Why do minorities die first in the movies?

[FoleyIsGod]

Stemming from the zombie survival thread in the barroom, it got me wondering, why do black people seemingly die first in the movies?

I have looked around on things like google and wikipedia, but it doesnt reveal much.

Was hoping we had a few media students who could reveal why black people die first

 

[Afro-Ameri-Spawn]

Call it Jim Crow law or The Man. Both of these factors contribute to black people not making it to the end in horror movies. Of course, that was until was until the ground breaking "Night of The Demons" where the only black male in the whole movie heroicly pushed a white women out of the way to use a strip of barbed wire to climb a walk to escape the demon fortress. He then made the mistake of risking his safety to reach back over to pull her over to safety, but he still lived. lol

 

[turbomonkey484]

Its because of Hegemony, this is the processes used by the dominant culture to maintain its dominant position. So because the dominant culture in media institutions is white people, minorities are killed off because they believe it will represent their culture as more dominant.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

When it happens, its usually because they're a supporting character. For some reason, people bitch and complain if there's not multiple races in the heroic primary cast, so people are always forced to change things around just to fit that. When they made the Justice League cartoon, they decided to go with the black Green Lantern (the third or fourth most popular, who most people haven't even heard of) just to get a black guy, they added in Hawkwoman (a terrible character) and made her slightly Hispanic to get those, etc. Take a look at commercials. Chances are there's a white brunette guy, a black guy, a black woman, and a white blonde woman. Maybe one of the two guys is even fat to get that in.

So since you need to get at least one woman, at least one black guy/girl, at least blah blah blah, if you've already got a male Caucasian lead, then you need to just give the supporting roles these designations. Since supporting characters aren't as important, they get killed before the protagonist. Thusly, if it follows all those rules, then the black one dies early on.

There's also a reverse-stereotype being created lately as well, due to the whole "why does the black guy have to be the criminal?" kind of PC backlash nonsense. (Not to say the black guy should always be the criminal, but don't look that far into it people, there's no conspiracy). That reverse-stereotype is to now make the black character "the wise man". Morgan Freeman in every role in the past few years? Marvel's Nick Fury is now more accepted as a black guy due to Ultimate Marvel than his former white self...and for good reason, cause the black Nick Fury is a much better character than the old one...but he's still the head of SHIELD and a wise man in that regard.

The only other reason is that its a comedy and it references the old "black people die first" situation. There's no "we should kill the black people off because they're unidentifiable to white people" thing going on, unless you've already done a horrible job writing your film that you make everyone into 100% stereotypes. If you've got the most hardcore Harlem thug type of over-saturated black guy, then yeah, I have nothing to relate to, but chances are if you do that, you're just a horrible writer and I won't identify with ANY of your characters, even if they're a 21 year old white guy with short black hair like myself.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

To be completely honest, I found this thread topic rather amusing. Not in a racial sense, but I found it amusing because of the amount of stand-up comedy I watch and the amount of times I hear guys like Chris Rock, D.L. Hughley, or any other black comedian exclaim that their race always knows when trouble is about to strike.. so they're typically the first ones out the door, at home watching it on television.

(examples they use in their skits: They'll say a ton of White people are always getting murdered and killed in hold-ups or something of that nature, because typically its some foolish white person trying to 'save the day' while the black person is 'smart enough' to head for cover and watch everything unfold from a save distance. ie. home on television)

That combined with the truth in media/movies in which black people typically die first, I truly don't understand it. I think to be completely honest they should at least play out some realism in every movie.

Now, another example.. (for what its worth) in Resident Evil 2, the main black guy in that movie survived a couple attacks and played the type of black character role that the stand-up comedians talk about. The type of guy that'll run for cover and save his own ass, just to live another day. I thought his character in that movie, as well as the 3rd (even though he dies then) was excellently played.

My all-time favorite role regarding a black person who ends up dying, would have to be.. Deep Blue Sea:

You have L.L. Cool J. (lol seriously, with the name) and Samuel L. Jackson. One (Cool J) is a cook with a bird. The other (Jackson) is a genius. The movie is about killer/smart sharks, in an underwater lab that begins sinking. My friends and I, while watching the movie were laughing and carrying on about if we were in the movie, who would we stick by, to survive.

At that same time, Jackson gave his huge "I'm gonna survive and get the fuck outta here alive" speech. During this speech, a friend of mine and I both said.. "We're sticking with him." At the time we said it, almost on que.. a shark jumps up and kills Jackson. We both literally went "HOLY FUCK!"

The point I'm getting at is.. sometimes the death of a black character in a movie is just unneeded. Jackson's death.. not needed, although when you stop and think about it.. he was trying to build courage and stop fear. It was the middle of the movie, and you can't have the "good guys" starting to think they're gonna win at that early stage of a movie.. so all in all.. he needed to die.. had he not given the speech, and done what the comedians say most of them normally would've.. and just tried saving his own ass.. he might still be alive.