Customer Reviews

Reel Racism: Confronting Hollywood's Construction of Afro-American Culture (Thinking Through Cinema)

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Simply put, the best book there is on race and cinema. Rocchio refuses the simple, and simplistic, route of identifying negative racial stereotypes in film (a route that, as he points out, has governed previous studies of race and cinema). Rather, he explores the ways in which a variety of films--including The Birth of a Nation, Driving Miss Daisy, and Mississippi Burning--actively participate in the creation and circulation of racial discourse. This approach enables him to show that even seemingly "positive" depictions of African American characters (as in Driving Miss Daisy) can participate in the construction of racial difference and inequality. Rocchio does not, however, mean to suggest that film is solely a racist vehicle; he also includes readings of films--notably those of Spike Lee--that challenge or contest processes of racism. What's great about the book, too, is that it's accessible for students of film or for a general audience; it's not meant only (or even mostly) for film scholars, as evidenced by the straightforward prose and careful selection of footnotes. And the book's accessibility is particularly important since film, and the racial discourses Rocchio identifies in film, aren't confined to a particular segment of the population either.

If you have not seen the movies the author writes about the book is hard to understand. It was hard to read and I found it quite boring.