Contemporary Racism

Paper Summary:

Both Colson Whitehead's novel "The Intuitionist" and the film "Pleasantville", directed by Gary Ross, deal with notions of racism in modern day society. The paper looks at how Colson Whitehead's novel revolves around the first female, African-American elevator inspector ever appointed in a city of the future. It shows, in comparison, how the film "Pleasantville" depicts the racism inflicted against those who have "color," literally those who physically manifest color in a black and white world. As can be gleaned from these plots, both novel and film deal with notions of discrimination in absurd, fantastic ways. The paper shows that although Whitehead's novel has a slightly more substantive quality of reality in its execution, the author's prose and the heightened level of reality he utilizes connects him stylistically to the fantastic genre.

From the Paper:

"Furthermore, discrimination against all people of color is not necessarily the same in the real world. This is not to say that hatred of an African American is worse than hatred directed towards an Asian American because of his or her skin tone. But it is different, and Pleasantville's metaphorical depiction does not take into consideration of this reality, while Whitehead's pork barrel and corruption infested vision of the future does. Pleasantville's depiction of racism and intolerance against the 'colored' is also not a perfect parallel with modern societal racism because it is so arbitrary. The idea that anyone can become hated may be laudatory when viewed in the abstract. But it neglects the idea that some individuals are more likely to become targets in certain worlds."

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