White Mans Burden :: essays research papers

â€Å"White Man’s Burden† The movie we watched in class was called â€Å"White Man’s Burden.† According to some sociologists the white man’s burden is an unwanted burden that white men, who are in the upper part of society, must bring the minority classes up to their status. For example, if it were applied today white folks would have to help bring black folks up into a higher class. While this theory was used many years ago, it is still in consideration today. This movie took a very unique approach. It separated two classes of people, whites and blacks. They were separated by, what I believe is the greatest degree of separation today, money. In the movie the only people in the upper class were black and the main family in the movie was white. In today’s society that is different, you would expect white people to have the money and black to be in the lower class. While that is not always the case, it is what is perceived in today’s society. The movie portrayed life in the inner city as we are conditioned to see it. Everyone in the inner city was of the same race. Everyone was poor and life was rough. There was some violence in the inner city but it was on only between the two classes. Also everyone in the inner city didn’t speak proper English. The movie almost implied that it was these people fault that they were poor and that they were bad people. It did not show the fact that these people of the inner city could have been dealt a bad hand. This point is shown when John Travolta is evicted from his house. When this happens his mother in law comes over to get his wife and kids. While she is there she yells at him and asks him what kind of husband he is that he can’t keep a job and raise his own kids and support her daughter. The fact that maybe he was dealt a bad hand was over looked. John Travolta is still a good person. There were stereotypes portrayed in the movie. One can be shown when John Travolta was beaten by some cops. He was beaten by cops because he â€Å"fit† a description of a criminal. The stereotype here is that all people who are of the lower class are criminals. John Travolta was not stopped and asked for identification, it was just assumed that since he was of a lower class that he the criminal they were looking for.