Mississippi Masala, Do the Right Thing and Term Paper

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Mississippi Masala, "Do the Right Thing" and "Scarface."

Over the years, Hollywood and independent filmmakers have taken the 'American identity' and given audiences an opportunity to view the multi-faceted ethnicity of community-based ethics and interracial harmonies - or lack thereof. America has become a melting pot of cultures and beliefs that have had to fight off social stereotypes and fight against anglo-conformity.

Directors like Brian De Palma, Mira Nair and Spike Lee have taken their audiences into the heart of ethnic racism in communities and the struggle some cultures face in order to survive against 'Americanization' and the paradox of achieving their 'American Dream'.

In De Palma's remake of "Scarface," the 1980 Mariel boat lift from Cuba formed the backdrop and set the stage for Tony Montana's desire to gradually manifest his destiny that eventually leads to his self-destruction.

Drawing on historical fact involving the North Miami refugee camps, including Freedom Town, and the social scene of the early 1980s, "Scarface" is a testimony to interracial struggles that continue today as well as the underworld element that still exists in the United States. This stereotype of 'Chicano' drug cartels, 'Pachuco' youths and gangs continues to plague many communities today, either through their attempts to co-exist with drug gangs, or through social ignorance.

Another film that shows intercultural assimilation is Mira Nair's "Mississippi Masala" in which an African-American and an East Indian pursue a romantic relationship. Besides drawing on the views of the South towards African-Americans, Nair introduces East Indian views towards miscegenation (mixed marriages) as they strive to retain their cultural identity in an otherwise Western ideology-dominated environment.

Here, community is an integral part of daily life as it acts as a reminder of the 'old ways'.

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Masala is an Indian mixture of spices and serves as the archetype to the society Demetrius and Mina are surrounded by. Mina's family are refugees (like Tony Montana in Scarface) of a sort having fled Uganda from Idi Amin Dada's regime.

Both families protest the relationship, not because it is interracial, but in fear of their own identities being swallowed up by racism and another culture. There is a fear that ethnogenesis will wither away and communities will evolve into a caricature of traditions and beliefs where materialism and the 'American Dream' out-rank traditional customs, costume, language and even foods. Nair artistically tells her story involving these traditions and customs as they interplay with American culture and style.

While "Mississippi Masala" contemplates relationships between two people who are not facing problems with pigmentocracy, "Do the Right Thing" culminates over racial tensions in a community that co-exists, though not always successfully. Spike Lee takes us into an everyday New York suburb, Brooklyn and shows us exactly what happens when 'good neighbor policy' works, and then doesn't.

Brooklyn is probably one of the most well-known areas of New York, aside from Harlem, and giving the audience a place they can recognize, gave Spike Lee the opportunity to tell a story that involved current aspects of society that were (and still are) common-place in other neighborhoods and towns.

The main character, Mookie, is everyone's friend.

He is the archetype of what we would like to consider ourselves: non-racial. Vito, his boss, on the other hand is racist and does not get along….....

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