On the "White Person As Savior" Film...

I promise this isn't supposed to be an "Angry Black Woman" blog, but I have a confession to make.

Hello, my name is _________, and I find it hard to watch movies where minorities are portrayed as needing the assistance of a White person in order to make it out of their plight.

Now, this is not to say that I don't think that White people should help non-White people, but can I get a film that shows some inter or intra-minority assistance? And, on top of it all, it seems like the most praised of White saviors are the women. I am not hating on my less melanized sisters in the struggle, but seriously, does anyone else feel uncomfortable about this? Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, The Blind Side. White women get to be the God-sent, changing force in some minority person's life. She goes through hell and high water, feeling uncomfortable in an unfamiliar setting, fighting the institutionalized racism, oftentimes arguing with other White people to help out these less-fortunate colored people. In the end, it was her sacrificing the luxury of White privilege and struggling to connect with these people to make their lives better and they will always remember her fondly. The plot tends to be the same every time...

And you know what part of the movie that really burns me up? The scene where the savior must prove to other White people that what she's doing is right. Don't get me wrong, I believe that help is great and when it comes, you should accept it, but at the same time, there has to be other people out there doing something to help little children of color make it through tough situations. Thinking back in my own life, two of my most memorable teachers were Black. All of my mentors are. But at the same time, my college advisers were all White men, including the one for African-American Studies. See that? That's called reality. That's where you can get help from non-White people AND White people. Amazing what can happen outside of movies, huh?

And then, sometimes the movie industry acts like they want to make a non-White woman look good for helping out another non-White person. Let me focus on Black people for a second... Why is it that when Hollywood does want to show Black women doing something good for another person, she often takes the form of a mammy type (The Secret Lives of Bees, for example)? There's nothing more moving in a White child's life than an overweight Black woman... Wait... That doesn't sound right...

Because it isn't.

One day, I'll have enough money and free time to make my own movie. It will star a bunch of people who will confuse the hell out of the audience. It will include a non-bougie, yet well-educated and happily married Black couple who have adopted a little blond-haired, blue-eyed child, whose best friends are a Latina, whose family has been in the States since before slavery, and an Asian boy, whose parents are not doctors/engineers/lawyers/convenience store owners/auto mechanics, but run a bed & breakfast somewhere in suburbia. The main antagonist will be a racially ambiguous entity whose only real problem is that they cannot wrap their minds around the fact that these three friends do not need to be saved.

In the end, the racially ambiguous person goes to cry in a corner because everything that Hollywood taught was a lie.

Don't be that person.