With Mel Gibson's drunken ramblings about Jews and Michael Richards' racial tirade at a California comedy club, 2006 will surely be remembered as a year of high-profile Hollywood racism. Both cases elicited universal condemnation, some of it appropriate but much, unfortunately, self-serving. As Americans gawked at such distasteful violations of decorum, many so-called civil rights leaders - including Abraham Foxman of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton - shamelessly exploited the media circus for extravagantly sanctimonious self-promotion.
But where were these high priests of tolerance and multiculturalism when another instance of Hollywood hate brought ignorant, racially-based stereotypes to millions of viewers around the world? The critically heralded movie musical "Dreamgirls" peddled a form of racism far more dangerous and insidious than either of Gibson and Richards' recent rants - because its strain of prejudice has become virtually invisible in today's cloudy dialogue about race.
As we know from scholars in Ethnic and Africana Studies, unexamined stereotypes can assume an air of legitimacy if they are normalized over time - even when people strive to be conscientious. How many of us really take notice when Asian men are disproportionately cast as asexual computer nerds or Italians as greasy mobsters? And who among us takes the time to rigorously interrogate common stereotypes about the broader category of "white people?"
There are two offending moments in "Dreamgirls", both of which target whites in a manner almost unthinkable if the racial roles were reversed. In one scene, the Dreamettes' (black) main songwriter is asked if he's heard the song "Hound Dog."
"Elvis Presley?" he asks, to which his black associate smirks knowingly and replies, "Big Mama Thornton." From the context and subsequent dialogue, it's clear the film suggests that The King was more thief than pioneer - a specious charge made some years back on one of rapper Mos Def's more insufferable recordings. This is a hostile and inaccurate distortion of the historical record. Thornton's version of "Hound Dog" is a blues song with a distinctly different arrangement and sound compared to the more famous recording. In fact, Presley likely had never heard the Thornton rendition when he recorded the song, as his was inspired by a Las Vegas lounge act named Freddie Bell. Elvis Presley's music actually helped introduce black styles and artists to a largely oblivious white audience, and he was frequently criticized for violating racial taboos.
Indeed, rock 'n' roll is fundamentally rooted in transracial cultural fusion - the marriage of white country music and black blues - the great Chuck Berry's "Maybellene," sometimes considered the birth of rock 'n' roll, was an amped-up interpretation of country standard "Ida Red." If African-American characters' casually race-infused misrepresentation of Elvis is acceptable, we should not feel differently if another film - this with a white-dominated cast - were to sympathetically portray a group of struggling white musicians dismissing Chuck Berry as an inauthentic knockoff stealing ideas from the Carter Family. Yet such a scene would undoubtedly - and justifiably - attract criticism and controversy - perhaps some right here on our lovely campus.
The second instance of "Dreamgirls"' racial insensitivity is more obviously damaging. White performers demonstrate the co-optation of black music with a look, sound and color more palatable to white radio programmers and parents - an all-too-common circumstance during this period. The scene cuts from Jimmy Early and the Dreamettes' fervent, soulful take of the song "Cadillac Car" to a ludicrously sanitized version by a squeaky-clean white singer and two white models in cheerleading uniforms in an actual Cadillac on the set of "American Bandstand."
The rendition is over the top, but not quite in a way that screams "racial stereotype." As the camera pulls back, however, we see that the studio is packed with sorry-looking white teenagers who awkwardly lurch about in absurdly lame clothing.
Next to the cool, confident and authentic black protagonists, these poor whites are clownish squares, so straitlaced that they need what the movie ambiguously calls black "soul" to become reasonable. Not only is this generalization historically inaccurate - plenty of white kids danced perfectly well on "American Bandstand" - but it props up the tired old stereotype of the uptight white nerd, hopelessly incapable of the grit and authenticity effortlessly generated by other hues. Due to constant repetition in commercials, movies and comedy acts, this demeaning white stereotype has become largely normalized in our society. How would we feel if the racial positions were switched, and a film about sympathetic white musicians cut from their enjoyable performance to a raucous scene on the chitlin circuit? What if it mockingly presented hyper-sexualized black bodies undulating wildly and sporting shabby clothing? Such a film would have even less chance of being an Oscar contender than Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., now seems to have for the U.S. presidency.
However inappropriate both the Gibson and Richards incidents were, they were at least the products of extenuating circumstances. Given the intensity of many Jewish groups' attacks on "The Passion of the Christ" and Israel's widely criticized summer bombing of Lebanon, a very intoxicated Gibson's comment that "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" can be put into context, though it surely cannot be excused. Michael Richards' fame is based on his unparalleled ability to channel spastic and wildly inappropriate impulses as Kramer on "Seinfeld." In a moment of blind rage sparked by rude audience members' disruption of his struggling stand-up act, it is hardly surprising - though certainly unseemly - that Richards might exhibit a less entertaining variant of the same basic behavior.
"Dreamgirls", on the other hand, had been staged since 1981 and spent years in development as a film project. Its content - including the racial stereotypes - is entirely deliberate and deserves to be judged as such.
A multicultural society that condemns some forms of discrimination while tacitly approving others will inevitably - and rightly - invite accusations of hypocrisy. Those concerned with racial harmony and justice should take care that no demeaning ethnic stereotype becomes acceptable, regardless of the races involved.
The inability of Jesse Adams '07 to jump has nothing to do with his race, ethnicity, creed, sexual orientation or national origin.
