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Pity the Poor White Folks

Jill

Apparently, there just aren’t enough black and Hispanic people being portrayed as criminals in movies.

Of course, in the pre-movie infomercial, all three criminals were white men. Which got me to thinking. In the make believe land of movies, television, and commercials, if there is a heinous crime to be committed, 99.9% of the time, it’s now going to be done by a white guy. In fact, it has to be done by a white guy.


Now I know that Townhall isn’t big on the whole fact-checking business, but you’d think that when one of their columnist cited a supposed statistic — like, for example, that 99.9 percent of heinous crimes shown on TV, in commercials and in movies are committed by white people — that they’d bother to check it out. Not so, apparently.

Political correctness and the fear of offending, or worse yet, getting sued or picketed, is such, that you will no longer see blacks, Hispanics, most minorities, or even women for that matter, commit a fictional crime. No. Hollywood and the ad agencies have decided that criminal activity on film is now the sole domain of the “too successful for his own good” white male.

He’s right — we never, ever see minorities or women committing crimes on TV or in movies. I mean, it’s not like there were any black criminals in the Best Motion Picture of the Year, right? And brown people sure as heck never do anything wrong on hit TV shows. Nope, ain’t no criminals of color ever shown in critically acclaimed films.

The discussion of the article is entertaining in itself. I think my favorite line might be this one:

Why are white men always portrayed as complete moron’s in commercials?

No idea’s here, my friend, no idea’s.

Not so funny is the link to this article, which defines “integration” as “brazen black crime in broad daylight.” Anyone else disturbed that we share our country with these people?

24 thoughts on Pity the Poor White Folks

  2. You know, I haven’t seen much analysis of the racial demographics (and as relates to ripped-from-the-headlines, e.g. a date-rape episode) of L&O victims.

  3. I’ve seen a lot of L&O myself (I can’t help it! I’m a sucker for the DRAMA) and I’d have to say I perceive a good mix of people being both perps and victims of crime – but I haven’t seen every single episode ever, and there very well could be a skew.

    I remember a whole lot of crime victims being women, but maybe that’s because episodes with violence against women stick around in my head longer.

  4. Why are white men always portrayed as complete moron’s in commercials?

    A fine question. But perhaps a more important one may be, why are these same morons always dating or married to super models in aformentioned commercials? And would the person you quote above have a problem if he, like the morons on TV commercials, was accompanied by a model on all his shopping misadventures?

  6. I remember a whole lot of crime victims being women, but maybe that’s because episodes with violence against women stick around in my head longer.

    I can think of exactly one episode involving sexualized violence towards a man: a fraternity hazing episode.

    To be fair, L&O didn’t edge away from words like “rape,” and “sexual assault,” and, “sadistic little motherfucker.”

  7. Which is not to say What About Teh Mens?!? Just that it gets a little bit stickier when the violence against women is presented in an exploitative way. Don’t remember much of that attack on camera, either.

  8. Actually, there have been several episodes about a man being the victim of sexualized violence on SVU. One involved a man raped by a group of women at a bachelorette party (covered a lot of the disbelief by some of the cops as to a man being raped by a man), there’s an episode of either Prime or SVU which had a prisoner die of hemmoraging after being sodomized with a plunger by angry cops, and the very first episode of SVU had a cab driver who was stabbed to death and his genitals cut off by two women who had been his victims in a Serbian rape camp (one the mother of a man killed by the victim, the other one of his rape victims). I think there have been others, such as rape victims killing their attackers. There’s also an episode (guest starring Shane from the L Word) where a transexual woman kills a man who was trying to rape her and threatened to expose her.

  9. While SVU isn’t perfect, I appreciate that it’s out there, because it presents a world in which women’s rape reports are treated seriously, as is child abuse. According to members of the cast (in one of the little special features), women have approached them and told them that because of watching the show, they’ve been more willing to report their own rapes. And if that’s the case, then it’s a very good thing.

    Yes. I’m a fangirl.

  10. After watching this video, which highlights the overwhelmingly negative portrayal of Muslims and Arabs in TV and movies, I’ve got to ask what magical racism-free fairyland this man is living in.

    Also:

    My wife, who is from South America, once asked, “Don’t Hispanics ever commit any crimes in your TV shows?” My answer was, “Rarely. They will commit marginally more crimes on TV than blacks, but only because Hollywood is more worried about Jesse Jackson coming after them than Edward James Olmos.”

    Adama would totally kick his ass.

    Yeah, I’m something of a fangirl too.

  12. Reminds me of the time Isiah Washington was Oprah and he was the total fanboy geek, all charming and stuff, talking about how he did serious research for his roles, and all he got offered was….crooks. He accepted a role with Harrison Ford—“Han Solo!”–he exclaimed—-only to find o ut t he role was another crook. He said it was destroying his soul. If it’s that bad for the actor, imagine what it’s like for the audience.

  13. Re: L&O–I don’t watch often but I have watched a fair bit of SVU, and I would actually say at least on SVU there is definitely a mix of men & women being victims. Probably my favorite episode involves male victims (uh, that’s not why though of course. it’s the one with the piano student played by the guy who originated Angel in Rent, for any other fans out there. man, that episode killed me). I can think of a couple other episodes off-hand involving male victims, and like I said I haven’t watched that much. The only difference I can think of is, the female victims are more likely to be adults, but I think that’s (sadly) more or less backed up by reality. Also, I understand that some people find it exploitative, but I have never seen it go the route of victim-blaming, or treat the perpretators as anything but absolutely condemnable (though every now and then, like in the episode I mentioned above, you feel bad for them anyway. yes, i know. if you’ve seen the episode you know what I mean).

  14. I can think of exactly one episode involving sexualized violence towards a man: a fraternity hazing episode

    I guess the problem is: do we aim for a realistic view of sexual violence on these shows, because in real life the vast majority of victims are women, or should they really aim to show all kinds of crimes that happen? It makes the show more interesting to watch if the stories are continually different, but what do we call it if all the stories are all about violence against women? Is it progressive? exploitative? a bit of both?

    Though that’s pretty amazing about the rape reporting, Esme. (I’d chalk it up one point for progressive, then).

  15. *eyeroll* He doesn’t watch the same TV I do.

    If he’s so worried about the poor white guys, let him ruminate on the increased opportunities for struggling white actors this supposed trend would mean. You need a LOT of random thugs and perps for TV…somehow I doubt the white guys getting callbacks for Thug #1 are thinking, “Oh, I am perpetuating the stereotype that a white man can never be an executive, a doctor or a politician, but only a thug!” However much the actor is “slumming”, Bush is on the throne, Eisner’s in the boardroom, and his privilege is securely in place.

    I remember reading that Garrett Wang (Ensign Kim on Star Trek: Voyager) had said, “There’s only one good role for an Asian guy in Hollywood every decade. Takei got Sulu, and I got Kim. Besides that it’s Viet Cong, chef, or gang member.”

    I am not so upset about a few white perps, even if this guy isn’t imagining it.

  16. You meanie-butts have got me missing my cable television subscription. Whatever am I supposed to do with this massive Law & Order craving now?! Read unspoiler’d episode synopses?

  17. This is, btw, *exactly* the same complaint that we found on the Stormfront boards after “Batman Begins” came out. (Unfair! Unrealistic! PC! Black guys as cops and scientists! All the bad guys are white! except for the ones who are Asian but we’ll ignore that b/c it contradicts our argument…)

    When you’re making the same complaints that Aryan Nations members are making about the media, it’s time for some self-evaluation.

    (Actually, it’s just that TownHall/National Review/Bill Buckley’s old pro-apartheid, pro-segregation roots are showing…)

  18. Why are white men always portrayed as complete moron’s in commercials?

    A fine question. But perhaps a more important one may be, why are these same morons always dating or married to super models in aformentioned commercials?

    This is just my “try and think of a nice reason instead of a mean one” rationale, but MY FAVORITE THEORY (that I made up) for this is: Most guys feel like big ugly ineffective bald shlubs, who have no idea how their wives run the house/everything etc, so they identify with the bald fat white guys who are retarded on the commercial. Because they can’t hide the fact of female superiority from their subconscious minds. (In some cases conscious minds too) At the same time they think their wife is a superior goddess no matter how fat or old she is, in their mind’s eye their wife IS a supermodel, and they never quite believe that she actually was dumb enough to marry a schlub like them.

    So this makes them think that the couple in the commercial/sitcom, of dumb schlubby retardo guy + hot brilliant supermodel, is “just like us!”

    (I realize that this is a best case scenario. But It makes me feel better.)

  19. The reason that white men are always complete morons is because, in the demographic of ‘white men’:

    “King of Queens” is more popular than “Arrested Development”

  20. Don’t remember much of that attack on camera, either.

    If it was on the original Law and Order, they never show the crime being committed (it would ruin the who-dunnit aspect of the first half hour of the show).

  21. If I have my statistics correct (and I don’t have time to look them up at the moment), in real life, most heinous crimes (serial killing, sadistic murders, starting unprovoked and aggressive wars) are committed by white men. Specifically, straight white men. So if that’s who is potrayed as doing so on TV, it’s just reflecting reality. (Disclaimer: I don’t have a TV so can’t comment on any specific program or episode.)

  22. Relatedly, a friend of mine did note once, years ago now, that if a murderer on Law & Order went to an Ivy League school, it was always Princeton (we’re both Princeton grads). We thought it was pretty funny.

  23. If it was on the original Law and Order, they never show the crime being committed (it would ruin the who-dunnit aspect of the first half hour of the show).

    Actually, I have seen some episodes where there’s been an ambiguous depiction of the crime, although it’s far more frequently two colorful New Yorkers tripping over a dead body.

    There have also been colorful depictions of the crime scene.

    In this case, admittedly, it’s a little different because the “crime” wasn’t the rape, but the murder of the rapist.

  24. If television showed (focused on) more black people then you will see more black criminals. Duh!!! so why not complain about the lack of black faces on television instead?

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