While this was not very surprising to me, the movies that they previewed for this section all had two common themes: basketball and hardship. While there are over 20 movies in this OnDemand section consisting of all different genres of film, the three that they advertised all had a black lead playing an athlete and up against diversity and poverty. This is a clear representation of tokenism, having the only black cinema represented be the athletic and diversity cliche movies.
Anna, I agree that the portrayed image of african americans is a stereotypical one, and this is unfortunate. However, what I think is fortunate is that these stereotypes at the very least least are not negative in the way they once were. Athleticism and perseverance in the face of hardship are well regarded qualities, and so if african americans are to be stereotyped in this way, at least it is not derogatory. No stereotype is good though.
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