps develop a sensitive stigma too it, when they shouldn't maybe. But that's just how I see it.

So I finally watched Green Book at the cinema, and it made me realize how when I view movies about racism in the 60s, 50s, or earlier, that I have to retrain my mind to understand how "whites" would act uncomfortable around people who weren't white. In 2019, it's the opposite of what's supposed to be "public perception." (If you don't live in Japan or other exclusive countries, ha.)

Maybe movies like this (and all the other ones in 2018 saying white people were against blacks or whatever) are more dangerous than the filmmakers intended. Maybe pointing out a divide between races will only cause it. I mean, look at the title of this thread.

I think everybody should stop reliving the mistakes of the past and move forwards. And when whites tried to apologize for the crimes that other whites committed in the past (such as in this film), they only received more and more hateful backlash.

So, yep. The racism debate? I am completely ready for the leftwing media to drop it and move on. Ending racism against non-whites by turning it into racism against whites, helps no one and solves no problems. It's just a cycle of fear and hatred. Dodgeballs in the face, back and forth.

What good is refusing to acknowledge said divide? Art reflects life and life still has a lot of racial tension so it makes sense that films would use that as inspiration - it's just a matter of questioning whether or not they use that inspiration effectively and to what purpose. Pretending it doesn't exist or that people can simply "move on" from it like that is not an effective solution, nor is the idea that white people should simply give up trying to atone for racism out of fear of any potential "backlash" because part of dealing with racism means learning from one's own mistakes thanks to other people pointing them out.

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Owned any slaves lately? I sure haven't...The only thing I'm going to atone for is eating too much pizza last night

^ Yeah, exactly. No matter what my race is, I personally have no racism to atone for.

White people who were racist towards blacks in the past weren't racist because they were white, but rather because they were bad people. This whole stupid idea that people today who happen to be white should have anything to atone for is exactly the kind of thinking that caused the problem in the first place.

There are other forms of racism aside from slavery, though. It's better to stay aware of them and avoid falling in with the racists than thinking that clearing such an extremely low and old bar as "doesn't own slaves" simply by being born a hundred years after slavery ended means you can stop caring about countering racism completely and ridicule the people who do.

To quote Preacher, you've got to be one of the good ones because there are way too many of the bad.

Do people think racism is a white on black thing? As somebody who believes skin color is irrelevant, I think that racism comes equally from and against all skin colors. Is there not equality in that regard?

Assuming that every race is capable of hating every other race, I think the difference is that white people's racism is the one backed up by The System that has been forged over the course of Western civilisation so it has a power behind it that any racism by people of colour does not (or is that cannot?) match. Easy enough to assume they are equal in the abstract, but less so in actuality.

Also, see what I wrote on the last page about the idea of treating skin colour as "irrelevant" - a noble idea in theory, but one that's still open to criticism.

That sounds like it makes some sense and you probably know more about history than I do. From what I understand, American blacks did not become slaves because they were black, and a big problem I have with these issues is that I think there's too much attributed to just skin color. It doesn't make sense to me that the racism that exists towards blacks is simply because of black skin. If it were based solely on skin color, then there are many other people who have darker skin than many of those who are classified as blacks. My best friend is an Indian girl who I met when she first moved to this country. When she got here, she told me that she and many other Indians like her were afraid of blacks. Hold on a minute I said, you have darker skin than most blacks. Is it just semantics? I feel like much of the racism that exists towards blacks today is just because their poverty levels and crime rates are high, rather than the color of the skin. It's a cultural thing to me and an issue I have no explanation for except for perhaps sins of the past that set some people back. I don't think classifying by skin color today offsets classifying by skin color yesterday. It bothers me when I fill out a form and it asks if I'm black, Caucasian, or whatever. Why does it matter? To get to the proper place, I think it needs to not matter in every regard.

Yeah, it's always worth asking what exactly is the issue here if not the skin colour in and of itself - as you note, it's more the various associations and assumptions a person might have about people who share that colour and what explanations (reasonable or otherwise) there are for said associations (e.g. how much of the aforementioned poverty and crime are rooted in practices that are discriminatory towards black people).

I feel that any judgements based on skin color are oversimplifications and that pretty much everybody is guilty of it, good people and bad. I don't know if there's a realistic chance at a fix, but if there is it has to start with people at the top or who have a platform. That is currently impossible with the far left media and Hollywood.

Does The Mission (1986) count as a white savior movie as well, since the South American natives are saved by whites who betray their own people in the end?

They probably just wanted a better "hero" story. Not everything has to be racially insensitive.

Oh okay. I thought Avatar didn't count since it was a white human against aliens, rather than a white person against a difference race. However, if that counts, do the Transformers movie count as well? Cause the alien Autobots keep getting relied on by a white guy to save them in the movies, like the aliens in Avatar.

I would rule out Transformers because the conflict tends to be about various humans taking sides in the greater war between the technologically advanced Autobots and Decepticons as opposed to being about all the humans fighting against all the Transformers.

And y'know, Shia is the Autobot Jesus

Writing off Green Book as a "white savior" movie is offensively simplifying what the movie is about and dismissing a great piece of cinema just because we're so hyperfocused today on making sure every product is as politically correct and inoffensive as possible. Even when the movie itself preaches love and respect. Tony and Shirley help each other out and learn something about themselves along the way. Shirley learns he can't drink all his problems away and that he deserves some genuine happiness while Lip learns to abandon his old violent ways and to respect those different from himself. It's a heartwarming story about friendship and having each other's back, not Tony Lip being the guardian angel from heaven.

And yes, Green Book won Best Picture. So what? Spike Lee at least won Best Screenplay, isn't that good by itself? BlackKklansman is great, but I love Green Book even more. It all comes down to personal taste, not the color of the director's skin.