MovieChat Forums > National Security (2003) Discussion > "what the problem is" is racis...

"what the problem is" is racism


Racism is racism, no matter what race it's against. "National Security" is a movie which, apparently unwittingly, makes a hero of a horribly racist character, namley Martin Lawrence's. Half of the lines, it seems, involve his character bashing Steve Zahn's for no other reason than that he's white. When he's not doing this, Lawrence is victimizing himself based on the fact that he's black, usually knowing full well that he has hardly been wronged at all.

Why is this seen as acceptable? Not only is the movie offensive to whites, but I would imagine it would also be offensive to blacks as well. What kind of an example is the Lawrence character setting? He's basically saying that it's fine to lie to people and use your race as a crutch to help you get what you want while leaving others in the dust (or, in the case of "National Security", in jail).

Now, before anyone gets upset, let me just say that, yes, I realize it's a comedy and that I should probably be taking this more lightly than I am. I also realize that, given the historical perspective, white people abused the basic human rights of blacks for literally hundreds of years, and that a movie like "National Security" could be seen as white people just getting a tiny, tiny bit of their come uppance (or something). But, come on. Had the races of the two main characters in "National Security" been reversed, this movie never would have been made. The writer would probably have been suspected of being a Klan member.

Am I being too harsh? Am I missing the point? Or am I completley right, and is "National Security" just a really racist movie? Help me out here.

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THIS IS A *beep* COMEDY MOVIE FOR CHRIST SAKE! END THE *beep* SOCIAL ISSUES FOR ONCE!

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