Adult Discussion Topic

What do you think about the way that biracial people with a white appearance have been portrayed in the media? Do you think that those portrayals have been negative or affirming of how you feel about yourself?

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Responses To Discussion Topic:

The only movie that I have seen was the 1950's movie, Imitation of Life.  I was a young adolescent when the movie opened in theaters in the 50 ties.  The story line depicted the tragic mulatto who hid her full racial identity for a better life with a white identity.  In the end she acknowledged her full identity.

This  movie had a tremendous impact on my life. I vowed that I would never deny my black heritage and I have since maintained that position.

I'm glad that I did not waste my money on seeing " Clockers" because I would have to get my money back on that movie. Too be honest, I really do not care that much from most of Spike Lee's pictures. The plot of the story can get ambiguous and literally, his pictures make me dizzy ( I do not know about Clockers, but most of the pictures he made, he always " rotating " the picture... Stereotyping is a predominate reason why I also don't like some of his pictures. Although I grew up in a racially mixed neighborhood, I just hate it when hare-core rappers , talk negatively, about the ghetto. They make it seem that everybody in the ghetto has no morals, no class and have nothing better to do than to bless somebody out and do a drive shooting. Some of the most classiest and prosperous people have came from the ghetto. About the " b-----s " word ? I'm not allowed to use that word around my mother because this is a word that nobody want their mother and other females to be called such a word. Now I wonder what would happen if Steven Spielberg ( a Jewish man with an adopted mixed family himself ) decided that he wanted to make a similar picture ? many Black people , including himself would hit the roof, Look at how he reacted when Spielberg did " Amistad ". Spike lee should give what he and some other Blacks may not can take.

First of all, I just wanted to agree with whoever it was (in this discussion group) that sid Spike Lee's movies were not good. I just watched Clockers last night (in-between bits of sleep) and thoght the movie was fake! I work at a video store in a very caucasian neighborhood, with a guy named John. John is a 20 year old white guy who self-admittedly acts about as "white" as they come. Me and him talk a lot about race-gays-religion and all that stuff, and we are pretty much in agreement on most things. John is a movie-loving buff who owns enough original videos to open his own store! Well anyway, he suggested that I watch Clockers, because it is such an awesome film. So I did....and was not impressed! Clockers was one of the most stereotypical films I have ever seen! Little parts that really annoyed me were parst like "the gangsta rap video" that was way too cheesy, the part when the guy at the store who was shot up and dead was getting made fun of and kicked around by white cops in front of the whole neighborhood, and all the fight seens were corny as hell! Movies like Life, New Jersey Drive, and Cooley High are a lot more real than Spike Lee movies are! Now you may be asking what does this gotta do with mixed people? Wll maybe not a whole lot, but I feel that we mixed people need to understand how things are from both sides! It makes me think that people in general (especially white) want to think that cops are bastards, black people in NYC always say "Yo whutda fuc you illin on me fo son!", rap music is all about glocks and techs, money and bitches, and all the other stereotypes. I think the reason they "think" this way is so they can say to themselves "I understand your life in the ghetto, so I understand why you act THAT way!"---It gives them a sense of comfort that I find truely ingenuine! I cant really talk about mixed people on TV because I am not sure who they are! I can't name 1 mixed actor who is truely famous! Help me out People, who are the mixed stars!?! The only mixed Musicians I kow of are Chino -XL (great album with songs about being mixed! true hip-hop), Mariah Carey, and Lenny Kravitz (I really don't listen to either of these two). Is Jamiroquai mixed? I like Jamiroquai a lot too! well just my thoughts until later!

Carolyn, That is a good question you asked. Sometimes, I watch old re-runs of the Jeffersons and since I was a child , I've wondered about the characters of " jenny " and " Adam, the TV children of Tom and Helen Willis. I'am aware that some Bi-racial children can lighter or darker than others but what baffled me about those characters is that " Adam " looked totally White ( that's ok because there are some like that ) but " Jenny " looks completely Black in spite of her mixed heritage. Even if they are dark they will be an indication that she will take a White feature after the White dad. When you look Lenny Kravitz, ( being of Jewish/Black origin ), her own real life son, one can tell that he is White. I tell you, TV do not know how to match bi-racial children with their bi-racial parents. Soemtimes , I wonder do media execs do this because they think that bi-racial children are suppose to look-all Black or do they want the audience to know that they are not White ?

Why is it, in television that those who are "supposed" to be mixed, always look Black. When I say Black I mean, no trace of white at all. Why is it, when an article is written in a "Black" magazine, about a Black celebrity's spouse, who looks White, they have to explain that they have Black in them? It sounds as if the magazines are afraid the celebrity has "sold out" if with a White person, but it's 1/2 okay if the person has some Black up in him/her. Why is it, in the music section of amazon.com, the description of Mariah Carey, that her father is Black Brazilian and her mother White Irish, with not a trace of her ethnic background, she looks like a super model. As if the only way to look good is to not look "ethnic"? Why can't the media show that Biracial people come in ALL COLORS!!!! I think the only way to stop most of this racism is to stop color description in the media OR show different colors.

God, how many times have I seen commericals with mixed kids having very dark skinned parents. Why can't America wake up and realize that Mixed people are out there! Why is it so hard for them to show a Mixed child with a white and black parents, or white and Asian, etc. I'm not sure I understand?

I guess I will put in my own response to this discussion topic. One of the reasons why I wanted to put this out there was because of the Spike Lee movie Jungle Fever. The first time I saw this movie I had recently been told by my mother and grandmother about my true heritage, and was still adjusting to the idea of being biraccial. I went and saw the movie. In it, Lonette McKee, whom I believe is mixed, plays the wife of Wesley Snipes. He has just revealed to her an affair he is having with a White woman, played by Annabella Sciorra. In the movie, she is half White. She is obviously upset about his affair and is doubly upset that the woman is White. She makes this whole speech about how she hates her White half, and how she tries to forget and ignore that she has White blood in her. I remember hating this monologue because it gave me the message that a mixed person who is part Black and White should be ashamed of what they are we should be ashamed that we have the "blood of the rapist and destroyer" in us. I did not think that Spike Lee was being very responsible with this and hated him for a long time. It seemed that in many of his movies, it's not okay to be mixed and not be Black- identified. I site School Daze, Jungle Fever and Crooklyn as the most obvious examples of this. In Crooklyn, when Troy goes to the suburbs to visit her more "siddity" light-skinned cousin with pressed, long light hair, he uses this weird cinematogragphic effect where the picture is all distorted and warped. I thought at first something was wrong with my VCR, but on subsequent viewings realized that this was Spike's way of representing how different that way of life was from Troy's back home. But I also think that again, it was another dig at light-skinned, or White- identifying folks. Tjis did not make it any easier for me to adjust and feel good about who I was. When I was trying to find my new identity, i looked to the cinema and other arts for help, and got things like this. I resented, and still resent these types of portrayls.

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