When promoting the new film Couples Retreat in the UK marketers for the film decided to crop out the black couple from the movie poster. The reason given behind the removal was that the two black actors were unknown in the UK and that the other three couples were better known. According to a New York Times article, American movies with black actors usually do not do as well in the UK market. This just shows that racism has not been overcome as much as we’d like to think.
One of the topics we discussed in class was whiteness. One of the main ideas behind whiteness is that it is a system where whites more usually are in power but it is not done purposely. The racism goes unsaid and is extremely subtle. While deciding to remove the black couple from the movie poster, perhaps it was never stated bluntly that this was being done out of racism of somewhere in the room it was probably being thought. Even if it was being thought, that does not mean that the person was purposely being racist. Most of the racism that we see now a day goes are small subtle actions that sometimes go unnoticed unless you belong to the group being attacked.
I personally do not think that the marketers meant anything bad by removing the actors from the poster; they were probably trying to just increase sales the most that they could. The fact if it was done purposely or not is not really relevant, what matters is that it happened and that it proves the fact that we have yet to overcome racism. Like discussed during class, this is an example of racism 2.0. We usually expect racism acts to be violent and outspoken. Just because racism is not as verbal anymore, does not mean it is not present in our society anymore.
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"Couples Retreat" Poster In UK Removes Black Couple
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