People rate negative black films highly, but positive films about blacks

I sooo agree with you about The Blind Side. I think to miss the racism of the film, one would have to view it in a complete vacuum. Also often missed is the fact that the only people with real agency in the movie are white, whereas in the actual circumstances, the really exceptional initiative and action must have been Michael's.

I somewhat disagree with you, as far as specifics go, about The Pursuit of Happiness. I think it illustrates an amazing amount of function, actually, but that's its problem: I'm not saying it's the filmmaker's intention to do so, but it easily allows viewers to see poverty as an individual ill cured by individual action, instead of a sociological dynamic. The main character is about as exceptional of a human being as possible. It shouldn't require that kind of exceptionalism to not be struggling and even homeless. I liked this movie, unlike The Blind Side, and it's a great story and a fairly good film with a virtuoso lead performance, but I still find it problematic in a larger context. The take-away can certainly be negative, not just in terms of poverty but in terms of race, as well.

As for your main assertion, it would be interesting to get some empirical evidence. I definitely suspect you're right, but we can only hypothesize without statistical analysis of the quantitative data. I'd imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to do. It wouldn't be too challenging to narrowly define the terms (such as "positive," etc.) nor to apply statistics. It might be challenging to find a really large and representative sample of films just because I'm not sure IMDb enables the search criteria that'd be necessary. I bet there's a good deal of research out there about the general subject, but maybe not based on IMDb. 'Same goes for portrayals of women and reactions to them. Anyway, if I'm feeling really ambitious, maybe I'll give it a start. If anyone else is interested in running some research like that, just send me a private message. Otherwise, if I can get access to an database of academic journals, I'll look into finding whatever research has already been done. I'm so used to having access to university library databases, it's a bit frustrating not to.

Bravo for bringing smart discussion and awareness about these kind of issues to IMDb. [smile]

C'mon, Yolanda, what's Fonzie like?

Oh, I just realized your username results in "increase knowledge." [laugh] I like it.

C'mon, Yolanda, what's Fonzie like?

Oh, for the hate of PC would you just shut that *beep* up!

Whitey has given in to all your demands, even letting thug rappers take over the entertainment industry and still you whine.

Yea, Tho I Walk Thru The Valley Of The Shadow Of Political Correctness...🇺🇸

nkresseslknowledge:

I get what you're saying, but, geesh, black people are human beings just like everyone else,. We make mistakes, some of us screw up,all of that, some of us go through just doing what we need to do to live and have a decent life. Dysfunction has nothing to do with your skin color,anyway. We ought to be able to show the full range of ourselves in all our strengths and weaknesses as human beings in films, TV show, and in real life.