Monday, November 26, 2012

Steven Spielberg's racism


Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones film series is about as racist as film gets. What was masked somewhat with adventure in the first couple films of the series becomes jaw-dropping & bold-faced as the series progresses. “Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom” about India should be considered a classic of racism & studied for its malignancy--& its banality too. It’s the action-packed version of the ‘white people save brown & black people’ genre. Spielberg’s films offer more respectful treatment of extraterrestrials & extinct dinosaurs than other human beings on this planet.

If Spielberg was attempting to portray Indian oligarchs, his depiction would be dead on; but instead he portrays ordinary Indian people (in reality politically combative & creative) either sentimentally or as incompetent & servile, in the old stereotype of Asiatic toadyism before authority. Spielberg is of the generation that went through the US Civil Rights movement but somehow he managed to learn nothing. This would explain his films that not only depict but glorify war, his war-mongering in Darfur, his support for Israel, his honorifics from the Pentagon.

The racism of his films is not accidental; he has the best (or at least, the highest paid) political consultants in the world. He knows he’s peddling racism & Orientalism. That’s why his films are now more action-packed propaganda than entertainment.

In this still from the film, the groveling Indian masses surround the white savior in obsequious gratitude.

1 comment:

  1. Would love for you have backed up your statements with citations so I could research what you claim.

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