White savior narrative in film
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In film, the white savior is a cinematic trope portraying a white character rescuing people of color from their plight. Certain critics have observed this narrative in an array of genres of movies in American cinema, wherein a white protagonist is portrayed as a messianic figure who often learns something about him- or herself in the course of rescuing characters of color.
The narrative trope of the white savior is how the mass communications medium of cinema represents the sociology of race and ethnic relations, by presenting abstract concepts—such as morality—as innate characteristics (racial and cultural) of white people, rather than as characteristics innate to people of color. In the praxis of cinematic narrative, the white-savior character usually is a man who is out of place within his own society, until he assumes the burden of racial leadership in order to rescue non-white foreigners and minorities (racial and ethnic) from their plights; as such, white-savior stories "are essentially grandiose, exhibitionistic, and narcissistic" fantasies of psychological compensation.
See also
- Noble savage
- Magical Negro
- "The White Man's Burden"
- List of Magical Negro occurrences in fiction
- Whitewashing in film
