I couldn't believe my ears in this movie when Harwood gives "Dad" the bribe Dad says "That's mighty white of ya". Did anyone else catch this remark which also has racial undertones like the Monkey Music remark?
When you buy a dog you buy a small tragedy.
There was a time in America when "white" was not used in a sentence as a racial term. Back in those days (1940s), the phrase "mighty white of you" meant "mighty good/nice of you."
My wife's hometown in the south used to fly a banner saying "The blackest land...the whitest people." That banner originally meant that the local farmland was very good for growing and the people were the nicest you would ever meet.
Of course, as the years passed, black and white became very different meanings in our country and, now, political correctness has made the use of either as racially motivated.
Classic films like this are about the only place you can still find examples of language used in an entirely different way.
"A friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a body."
I knew that is what it meant. And as for political correctness I see it as being sensitive to other people's feelings and I rfeally don't see anything wrong with that. Being Jewish I have always resented the use of the phrase "Jew him down". Just like Mighty White of YA. In point of fact it is the Mighty White people(mostly British) who have caused most of the problems that we face today.
When you buy a dog you buy a small tragedy.
In point of fact it is the Mighty White people(mostly British) who have caused most of the problems that we face today.
"White people(mostly British) who have caused most of the problems that we face today."
Imbecile.
Well, Pimpernel, I know exactly where your wife is from because I live in the next town! Small world.
shareThe word "White" used within that context for that era,
was synonymous with being right.
That phrase has ALWAYS had racial undertones, to mark a badge
of superiority to the person it was directed to; a Caucasian!
There was/still is a phrase...
"If you're white, you're all right."
"If you're brown, stick around."
"If you're black, STAY BACK!"
"OOO...I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"
Thats also a song sung by Blind Jim Brewer who used to play at the NO EXIT coffeehouse in Chicago, back in the 60's.
shareI loved what the elderly Reverend did with that at President Obama's inauguration.
Let's just say that God doesn't believe in me.
Buzz said "night-club music monkeys", meaning the guys who ran the joints.
share
.........I have to say for a movie with no major black characters there certainly a lot of racial imagery. I just got done talking about "monkey music". Now I'm talking about the phrase "mighty white of you"........Obviously the term has something to do with the fact it was considered positive to be white in the past and sometimes in the present. The term is reinforced by cultural refferences. The good guy in many early westerns would ware a white hat. The white knight coming to the rescue. To our twenty first century sensibilities the term sounds racist.........Oddly the last time I heard the phrase, "mighty white of you" it was in a movie, I forget which one, were a black character was replying to a white character he thought was patronizing him.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
This is definitely a black and white movie.
shareI didn't get the impression 'monkey music' was a racial slur - It just sounding like boisterous swing music to me - Hence, the 'monkey/swinger' reference (i.e. swinging from trees; vivacious). But, I could be wrong...
I quite liked the music myself! But, I guess if you have a plate in your head, it's different. I felt badly for poor Buzz - I mean, no one ever offered him anything for the pain (i.e. aspirin or something else) - Just a drink! Which does work sometimes I must admit...
‘Six inches is perfectly adequate; more is vulgar!' (Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Re: An open window).
As has been stated, it wasn't a racist or even a racial term. White is a long established symbolic image of purity and goodness---- a bride wearing white at a wedding, the good cowboy wearing a white hat, ghosts which are pure spirit are white, etc.
shareAgree like the good guy having a white cowboy hat the bad guy a black one.
I always heard the term white like rice so I dunno.
Its almost automatic that we see shadows, magic, sin, evil and crime as being black and that grace and virtue are white (white virgins, wedding dresses etc).
I would think it has not as much to do with complexion but ingrained into us that dark places are to be feared because we were vulnerable to predators in the dark and bright light places were thought of as safe--go towards the light.
This may be a chicken or the egg issue because it may actually be the root cause for racial tendencies not the other way around.
I dreamt of a roaring river and a woman that was a fish. Dead she drifted, with red tears...
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