White savior
The White savior ( American English for white savior ) is a regularly recurring character in American books and films. The term is used in film criticism and is also understood as a film genre as well as a stereotype . Save while White on their own Black of an emergency, and it is insinuated that black people are unable to help themselves themselves.
meaning
The journalist David Sirota explained the term in the Internet magazine Salon.com : “The actions always imply that a Person of Color cannot save himself. This makes the white audience feel good as they play a good-natured messiah role (better than that of the hegemonic conqueror), and it portrays black people as helpless weaklings ”.
Noah Berlatsky wrote in The Atlantic that this cliché was especially important in slavery films . Here the blacks are rescued by “noble” white people. There are also a number of films about socially disadvantaged areas in the US that use this stereotype.
Examples of films
In Avatar by James Cameron , a white man rescues humanoid aliens who play a role similar to that of the indigenous peoples in the forcible settlement of the American continent.
The sorting of the films is based on the alphabetical order of the original titles.
| Movie | year | source |
|---|---|---|
| 12 years a slave | 2013 | |
| Amistad | 1997 | |
| Avatar - Departure for Pandora | 2009 | |
| Blood Diamond | 2006 | |
| Cool runnings - being there is everything | 1993 | |
| scream for freedom | 1987 | |
| The one, who dances with the wolf | 1990 | |
| Dangerous Minds - Wild thoughts | 1995 | |
| District 9 | 2009 | |
| Django Unchained | 2012 | |
| Elysium | 2013 | |
| Forrester - Found! | 2000 | |
| Freedom Writers | 2007 | |
| Glory | 1989 | |
| Gran Torino | 2008 | |
| Green Book - A special friendship | 2018 | |
| The green devils | 1968 | |
| Helped Nelson | 2006 | |
| Hardball | 2001 | |
| The Help | 2011 | |
| Hotel Rwanda | 2004 | |
| Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | 1984 | |
| Last samurai | 2003 | |
| Lawrence of Arabia | 1962 | |
| Lincoln | 2012 | |
| Machine Gun Preacher | 2011 | |
| The man who wanted to be king | 1975 | |
| matrix | 1999 | |
| Mississippi Burning - The Root of Hatred | 1988 | |
| Music of the Heart | 1999 | |
| One flew over the cuckoo's nest | 1975 | |
| The principal - one against all | 1987 | |
| Stargate | 1994 | |
| Tears of the Sun | 2003 | |
| Three Kings - It's nice to be a king | 1999 | |
| Who disturbs the nightingale | 1962 | |
| American wildcats | 1986 |
literature
-
Matthew Hughey: The White Savior Film: Content, Critics, and Consumption . Temple University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4399-1001-6 .
- Chapter 1: The Savior Trope and the Modern Meanings of Whiteness (PDF on the publisher's website)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h David Sirota: Oscar loves a white savior . In: Salon.com , February 21, 2013. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
- ↑ a b c d e f Noah Berlatsky:12 Years a Slave : Yet Another Oscar-Nominated 'White Savior' Story . In: The Atlantic , January 17, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Keli Goff: Can 'Belle' End Hollywood's Obsession with the White Savior? . In: The Daily Beast , May 4, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
- ↑ Verena Lueken: Breaking the chain of clichés. In: FAZ.net . January 15, 2014, accessed October 13, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c Mary Ellen Higgins: Hollywood's Africa after 1994 - Hollywood's Difficult Life with Africa . In: H-Net . August 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
- ↑ a b Jessie-Lane Metz: A Future Without Me: Matt Damon is the Great White Hope in 'Elysium' . In: Bitch Magazine , August 21, 2013. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved August 24, 2014.
- ↑ a b c Mike Barber: White Man's Burden Redux: The Movie! . In: The Huffington Post , December 3, 2009. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
- ↑ a b c d Matt Barone: The 10 Lamest White Savior Movies . In: Complex.com , Complex Media, September 20, 2011. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
- ^ What to Know About the Controversy Surrounding the Movie Green Book. Time , February 13, 2019, accessed December 20, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Hernán Vera, Andrew M. Gordon: The Beautiful White American: Sincere Fictions of the Savior . In: Screen Saviors: Hollywood Fictions of Whiteness . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003, ISBN 978-1-4616-4286-2 , p. 33.
- ^ A b Matthew W. Hughey: The White Savior Film and Reviewers' Reception . In: Symbolic Interaction . 33, No. 3, Summer 2010, pp. 475-496. doi : 10.1525 / si.2010.33.3.475 .
- ↑ a b Ajay Gehlawat: The Slumdog Phenomenon: A Critical Anthology . Anthem Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-85728-001-5 , p. 83.
- ↑ Paul Kivel: Living in the Shadow of the Cross: Understanding and Resisting the Power and Privilege of Christian Hegemony . New Society Publishers, 2013, ISBN 978-1-55092-541-8 .
