A sampling from The Root -
The 15 most racist Oscar films of all time: Here’s why #OscarsSoWhite is not a surprise
#OscarsSoWhite isn't just about the absence of Black nominees—it's about the Academy's history of racist narratives
10. Rocky (1976)
3 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing (plus eight more nominations)
If “Planet of the Apes” epitomized racists’ defeated sentiments amid the antiracist movements in 1968, then “Rocky” epitomized their fighting sentiment in 1976. Rocky Balboa—a kind, humble, hard-working, slow-talking journeyman boxer—symbolized the pride of racist White masculinity in the late 1970s. Rocky refused to be knocked out by the avalanche of punches from the antiracist movements—as symbolized by the rich, unkind, cocky, fast-punching Black heavyweight champion. Apollo Creed is a fictional stand-in for the actual heavyweight champion in 1976, Muhammad Ali, the personification of antiracist resistance.
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7. The Blind Side (2009)
1 Academy Award for Best Actress (plus nomination for Best Picture)
Possibly even more than the interracial buddy film, the #OscarsSoWhite enjoys honoring the White Savior Flicks. In these flicks, paternalistic White parents or coaches or journalists or soldiers or lawyers or educators are portrayed as saving needy Blacks from bad situations, or their inferior selves, or the Black jungle. Of all the White Savior Flicks in Hollywood history—and there are many—”The Blind Side” may have been the most egregious. It shared the “true story” of a White family caring for a homeless boy who they guide into professional football. The contrast between the film’s Black characters hindering and holding Michael Oher’s character back—and Sandra Bullock’s helpful White characters are intense to even the least discerning viewer. Filmmakers enjoy regularly searching out and projecting “true stories” of White saviors, hiding the reality of many Black saviors and White discriminators, reinforcing racist ideas of White paternalism and Black dependence.
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/24/the_15_most_racist_oscar_films_of_all_time_heres_why_oscarssowhite_is_not_a_surprise/?source=newsletter
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/24/the_15_most_racist_oscar_films_of_all_time_heres_why_oscarssowhite_is_not_a_surprise/?source=newsletter
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