{"id":51515,"date":"2017-02-11T18:14:26","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T18:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=51515"},"modified":"2017-02-13T01:59:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T01:59:37","slug":"its-not-simply-black-and-white-onscreen-mixed-race-romances-sort-of-grow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=51515","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Not Simply Black and White: Onscreen mixed-race romances (sort of) grow up"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Not Simply Black and White: Onscreen mixed-race romances (sort of) grow up<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Film Journal International<\/a>
\n2017-02-10<\/p>\n

Simi Horwitz<\/strong><\/a>, Cultural Reporter\/Features Writer
\nNew York, New York<\/em><\/p>\n

Guess Who\u2019s Coming to Dinner<\/em><\/a>, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, was not the first film to deal with an interracial love story, though it was the first to present \u201cthe issue\u201d in the starkest terms. To wit: An exemplary son-in-law\u2014a well-mannered, well-spoken doctor<\/em> with a stellar future who happens to be black\u2014sparks feelings of profound equivocation for the girl\u2019s parents, otherwise the most fair-minded, tolerance-spewing champions one can imagine. The good doctor refusing to marry her at all without their blessing only makes it worse. He is a paradigm of virtue but still an African-American, and his race defines him.<\/p>\n

At the height of the Civil Rights movement<\/a>, the Stanley Kramer<\/a> film was a controversial groundbreaker. The brilliant casting didn\u2019t hurt: Sidney Poitier<\/a> as the romantic lead, Dr. John Prentice, with Spencer Tracy<\/a> and Katharine Hepburn<\/a> as old-time liberals Matt and Christina Drayton, whose daughter Joey (Hepburn\u2019s real-life niece Katharine Houghton<\/a>) is engaged to Prentice.<\/p>\n

Naturally, it all ends happily enough (Did I mention it\u2019s a comedy?), with Tracy delivering a long, very long speech asserting that love is what matters and while the young couple will face obstacles in a bigoted world, they must get married. To fly in the face of their love is a violation and morally wrong.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s treatment of race relations is clearly dated. Not coincidentally, its depiction of women is also thesis-worthy, let alone its portrait of a black housekeeper (Isabel Sanford<\/a>, years before \u201cThe Jeffersons<\/a>\u201d) who embodies a host of racial, gender and class stereotypes. Enraged and horrified at the prospect of Joey marrying a black man, she sputters, \u201cCivil Rights are one thing. But this is something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, it was a bellwether, landing an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and winning its screenwriter William Rose<\/a> a statuette…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Not Simply Black and White: Onscreen mixed-race romances (sort of) grow up Film Journal International 2017-02-10 Simi Horwitz, Cultural Reporter\/Features Writer New York, New York Guess Who\u2019s Coming to Dinner, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, was not the first film to deal with an interracial love story, though it was the first to present […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8413,8,20],"tags":[10470,26204],"class_list":["post-51515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-communications","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-film-journal-international","tag-simi-horwitz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51516,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51515\/revisions\/51516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}