So my essay was based on the use of color in this movie entitled "something new". this is a movie about an upper class African American woman who has sacrificed love for career success and her own made up "Ideal Black Man" -who must meet such criteria as being college educated, holding a decent job, having good teeth, not crazy and no kinky sex. she also has this thing about color; 'bright colors are for children and whores" (this is actually her mother's saying) therefore her house is hotel-like, with different shades of bland colors mostly beige. she meets a white landscaper, and having recently bought her house she hires this guy to landscape, in the process she falls in love with him.
I focused on how, they have her very bland and made up, before dating this white guy and then in the process of dating, she paints her house different colors and adds some variety in her decor and also starts wearing colorful clothing and more relaxed clothing, and starts going out more.
interpreted this as directed to an African American audience and a play on the sociohistoric use of white as the good color and other colors especially black as nothing but negative. in the movie this is reversed; beige, which i interpreted as standing for white, is considered dull and uninteresting, and then the more variety of colors as more balanced and happy. it was interesting how the black person was living by this sociohistoric idea and the white person was the one being the more tolerant and flexible.
i also touched on the fact that this African American woman has several female friends who are also in her situation; upper class African American women who are single. I took this as an indication that the stratification theory is very much a reality; there are not "enough" college educated black men in America today.
this movie goes into race, class and gender into such detail that i think it is worth watching, and thinking about, because it is a fairly recent production, it is amazing to think that there can still be such social devide between races even at the same class level. it makes me think, will we ever be socially united?
President Obama walks fine line on race, justice
11 years ago
It sounds like a very interesting movie. In my own essay about the McD's commercial, I talked about how they did not wish to portray any interracial romance. However, I did see for the first time on TV an E-Harmony commercial with an interracial couple. I thought how awesome it was to see that after maybe two or three years of that being a huge dating site. Maybe your movie and that advertisement are small examples of a trend toward social unity.
ReplyDeleteI think that the movie something new has a very interesting twist on interracial romance. I have seen the movie and as I read your post I remembered the charming black man that the main character’s family and friends wanted her to get with. It is interesting because in the movie the characters that are black are of a higher class than the white character, and the black family thinks that the woman is crazy to choose love over money and race. It is also interesting that the woman initially has a style that is boring and described as colorless or beige, and then over time the white man brings out color in her life. It seems that the director may have twisted the colors in the film in order to bring the woman out of what she thought was acceptable high-class style. Instead of being dependent on beige colors and success, the gardener made her realize that life is not all about work. I remember a certain scene when the couple fights because the woman could not complain about her day, the black tax and the oppression she faced. The man says that he wants one day without the stress of her awareness about her race, and she replies that she never gets a break from the color of her skin. I think that this movie displays many difficulties that biracial couples face when communicating and understanding their differences. Perception is dependent on experience; therefore, the couple has a more difficult time than a couple of the same race. Overall, the movie seems to give hope to biracial couples and the intermixing or races. The differences on the surface faded away when the couple realized that their love prevails all. Overall, I think that the movie sends an important message that couples must be aware and understand differences in order to accept and love one another.
ReplyDeleteBeing in an interracial relationship myself, I think this topic is very interesting. While this film does show that biracial couples can work as long as they each understand their differences, they are still frowned upon in the U.S. My boyfriend is black, and I can give you at least five examples over the last two years where we have been targets. The worst time was when we were in Texas last summer walking downtown on the sidewalk, holding hands, and some white man, probably about 50 years old, chucked an apple out of his car window at us and yelled "You guys better be careful where you're walking together!" I had never really thought about his race being different than mine until then. It made me realize that our relationship was not going to be as universally accepted as same race couples.
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