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I Learned About White People at the Movies

By Jozen Cummings
Black College Wire

Touchstone Pictures Eugene Levy, left, Queen Latifah and Steve Martin in "Bringing Down the House."

The movie "Bringing Down the House" has many in the black community fearing white people will see all blacks in the same unfavorable light. It reminds me that everything I know about white people, I learned at the movies.

The following are just a few examples:

• All white men in high school want to lose their virginity before they graduate. In the movie "American Pie," four white high school seniors make a pact to lose their virginity before they wear the cap and gown. Anything less would be unacceptable.

• All white women are nosy, and can't learn to leave well enough alone. We all know black people are the first to die in horror films, but at least it's due to a situation beyond their control. White girls, on the other hand, always have to go see where a sound is coming from, and then try to negotiate their way out of a brutal slashing with their breasts.

• White people have great jobs, but their family life sucks. In "Bringing Down the House," Steve Martin's character is a prime example.

• White people like drugs, and lots of them. "Rules of Attraction," "Trainspotting," "Requiem for a Dream" and "Blow" were all films that had a largely white cast and an even larger amount of drugs.

• The only sports white people are good at are baseball or hockey. Just go to any video store and count how many baseball or hockey movies feature blacks. And if you can find one black person, that's about it. No further proof is needed than "The Mighty Ducks" series, and baseball movies such as "Major League," "Babe," "A League of Their Own" and "Rookie of the Year."

Looking at these movies and many others has helped me deal with the way my people are portrayed in cinema. I figure if white people can come to a conclusion about black people through what they see in movies, then blacks can do the same thing.

Jozen Cummings is a student at Howard University who writes for The Hilltop.