Movie: White Man's Burden - Essay Example

White Man’s Burden Order No. 246886 October 27/10/08 White Man’s Burden White Mans Burden , directed by Desmond Naskano was made in 1995. It is a dramatic film about racism in America. But here it is not the usual story of whites dominating the blacks. In this movie the whites and the blacks have reversed cultural roles. In the America of this movie the blacks are the ruling class and the whites form the underprivileged minority. Louis Pinnock the main character is a poor white man struggling to make a living.

An unfortunate, unintended incident results in his losing his job. The unjust punishment meted out to him angers him and he decides to fight back. He kidnaps Belafonte, the black owner of the factory, who fires him, from his fashionable home and car at gunpoint. The time the two spend together helps them to understand each other. The roles are reversed in the movie. Here Louis and his family are treated like second class citizens. The inner part of the city is portrayed as crime infested neighborhoods with most of its inhabitants being white.

While many films convey the struggle of blacks in America through the eyes of blacks, White Man’s Burden conveys the struggle by making whites imagine how it feels to be black. According to Mick La Salle (1995) “Just by presenting the reverse image of American society, it forces audiences to see things they might not otherwise notice.” By switching the roles of blacks and whites the film shows tries to prove that poverty and lack of knowledge and not the color of skin makes a person take to crime.

It also puts across the message that qualities like greed, selfishness, and a superiority complex are acquired by people who are wealthy and brought up in luxury and not because of their white color. The color of the skin does not decide the nature of a person. This film makes you think. It has a message and conveys it well. On the surface the message is what it would be like for the white men if they were in the shoes of the black men. The movie points out that there is both good and bad in life.

It gives us a picture of what many people have to endure in their day-to day life, irrespective of their color. It is not color which controls life but it is the nature of the person and the circumstances a person has to face that control life. The film White Mans Burden attempts to portray the effects of race and social status on a persons beliefs and behavior. The film through his characters and glimpses of society makes us get a feeling of what it is like to be a minority in a society where the social norms are defined by the ruling class It is in the first scene that we meet the antagonist of the movie, Thaddeus Taylor, a wealthy and influential businessman.

He is shown as having a very poor opinion of people belonging to a different race and economic status. Through this character, the director tells us of the prejudices the upper class have about the minorities in particular and the poor in general. It is only after he is forced to spend time with someone from the other race that Thaddeus begins to reconsider his racist thoughts. Louis Pinnock, the hero of the film is proud and hardworking and the only thing he wants in life is a better life for his family.

But everywhere he is at a disadvantage. It is through Louis character we are made to experience a day in the life of blacks in America. Throughout the film Louis faces situations and issues that many people of color face daily. The scene where Louis gets beaten up by the police because he resembles a suspect in a crime portrays vividly the issues minorities have to deal with regularly. This incident also tries to prove a point that the blacks are generally stereotyped. They are all considered to be having similar features and are either drug peddlers, gangsters or involved in some crime or the other.

After the incident of Louis inadvertently seeing Thaddeus wife dressed in a towel and being caught in the act, he is fired and labeled as a peeping Tom. This again shows that people belonging to a particular race are stereotyped and how this can affect people’s behavior. Black men have always been considered as habitual sexual offenders. There have been many incidences where black men, who have looked at women, not exactly in the right way, have been killed. Through the scene where Louis son, Donnie Pinnock chooses a popular Black Super Hero toy instead of a less expensive white one.

Nakano points out that things would not be different for any other race if they were in the same situation black people are in. The director also in a subtle way blames the media for the way in which the minorities are portrayed. The beliefs Thaddeus and others have about the minorities are often reinforced by the .media. In the film in the scene where Louis is shown watching television, all the news had stories that dealt with crime, and always the criminal was a white man. Also none of actors on the television shows were whites.

The movie brings forth the fact that even now some people believe that minorities are inferior by birth and that they are lazy and prefer not to work. They would rather live on welfare. If such is the belief no amount of help can make things better for the minorities. References1. La Salle Mick (1995), Blacks Have the Power In `White Mans Burden’, San Francisco Chronicle, Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1995/12/01/DD8604.DTL on 27/10/08.