Topic > Matt's Offensive Film That Won't Die Cliché...

Over the past few decades, Hollywood films have highlighted depictions of racial inequality through various themes of racism and stereotypical ways. A frequent type of racial inequality is that there is one culture or race that is belittled, underprivileged, and inferior while the other is superior and high-achieving. In “The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won't Die” by Matt Zoller Seitz, he identifies the term “magic negro” as: “a saintly African-American character who serves as a mentor to a searching white hero, who appears to be disconnected from the community he loves so much, and who often seems to have an uncanny ability to say and do exactly what needs to be said or done to advance the story in the hero's favor” (408) and in Mitu Sengupta “ Race Relations Light Years from Earth ", the author examines the film Avatar as a racist film and focuses on how it resembles the "white messiah" stereotype. The term “white messiah” is known as a white individual who holds superior power, according to David Brooks of the New York Times, “a stereotype that whites are rationalists and technocrats while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic, and that nonwhites need the white Messiah to lead their crusades” (Sengupta 213). they explain the two terms and how they portray themes of racism and stereotypes through two elements, known as the author's purpose and main idea. These elements effectively convey the theme because they prevent our thoughts from being scattered across a broad spectrum of ideas and, instead, tell you exactly what will be discussed throughout the article. Having the author's purpose is vital to knowing how informative, opinionated, or factual, the art... middle of paper... was leading to the definition, and after defining it, the story began to explain several instances of Magical Negro in movies and the political world. But in “Race Relations Light Years from Earth,” it states in the first sentence, “Avatar is a racist film” (Sengupta 413). Knowing the main idea prevented the mind from wandering in search of a clue to interpret what the article provides. This was effective in showing the theme because they both convey what the article is about. To conclude, "The Offensive Film Cliché That Won't Die" by Matt Zoller Seitz and "Race Relations Light Years From Earth" by Mitu Sengupta, identify and elaborate racism and stereotypical views in all stories using non-fiction elements - the purpose and the author's main idea - to effectively support and explain how the topic was deployed.