• Home
  • Videos
  • Pics
  • Blog
  • Modules
  • About Us
  @TheSocyCinema

@thesocycinema / videos

Criminalizing “Driving While Black” (DWB)

3/8/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureBlackness is associated with criminality in this Bridesmaids scene.
Tags: crime/law/deviance, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, criminalizing blackness, racial profiling, racism, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2011
Length: 2:18
Access: YouTube

Summary: In this scene from the popular romantic comedy Bridesmaids (2011), Annie (Kristen Wiig) attempts to get the attention of State Patrol Officer Nathan Rhodes (Chris O'Dowd). A budding romance has started between the two, but in this scene Rhodes is upset with Annie and ignores her attempts to communicate. In an effort to appeal to his obligations as a patrol officer, Annie proceeds to engage in various reckless driving activities, hoping that her reckless behavior behind the wheel will require Officer Rhodes to pull her over, thus giving her an opportunity to talk to him. Some of the reckless driving behaviors that Annie engages in include texting, talking on the phone, pretending to consume alcohol, speeding, doing donuts, driving topless, driving without looking where she's going, and throwing litter out the window, aimed at the uniformed officer. These various actual driving offenses are seamlessly placed alongside another activity that Annie performs in the hopes of being pulled over: sitting in a reclined position listening to loud rap music. Of course, this last activity is not a legal offense. Culturally, this behavior is predominantly associated with black male urban youth. This scene illustrates the deeply embedded association between blackness and criminality in American culture, an argument that Khalil Gibran Muhammad (2011) explores more thoroughly in his book The Condemnation of Blackness and Michelle Alexander (2010) in her book The New Jim Crow. Despite doing nothing illegal when she drives with her seat back listening to Ice Cube, this racially coded behavior is deemed illegal, suggested to be a legitimate infraction for which one can be pulled over. Such cultural messages reinforce and perpetuate the racial profiling practices described by the vernacular pun of getting pulled over for a “DWB” (Driving While Black). Viewers can be encouraged to think about other examples of how practices associated with blackness are criminalized in American society.

Submitted By: Valerie Chepp

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Tags

    All
    00 To 05 Mins
    06 To 10 Mins
    11 To 20 Mins
    21 To 60 Mins
    61+ Mins
    Abortion/Reproduction
    Aging/Life Course
    Art/Music
    Biology
    Bodies
    Capitalism
    Children/Youth
    Class
    Commodification
    Community
    Consumption/Consumerism
    Corporations
    Crime/Law/Deviance
    Culture
    Demography/Population
    Disability
    Discourse/Language
    Du Bois
    Durkheim
    Economic Sociology
    Education
    Emotion/Desire
    Environment
    Food/Agriculture
    Foucault
    Gender
    Globalization
    Goffman
    Government/The State
    Health/Medicine
    Historical Sociology
    Immigration/Citizenship
    Inequality
    Intersectionality
    Knowledge
    Lgbtq
    Marketing/Brands
    Marriage/Family
    Marx/Marxism
    Media
    Methodology/Statistics
    Multiculturalism
    Nationalism
    Organizations/Occupations/Work
    Political Economy
    Politics/Election/Voting
    Prejudice/Discrimination
    Psychology/Social Psychology
    Race/Ethnicity
    Religion
    Rural/Urban
    Science/Technology
    Sex/Sexuality
    Social Construction
    Social Mvmts/Social Change/Resistance
    Sports
    Subtitles/CC
    Theory
    Violence
    War/Military
    Weber

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @TheSocyCinema

    .

    Got any videos?

    Are you finding useful videos for your classes? Do you have good videos you use in your own classes? Please consider submitting your videos here and helping us build our database!

     

    Creative Commons License
​About Us      |      Facebook      |      Twitter      |      Pinterest      |      Tumblr
Creative Commons
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Pics
  • Blog
  • Modules
  • About Us