Popular Culture (paraphrase) - Essay Example

Trading Places: A Discussion of African-American Stereotypes Media is one of the most influential agencies of modern society. Most people cannot help but absorb images presented by television, magazines, newspapers and movies on a daily basis, and as such it is important to consider the stereotypes portrayed by these media. Films in particular can affirm the current system or attempt to subvert it, reflect popular values or attempt to change them. The depiction of race in media is one of these concepts which is worth studying.

The history of race in media is a disappointing one even today – the recent Oscars ceremony was less racially diverse than the nominations of 1940 (Dargis and Scott, 2011), and although pioneering black actress Hattie McDaniel was given a tribute by Halle Berry at this ceremony, no mention was made of McDaniel's difficulties getting into Hollywood because of her race, nor of her black activism. Particularly around the twentieth anniversary of Rodney King's savage beating by white police officers, it is important to look at the role of race in modern America: this horrific incident in 1991 failed to inspire a true and heartfelt change in American culture, as we can see from the fact that in 2009, 87% of the New Yorkers stop-and-frisked by police were non-white (Center for Constitutional Rights, 2010).

The media's eagerness to reinforce middle-class attitudes is at least partly to blame, as it generally holds dear the “sacred institutions of society” which exercise prejudice against black people (Hall, 1974). Hall specifically mentions the police as one of these pillars of American society, and his point is proven by the fact that the police were the perpetrators of two of the racially-biased acts already mentioned in this paper. In the 1983 movie Trading Places, a black man is invited into the upper-middle-class white world, potentially to subvert the widely-accepted intersecting ideas of race and class (the lower class is black, the higher class white), but the mere fact that Valentine (played by Eddie Murphy) is invited into this world is another small part of the story which promotes the existing racial power structure.

The plot of the film is that a pair of wealthy brothers decide to play heedlessly with two people's lives, exchanging the positions of a privileged white man and an unprivileged black man to settle the answer of 'nature vs. nurture' by disturbing the supposed 'natural' order of racial hierarchy. Black men in the film are, not to put too fine a point on it, losers: homeless or on the verge of homelessness, not just failures but incapable of success without a (white) helping hand. For example, even at the end of the film when Valentine and Winthorpe have broken free of the god-like meddling of the Duke brothers, Valentine requires Winthorpe to instruct him as they enter the stock exchange.

These are images which an audience does not necessarily criticize but accepts, as a reinforcement of every other racially-charged image they have been shown. The audience then applies these stereotypes to reality, enforcing the unbalanced power structure of a world against black people. Although Valentine triumphs over the Duke brothers at the end of the film, it is only (as mentioned above) with the aid of Winthorpe, another privileged white man – albeit one who has 'experienced' (if only slightly) the marginalization that has been a key part of Valentine's entire life by being imprisoned and losing his money.

Conversely, it takes more than money to truly infiltrate the white, upper-class world, as we can see in the train scene: Eddie Murphy's character plays into the stereotype of an obnoxious and unaware Zimbabwean person, by dressing in the nation's traditional and colorful robe and talking loudly in public, to cause a distraction. The other passengers on the train react predictably, revealing that they harbour the exact prejudices Valentine was hoping to manipulate to his advantage. This would be a progressive scene in the movie if it was played to underscore the ridiculousness of the stereotype, but, horrifically, the directors seemed to think that (white) Aykroyd's character wearing 'blackface' in this scene would be appropriate.

Winthorpe can enter Valentine's less-meaningful world through makeup; Valentine's race permanently others him from Winthorpe's. Instead, then, it highlights the fact that Valentine's stereotypical portrayal of an African person is meant to be just as 'funny' as the passengers' reaction to him. Furthermore, we are rooting for Valentine and Winthorpe, and thereby rooting for the stereotype. Our harmful stereotype of Zimbabweans is reinforced, not deconstructed. The plot of this movie, like many others, is grounded in white stereotypes of black people, with no critical questioning or subversion of these detrimental images.

Although stereotypes of white people are also portrayed, they are mostly positive – it is misleading to suggest that each stereotype is as bad as the other, because it is worse for a race to be thought of as lazy, poor failures than rich and hardworking. Everyone in the audience should have had personal experience with both black people and white people to tell them that the stereotypes that Trading Places works with are false, but it is easier to swallow a pre-packaged concept than to create an original one for yourself.

Works Cited Dargis, M., and Scott, A.O. (2011, February 11). Hollywood's Whiteout. The New York Times Online. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/movies/awardsseason/13movies.html. Hall, S. (1974). Black Men, White Media. Savacou, Journal of the Caribbean Artists’ Movement. Vol. 9/10. New NYPD Data for 2009 Shows Significant Rise in Stop-and-Frisks. Center for Constitutional Rights. Retrieved from http://www.ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/new-nypd-data-2009-shows-significant-rise-stop-and-frisks:-more-half-million.

Trading Places. (1983). [DVD]. Hollywood, CA: Paramount.