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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, White Man's Burden - Review﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Film Review

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by Greg Sharzer﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, January 1996﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿Review of ﻿<i﻿>﻿White Man's Burden﻿</i>﻿ starring Harry Belafonte and John Travolta.﻿</font>﻿

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


According to Hollywood, racism is bad people with bad ideas. Educate the people, the logic goes, and everyone will get along. That's what makes a movie like White Man's Burden, which shows racism is system-wide and a tool of oppression, so rare. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The premise is fairly simple. A factory worker (John Travolta) is fired after accidently viewing the boss's wife topless. His life comes apart as he can't find a job and his family is evicted from their house. With no options left, he kidnaps his boss (Harry Belafonte). 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Movies about working-class reality, of being jobless and homeless, are hard to find: White Man's Burden has a special twist in that blacks are on top instead of whites. The bosses, the police, the whole ruling class is black, while the workers are white. It's our world reversed, and the film gives white audiences a taste of what it's like when the entire system says you're the wrong colour. The cops beat up Travolta because he "looked like a suspect wanted for bank robbery". There aren't any jobs for whites except low-paid menial labour. Everyone on TV is black. Children's dolls are black. Blacks and whites even speak differently: Belafonte in crisp, learned phrases, Travolta in a working class drawl. Time and time again, life is that much harder because of your colour. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The film turns into an action flick, underscored by the relationship between Belafonte and Travolta as they're forced together. If Travolta's drawl is strained at times, he makes up for it by pained sincerity as he discovers the whole world's against him. Belafonte is excellent as the disdainful capitalist, full of empty cliches about "the world owing you a living." His words ring hollow as we see Travolta is a man without options. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Unfortunately, Travolta's character doesn't consider the one surefire weapon against racism: working class solidarity. Had there been a union in his plant, he wouldn't have gotten fired in the first place. There's no attempt to talk to his fellow workers, black or white. But he's playing the bewildered observer, much like white audiences who've never lived through this. He simply reflects the grim reality of being black and poor under capitalism. White Man's Burden is a provocative look at racism, telling us that it's real and it's everywhere. For Hollywood, that's a breath of fresh air. 

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