Current Events > When somebody says something racist in an old movie...

(+) Yeah! (+)

presume:

• the film is made pre-Civil Rights Era (roughly 1965 or earlier)
• the character is not vilified in-film for saying said line

why would anyone hold the actor accountable for things like this

---

Someone might be of the opinion that they should have refused the line.

Maybe the character in said movie was supposed to be racist

---

FortuneCookie posted...

Someone might be of the opinion that they should have refused the line.

Who?

SSJPurple posted...

Maybe the character in said movie was supposed to be racist

FortuneCookie posted...

* the character is not vilified in-film for saying said line

you ever see an actor who plays a racist a little too well?

---

Looking at old things through the eyes of today rarely goes well.
It's kind of like criticizing propeller planes before the invention of jet airplanes.
You need to put yourself in the mindset of the people back then.


---

I think they get the chance to realize what they said, and then say something else in a newer movie

Unless they died, but then they're dead so

---

The movie that inspired this topic is Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933).

The female lead remarks of a hypothetical millionaire lover, "He could have the appearance of an ape and the manners of a ******oide." She clearly says the full six-letter slur before -oid. I don't know why there's an e on the end of it, but she punctuates it.

FortuneCookie posted...

The movie that inspired this topic is Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933).

The female lead remarks of a hypothetical millionaire lover, "He could have the appearance of an ape and the manners of a ******oide." She clearly says the full six-letter slur before -oid. I don't know why there's an e on the end of it, but she punctuates it.

I'm so not racist I cant even figure out what the slur is supposed to be.

---

IndustrialTrudg posted...

I'm so not racist I cant even figure out what the slur is supposed to be.

It's a slur used to represent people from Mongolia.

---

Imagine blaming the actor for that.

---

IndustrialTrudg posted...

I'm so not racist I cant even figure out what the slur is supposed to be.

Yikes. I feel shitty for knowing what that is

---

IndustrialTrudg posted...

I'm so not racist I cant even figure out what the slur is supposed to be.

The n-word.

She adds -oid to the end which is a universal way of saying like or pertaining to. (Example: humanoid.)

Although there's a similar word which meant of or pertaining to a Black person, she very audibly says the full six-letter slur before adding -oid. Though she turns it into -oide for some reason.

FortuneCookie posted...

The n-word.

She adds -oid to the end which is a universal way of saying like or pertaining to. (Example: humanoid.)

Although there's a similar word which meant of or pertaining to a Black person, she very audibly says the full six-letter slur before adding -oid. Though she turns it into -oide for some reason.

Old racial theory that humans could be broadly split into three races: Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negroid

Their terminology, not mine. The character just made scientific racism more racist, I would assume.

---

What gets me about older movies isn't so much the blatant racism as it is the casual racism.

That's just the way these people were.
>_>

---

HylianFox posted...

What gets me about older movies isn't so much the blatant racism as it is the casual racism.

That's just the way these people were.
>_>

Yeah. The sentiment in question was, "I don't care if he looks like an ape and acts like [a black man] so long as he's rich."

It didn't have any bearing on the plot. It wasn't pointed at any character. It was just gratuitous racism in a casual conversation about relationships.

FortuneCookie posted...

They're culpable. They should have protested the line.

the hell kind of limpwristed tv-courtroom take is this?

jesus

---

It's a take which 13.89% of voters so far have.

HylianFox posted...

What gets me about older movies isn't so much the blatant racism as it is the casual racism.

That's just the way these people were.
>_>

Honestly theres going to be a point where people feel the same about our generation.

FortuneCookie posted...

The n-word.

She adds -oid to the end which is a universal way of saying like or pertaining to. (Example: humanoid.)

Although there's a similar word which meant of or pertaining to a Black person, she very audibly says the full six-letter slur before adding -oid. Though she turns it into -oide for some reason.

That was the slur that came to mind but that just doesnt roll off the tongue with the oide part so I assumed it wasnt it. Are you sure that's what she said? Even at the time that seems like something that would be seen as crude.

---

FortuneCookie posted...

Yeah. The sentiment in question was, "I don't care if he looks like an ape and acts like [a black man] so long as he's rich."

It didn't have any bearing on the plot. It wasn't pointed at any character. It was just gratuitous racism in a casual conversation about relationships.

But it's not even that, really

Characters who are blatantly racist (like using the N-word) in older movies are usually treated as unsympathetic.

I'm referring more to the movies/characters who are all "oh, those silly non-whites and their silly non-white ways! If only they were more like us!" type racism
As someone who watches a ton of MST3k/RiffTrax, that comes up a lot

---

IndustrialTrudg posted...

Honestly theres going to be a point where people feel the same about our generation.

That was the slur that came to mind but that just doesnt roll off the tongue with the oide part so I assumed it wasnt it. Are you sure that's what she said? Even at the time that seems like something that would be seen as crude.

I did a rewind to hear it again. The subtitle says "***roid," but she verbally says two the syllable n-word before the oid. And I don't know what the deal was with adding an -e on the end of it. Maybe it was just her character playing up the New York accent.

IndustrialTrudg posted...

Honestly theres going to be a point where people feel the same about our generation.

Absolutely. Probably over something most of us right now don't even think twice about - or possibly over the idea that this generation swung too far in the other direction. Or maybe over something we haven't even quite encountered much yet (marriage to extraterrestrials or robots, perhaps).

---

SSJPurple posted...

Maybe the character in said movie was supposed to be racist

FortuneCookie posted...

I did a rewind to hear it again. The subtitle says "***roid," but she verbally says two the syllable n-word before the oid. And I don't know what the deal was with adding an -e on the end of it. Maybe it was just her character playing up the New York accent.

Yeah that just seems weird. And she wasnt supposed to be unlikable?

---

If it was John Wayne he probably ad-libbed the racism

---

FortuneCookie posted...

The subtitle says "***roid,"

This is whats literally on my parents birth certificates. Shits wildly fucked up. As for the topic, nah.

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ievvlaRIZig

"We make white devil feel good, we talk like jerk."

---

If these were pretty racist times, I doubt they would protest it often.

---

IndustrialTrudg posted...

Yeah that just seems weird. And she wasnt supposed to be unlikable?

She's an otherwise fun and likable character with a pretty face and a sharp wit.