In my first post on Alas I wrote about how racism and sexism shaped the definition of heroes in the wake of hurricane Katrina and 911. Here’s a quote:
In the days after 9/11 I was glued to my TV, watching what seemed to be the same cable news stories over and over and hoping that someone was going to tell me why this happened. The only refreshing new stories were the ones that followed heroes — the everyday folks who risked their lives to save others. Indeed there were many 9/11 heroes, but I quickly became frustrated at how few of those who were portrayed as heroes were white women or men and women of color. I just kept thinking; the rest of us are heroes too. Certainly, the firemen and police officers who died trying to save people in the World Trade Center were heroes, but the media and many average Americans seem to be much more content with white men as heroes. In fact, because of our race and gender stereotypes white men are constructed as brave, bold, dependable, powerful, righteous, and strong — all of the makings of a hero. Certainly the rest of us have many of those traits too, but what keeps our heroism out of sight? The contrast in the construction heroes in the aftermath of World Trade Center and Hurricane Katrina reveal how much racism and sexism shape our definition of heroism.
Well I guess Oliver Stone didn’t read my essay, and didn’t bother to accurately portray the race of at least one African American hero in his new 9/11 movie because one of the mystery heroes portrayed in Stone’s movie has come forward.
His name is Jason Thomas, and here is some of his story.
Thomas, who had been out of the Marine Corps about a year, was dropping his daughter off at his mother’s Long Island home when she told him planes had struck the towers.
He retrieved his Marine uniform from his truck, sped to Manhattan and had just parked his car when one of the towers collapsed. Thomas ran toward the center of the ash cloud.
“Someone needed help. It didn’t matter who,” he said. “I didn’t even have a plan. But I have all this training as a Marine, and all I could think was, ‘My city is in need.'”
Thomas bumped into another ex-Marine, Staff Sgt. David Karnes, and the pair decided to search for survivors.
Carrying little more than flashlights and an infantryman’s shovel, they climbed the mountain of debris, skirting dangerous crevasses and shards of red-hot metal, calling out “Is anyone down there? United States Marines!”
In Stone’s movie Thomas is portrayed as a white man. The movie producers claim the “mistake” was made after production began, which doesn’t seem like a legitimate excuse to me. I guess they didn’t bother to do their research. I’m all for cross racial casting when appropriate, but given the continuous subtle and not so subtle stream of of white male heroes anointed by the mainstream media, they could have at least gotten this hero right.
Pingback: linkfilter.net - fresh links daily
Pingback: Just sitting in my car.
Pingback: feminist blogs
1.According to wire service reports, the two rescued cops may not have known one of their rescuers was black, and thus may not have informed the filmmakers.
2. Jason Thomas may not have given his full name to anyone at Ground Zero, thus it is possible no one could find him 4 years later.
3. No one knows yet whether the filmmakers were unfair about this. Let’s wait til we hear the explanation.
4. Do you always jump to conclusions?
Damn!
Per Riv, I’ll wait to see if there’s more to this. But I’m still furious over the omission of Phillip DeVine – the African-American victim of a hate murder – from the film “Boys Don’t Cry”.
Riv: I don’t know about Rachel, but I do, yeah. The film’s producers should have done better research.
It’s fucked up that Jason Thomas was whitewashed.
Rachel, a detail–but could you change that to say “men and women of color or white women”. I had to read it 3 times before I stopped reading it as “white women or white men and women of color.”
You know, I’ve never liked Stone. Even as far back as the Wall St. days, I remember scratching my head and saying, “What does anyone see in this guy ?” When I first heard that his take on 9/11 was going to feature the oh-so-original concept of buddy cops as Center of the Universe, I rolled my eyes and made a mental note to avoid it. Somehow the whitewashing doesn’t surprise me.
As somebody on LJ said, from a big-budget, big-name director, you except at least a bit more research and effort towards authenticity for a “true story” than you’d expect from a 3rd-Grader’s term paper. Even though you expect in vain.
According to a producer in another news article,
in spite of the fact that the film was co-written by McLoughlin and Jimeno was consulted for authenticity, no one ever asked them for a physical description of the man who helped save their lives.
McLoughlin and Jimeno are the rescued men.
Here is the article: http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/articlelive/articles/35730/1/World-Trade-Center-omits-Black-soldier/WTC-movies-unsung-hero.html
I discuss this on my LJ here: http://kate-nepveu.livejournal.com/196342.html
SamC, I’d edit it, but it’s a quote from an old post, so I’m going to have to leave it with the difficult phrasing. Sorry….
Riv said, “3. No one knows yet whether the filmmakers were unfair about this. Let’s wait til we hear the explanation.”
Your trying to find every excuse in the book, but the fact of the matter is that they should have done more research. I don’t think this was a malicious ommission, but seriously most racism in this day and age is subtle. Why would they assume that this person was white??? Not black, not Asian, not Latino, but white. Apparently this is not the only character in this movie who is actually black but is portrayed by a white person. Kate N. above found information that a black police officer was also portrayed as a white man.
The fact of the matter this is part of a larger pattern of exclusion of Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and American Indians from heroic roles. I know there are a handful of exceptions, but for the most part the people defined as heros in real life and the movies are white men. The notion of “white as the normative default category” is indeed racist, and is part of a larger pattern that transcends this case.
There were many people consulted for this case, and they claim to be portraying “real life events.” Why should we jump to the conclusion that this was just a random confluence of events as you suggest? Why dismiss racism so quickly?
4. Do you always jump to conclusions?
I’ve seen a lot of comments like Riv’s recently. The pattern goes like this: someone points out an example of racism. A lurker (or several) turn up to point out a whole load of logical-sounding reasons why that particular example might not be racist and is probably excusable. The original observer explains that the example in isolation doesn’t prove anything, but here’s some evidence for why it’s part of a pattern. Soon everyone starts yelling at eachother. Actual racists get involved and start castigating everyone for being over-sensitive or too PC or whatever, and of course the targeted people get upset.
At first, I would look at the Riv-type comments and think, yeah, maybe they have a point, maybe you could interpret the incident as not racist. But I’ve seen the exact same scenario played out so often it’s worrying me. It looks like a backlash, when every time someone tries to discuss racism, the blogosphere dissolves into a fight about whether their example really counts. I think most of the people behaving like this aren’t doing it deliberately; they honestly believe they are not racist. It’s a kind of crowd effect, and basically nice but slightly clueless people are being used as tools by racist trolls.
I hope that pointing it out will at least make some of the well-intentioned people take a step back and think about the bigger picture. But of course it might just get me flamed myself for looking for racism in an innocent situation. Anyway, it’s something I’ve noticed in the last few months, and it’s made me rethink my attitudes a bit.
Things never change. Those people sit in the West Hollywood cafe’s and upper East Side art galleries and talk about racism. Oh, it is not right that those people have to endure so much from this administration and other crap like that. We really need to get a democrat in the office so that we can make sure we continue to give hand-outs.
I have been living this crap for 36 years. Always the same story — people will talk the talk but when the issue of money comes up we are going to put you on the “Underprivileged Network” (UPN) where you they belong. Can I surround myself with a bunch of black folk and preach to Hillary how we have to take back the white house. It is a load of crap. Tell me what a person in Hollywood has done to lift us up — portray us in a good light and I will see a person who is out of a job — black listed like Condi at the National Bar Association conference or J.C. Watts at the Congressional (Democratic) Black Caucus meeting.
All those in power regardless of their ilk just want to keep a brother down.
Re: #8: you may find relevant this post on How to Suppress Discussions of Racism.
In other words, yes, I agree that this is a pattern.
Just a note from one of the more conservative commenters on here: after reading the original post and the comments, I’d say that the original poster has a point: better research should have been done, and the appropriate questions should have been asked. Of course, we’re talking about Oliver Stone. I haven’t seen any of his films, but I’ve heard that he’s not one to let facts stand in the way of a good story. What about the rest of the film? Do other areas of it show the same level of sloppy research?
I think the excuses offered by “Riv” are very weak. Oliver Stone can certainly afford a staff of research assistants to do the leg work to check the authenticity of the true account he was depicting in his film. One would hope that if they were depicting a real person in a film, they would try to find out who this person is and talk to him. Finding out what his race is, would not be difficult. And even so, why is the default for the racial identity for heros set for Whites(and most often, White men)? There is no excuse for that.
Shame, shame Mr. Stone, shame. Your excuse is unacceptable. You could try to redeem yourself by hiring an actor of color to portray the character and then digitize him in, but that might be expensive and I doubt you have that much courage. What if it didn’t look as clear as the original? Egads! Blemish your art for the sake of justice? Not in Hollywood.
You could add a picture of the real life Jason Thomas at the end of the credits with a suitably humble apology from you personally for your contribution to sad state of affairs between people of different skin color.
Well, are you a ball-less jackal or a man?
To RIV:
” According to wire service reports, the two rescued cops may not have known one of their rescuers was black, and thus may not have informed the filmmakers” – RIV
It is the filmmakers responsibility to ensure the authenticity & correct details of a story in which they make the claim in the beginning of the movie that it was based on a true story is indeed true. I’m sure there were others in that particular rescue effort that could corroborate the accounts of the 2 officers.
“Jason Thomas may not have given his full name to anyone at Ground Zero, thus it is possible no one could find him 4 years later.” – RIV
This is your weakest excuse yet. Even if he would have left his full name… in a city the size of NY do you really think that would have mattered? Besides, If Stone was able to get the names & the branch of service correct, don’t you think he could have asked a basic question of whoever…. ” Were these guys black or white” if he was really trying to get accurate information? Or maybe he did and purposely omitted that information, which would be debatable. But it’s strange to me that he could find out about the Sgt Karnes and how he reenlisted, and how he was white but couldn’t get any info on Thomas. Hell, he could have asked Karnes for a description… or did he…
“No one knows yet whether the filmmakers were unfair about this. Let’s wait till we hear the explanation.” – RIV
How about researching something on your own before adapting the wait and see approach. Or just call it like you see it for a change.
“Do you always jump to conclusions?” – RIV
That’s not the case when you conclusion is derived from facts that you find through due diligence and not wait and see.
You can stick you head back under the sand now RIV, sorry to bother your cat nap.
World Trade Center Movie omits Black soldier
BOYCOTT THIS MOVIE!!! EMAIL THIS TO YOUR ENTIRE LIST:
It’s so natural for hollywood to assume that every Hero is a White man.
Hollywood has always changed facts and edited history. From Charlton Heston as Moses and Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra. They are only continuing their tradition of White-washing our history. If they were able to portray Imhotep (The Mummy and The Mummy Returns who was one of the greatest black Heroes of all times and Jesus Christ as white without a single peep from our community, why should this even matter to them in the least?
Situations like this will continue and we as Black people (or whatever you want to consider yourself) will deserve what we get, unless we are willing to stand up against tyranny and white supremacy.
Demand that this movie be taken out of theatures. Boycott this movie like they attempted to boycott “Barbershop” show some community outrage like they did for the poster of 50’s Get Rich Or Die trying. Cause the national media to pick up this story.
Do something for a change. (Yes I’m talking to you!).
Paradise Gray
http://www.myspace.com/paradisegray
(Please forward to everyone on your email list, as the national press has not or will not pick up this story)
Full story in The New Pittsburgh Courier
‘World Trade Center’ omits Black soldier
Following disasters of historically epic proportions like the attack on the World Trade Center, there are bound to be countless tales of self-sacrifice, heroism and triumph. Some stories, like those told in the movies Flight 93 and Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, premiering Aug. 9, are made into blockbusters for the world to see. Others are either whispered quietly among family and friends or confined to the memories and souls of those who refuse to speak of them.
Such is the tale of United States Marine Corps Sgt. Jason L. Thomas–in spite of the fact that his story and the one told in World Trade Center are one in the same. […]
MORE
Why Call for a Boycott of The World Trade Movie?
Because it’s the right thing to do.
In a time that sees young Black peoples lives at stake over a stare, getting caught in the wrong hood or simply wearing the wrong color. We have to become more intelligent in the fight for our freedoms. In this post 911 America, the Constitution is under attack by individuals who have litterally pulled off a coup on our government and are trying to usurp our rights. It is time for us to stand up against oppression in all forms. All around the world our children are fighting unjust WARS to preserve democracy with M16’s and other devastating weapons, willing to die or kill for freedoms that they will not enjoy when they return home to America.
Who actually believes that there can be fair and impartial democratic elections in Iraq, when we can’t even get fair Presidential elections here in the U.S.A.?
The prison industrial system is a new form of slavery, we are being incarcerated at many times the rate of aparthied South Africa, laws are skewed against us, sentences are longer for us than white people for commiting similar crimes, there are political prisoners such as Tupacs father Mutulu Shakur in prisons in America who are innocent, there have been some who were incarcerated longer than Nelson Mandela (right here in the U.S.A.), our communites are being taken over by re-gentrification all over the country, we have no health care, no living wages, we are unemployed at a record breaking rate, our families and communities have been torn apart by crack, we are being devastated by AIDS, our children are dropping out of school and have a general tone of no hope, committing desparate acts of murder, hustling, pimping, trying to live up to a unrealistic image that is transmitted to them 24/7 by Radio, T.V., Cable, Satellite, Magazines, Newspapers, Movies, Video Games, Music, Word of mouth, peer pressure, the internet. The mess has become so enormous that it seems impossible a task to even partake to change this.
An ancient African proverb asks “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is “One bite at a time”.
The WTC movie may be “a little thing”, “no big deal” to some of you, but we need to take an ancient approach to “eating our elephant”, take care of the little things and the big things will begin to be whittled away also. It will take hard, long work and we may not even see immediate results. But I’ll guarantee you one thing, if we begin to hit these disrespectful corporations in the pockets, “a change gon’ come”. Look at the example that our Elders from the Civil Rights Movement taught us when they protested and boycotted the buses in the South. Have we forgotten the dangers that they faced? Have we lost the lesson? They were facing enormous odds and chose to fight what many in their time said was an impossible fight over “a small thing like sitting in the back of the bus”, why worry about that when we are faced with lynchings and we don’t have the rights to vote and we can’t use the same water fountains and we have to go to the back door of restuarants and hotels many people said. Good thing that Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luthor King Jr. and a host of other “American Heros” did not go for it.
There are so many examples of disrespect, claiming the devine and changes of facts that even the word “History” (HIS-Story) has become ironic.
We looked the other way when Charlton Heston was cast as Moses
When Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Cleopatra
When in the history of Disney there has been NO black characters
When “King Tut” was a fat white man on Batman
When they ran the name of Imhotep through the mud in “The Mummy” and the “Mummy Returns”
When they made racist Tarzan movies
When we were only cast as maids and tapp dancers
When we were only cast as pimps and whores
When they stole our Rock & Roll, taking our hit songs and remaking them with Elvis and other white folks singing them, paying us no royalties
When Denzel finally wins an Academy award it is for portraying a negative image
When Halle Berry wins an Academy Award for getting her brains banged out by a white man
When Crash wins an Oscar for reinforcing stereotypes
When It’s hard out here for a pimp wins an Academy Award
Corporations need to be hit in the pocket whenever they cross the line, it is the only thing that they understand or care about “The Bottom line”.
Money is their God and we must separate then from our hard earned pay if they can’t respect us long enough to spend it. You would be suprised to see where the money trial of these large media companies lead to. They own everything that we consume even the water systems of many countries, we may one day see them own the very air that we breathe and have to pay them for the privilage.
When do we stand up and say enough is enough? Can we not muster the courage?
To borrow a few words from my Milwaukee brothers “We are the one’s that we have been waiting for”.
If Not US, then Who? If Not NOW, then when?
Little things mean a lot, BOYCOTT.
Peace,
Paradise
http://www.myspace.com/paradisegray
As an extra in the film when they shot the ending (I was the cameraman packing up the equiptment plus I’m African-American) the glaring mistake the film made was the lack of protective face mask – clearly a HOLLYWOOD boner,but I can understand that as an actor.You want to be SEEN in the scene. But by the omission of a black hero in this film, isn’t it typical of fucked up politics playing it safe? I’m not throwing stones at Oliver (no pun) but the CORPORATE STUDIOS of the Bush generation ain’t gonna give you the TRUTH.WHY? YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
This is not new and it will not change. Hollywood is full of in the closet individuals with their own agenda “money”. They don’t care or will continue to care as long as their pockets are full.
Oliver Stone should’ve done better. Why be surprised? He’s white!
This has happened to time again in hollywood, where are the black troop in Saving Private Ryan, a 3rd of American troops on day was black, anyone with any knowledge will know that a lot more films have been white washed. Black people are always the forgotten hero, how can a proffessional filmakers make such a mistake. when i was a school in England for 11 years and and not one teacher mentioned that blacks were pilots both in the american force and in Britiain.
Why does white america admit that they only want to profile themselves as heroes. I wonder is Martins dream will ever come to pass