MovieChat Forums > White Man's Burden (1995) Discussion > One 'non reversed situation' they missed

One 'non reversed situation' they missed

posted 18 years ago by pike69wb
15 replies | jump to latest

I thought they blew it on one "reversed social situation" in the movie. They had Harry Bellafonte's son bringing home his lily white girlfriend to attend the charity event. This is a standard social situation in our world and would not really apply in the world of the movie.

They should have had the hot beautiful black daughter throwing her lower class stud white boyfriend into her parents' face. That would have been a better reversal.

[–] Koppertone 18 years ago

Hmmmm....you may actually have a point.

[–] Grits-N-Gravy 18 years ago

That is a good point. most people don't mind when their son dates a girl from another race, but when it comes to daughters it is the opposite.

[–] Not_Afraid_of_snakes_or_spiders 17 years ago

Very good point.

[–] LettucePrey 17 years ago

I noticed the same thing immediately, too. The black/white taboo is much stronger in American society when it's BM/WF than BF/WM.

[–] stephen-alford1 17 years ago

That would've been a pretty realistic reverse scenario. The beautiful, privileged and expensively educated daughter bringing home a hulking, tattoo covered, skinhead.

[–] dave4248185 17 years ago

Very good observation Pike. I was watching this movie with interest and an open mind until that part. When I saw the black son with his white girlfriend, I knew the filmakers were being biased and deliberately anti-white. The film lost all credibility at that point.

[–] mrbruto 16 years ago

Maybe ol' Harry wouldn't have minded, seeing his ass looks like it's at least half white anyway.

You wouldn't dare!
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[–] stu-neff 14 years ago

What are you talking about? Do you even know what the film's about? The whole point is to try and show white people what it's like to be black in the U.S. Of all the things that were going to incense you, it's the scene with the white girl?

[–] andrewwjohnson 14 years ago

........I think the scene would have worked better if the son had brought home a real clinched fist in the air white militant from college. She could be in a white power T-shirt and she would make endless wisecracks about over throwing the black power structure and police brutality in the white inner city. It would have certainly helped define the alternate reality in the movie.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bryanac625 16 years ago

Maybe they did it because the black man/white woman interracial relationship is the most identified, stigmatized relationship, and as many in society as we know have issues with it, they wanted to show a scene where it also had issues, but for very different reasons.

[–] rgon-1 16 years ago

Didn't they do this in the film Guess Who?

[–] PotassiumMan 15 years ago

I agree with the notion behind this thread, but parents can still be judgmental about the kind of people their sons get involved with.

I'm a white guy. When I told my mother that a friend was going to introduce me to this Puerto Rican girl, she seemed disturbed.

[–] The_Proprietor 12 years ago

bryanac625

It doesn't work though within the premise of the film being a reversal of actual history. As white women and black men would have been minorities (women were discriminated against) there's a common bond there so naturally many would have found solace together. Ergo it would only have made sense if the reverse were true with the couple at the end being a black woman and a white man to reflect this reversal. It just seems incongruent with the rest of the film. In addition, it adds more meaning to the film title seeing as it's about a white man's struggle to be accepted (and thus white men); so it's only fitting that a black woman would bring back a white man to meet her parents and challenge their prejudice.

If impersonating a Police Officer is an offence, shouldn't actors be imprisoned?

[–] dre627 12 years ago

I agree. There were several situations that could've been used that weren't, which is why I think this movie would've been better suited as a miniseries.