The Persistence of Whiteness: Race and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema

The Persistence of Whiteness investigates the representation and narration of race in contemporary Hollywood cinema. Ideologies of class, ethnicity, gender, nation and sexuality are central concerns as are the growth of the business of filmmaking. Focusing on representations of Black, Asian, Jewish, Latina/o and Native Americans identities, this collection also shows how whiteness is a fact everywhere in contemporary Hollywood cinema, crossing audiences, authors, genres, studios and styles. Bringing together essays from respected film scholars, the collection covers a wide range of important films, including Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Color Purple, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Essays also consider genres from the western to blaxploitation and new black cinema; provocative filmmakers such as Melvin Van Peebles and Steven Spielberg and stars including Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Lopez. Daniel Bernardi provides an in-depth introduction, comprehensive bibliography and a helpful glossary of terms, thus providing students with an accessible and topical collection on race and ethnicity in contemporary cinema.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Race and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema Part 1: Generic History Manifest Myth-Making: Texas History in the Movies. Mapping the Beach: Beach Movies, Exploitation Film and Geographies of Whiteness. Boyz, Boyz, Boyz: New Black Cinema and Black Masculinity Part 2: Anthropomorphism Star Wars Episodes I-VI: Coyote and the Force of White Narrative. The Whiteness of the Rings. Neo Abolitionists, Colorblind Epistemologies and Black Politics: The Matrix Trilogy Part 3: Blood & Bodies Vampires of Color and the Performance of Multicultural Whiteness. The Naked and the Dead: The Jewish Male Body and Masculinity in Sunshine and Enemy at the Gates. Framing Jennifer Lopez: Mobilizing Race from the Wide Shot to the Close-Up Part 4: Desire to Desire Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with Eldridge Cleaver & the Supreme Court, or Reforming Popular Racial Memory with Hepburn and Tracy. Master-Slave Sex Acts: Mandingo and the Race/Sex Paradox. The Tragedy of Whiteness and Neo-Liberalism in Brad Kaaya’s ‘O’/Othello. Romeo Must Die: Interracial Romance in Action Part 5: Provocateurs The Dark Side of Whiteness: Sweetback and John Dollard’s Idea of The Gains of the Lower Class Negroes. Black Like Him: Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple. Crossover Diva: Whoopi Goldberg and Persona Politics. Surviving in Living Color with Some White Chicks: Whiteness in the Wayans’ (Black) Minds. Glossary to Terms

About the Author :
Daniel Bernardi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Arizona State University. He is the author of Star Trek and History: Race-ing Toward a White Future (1998) and the editor of The Birth of Whiteness: Race and the Emergence of US Cinema (1996) and Classic Hollywood, Classic Whiteness (2002).