Rico72, 4/26

"When race and ethnicity become commodified as resources for pleasure, the culture of specific groups, as well as the bodies of individuals, can be seen as constituting an alternative playground where members of dominating races, genders, sexual practices affirm their power-over in intimate relationships with the Other" (Hooks, 367).


The idea of "othering" has been around for hundreds of years. What I find interesting is how the use of it has changed. We "othered" black people by forcing them to be slaves and doing anything possible to make them feel lower than white people. However now we thrust racial stereotypes into mass media to make money and profit out of it. Somehow, in doing this we have made it ok to make these racist remarks. Sometimes it will even go completely unnoticed until one returns to the text and realizes it. The example of Rush Hour 2 is perfect because it is a movie built on racist stereotypes, but was well received by most audiences. We live in a world that is becoming fueled by stereotypes and "othering" for a profit.

In CMC 200 we discussed the difference between two texts, Rush Hour 2 and the Chapelle Show. We asked, are these jokes exposing stereotypes or simply making them stronger? We concluded that The Chappelle Show exposed how ridiculous all of these stereotypes were and therefore was a better form of media compared to Rush Hour 2 which is just strengthening this stereotypes in peoples mind. However, both were very popular so one must ask, is this what we want in our comedy/media?

It is still and will continue to be a huge issue. I stumbled across an article this weekend on the website www.cracked.com which reports "amusing" news stories or facts that you won't really see anywhere else. In a March article, they discussed transcripts between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg while "spit-balling" ideas on the new Indiana Jones movie. I was simply shocked at some of the comments both men made and could not believe it was true. I'm not going to post any of it here since it can be very offensive but if your interested here is the link.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/indiana-jones/

It is the presentation of different cultures much like this that are hurting the media today. It is even worse when coming from two of the most successful film-makers of all time. Hopefully, in the next generation people will stop "othering" although I don't see it happening...do you?