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UNFAIR
RACIAL |
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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
(2000)
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".
"Aw
man I'm done! Brothers never survive these things!"
- Preacher (played by LL Cool J): DEEP
BLUE SEA (1999)
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.
The list, inexplicably, does not include Hollywood Horror Comedies. Why? Who knows? But Holywood Horror Comedies seemingly never follow the UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHE ALERT. It's as if someone in the command chain says, "Whoa! I hate minorities the same as the rest of you, but this is comedy we're talking about and that has a completely different set of rules! No killing off all the minorities in a comedy!
75
coincidences and counting!
"Along with me I'm gonna need a scientist, an engineer, and of course, a black person to sacrifice himself in case something goes wrong."
- Eric Cartman, SOUTH PARK, season 9, Cartman's Hippie Exit Strategy 2006
UNFAIR
RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERTS
THE DECADES
1960 - 1970 - 1980 - 1990 - 2000
LEGEND
HORROR/THRILLER |
HOLLYWOOD
THRILLER |
~NON-HOLLYWOOD
HORROR |
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THE UNFAIR RACIAL RESPONSE
Because some folks disagree and my theory can withstand critique
2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007
THE UNFAIR RACIAL REFERENCES
I'm not the only one talking about this...
(These are offsite links and may break over time)
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Return to Movies
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The
UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHÈ ALERT
by
Decade
The
RACIAL RESPONSE
I've been a Horror fan all of my life, but back in 1995 I sold my first fiction story, RATTLESNAKE TIE, to Biker Magazine (Oct. 1995 issue).
At that time in my life I was a stand-up comic, learning the trade and hanging out with fellow comics like Joey Medina and Kelly Parks. One of my amigos, Ray "Genesis" MacCleese, congratulated me on the sale, but told me he wasn't much into Horror.
"Why do they always kill the black guy?" he asked.
Sure, it was rhetorical, but I'd never even considered it. Yet from then on, I watched Horror movies with Ray's words in mind and I started finding the Racial Cliché everywhere.
To be sure, there are movies without it. So was I just seeing what I wanted to see or was the Racial Cliché for real?
The only way to know for sure is set my criteria and start counting.
So I started this section at feoamante.com. I'm creating a list: a database to prove to myself, one way or the other, what the truth is. So far, the UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT
is winning. |
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