Think the big screen is different. Wrong. Most crimes that take place on the silver screen are committed by white men. Of course, just for a laugh, Hollywood will, on occasion, out due itself as it stretches the bounds of political correctness, by throwing a completely impossible scene of reverse stereotyping at the film fan.
Case in point, the movie “Falling Down” where the defense contractor, played by famous white guy Michael Douglas, completely snaps and starts shooting minorities. My favorite part of the movie is where he goes into a burger joint that is supposed to be in South Central L.A. and is served by none other than Dee Dee Pfeiffer. A whiter than white Valley girl working in a burger joint in South Central.
My wife, who is from South America, once asked, “Don’t Hispanics ever commit any crimes in your TV shows?” My answer was, “Rarely. They will commit marginally more crimes on TV than blacks, but only because Hollywood is more worried about Jesse Jackson coming after them than Edward James Olmos.”
Obviously, for far too many years, minority and African-American actors were marginalized, stereotyped, and blatantly insulted in film, on television, and even in commercials. I would submit that you still have some of that behavior happening today. Both by elements of mainstream entertainment, and ironically, and quite tragically, in a number of Hip Hop and Gangsta rap videos which purposely denigrate and disrespect black women, while fostering the worst possible stereotypes of black men.
But is the solution to those past and current sins, to create a fairytale entertainment world in which only white men can be portrayed as criminals. While amusing in its absurdity, it also draws attention the fact that as a nation, we are still not as comfortable or accepting of diversity as some would pretend.
*** Douglas MacKinnon was press secretary to former Senator Bob Dole. He is also a former White House and Pentagon official and the author of the forthcoming novel, “America’s Last Days.”