Guess Whos Coming to Dinner- Acceptance in Consonance with the White Sensibilities - Movie Review Example

To deserve the white paternalism of Matt Drayton, he should better be perfect in all other ways. He should not come out as someone who justifies the white fear of a Black loser out to exploit an innocent white woman. The other surprising thing is that almost all the Black characters in the movie are tacitly obsequious towards the white characters, seeming totally unaffected by the black rage imbuing the times in which this movie was made and released. The only Black rage one comes across in the movie is the Black rage aimed at a Black, as that of Dr. Prentices against his father.

Moreover, in the climax, it is Matt Drayton, the evident liberal representative of the white race in the movie, who is shown as giving the final verdict. Obviously, he is asserting a white definition of assimilation, in which the colored subject should be willing to dilute one’s personal notions of racial identity.
The ludicrous thing is that the movie ends with a very liberal redefinition of the American family, with both white and Black family members having a good time at the dinner table. Perhaps, nobody cares to notice that this new version of the ideal American family is being served dinner by a Black maid, a stock, hackneyed, and stereotypical white idea of Black identity. Read More