Racism and Film: Examining Ten Canoes (2006)

Introduction: Racism, Film, and Colonialism

We like to think of ourselves as a society that has grown past the limitations of racism. Unfortunately, this is not yet true. Racist stereotypes still find ways to surface even within modern society. Yet modern technologies are providing new means for ethnic minorities to share their perspectives and voices with the world. Film, in particular, has become a medium through which minority cultural groups can attempt to reconnect with their cultural norms before those norms were distorted by European colonialism.

Colonialism and Its Racist Legacy

Racism and colonialism forever changed the way people of different cultures interact with one another. According to Stam and Spence, colonialism is "the process by which the European powers (including the United States) reached a position of economic, military, political and cultural domination in much of Asia, Africa, and Latin America" (Stam & Spence 753). Colonialism spread quickly across the entire globe. European countries seized upon opportunities to subordinate societies they deemed inferior in order to pillage their land and natural resources, justifying their own violent behaviors through racist ideology. As Stam and Spence observe, "this process, which can be traced at least as far back as the voyages of discovery and which had as its corollary the institution of the slave trade, reached its apogee between 1900 and the end of World War I (at which point Europe had colonized roughly 85% of the earth) and began to be reversed only with the disintegration of the European colonial empires after World War II" (Stam & Spence 753). Many people fail to realize how recently colonialism was a fact of daily life. The majority culture has often tried to obscure the violence and aggression that actually defined global colonialism.

Colonialism produced massive stereotyping and oppression of what are now considered Third World countries, placing many minority groups across the globe at a profound disadvantage. Colonialism was fueled by a growing sense of racism, through which the white majority tended to marginalize and objectify minority groups. According to the research, racism "has historically been both an ally and a product of the colonization process" (Stam & Spence 753). As the modern world continued to advance technologically, racism found its way onto cinema screens around the world.

Film as a Tool for Minority Representation

Racism can be found in film throughout cinematic history. It manifests both in the highlighting of racist stereotypes and in their conspicuous absence when filmmakers try too hard to appear politically correct. The exclusion of ethnic minorities from popular film became one more way to exclude them from majority culture altogether.

Yet this was not always the case. Film has also long served as an arena for telling stories about the damage wrought by racism and colonialism, and how those forces have victimized people of minority cultures and ethnic groups (Stam & Spence 752). In response to racist film portrayals, the "Third World had attempted to write its own history, take control of its own cinematic image, in its own voice. The colonists wrote the colonized out of history" — but film provided a way for the colonized to speak out and express how oppression and prejudice had held them back for so long (Stam & Spence 757). Many American films have similarly highlighted how racism has devastated African-American and Latino-American communities. Film is a popular and powerful way of informing the public about minority perspectives in a contemporary world still marked by the negative effects of racism.

Colonialism has a long history of representation within art. While it was still in force, many authors wrote novels and short stories describing the pain and oppression that people across the world were forced to endure because of European racist attitudes and the desire for land and natural resources. Yet literature could only go so far. The introduction of film became a powerful new tool for informing audiences of just how profoundly colonialism and racism had changed the face of the Earth — especially for people in distant lands who might otherwise have no means of telling their story. Film offered a way for the experiences and perspectives of these communities to be dramatically and realistically portrayed, free from the external biases that the European colonial mindset had placed on ethnic minorities for centuries.

Conclusion: Reclaiming the Past Through Film

Overall, it is clear that modern society has not yet moved beyond the wounds of the colonialist era. The racism of that period still haunts us today. However, the voices of the past can be harnessed and preserved on film as a means of preventing them from disappearing entirely. As many cultural minority groups work to strengthen their connection to their heritage, postcolonial cinema can become a powerful way of portraying that effort to the rest of the world. The film Ten Canoes stands as a successful example of using the medium to revitalize the past and assert the enduring value of indigenous cultural life.

References

Stam, Robert, and Louise Spence. "Colonialism, Racism, and Representation: An Introduction."