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In this op-ed, Fariha Róisín tackles Hollywood's obsession withwhite-savior narratives and how this sidelines people of color fromtheir own stories.

Within the first few minutes of this year’s Oscar-nominated Lion,(starring Dev Patel and based on the book written by SarooBrierley), the audience was completely enraptured. The storycenters on Saroo, a young Indian boy who loses his family. Aftermonths of loneliness, he is adopted by Australian parents — andthen later finds his biological family through Google Maps.

MOVIES

Why Hollywood’s White Savior Obsession Is anExtension of Colonialism

From “The Blind Side” to “The Help.”

Fariha Róisín

SEP 14, 2017 1:00PM EDT

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It’s a profound story. But knowing that it was true, I couldn't helpbut wonder whether the film would be eclipsed by Nicole Kidman,who plays Saroo’s adoptive, white Australian mother. And though itwasn’t so obvious, her presence within the narrative was feltthroughout the movie: She was ever-present, her whiteness all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipresent.

Hollywood has a trend when it comes to these films in general. It’smost commonly seen in Oscar-bait movies; the white savior complexis a constant leitmotif. Hollywood supposedly inserts these roles forcomplexity, for drama. But what ends up happening is that theyperpetuate an idea that is essentially a historical banner ofcolonialism: People of color need white people to save them. To thisday, some people still latently believe what imperialists such asRudyard Kipling said, that colonialism was important for everyone:the conqueror and, most importantly, the conquered. That withoutthe colonizers, the colonized had no hope of survival. And byconstantly churning out movies with plots in which white people"save" people of color, Hollywood reinforces colonialist dictum.

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©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection

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Many white people in films based on the stories of POC are oftensubliminally depicted as godlike saviors, heroes who are rationaland judicious to the core. They are usually deified men or women —glorified and righteous — like scripture out of a Holy Book. Look atHillary Swank in Freedom Writers. The white savior somehowalways ends up usurping the narrative. And in this centering ofwhiteness and white characters, the POC characters end upbecoming props, which only perpetuates ideas of our otherness andunimportance, which then establishes a status quo of racism.Whiteness is again normalized, and POC are decentralized. This isparticularly problematic because whiteness is not only favored inHollywood but also in society at large; white privilege is ever-present and ubiquitous.

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By constantly churning out movies with plots in which white people'save' people of color, Hollywood reinforces colonialist dictum.

The stories of children of color, in particular, are often used as filmfodder in a bid to invoke a sympathetic appeal to a narrative — justlook at Angelina Jolie’s forthcoming film First They Killed MyFather, as well as Lion. Or The Blind Side, which in 2010 wonSandra Bullock the Academy Award for Best Actress. The movie wasabout a white mom who adopts Michael Oher, a young black boywho goes on to be an offensive lineman who played for theBaltimore Ravens, Tennessee Titans, and Carolina Panthers in theNFL. Though there are some endearing moments throughout the

NFL. Though there are some endearing moments throughout thefilm, it is, in a roundabout way, about how a white family’s belief ina black boy allowed him to become who he truly was. Without them,his full potential would never have been realized. Therefore, it stillemploys exploitative power dynamics of someone needing to be“saved.”

And sometimes this happens even in POC-helmed films. Take 12Years a Slave; in it, a Canadian carpenter, played by Brad Pitt, is sounsettled when he hears the details of Solomon Northup’s story ofenslavement that he risks his life to free him. It’s momentary —there’s really just a hop, skip, and a glimpse of Brad Pitt — but hispresence is known and made a significant plot point within the film.There’s a sigh of relief when you see him, because, in some way,psychologically you understand his purpose in the narrative arc.Especially against the lunacy, brashness, and pure evil of the otherslave owners, Pitt’s existence in the film is light. He ushers in goodtidings, and, most importantly, he is vital to the plot of Northup’sfreedom. He is a classic white savior.

The film was written by John Ridley (who is black), who won a BestAdapted Screenplay Academy Award for it — and the film itself alsotook Best Picture. A few months beforehand, in response to aninterviewer at the BBC, Steve McQueen, the director of 12 Years aSlave, explained, with no hesitation, “I don’t make films for whitepeople . . .” Though that may be true, it’s clear that even with Pitt’scharacter being a secondary one in the film, the fact that the storydepended on him for Solomon to ultimately find freedom shifts the

The Blind Side

©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection

entire lens of the film. For me, as a viewer, Pitt’s existence in thenarrative of the film was memorable in a way I don't want toremember a white character in a film about a black man’s survival.

Perhaps one of the most offensive of all depictions of white savior-ness is the Oscar-winning hit The Help. It had a considerable, hefty,and talented POC cast. The film interacts with the burdens of POCin the South by glorifying the liberal journalist who endows twoblack maids — Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Minny Jackson(Octavia Spencer, who won Best Supporting Actress for this role) —with strength during the Civil Rights Movement. A “liberal” in thissense is the confluence of a person with white guilt — someone whoclaims to be invested in not being racist — who doesn't engage inhow they might profit off of racism and also how they mightperpetuate it. The Help centers on a white journalist’s verve forjustice for two working-class black women during the civil rightsera; it's the main narrative of the film. Clearly, the Civil RightsMovement didn’t have enough inspirational black folks to encouragethe need for self-determination.

There are many ways that Hollywood could do better. First, it couldhire more diverse writers. Representation comes through hiringtrans and nonbinary writers, black and brown writers, queer anddisabled writers; it’s about engaging in the problematics of a systemand not hiding from the reality that perpetuating whiteness as anorm hasn’t got us anywhere, ahem. The most damning part of thewhite savior complex is that Hollywood is making content for us, but

The Help

©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

without us in mind, usurping our stories with a white person’s guilt.If we want stronger storytelling, we have to be willing to invest inthose who have that lived experience and nurture their voices, too.Because Hollywood is reliant upon us both to make money and tosurvive.

Related: #OscarsSoWhite? New Study Finds That#HollywoodSoWhite

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