Stop Watching Films like “Green Book” and “The Help”
By: Zoe Bryant
Tags: Film, Politics, Film Reviews, Movies, Racism

With the gaining momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement comes a slew of recommendations of media for non-black people to educate themselves on the history of black civil rights. Here’s why recommendations of movies such as “The Help” and “The Blind Side” will not educate you on the Black Lives Matter Movement, and should not be viewed in an educational context.

“White Savior” films such as the aforementioned use a non-racist front to promote their movies to a white audience while promoting racist subtexts. These films include a black side character that a white main character becomes friends with, and elevates their status as a black person in society. While many of these stories are true in real life, as white people have used their position in society to fight for equal rights, these stories should be taken with a grain of salt as their primary function is to heal the white audiences guilt over being white. By seeing a white person on screen overcome their racist prejudices against black people and become friends with the black side character, the audience is able to say “see? Not all white people are racist” which serves as an assurance to the white audience that they aren’t racist. This makes the white audience feel like racism doesn’t exist on the very large scale that it does, and these movies fail to address the issue of systemic racism, and how racism in America moves beyond person-to-person interaction. In short, white savior movies such as “The Help” and “Green Book” make the white audiences feel less demonized for their prejudices, and don’t actually educate the audience on civil rights causes.

White savior films always depict a “healing” relationship between a racist white character and a black character, giving all the vibes of a “feel good” movie. In “Green Book” a white driver initially has prejudices against black people, but after making a friend in the black performer he drives around, he gets over his racist prejudices. Not only does this perpetuate the idea that one needs to meet a black person to not be racist, but it gives an excuse to all white people that are racist: they just simply haven’t met a black person who would educate them on racism. Newsflash: we have the internet for a reason! You don’t need a black person to educate you on civil rights causes and how black people aren’t inherently bad people because of their skin color! White savior films make the white audience feel okay about their racist relatives, or their own racism, because they give them an excuse to be racist, thus perpetuating racism and doing way more damage to equal rights than good.

So what’s the recipe for a “white savior” movie? There’s always a white main character who holds racial prejudice against African Americans, and they often live in a setting where their racist ideologies are accepted by their peers. Enter a black character who the white character is forced to work with or be around for long stretches of time, and the white character begins to learn that “not all black people are bad” and that they don’t have to be racist. The black character often has to educate the white character on why exactly black people are good people, and the movie ends with the characters holding hands and skipping of into the sunset. Not really, but… really. Black characters in these movies are used as props, usually lacking internal depth beyond what the white character brings out in them. The movie focuses on the white characters healing from their racism, not the black characters or their own struggles and personality outside of the main white character. Tie this all in with an all white team making the movie and boom. White savior movie!

Now you may be thinking: “but what harm could these movies really do? I think we’re all educated on the civil rights movement enough to think outside of these movies” to which I would point you to the 2018 Academy Awards, where “Green Book” won Best Picture over “Blackkklansman”, a movie directed by Spike Lee, a notable black director, about how a black police officer infiltrated the KKK. The mostly white Academy, which is who voted for the “Green Book” win voted for a white savior movie over a movie that exemplified actual black excellence, showing that the white audience actually preferred “Green Book” because it made them feel better about their white identity. Black activists and allies had been outspoken about the release and recognition of “Green Book” during all of 2018, but in the end the audience chose to side with the movie that healed white fragility over a film that analyzed white racism, perfectly exemplifying how white savior movies are indeed damaging to the black rights movement as a whole.

White savior films are very damaging to the white perception of race relations in America, and using them to educate yourself in the time of Black Lives Matter is very ignorant to the black community. This is why I would not recommend watching “The Help”, “Green Book” or “The Blind Side” for your educational viewing experience, and would instead recommend movies actually directed by black directors such as Spike Lee and Ava DuVernay, who bring a third dimension to the black experience on film.

This article has been cross posted from my Blogger account: no plagiarism is involved with this article.