The movie delivers a resounding rhetoric on the reversal of the racial tables in the social strata; the black man now has exclusive control over the society’s wealth and factors of production. He exercises dominance against the under privileged white people who, in this case, belong to the lower strata. They are homeless, street muggers and survive on menial jobs . The captivating and intriguing scenes provide the right recipe for mental delicacies. Thaddeus Thomas, a black man, owns a lucrative chocolate manufacturing plant. Louis Pinnock is a loyal white employee in the plant.
No sooner is he sent on an errand to his boss’ mansion, than he begins a long journey full of endless predicaments. Nakano (1995) intricately reveals how Pinnock meets his boss’ wife in a compromising situation. He loses his job, he gets evicted for non-payment of rent, his wife and two young kids desert him and go to his unwelcoming mother in-law . They say that desperate times call for desperate measures. Pinnock adopts the devilish alternative. He kidnapped his former boss, Mr. Thomas. Unfortunately, the tycoon has no cash, the banks doors are closing, and the weekend celebrations are just about to start.
The anticipated assistance arrives too late for him to escape a tragedy. The switch game starts, Pinnock’s son falls for a black model, while Thomas’ son brings a white girl home. The satire is convincingly articulated. It revolves around crude racial twists that somehow send an awakening message to the audience. A journey through the scenes reveals a society struggling to walk through a path of racial polarities. The thrilling acts are a sumptuous meal to the mind and eyes. Though based on paradox, it reflects some real situations on the ground; I learn from the movie that, people of all races can belong to any social class.
The first impression created in the movie is that the white man is in control of the social order. However, this perception fails to hold. Soares (2007) draws a reflection of the, society where the power of wealth endows or ascribes people with certain privileges which they immensely enjoy as members of the upper class. WhitBourne (1987) states that, Wealth can be used as spring board to influential power, to manipulate and control the political order and facilitate oppression of the under-privileged and as a tool for identity development on the account of race, culture, gender, religious beliefs and ethnic background.
Nobody has the option of choosing his race and gender; it’s acquired by divine providence. However, upon being seasoned with inevitable pressures of human equity interdependence, and human integration, new generations of individuals have evolved. These generations have appreciated and respected the distinct racial and cultural differences with tolerance, resulting to inter and/or multiracial marriages that have spilled over many generations. Youth indicators (1993) illustrates how these switches have diluted and erased the cultural, racial and class stigma that previously used to propagate discrimination and oppression in the society.
It’s certain to us that good communication channels and societal institutions can facilitate and mould the capacity of the society to adapt to the common differences and foster individual development. The message from this movie is simple; the human society has evolved. There is no more room for cultural, racial or religious profiling . The cultural, racial and ethnic deviants should rise up the occasion and embrace a society where everybody is somebody.
Work cited
White Man’s Burden Movie Review by Desmond Nakana, 1995 from home page http://www. contactmusic. com/new/film. nsf/reviews/whitemansburden