Tokenism and Racial Stereotypes in Teen Movies

It is common knowledge that modern cinema is bursting with multiculturalism and the inclusion of different racial groups. This is progressive and shows a normal representation of society. But why do I get the feeling that a lot of films do this SO obviously? It’s like they need to prove that they definitely are not racist.

In Julie F. Codell’s article ‘Genre, gender, race and world cinema: [an anthology]’, she states:

“one way around the political content of race is to make race identities and relationships (friendships, marriage, etc.) appear matters of individual choice, not institutional imposition.”

What Codell is saying is film makers who integrate different races into their films in a natural way where characters look like they choose their own relationships are doing a good job. The filmmakers, however, that must have one black girl and one Asian boy and a white protagonist, just to cover all the bases, are normalising racial stereotypes and the institutional imposition of race in film.

One thing I do love is a classic teen movie. I love the drama and the clique-iness, but one thing that gets me every time is when the star of the show is a white girl who has a person of colour as a ‘side kick’. This is tokenism, and it’s EVERYWHERE in the teen movie world. It creates the stereotype that people of colour are always sidekicks or a ‘step down’ to the white main character.

Just look at Clueless. A classic. The white, blonde, upper class main character Cher has an African American best friend Dionne or ‘Dee’. Dionne is shown as a same-but-different role, where Cher is the classically beautiful, blonde, ‘good girl’ and Dee is more edgy, hip, wears braids and has a lot more sass. They are both rich and popular but are contrasted throughout the film for their differences. Why was Cher chosen as the lead role and not Dee? Why is Dee stereotyped as the sassier, edgy black girl?

Similarly in She’s the Man, Viola Hastings, the white main character, has one African American best friend (side kick) and one white one who both have barely any lines. Let’s not forget that Viola’s male counterpart Duke has one African American friend and one white one. What a coincidence!

Mean Girls, yet another classic, with the white, blonde leader of the clique Regina and her 2 BFFLs (sidekicks) Gretchen, the token ethnic diversity, and Karen, the dumb blonde.

All of these sidekick roles have minimal lines and usually a minimal role in the entire plot of the film. Notice how there is always a white sidekick/friend to go with the coloured friend who always seem to be in groups of three’s. See the pattern now? This inferential racism shows people of colour in a constant background role, creating racial bias as an unquestioned assumption.

The use of more people of colour in important roles will go a long way in making coloured identities look like a choice rather than a stale stereotype in order to ‘appear’ more culturally diverse in film. The formula is so obvious and so cringey that I’m sure most teens (and 20 year olds like myself) are sick to death of being spoon fed racial stereotypes.

Not to say that there aren’t any teen movies that show positive and natural depictions of race (Bring It On), but this recurring theme of POC sidekicks has got to change. 

So not fetch.