She's BLACK! - The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Discussion

[–] bureau203 12 years ago

It's not racism... it's just commenting on the most patently stupid thing in a film full of stupid things. If the parents had been black and the child white, people would be just as put off by it.

"I've seen things that would make you want to write a book on how to puke."

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[–] Lokisgodhi 12 years ago

@bureau203

We only saw one parent. The father who was a Caucasian. The mother, who had dumped the kid on Ian Malcom to go off on a modeling gig, was obviously black.

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[–] bureau203 12 years ago

Yes, I understand that, but even so, she doesn't look half white.

"I've seen things that would make you want to write a book on how to puke."

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[–] ellandroad_allstars 12 years ago

The mother may be really black? Also Ian is quite tanned anyway. Also, Ian may be her adopted father. Her mum and dad may be both black

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[–] prowess92 12 years ago

The level of stupidity, intolerance and racism in this country astounds me...

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[–] onyxtiger74 12 years ago

^Ditto!!!
Bur 'Merikka has a black president.(he's 1/2 black & 1/2 white) He's 100% American, though!
*************

"Why are you the way that you are?...I hate...so much about the things that you choose to be..."

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[–] rocconorth 8 years ago

What's this have to do with America? Anyway, the fact that majority of people in a country elected (and re-elected) somebody who identifies as a race that represents less than 15% (a liberal overestimation) of the racial makeup is, as far as I know, a first in human history. My point is...the fact that people still bitch about America's huge problem with "racism" should think about that. Nobody, nor nation, can change the past, but the fact that they held enough trust in a person who doesn't look like them (which, like I said, is as far as I know, unprecedented), should count for something. That is...when lefties feel like they have to count up things. But of course...it doesn't. (see "Trump"...most people's patience is really, really wearing thin on this type of *beep* that's something that should really, really be taken very seriously, and into account...)

In the paper today...tales of war and of waste
But you turn right over to the T.V. page

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[–] bureau203 12 years ago

Then they should have explained that. Noticing this inconsistency doesn't exactly constitute racism, except to those who are not exactly Einsteins.

"I've seen things that would make you want to write a book on how to puke."

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[–] Javert-6 12 years ago

Why shuld they have explained it? How is it a plot-point? They didnt go into the parents history for any of the other characters. So, why should they have, in this case? How does the fact that she may or may not be adopted have any relevance on the movie?

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[–] browncoatjw 12 years ago

The dialogue mentions that she is biologically Ian's child, not adopted (You like making babies, you just don't like raising them). As such, the OP does have a valid point... the actress is definitely not mixed, so it comes across as a bit silly.

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[–] Emree23 12 years ago

That's not what she said. She said, "You like having kids" not "You like making babies." And then he yelled something about how her mother dumped her there and left for Paris. I don't think she's biologically his but he kept her and raised her as his own.

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[–] Jennifer1277 12 years ago

I agree with Emree23- I don't think she is supposed to be biologically his (sorry but she doesn't look at ALL like she could be his); I also think her mother just dumped her with him and he is raising her.

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

and YOU know nothing of genetics.

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[–] RichBoorman 12 years ago

Mixed race kids don't have to look mixed. My neighbours (and good friends) are a mixed couple, he's black and she's white. They have 2 kids, a little girl who is whiter than white, and a little boy who is actually darker than his father.

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago



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[–] NayaWilds 10 years ago

But there are mixed race kids who don't come out looking mixed and take over the skin color of one parent more than the other.

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

Not if one has common sense and a very BASIC knowledge of genetics.

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[–] Tales-from-the-Goondocks 12 years ago

Javert-6 explained the exact reason why your complaints are stupid.

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[–] BrianRaess_Is_FinallyGone 11 years ago

Why does it need to be explained to you. Spielberg has a black kid himself. Do you need him to explain that to you or can you just figure out for yourself that his kid is either adopted or a step child?

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[–] BrokenMirrorsbrokenMinds 12 years ago

It's extremely narrow-minded to think that someone like Jeff Goldblum and a black woman can't produce a black child. Both my parents are Mexican and I came out with pale-skin, unlike 98 percent of my family.

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[–] arimor1 10 years ago

Being mexican has nothing to do with race.

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

HUH?!?

Latino/Hispanic/Caribbean/South or Central American DOES have to do with race.... first you have the natives: Maya, Aztec, tribes from the SW of what is now the US, plus the ones from elsewhere displaced to the SW by the reservation system, and others including the Taino of the Caribbean (there are others, the Taino were peaceful, some weren't; Taino were in Cuba & PR among others - Columbus about wiped them out). Then you add in the Europeans that came over and raped/married/co-habitated or just enjoyed the company of those Natives. Add in Negroes from Africa courtesy of the slave trade. So, you have any combination of up to three races (oh, and in California and parts of South/Central America there were Asians also).

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[–] BrianRaess_Is_FinallyGone 11 years ago

Because he's the step father.

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

Try learning genetics; skin tone/colour is more a sliding scale than binary (yes/no; on/off).

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[–] thedarkinside 9 years ago

To be fair, in reverse, I grew up with a kid who was "very" white and knew him for years. I later met his real dad who was "very" black. That kid didn't look half black any more than his dad looked half white. There didn't seem to be any family resemblance whatsoever, but they were father and son. Just because you get a milky mixture when you mix white and black paint doesn't mean genetics work the same way all the time.

That aside, the girl was still annoying regardless of hue. Just a poorly written character, period.

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[–] shane1979 11 years ago

The Ian Malcolm WE see in the movie isnt black nor white. Goldblum is a tan skinned Jew.

Habataitara modorenai to itte
Mezashi-ta no wa aoi aoi ano sora

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

VERY good point, although I admit to not paying a lot of attention to that in movies - I have seen a lot of Mid-Eastern/Mediterranean Jews play Arabs and European Jews play Nazis.

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

EXACTLY!!!!!!



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[–] x4nt1 12 years ago

Isn't adoption a possibility? Should white families only adopt white kids? Six Feet Under had two gay dads one black one white with two black children, is this stupid or unrealistic?

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[–] manofsteel4455 12 years ago

Why is it always ok for white people to adopt asian kids but when a black kid is adopted by a white person people freak out.

You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

Well, I don't know that this is true. Being white, married to a white guy, we don't have the option of being Black and adopting a white child. Actually, like most adoptive parents, we didn't care WHAT race our first child was - we just felt a need to be parents and that we had love to give a child. With the second, we did request not to be considered for a white child because we didn't want our son to feel the odd one out.

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

Sorry, you are SO WRONG!

Neither of my children look like my husband, nor like me. Yeah, African Americans look at my son and I (because as a Stay-at-Home Mama, I am usually the one out with the kids) and ask if he's adopted, or just come out and mention their surprise that we did this. White people (and I'm white) are frickin' idjits. They can't tell a biracial child (as in one white and one brown) child from a child whose racial mix is due to antebellum activities. Our daughter, just adds to the confusion because she is equal parts of two totally unrelated ethnicities. Pix of my Mom's four grandchildren look like a Bennetton ad. Skin colour is not what ties a family together; love is.

When a couple applies to adopt, one of the first question asked is: what kind of child are you looking for. Totally unprepared for this line of questioning (really, I didn't know where they were going with this), our answer was: human. We didn't care about race, ethnicity and to a certain extent, health - the extent being related to our financial ability to provide the best care. God was looking out for us and we were BLESSED with two absolutely amazing, and physically/mentally/intellectually healthy children. Our oldest just graduated high school, and while living on US Bases overseas, or around Bases Stateside, we have not had any issues, and acceptance has been 100%. It's the civilians outside the military that seem perturbed/surprised.

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[–] Mississippi20 12 years ago

Wow....it's quite obvious she is Malcolm's adopted daughter. Are people really this dumb? Incredible.

I thought it was kind of cool actually - in a way, it celebrates the adopted parent/child relationship. They didn't dumb it down with some sort of explanation - it's not needed. It's Malcom's daughter. End of story, all you need to know.

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[–] queenofkings-231-808409 12 years ago

The point we are trying to make you judgmental idiots is that Ian's daughter being black left a plot hole...there's obviously a reason why they used a black girl over a million white ones...it's not racism it's distracting. It was never explained and well two whites don't make a black and a white and black don't make black...would you all just stop with the racism nonsense. It's a *beep* question not a judgment jeez people quit throwing racism around! It's not like we were bad mouthing her! You people are ridiculous

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[–] vrdoljak_666 12 years ago

It's YOU who is being ridiculous.

"It was never explained" because... it's obvious that she was either adopted or that her mother is black. Do you need everything spelled out to you in movies?

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[–] CandyRenee 12 years ago

Amen! Why waste 15-20mins to explain something that should already be understood by anyone with commonsense. I see white families with black and Asian kids all the time, its pretty clear they are either foster or adopted children, and sometimes they are mixed. Mixed kids don't always look mixed, and there are times when the kid can look white or black. I never knew the guy from 'Prison Break' was half black, he looks white.

Now is the hour! Riders of Rohan, oathes you have taken, now fulfill them all! To lord and land!

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[–] jajceboy 12 years ago

Anyone with a functioning brain and common sense should know that Kelly either is adopted or has one black parent!

Must everything be explained? What happened with using the brain and think?
Some things are just to obvious to explain. The film-makers didn't explain it because they probably assumed the audience can think for themselves but also because it isn't important to the plot.

No wonder creativity is lost when people even can't figure out the most obvious things!

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] Lokisgodhi 12 years ago

skiafc wrote:

"She has to be 100% adopted. It's just stupid to think that that girl could be Jeff Goldblum's biological daughter regardless of what the mother looks like."

Okay, you're a racist moron who doesn't understand genetics. Since it appears you dropped out of school around the eighth grade and missed any education in science, write this down for future reference.

A child can be as dark as their darkest parent or grandparent.

Why are you posting here in the first place? Don't you have a Ku Klux Klan cross burning to be at?

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[–] BenjamminBufordBlue 12 years ago

Wait. Jeff Goldblum isn't black? What the hell???

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] shoolaroon-9-43507 10 years ago

Your comment is astoundingly STUPID. It's completely obvious that this girl could NEVER be the natural child of Jeff Goldblum! It's not just her skin color, it's her completely African American features! Yes, a natural child of Malcolm could have very dark skin, but she wouldn't have COMPLETELY AFRICAN AMERICAN FEATURES! Her hair, her nose, her lips, etc, would look more Caucasian than they do.

Please stop trying to change REALITY. The movie makers made Malcolm's daughter 100% African American FOR A REASON. That reason is obviously to fit into the PC agenda. It had nothing to do with creating realistic characters or plotting. Her appearance could have been explained very simply with a line or two indicating that she was his ADOPTED daughter. And that would have probably created a new, interesting plot dimension as adoption, especially inter-racial, has its own issues. But don't present this girl as his natural child, it's insulting. Also, the gymnastic killing of the raptor is one of the all time lows of cinema, again, just insulting to the average viewer.

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

I suppose you also go on diatribes about the Confederate flag not being racist....

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

Awesome post, except for one slight thing... children can actually be darker than the darker parent - it's more of a slidiing scale thing. I know, it's weird, but it is true. My BIL is tons darker than either parent.

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] Tarquin_Q_Zanzibar 10 years ago

"two whites don't make a black and a white and black don't make black"

I'm not going to single you out for this 100% incorrect presumption, as clearly many people are labouring under the same misapprehensions.

I would suggest that some reading up on genetics and heredity would be of help, as the fact is, it is perfectly possible for a Caucasian parent to have a black child or a black parent to have a white child; even in the case of two white parents it is possible to have a black (not mixed) child as long as there is someone of the same ethnicity in the ancestry; a black grandparent, for example.

Recessive genes mean that strong traits may show up in the family line having skipped a generation or two. In fact some friends of mine who are both black West Indians have a completely white child who strongly resembles his Caucasian grandparent.
I am rather surprised that so many people seem unaware of this effect.

In any case, whether it is supposed to be his biological, adopted or step daughter, I don't see how the failure of the film to make the answer explicit can be regarded as a "plot hole". In the US it may seem of greater import, but personally I don't see the issue as anything other than a mild curiosity - and to be frank, I suspect the question was left open deliberately, teasing the audience as the question would certainly arise in the mind... but as I say, there are logical and valid possible explanations in the first place, and in the second place, what's the big deal?!

"Oh good, my dog found the chainsaw...&quot

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[–] NayaWilds 10 years ago

But it doesn't need explaining. I don't think the skin color of his daughter had ANYTHING to do with the story. And as rare as it is, two blacks can make a white kid.

"A White and black don't make black" <--- you sir, are an idiot. Go outside.

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

Learn some basic genetics.

Also, you are quite offensive to adoptive families and unaccepting of foster situations - way to make things as normal as possible for children damaged by life or irresponsible bio parents.

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[–] TinyKittenKisses 12 years ago

My father is black and i look white, cause my mom is white ... it can happen people

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[–] petepi3 12 years ago

Some of you are *beep* utterly pathetic, overly PC *beep* I couldn't stand her character because she acted really, really, badly, in the film. It distracted me from enjoying the film as much as I would have had the film employed a competent child actor. To say it is racist if you dare criticize a black person's acting is the kind of pathetic, middle-class, white, hysterical, American, garbage that makes the rest of the world cringe or laugh at you.

Anyway, congratulations to the girl for winning an Oscar for 'Monsters Ball' years later. "Make me feel goood. I wanna feel gooooood."

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[–] Ben-5 10 years ago

I couldn't stand her character because she acted really, really, badly, in the film. It distracted me from enjoying the film as much as I would have had the film employed a competent child actor.

I agree. Her character and her performance really annoyed me, and it had nothing to do with race. I dreaded it when she was onscreen and I counted the seconds until she was gone. She practically ruined the movie for me.

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[–] Mzprttybrwneyez-1 12 years ago

My thing is why does anyone care??? I would hate to see what's being said about Angelina Jolie or Sandra Bullock. I mean damn, I wish you people get over your racism and start being human!

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[–] meteor_storm 12 years ago

This board is hilarious. Out of 70 some threads, about 64 of them are about the black girl. It's like no one's ever seen one before.

I suppose the irony is that a chaos theoretician ends up with a black daughter.

tinyurl.com/meteorstorm

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[–] ItsEddieHaskellBeyotch 11 years ago

"This board is hilarious. Out of 70 some threads, about 64 of them are about the black girl. It's like no one's ever seen one before."

Its made even worse and all the more condescending that while referring to her character, shes simply "the black girl" and not even called by her character name(Kelly). I challenge someone to go to the Jurassic Park message board and see the sh!tstorm of 'you're racist' comments if the kids in that film were constantly referred to as "those two white kids".

'When there's no more room in Hollywood, remakes shall walk the Earth.'

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[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

My only beef with Jolie (well two) are the whole stealing every male costar until she got Pitt and making adopting foreign children a status symbol. I am sorry, there are SO many children in the US available for adoption - that really need a good home. The movies that are supposedly 'based on a true story' have given domestic adoption a black eye. IF a competent, charitable agency is used (rather than a for-profit agency that often cuts corners) and the adoptive and biological parents are up-front and honest, there are no problems. Agencies like Baptist Family Services or Catholic Charities have reputations to maintain and keep the child's welfare at the forefront... their children do not end up being the subjects of a made-for-tv movie.

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[–] r-taylor13-848-416837 12 years ago

I mean there is no explanation for it. To people saying she is adopted or her mother is black, where is the evidence? All the movie gives us is a white father, that is all we have to go by, so it is kinda random.

But yeah, I watched this film for the first time yesterday since I was young, quite liked it then. But now, man, I can't believe Spielberg did this..

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[–] Alerra (244) 4 years ago

But why does there have to be an explanation for it? Her ethnicity is not integral to the story. Her importance to Malcolm is. Malcolm loves her. THAT'S THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS. Why he loves her is irrelevant.

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[–] womanspyman 12 years ago

I laugh my ass off as I read the comments.
Obviously her mom is a black, and it isn't necessary for her to be like half white or half black or whatever *beep* you guys can come up with.
It's just the traits, you might inherit a whole or half, so coincidentally, she inherited a whole.
I also don't get the fuss over the small matter, I rather you bring up, why don't she look alike or something like that lmao.
Last but not the least, to those who didn't interpret the movie well, go brush up on your english or interpretation. geez!

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] RevengeOfToonces3 12 years ago

"Scottie, you're... BLACK!"

"He makes me laugh, he'a always humping and pointing at Reese Witherspoon." - rebschucks

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[–] There_will_be_cake 12 years ago

Not sure what the big deal is. I wouldn't be against adopting a baby from another culture. However, as the kid grows up they might feel confused in terms of their true culture. My gf is macedonian but grew up here in australia, so her friends have their culture and traditions and then her parents have their old traditions, and the same with me and my south african traditions etc. So you get some conflict. That's a concern for the social up bringing but in terms of the movie it shouldn't matter because the movie wasn't about that, it's about freakin dinosaurs.

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