The Roots of Racial Stereotypes in American Entertainment

In Thursday's class, we discussed the topic The Roots of Racial Stereotypes in American Entertainment, which we covered stereotypes (shortcut to character development, often prejudiced; negative towards a person or group of people based on comparison, and the different cultural groups that were discussed in the chapter). Our professor also showed videos and film clips of movies that gave examples of how stereotypical this world really is from different cultural backgrounds. As I reviewed the notes and checked out a couple of the film clips that she posted, I thought of the an interesting film that I have seen many times and have in my movie collection titled, Higher Learning. Just to give you a brief overview of this film, its about young people from different countries, races and social backgrounds were forced to integrate when they enroll in Columbus University, where West Indian Professor Maurice Phipps (Laurence Fishburne) teaches political science. The students have to deal with problems such as financial difficulties, harassment, personal safety, self doubt, sexuality, and racism. Already under pressure to perform in the classroom, in athletics, or in social settings, the students are strained to the breaking point by prejudice, inexperience, misunderstanding and their need to fit in. The three main characters are Kristen (Kristy Swanson), a white girl from Orange County who struggles with her sexuality; Malik Williams (Omar Epps), a black student who has to rely on a sports scholarship to pay his fees; and Remy (Michael Rapaport), a white student from Idaho who is unable to make friends at college and gravitates towards a group of neo-Nazi skinheads. I feel this movie was a perfect example of the notes and movie clips Dr. Horvath was explaining to us last week because the whole film stereotypes what not just Hollywood view different cultures, but how the world sees different races and how we are exposed as one nation with numerous races.

Here's a link to the trailer of the film Higher Learning below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4KVCVX1MrQ