Monday, October 19, 2009

How Not to Write About Africa

This video lists all the cliches of how Africa is portrayed and written about. I think it's a great example of how old stereotypes (like the ones Dominika showed in the Tintin video) of Africa continue today in other guises.



I was thinking of movies like District 9, The Last King of Scotland, and various action movies that tend to show Africans as gun-crazy warlords. I couldn't think of a really good example from an action movie though.. any suggestions?

3 comments:

  1. What a great video, it's a shame that it was put out by Project (RED); an organization that could be accused of propagating the "imperial liberalism" the video rails against -- let's hope this is video is a preview of what is to come.

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  2. This article (http://www.latinoreview.com/news/is-there-racism-on-movie-posters-with-minorities-8296) may be trying too hard, but it's interesting to see movie posters and how minorities only get to hold a gun because they are the cop, and the fact that they are the cop/bad guy. It also talks about how minorities are "pushed back" in the poster and wear sunglasses, but there is no good argument in that, I think.

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