Racism!


Cool down, cool down. Let's just talk.


A few people on this site were claiming that there's an abnormally high amount of movies in the bottom 100 with a predominantly dark-skinned cast directed towards a predominantly dark-skinned audience.
A individual even took the time to count that 10 out of the 100 bottom-ranked movies on imdb were "black" movies; even though "black" movies probably make up less than 1% of all poorly made movies, and less than 0.1% of all movies altogether.


On a related note, there seems to be a "defense mechanism" that everyone has inside their brains that turns on whenever the topic of "race" comes up (probably a Darwinist characteristic; get angry and competitive to ensure your species survives in the jungle).
Turn that mechanism off. Let's have an honest discussion here.


What's the explanation here?
Are the numbers and statistics presented on these forums wrong?
Are middle- to upper-class caucasians adverse towards films for black people?
Are predominantly-black movies overwhelmingly low-budgeted?
Are predominantly-black movies poorly cast?
Is there another explanation that i haven't hit?


Give your honest opinion. No one will be attacked, no one will be penalized for their opinion.

reply

What I noticed is there does seem to be a status quo of black movies equal bad.There are only a few movies with a majority black cast released into theaters a year. And there are thousands of other movies containing a majority of another race. Predominately black cast movies are more likely to be green lighted if they're stereotypical and cliche-ridden. Can these movies really be worst than there counterparts that are just as bad? When you take all this into account there is no reason these movies should top the worst movies list than any other terrible movies.Could it be relatability?Or is it something else?


Are the numbers and statistics presented on these forums wrong? I wouldn't count IMDB as the end all of accurate calculations. I'm sure there numbers are pretty easy to cheat.

Are middle- to upper-class caucasians adverse towards films for black people? Is there a poll on that? I think the less interaction with blacks may lead to polarization against these movies.

Are predominantly-black movies overwhelmingly low-budgeted? Well its no surprise that they usually are but that depends if you take into account people like Denzel,Berry,Smith. Even when you take that account in those movies are usually more diverse.

Are predominantly-black movies poorly cast? Not any more than badly casted movies of other races.

Is there another explanation that i haven't hit? It could be relatability. Or just the perception from word of mouth bashing.





Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

reply

[deleted]

[deleted]

If you look at the specific movies that are on the bottom 100, it doesn't seem to be so much that they star black people as it is that they tend to perpetuate black stereotypes. Just about every "black" movie on the bottom 100 is some cliche about life in the ghetto, and revolves around either gangbangers, hip-hop dancing or basketball. The one pseudo-exception I see in a casual browsing of the list is "Phat Girlz," which stars a woman who epitomizes the obnoxious "sassy black woman" stereotype and seems to be little more than a movie-length version of her standard tirade of "big but beautiful" jokes that's grating enough in small doses.

The whole thing may also have something to do with the people who vote here. If you'll notice, there also seem to be a disproportionate number of kids' movies on the list. I have a feeling that, much like those, the stereotypically "black" movies on the list are being voted on by a website whose members, by and large, are simply not their target audience, and are looking for something in movies that these ones were never intended to provide. Personally, all the movies in question looked like I would hate them (aside from the inanity of their plots, I loathe the vast majority of rap rather intensely and can't stand any movie with a soundtrack that consists of blasting it at absurd volumes, another stereotype most of these movies conform to), so I didn't watch them and thus won't be voting on them.

"I am a warrior. Let the battle be joined."

reply

YOu make a good point, many people in the US have a knee jerk reaction whenever race is brought up, and it is difficult to get a serious discussion about race going. I think many people feel like they are being personally attacked and blamed when race is brouht up.

As far as the bottom 100, yes there are far too many black movies in the bottom 100 And by black movies, I mean movies targeted at a black audience. It seems hollywood is racist because it only greenlights films targetted at a black audience which meet the following criteria:
1. Must be a comedy.
2. Must contain tons of racist and stereotypical humor.
3. Must have a formulaic plot or not plot at all.
4. Must center around basketball, dancing, singing, escaping the ghetto, a cookout, etc.
5. Must be really, really stupid.
6. Must portray black people and black culture in only the worst possible light.

I mean you have to think, who read the screenplay of "soul plane" and thought, hey this would make a good film, put it into production?

What about "who's your caddy?"

The bottom line is that hollywood is not greenlighting smart black films and there isn't a black person in all of hollywood who can greenlight a movie. So many films targetted at black audiences do actually suck, but I also think many white movie goers are less inclined to like a film with a mainly black cast.

reply

I don't give a f'ck what the race of the people who made a movie is. I prefer just to call a piece of sh't a piece of sh't. If you don't like it, that's your problem.

reply

A few thoughts:

I think if middle- to upper-class Caucasians are adverse to black people, or movies about black people, they won't go see the movie, and therefore usually won't vote for it.

I would assume that most people who vote for these movies are black, or at least sympathetic towards black culture. So I find it hard to believe that the low votes are based on racism.

If someone in America or Europe makes a movie, any movie, they wouldn't use an all-black cast unless the story is specifically about black people or black culture. The Godfather, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Fight Club, nobody ever considered casting only black people for those movies. Only a very specific type of movie is all black. This also goes for disabled people, little people, and of course unattractive people. You won't see them in a movie unless the story specifically calls for it.

There are a lot of bad movies in the world. Most of them don't end up on the bottom 100 of IMDb, because not enough people go see them. But when a movie is made about black people, it is expected to attract black people, who are probably getting a little tired of only ever seeing white people in movies. There are a lot of black people in America, and not a lot of black movies being made. So even the bad ones will attract enough people to get a lot of votes.

The vast majority of the bottom 100 is from the 21st century. Very recent movies. Unlike the top 250. I'm not sure why that is, but the bottom 100 seems to be very selective anyway.

Hollywood loves stereotypes. There are a lot of stereotypes about black people, and for some reason most black people don't even seem to mind those stereotypes (or am I wrong here?). Some filmmakers even confuse stereotypes with humor, and thus you get bad movies that black people will still want to check out. Maybe they're waiting for that one movie that gets it right.

And finally, everyone's probably a little racist somewhere deep inside. We all prefer our own race, our own country, our own profession a little bit because we can relate to it and understand it a little better. Damn, I don't remember where I was going with that. Whatever, it sounds kinda relevant anyway.

reply

I agree except for one thing: how would The Godfather be cast with black people? Its about Italians so more or less the movie would be Italians or whites portraying Italians.

reply

The bottom line is this movie is God Awful. Most pre-teens with half a brain would probably agree. If you liked this movie and you are older than 16 you are stupid or have very poor taste, but probably stupid. This just happens to be a horrible, mostly black cast movie.


reply

People don't like nigg a culture. It's as simple as that. People want to see successful black society. Like Spike Lee's movies. Bill Cosby did good with this. Showing blacks as doctors and lawyers. Personally, I HATE seeing black people portrayed as ghetto, tough, rapping, basketball playing hoodlums. It's an immediate turn-off. Because i know it's not like that much anymore, but black society doesn't seem to want to let go of the sufferah legacy. I grew up in DC and I'm white. I knew black kids. One kid i grew up with was a geek and made comics. Did well at univ of Md and now sh i ts gold in the dot com world. He still pays for my drinks when we go out. I always liked that kid. The other a great athlete and class leader who helped me with Algebra. Another did 20 years in a drive-by. That really fuc ked me up. He was a good friend. He bought into the tough nig ga bs. black society I knew was struggling to get out of the ghetto and not celebrating it. I mean this movie sucked, but even classics like Boys'n the Hood have become outdated. There's nothing glamorous about the ghetto and people, after 20 years or so, are seeing that. So when they see a middle-class black family, like much of black society is today, acting ghetto, they get irritated. And we see that in a lot of 'black' movies. I want to say, "Look, being a minority in North America doesn't mean you have to be from the hood. Not being from the ghetto doesn't mean you are an uncle Tom. It means MLK went to the cross for a damn good reason. So from a white man to black society, we know a lot of black folks have improved their condition. We also know black society suffers from a sufferah mentality, as if you aren't really black unless someone called you a N...er and you are from the ghetto (this far off romantic place, kind of like Camelot to white people). But that's dumb and we know it. We know racism still exists, but we also know it isn't anything like it was 30 years ago. I mean, a black guy might be president. But most importantly, we know your legacy isn't the ghetto. so start publishing what it is really like being black now, like living in middle-class suburbia, having a hedge fund, and being fat."

How many black kids out there have parents that are suburban middle class, fat, and their dad talks about mutual funds? A whole lot I bet.

reply