Racial Issues

Yesterday, I watched a movie called Something New. I'd seen the preview somewhere and was interested in the concept. I was seriously offended by this movie and I wanted to bring your attention to it and then to a bigger concept.

The movie was about a black single woman who decided to broaden her perspective and go on a blind date. The blind date was with a white guy (she didn't know, she assumed he was black). She left the date within 2 minutes excusing herself saying she had work. The rest of the movie is a love story about how these 2 fall in love then she breaks it off because he is white. Then at the end she overcomes her racism and decides to really love him for who he is.

Not only do I think the concept of this movie is bad, I found there were prejudice jokes, tons of issues how black people discriminate against whites and poor cinematography. I found that the woman was constantly focusing on race when the man never noticed it. Her friends were unsupportive of her dating a white man and told her that even though she dated him it wasn't like she was going to marry him.....he's white. It showed the worst scene where a black comedian gave a monologue about how bad white men are. I just don't get it. If a movie were made about a white woman not dating a black man because he was black the press would have a field day with it. I doubt the movie would ever actually hit the big screen. So why is it ok for it to be the other way around?

I wonder if it is because there is this long-standing notion that blacks are still being discriminated against when perhaps they aren't? Maybe that's too much of a blanket statement. Yes, there are still racists out there. But in general, I think people are more open-minded about it. The thing I found with this character was, why did she dwell on skin color constantly? The boyfriend guy said to just not talk about it for 1 night and she freaked out. She couldn't do it. She was surrounded by a black culture just as racist as the people discriminating against them.

My husband told me about a situation in Washington where a high school was accepting students on an application bases. There came a certain number of applications that were equal in standing. The people decided picked minority students over white students because they wanted a more "diversified" school and wanted to meet standards for white to minority students. What makes me even madder is that colleges offer scholarships for minority students. Where are the scholarships for white people? Why should a minority have more opportunities to get a scholarship than a white person? It is because schools look better if they have more minority students (including women). That is sad.

It's stuff like that that bothers me. I don't care about skin color. But doesn't it go both ways? Aren't black people sometimes just as racist as white? Let me know if I'm wrong here.