A Black and White Story
There are many different ways that people perceive prejudice in today's society, through stereotypes, discrimination, and predisposition for different cultures or ethnic groups. Examples of prejudice are found almost everywhere in media and entertainment, from movies, TV shows and even music ; themes of prejudice in media provides a message to the audience about the views of the producer or artist. In todays media however themes of prejudice are commonly used for comic relief or to make people more understanding of another ethnic group, a prime example of a prejudice themed movie that uses prejudice as comic relief even down to the title of the movie is the film "White Chicks". The story of two African American FBI agents who go undercover as two white girls to stop a kidnapping attempt on the girls. The movie touches on prejudice ideas between black and white stereotypes through comedy scenes.
Early in the movie the two agents meet the girls at the airport to monitor them to their hotel. The two girls are introduced into to the movie as wealthy fashion crazed blondes who care only about their own appearances, the latest fashion, and not very intelligent. The movie in other words is introducing the audience to a version of the average stereotypical 'blonde white chick'. As the two agents approach the girls they are immediately judged, labeled, and dismissed by the girls as being beggars for the United Negro fund. The agents approach again and clarify that they are there to escort them to their hotel, which changes the girls perspective from beggars to servants as they throw their bags and order them in a commanding tone to, "take my bag the rest is on the plane and oh take my dog and clean his bag he pooped everywhere". The girls attitudes towards the agents with the first encounter was pure disgust, their faces were tight, their eyes rolled after the agents said one word and their expression screamed as if to say why are these men even talking to us? The way in which these two girls reacted to being approached by these two men touches on a topic discussed in Vincent Parrillo’s essay, Causes of Prejudice, where these two girls are expressing an “emotional level of prejudice” (506) by showing a level of disgust to a minority group due to the certain stereotypes of that group.
As the movie goes on the two agents find themselves undercover playing the roles of the two girls attending parties, spending time with social clicks, shopping for the latest fashion, and learning the complicated world of women. One agent while undercover encounters a character by the name of Latrell Spencer, a wealthy pro basketball player, who is portrayed as your average African American ‘muscular jock”. Latrell earns a date with the undercover agent through a charity auction and plans to take his ‘date’ out to dinner. The agent however has plans to try and use is ethical resources to sabotage the date night. The agent is going to exploit the stereotypes of the African American male to try and deter Latrell from continuing the date. In the scene where Latrell picks up the agent for their date night, the agent offers to put on some music, betting on the stereotype that the typical African American male is disgusted by “white” music, and that once Latrell hears it he will lose interest. The agent puts in a CD with the song “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, a perfect example of pure “white people” music if you will, and waits to see Latrell’s reaction. At first Latrell’s face goes blank with a slight level of confusion. The agents face reveals a smile as if the song was doing the trick but then Latrell turns towards the agent and his face lights up with joy and screams, “I love this song!”. The agent’s face