Whiteness and American Film Today Excerpt from: Conclusion: The Concept of Whiteness, from America on Film, Representing Race, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies. (Benshoff and Griffin, 2009) Whiteness is still the unspoken ideal in American movies. Yet, as our society continues to become more diverse, so too do our movie screens. During the 1990s, multiculturalism was increasingly endorsed and celebrated in America, culminating in the Federal Census Bureau allowing people to check off more than one racial category for the first time in 2000. Possibly in response, many people who regarded themselves as white in the 1990s began reconnecting to their ethnic heritages, taking pride in their Irish, Italian, or other roots. Thus, these individuals could consider themselves both white and part of the nation’s diversity. Also, a number of white-identified youth (predominantly male) increasingly adopted the trappings of African American urban culture (its music, its fashion, its slang) in an effort to distance themselves from whiteness. Songs like “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” and the film Malibu’s Most Wanted [2003] satirisethis trend. (Satirise: take the mickey or mock of , often in a political or social ridicule) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7-E1qTVJgE
The following links to Section A of the exam – Producers and Audiences – The growth in the number of performers who seem to transcend (cross-over) racial or ethnic categories is a positive development in American film and television. Yet it should be recognised that industry interest in such individuals is often more due to economic interests than social or political ones. If some people regard, for example, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (above) as white, and others as a person of colour, then he potentially draws in multiple audiences. Furthermore, the public perception of such stars taps into the historically complex issues and opinions over passing and assimilation within white communities and communities of colour. Still, the growing awareness and acceptance of multi-ethnic identities further complicates what many usually assume as the unproblematic nature of whiteness. Any other examples of stars or actors who transcend ethnic or racial boundaries: