An Analysis Of ¨ Precious¨ And It´s Relation To Racism Today.

When you are looking at the African American race and it’s history, You will find many triumphs, Many losses and many different examples of how diverse the culture is. For my Analysis I chose the movie Precious. This movie came out a couple years ago, and really shows the different Archetypes of African Americans. 

The movie is about a Overweight African american girl named Precious. Her father Is abusive to both Precious and her mother, and has raped Precious multiple times and even has 2 kids with precious. He was portrayed as the brute.  Throughout the movie, he is seen as a large, scary and villainous, just as the brute has been portrayed throughout history.

The mother, who is mentally and physically abusive to Precious could be seen as a mixture of the brute and Mammy. She is shown as Terribly abusive, and strangly nice and motherly. She herself is a paradox, because she is both Evil and good at the same time.

Precious, However, is not really identifiable in only one category.  She is overweight, which is a Stereotype of African americans. That they are sloppy, and don’t take care of themselves. At this point, she could almost be seen as a mammy. There is also a scene where she steals fried chicken from a restaurant. This portrays the stereotype that African Americans are thieves. She is also Not very smart, as seen in the film, which is also a known stereotype of African Americans. Precious and her family live in the “Hood”, which is another stereotype of African Americans. 

The people who contributed to writing this movie and the people who Added ideas to the movie, such as Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey, Were very much conscious of the racial ideas and stereotypes in the movie. I believe that they did it to show those who have no idea that this happens everyday. For the people who haven’t seen the ruins that These people live in called “hoods”. For the people who don’t know about the Lack of opportunities in these areas.

This movie, while some could say over exaggerated, told the true story of The lives of these people, and Portrays almost all of the stereotypes known to us. Although a terrible truth, it is the truth. Though some choose to deny this truth, It is real, and will stay real until things change. Is it possible to remove these stereotypes from the culture of today? I don know. However, I know that everyone can do their part in trying.