UNFAIR RACIAL

CLICHÉ ALERT

!SPOILERS AHEAD!

THE UNFAIR
RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT
Deadicated to Scatman Crothers

"I've seen this in the movies before! The black guy dies!"
-Harry Block (played by Orlando Jones): EVOLUTION

When I first began THE RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT back in 1998 at the old geocities site, I was criticized for creating a falsehood. My ALERT said simply:
"The RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT is to let you know that, no matter how many victims or how many people from different races are in the Horror/Thriller movie, the whites and ONLY the whites were cast as the survivors."

I had my many detractors at the time who said things like:
"There is no such thing."

"It's your imagination."

"You need to get a life."

The latest one I've heard is
"You aren't a minority so this doesn't concern you." This line came from a white guy who listens to black gangsta rap all the time, owns black comedy DVDs and likes to talk the lingo of "the hood".

So I challenged my critics to go out and see 5 Horror/Thriller movies: any five, their choice. All I asked is that the movie have minorities in the cast (not some quick walk on or someone in the background of a crowd scene). So these fellow fans of horror went out. They came back with a few movie titles where the THE RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT did not apply, and in fairness I list those films here. But they also came back with an overwhelming number of movies where the "rule" did apply, and they were amazed.

From then on, I added the words UNFAIR to THE RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT. The UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT specifically applies to movies made or backed by Hollywood, as I have not seen this "Rule Of Death" appear so consistently in Independent movies or movies made outside of the United States.

This page was created on January 8, 2000.

The reason for this is simple. With every new Horror/Thriller movie coming out, the list keeps growing. I used to post it only where applicable to the movies reviewed, but now the list is too long. It needs its own place. I welcome any who challenge the ALERT to offer me movie titles that contradict this page.
I will gladly post the titles of the accurate ones.

74 coincidences and counting!

"Aw man I'm done! Brothers never survive these things!"
-Preacher (played by LL Cool J): DEEP BLUE SEA

LEGEND

1930s

KING KONG (1933) RKO Radio Pictures Rating: N/A Would it surprise you to know that KING KONG gets no URCA? In fact, its amazing how, for its time, KING KONG is as tolerant of other folks regardless of skin color. Charlie, the Chinese cook, speaks broken English, but the crew don't look down on him for it and Ann talks to him as an equal. Until the natives kidnap Ann and give her to Kong, Carl, the Captain, and the crew are respectful of the Skull Island natives. I don't know this for a fact, but my guess is that the lead character, Carl Denham, is based on the late Robert Leroy Ripley, of Ripley's Believe it Or Not fame. Back in the 1930s, Ripley was exactly the type of showman who traveled the world making movies of the unusual and exotic. Not one to be frightened by differences in nature, Ripley took pleasure in the wide variety of life and that included people of all races. At about the same time, another showman by the name of P.T. Barnum, of Barnum and Bailey's Circus, had gone on record as saying that, of all the people in the world, he loved his freaks the best. Legend has it that, after the show would close for the night, Barnum would hang out and play cards with his various sideshow freaks. These two men, who were larger than life for their time and known world wide, may have been influential in the creation of the fictional Carl Denham. KING KONG creators Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace (the latter of whom died before the completion of KING KONG) may have modeled Denham on the social bravery of men like Ripley or Barnum, who went into uncertain circumstances with a camera and the hope of friendship, than some "Great White Hunter" (the nomenclature of the period) standing behind a group of hired thugs and an elephant gun.