The myth of white superiority in<i>Mississippi Burning</i>

Brinson, Susan L.

doi:10.1080/10417949509372980

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…115-116). Media scholars Madison (1999) and Brinson (1995) argue that popular civil rights films have repeatedly reaffirmed White hegemony in the face of civil rights injustices that challenged the legitimacy of racist power structures. Madison (1999) argues that recent films about race, including Mississippi Burning, The Long Walk Home, and Cry Freedom, symbolically reasserted the subordination of Blacks by relegating them to the background of stories about their own struggles.…”

Section: The Struggle For Hegemony In Public Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Madison (1999) argues that recent films about race, including Mississippi Burning, The Long Walk Home, and Cry Freedom, symbolically reasserted the subordination of Blacks by relegating them to the background of stories about their own struggles. Brinson (1995) contends that the 1988 Mississippi Burning communicated the myth of White superiority to resolve cultural tensions about the authority of the White power structure in the late 1980s.…”

Section: The Struggle For Hegemony In Public Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Mississippi's Social Transformation in Public Memories of the Trial Against Byron de la Beckwith for the Murder of Medgar Evers

Hoerl¹

2008

Western Journal of Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 1994, Byron de la Beckwith was convicted for the 1963 murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. Journalistic coverage of the trial and the 1996 docudrama Ghosts of Mississippi crafted a social values transformation myth that depicted Beckwith as the primary villain of the civil rights past and cast his conviction as a sign that racism had been cleansed from Mississippi. Popular media naturalized this myth intertextually though narrative repetition and through symbolic cues that established the film as a source of historic understanding. These cues deflected critical attention from contemporary social conditions that have maintained racial inequity and continue to prompt racially motivated hate crimes.

show abstract

Section: The Struggle For Hegemony In Public Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Struggle For Hegemony In Public Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mississippi's Social Transformation in Public Memories of the Trial Against Byron de la Beckwith for the Murder of Medgar Evers

Hoerl¹

2008

Western Journal of Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Madison (1999) argues that recent films about race including Mississippi Burning, The Long Walk Home, and Cry Freedom reasserted the subordination of blacks by relegating them to the background of stories about their own struggles. Brinson (1995) asserts that the 1988 film Mississippi Burning communicated the myth of white superiority to resolve cultural tensions about the authority of the white power structure in the late 1980s. Winn (2001) credits Spike Lee's (1992) Malcolm X as the first film to give a voice to African Americans in commercial film by challenging racist stereotypes prevalent in films about race produced by white filmmakers.…”

Section: Film and Popular Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mario Van Peebles'sPantherand Popular Memories of the Black Panther Party

Hoerl¹

2007

Critical Studies in Media Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The 1995 movie Panther depicted the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense as a vibrant but ultimately doomed social movement for racial and economic justice during the late 1960s. Panther's narrative indicted the white-operated police for perpetuating violence against African Americans and for undermining movements for black empowerment. As such, this film represented a rare source of filmic counter-memory that challenged hegemonic memories of U.S. race relations. Newspaper reports and reviews of Panther, however, questioned the film's veracity as a source of historical information. An analysis of these reviews and reports indicates the challenges counter-memories confront in popular culture.

show abstract

“…Media scholars have similarly noted Mississippi Burning's implicit support for white hegemony. These scholars observed that the movie focused on the heroism of whites and featured blacks solely as victims (Bourgeois, 1992;Brinson, 1995;Madison, 1999). Brinson (1995) contends that Mississippi Burning's narrative communicated the myth of white superiority to resolve cultural tensions about the authority of the exclusionary power structure during the late 1980s.…”

Section: The Rhetoric Of Popular Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Burning Mississippi into Memory? Cinematic Amnesia as a Resource for Remembering Civil Rights

Hoerl

2009

Critical Studies in Media Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The myth of white superiority inMississippi Burning

Cited by 14 publications

References 21 publications

Mississippi's Social Transformation in Public Memories of the Trial Against Byron de la Beckwith for the Murder of Medgar Evers

Mississippi's Social Transformation in Public Memories of the Trial Against Byron de la Beckwith for the Murder of Medgar Evers

Mario Van Peebles'sPantherand Popular Memories of the Black Panther Party

Burning Mississippi into Memory? Cinematic Amnesia as a Resource for Remembering Civil Rights

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About