Weeks 7-8

In the recent couple of days, the film Bushwick has gotten publicity for its role in furthering whitewashing Hollywood films, specifically, for continuing the tradition of having the protagonist embody a “white savior” persona in films that are meant to focus on minorities. In Bushwick, Brittany Snow plays Lucy, a civil engineering student who tries to stop an army of soldiers that are trying to seize Bushwick as a part of the Texas secessionist movement.

Bushwick, like many New York neighborhoods, was originally a neighborhood that was composed of mostly minorities, but has currently faced heightened racial tension and displacement due to increasing gentrification. What makes the film even more problematic is not only that its lead actress is white, but also the fact that none of the supporting cast members were of black or Latinx, a major portion of Bushwick’s population. This continues the tradition of whitewashing that Hollywood and the city of Bushwick have felt throughout the years.

White people are not the ones organizing in the actual city of Bushwick but they deserve to be shown leading the effort in its film adaptation. This is inexcusable, even if the film is fiction. As we’ve been learning about producing PSA’s in class, we’ve learned to think in shots and essentially realize that the images we choose send a majority of the information to the audience. Therefore, continuing to center films around a white savior not only continues the stereotype that people of color need to be saved, but with less Hollywood diversity, it becomes the only images and thereby, information we receive. This misinformation in part through films like Bushwick and many more before it normalize whitewashing and white saviorism, thus increasing both problems as well as the lack of Hollywood diversity.