So yea... I am the ONLY black student in my class. Not only black, but black female, people do not relate to us well, or even understand our though process. I don't usually feel that way, but this week the fact that I was black was made much more prevalent. Not a bad thing seeing we watch films made by white people ALL THE TIME. I don't mind being black, and it's not like I pretend I'm not... Well let me give you some context of this.
So we watched the end of Bamboozled where they show all of these images of black face and other stereotypical images from the past. I usually cry on that part of the film anyway, but it was so difficult for me to gather my thoughts and I didn't speak in class. Next class period we were all asked to bring in a film clip about AUTO-ethnography. [auto as in from the group itself!] I OF COURSE brought a clip from a Spike Lee Joint. I love Spike Lee and I mean, I don't have many options. I unfortunately did not get to show my clip. [it was a scene from Crooklyn where Troy gets in trouble for making fun of her neighbor]. But I did get to watch 3 interesting clips.
The first was two scenes from Tropic Thunder [btw, have not seen this movie]. Downy Jr. in black face and Jackson playing a stereotypical black rapper. [let me note this is not auto-ethnographic but I digress]. I laughed a bit at it, but it made me uneasy. Number 1, not an ethnography and NUMBER 2, you're not black... so why didn't you pick something that you can not personally resonate with. He could of at least said it was auto-ethnographic for white people, that would of made more sense. Nope lets focus on african american males and how the media portrays them, even though you're not BLACK!...... okay.... woooosaaaaah... I think I'm good.
But the next clip was great, it was a 70's Jesus film where a church from North Carolina dubbed over it. It was actually interesting and the girl that showed it was a christian, so I it made sense. If you're going to show something, I think you should be able to connect to it. Here's a clip.
Then we watched some stand-up comics. One girl showed Margret Cho, WHO I LOVE! She's white and mexican, so I she can do that. [it's unfortunate, but white the majority people can't put themselves in other races/ethnicites shoes. For historical reasons of course.] But it was interesting in the way she did her jokes. There was no sugar coating, just how it is to be a Korean female in the industry. Some people felt that it wasn't funny because it was depressing. I agreed that what happened was tragic, not being 'Asian' enough [you mean stereotypically Asian] but I thought it was hilarious. I laughed, I think it's because I understand the plight [for lack of a better word].
Then our last clip was from a white male, stand up again. He choose a clip from one of Dave Chapelle's stand up. I love DAVE CHAPELLE... but there was also another white male that choose a clip from Dave Chapelle. [do white guys secretly want to be black???] But it was interesting watching everyone laugh at certain parts. For example, I laughed the loudest when Dave speaks on how black people don't get chosen as hostages. Then he gave an example of what would happen, he uses a stereotypical lower class black voice and the room explodes with laughter. Which I thought was interesting...[hmmm... maybe I'm reading too much into this]
But overall, I was happy that we talked about something that I have to deal with in every film [short or not]. The fact that I am speaking for an entire race, ethnicity, sex, political view. It's actually gave me a lot of thought of how I view films and how I react to the dominent groups point of view of me and others like me.
