Post colonialism: final blog tasks

1.
Fanon - 'putting on the white mask' the theory is about how black people and non white people are represented in media texts.

Alvarado - four representations of black people in media texts.

Said - the values and representations of the west versus the values of the east. The west is believed to have superiority over the east

2.
There are a mixture of positive and negative views of British Muslims. A positive from the opening was the how the community was portrayed in a religious and united manor. This was done by the use of the call for prayer and the Muslims walking towards the call to which shows respect and perhaps that they aren't putting on the white mask by avoiding their religion which means Fanon's theory is subverted. Another one is that we see young people being interested in their religion which isn't what we would expect to see as they are usually portrayed as thugs being disobedient. Also, the elderly man wasn't provoked by the graffiti displaying the racial statement on the shutter which suggests that this is a common occurrence or that he is positive and religious. However, the negative stereotype could be from the female character (Yasmin) who seems as she is avoiding her culture and religion. An example of this is when she changes from her religious clothes to normal casual 'British' clothes and Fanon's theory of 'putting on the white mask' can be applied because she is trying to be accepted in the British culture. This obviously is disrespectful to the religion and it is becoming common in society now where people are ashamed of their origin and culture.

3.

Fanon:

Playboi Carti 'Fetti' 

This music video can be applied to Fanon's theory especially when considering decivilize because the artists are portrayed in a violent, over aggressive and drugged out manor. This is significant because decivilize means that the representation of black is in a gangster way which can be argued about this. The showing off of the money and drugs are the main reasons why this fits the theory.

Luther trailer
This is a perfect example of 'putting on the white mask' as Luther is a black detective in the UK being the hero in the city of London.

Luke Cage trailer

A black superhero is very rare and in Luke Cage we see him saving Harlem from the thugs and gangsters trying to rule. Usually we would expect to see a white person play the role of a superhero and this gives an alternative representation of black people which can challenge Fanon's theory of decivilized. 

Alvarado:

Ride Along

This film definitely has reinforces Alvarado's theory of black people being portrayed as humorous because Kevin Hart's character in this film has him being the comedian just like most of his other films. However, it clashes with the dangerous category because he is associated with guns and violence as he is a police man.

Menace to society
This film perfectly reinforces Alvarado's theory of black people being represented in a dangerous way because of the violence involved in this particular scene. The mise en scene would make an audience believe these characters are from the hood and are about to commit a serious crime. It could be argued that an action code is used with the guns being reloaded an audience would be able to infer they are going to kill someone which they do eventually. However, we see some humour being used with one of the characters because he jokes about the killing of the shopkeeper which portrays him as a psychopath or 'gangster'.

Water Aid advert
This supports Alvarado's theory because this portrays black people being in poverty which he argues and the theme is called pitied. An audience would automatically assume they are from somewhere in Africa because 'they all look the same' (essentialize - Fanon's theory).

Said:

Lone survivor

Lone survivor is a film of a few soldiers fighting against the enemy also known as the eastern world. We see the Americans being portrayed as the heroes in this film which is what we would expect to see in a patriot film. The eastern world is displayed in a negative way even though its the Americans in their country

Olympus has fallen

As long as a film is about patriotism or an invasion/terrorist attack in America. Automatically an audience would assume that it is west versus east.

United 93
The film plays out how 9/11 started and finished plus the thousands of deaths. It reinforces Edward Said's theory because we see the east coming into America to inflict pain and serious damage on the country which they definitely were successful at. They were trying to hurt the western world.