Study highlights Hollywood’s portrayal of mixed-race relationships.

Despite the large number of mixed-race relationships in the US, a new study by the University of Florida has found that Hollywood is still not showing positive portrayals of relationships between men and women of different races. In fact these relationships are more likely to be shown as short-lived, oversexed and downright dangerous.

Nadia Ramoutar, a communications professor at Flagler College in St. Augustine, who did the research her doctoral dissertation in mass communications at UF goes even further saying:

'A man and a woman of different races in the movies have a greater statistical probability of dying than of getting married or dating seriously.'

The study analysed interracial relationships in blockbuster Hollywood films between 1967 and 2005, beginning with the landmark social commentary Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Nadia selected the 15 top-grossing box office hits of each year for her sample. Of these, she found 36 films with interracial couples.

Forty-two percent of the women in such partnerships were victims of violence. 'Lying on the table like a piece of sushi' is how police described Cheryl, the drug-addicted, sexually deviant female character in Rising Sun responsible for three men’s deaths who dies herself.

'The most common racial coupling was a white male with an Asian female, who was often portrayed as a 'model minority,' in that she was smarter, more compliant and less sexually aggressive than women of other races,' says Nadia.

The study also revealed that the majority of black women on the big screen were usually mixed-race like Halle Berry, with dark-skinned actresses rarely cast except as villainesses or femme fatales.

White women involved in mixed-race relationships were shown as either morally corrupt, socially inept or as victims of physical or sexual abuse, whilst women of colour who became involved with white males were depicted as exotic, erotic and exceptionally talented.

Also worth noting was the fact that no Arabic or eastern Indian appears in any of the films and though Asian women were the most common women of colour representing nearly one-quarter of interracial romances, Asian men were practically invisible. The only major Asian male in such a relationship in nearly four decades was Jackie Chan’s character in the 2001 movie Rush Hour 2.

‘Despite the large number of women actively employed in the American workplace, the most commonly portrayed occupation of all the women in these films is that they have no identifiable occupation,’ says Nadia. 'The second most popular occupation was working as a spy, followed by a tie between prostitute and entertainer.'

Nadia believes her findings are important. 'Popular films do more than entertain: They are a powerful means of transmitting culture from one generation to the next,' says Nadia. 'The results of this study sadly show that racial and ethnic segregation in romantic relationships is heavily practiced in Hollywood blockbuster films and has become more common rather than less common in the past four decades.'

Mmm could that be why Angelina Jolie got the part of Mariane Pearl, the widow of murdered US journalist Daniel Pearl, in A Mighty Heart?

Did You Know
The first interracial kiss on British television was in Emergency Ward 10 in 1964.

In the US it was in Star Trek between James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). However, according to William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols in Shatner's 'Star Trek: Memories', NBC insisted that their lips never touch. Their heads turn away from the camera in the shot.

In the UK, the BBC skipped this episode in all runs of the series, due to the controversial kiss between Kirk and Uhura. It was finally shown for the first time on December 22, 1993.

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