Good Crook, Bad Crook
Last night, I went to the movie movies and saw Ant Man. It was dope; but don’t worry- no spoilers in
this post!
Hopefully, you are minimally familiar with the back story
for the Ant Man, and if not, that’s fine too.
Basically, he’s a guy (a white guy) who was convicted of
larceny for basically pulling off a huge Robin Hood style heist in the digital
age. He learned about a corporation
ripping off the general populace, found a way to crack their systems and return
millions or billions of dollars to working class citizens. Hooray! Right? Of course, he gets caught, locked up and
loses it all in the process- job, family, the whole shebang. And so when the movie starts, you come in on
his struggle trying to rehabilitate himself, avoid the life of crime, and make
things right so he can be a part of his daughter’s life again. And by now, you’re getting all the feels
because what the hey?! I mean, this guy just cannot catch a
break! And from what we’ve seen so far,
he’s a pretty decent guy!
You get to learn about how he has a Master’s degree. You then you see him getting laid off after his employer finds out about his criminal background that he tried to cover up just to be able to get a job, even one that’s so clearly beneath him. He’s just trying so hard to stay on the straight and narrow. Even the employer is like, man I wish it didn’t have to be this way. What you did was awesome. Dude, you’re awesome!
So this is about the point in the movie where, yeah, I’m engaged…
because it’s Marvel and their movies are amazing! Plus, I totally get that this is a movie. It’s for entertainment.
But in the back of my mind, I can’t help but to
notice the difference between the way this white male criminal is portrayed
versus the way in which a black male, or even a black female, or really how any
other non-white-male similarly situated character would have likely been
portrayed. Now this is not something I
have to speculate about or rely on my imagination to determine, because I can
draw on extensive past movie watching experience of how this works the majority
of the time.
Non-white-male offender commits a crime, usually out of
necessity, but not always. The crime, if
not drug related (but let’s face it, the vast majority of the time, it’s going
to be drug related), is a violent crime. The story then centers on his struggle usually
seeking redemption from those harmed while contending with being grossly
under-qualified for honest employment in addition to the unattractive convict
factor. I mean, it is a true rarity to
see a non-white-male offender that is a white collar or noble criminal portrayed in the media. And even less common to see one fully rehabilitated, and enter into a high quality life after release.
When it’s a white guy, the crime is almost invariably
insider trading, embezzlement, fraud, larceny.
Person of color and the crime is drug-related, armed robbery, murder,
rape… you know, all of the really horrible stuff. Majority of the time.
Again, I get it. This
is a movie. It’s for entertainment.
But what about when it’s not?
Let’s take a look around, because entertainment or not, it
is undeniable that the media plays a part in the way that we process, think and
feel about the world around us.
So what happens when we are constantly inundated with images
in the media that only tell a certain type of story?
The short answer- we begin to believe them.
The evidence of this is everywhere we look these days. Black and brown men and women dying either
while in police custody, at the hand of a law enforcement officer or citizen
vigilante has become a daily occurrence; and whenever a new case is revealed what
follows like clockwork is the media parade of the same sad and tired
narrative.
They investigate the victim’s
arrest record, or their parents’. The
dig until they find any and every shred of evidence to lay out on display, to
remind us that this person isn’t the type of individual we are supposed to view
as deserving of sympathy, concern, or justice.
These stories make it that much easier to accept on a whole
that People of Color are more criminally inclined, as well to as accept the narrative
that POCs are more violent, even to the point of being less civilized, and
therefore less deserving of our empathy.
In his book, The Condemnation of Blackness, Dr. Khalil
Gibran Muhammad explores the differences in the ways that we are taught to look
at and think about white criminals, versus criminals that are People of Color. He also talks about how the way criminality
is portrayed for white offenders and subsequently treated in comparison to
everyone else which sets the stage for whether or not we are inclined to
believe in the possibility of and actively seek to rehabilitate these populations.
In short, the portrayal and resulting acceptance of the view
of POCs as violent criminals incapable of change makes it that much easier to swallow
the notion that their murders could and most likely do fall under the auspices of protect and serve.
It’s a vicious cycle, but one we must begin to look at
critically, and challenge openly if we have any hope of turning this country around.
Excerpt from The Condemnation of Blackness
Additional reading on the portrayal of race and crime in the
media:
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