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Is There Subtle Racism in Movie Posters?

by Eric D. Snider Oct 20th 2009 // 9:48AM

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Movie Marketing, Posters

A dizzying array of elements are involved in creating a movie poster -- everything from contractual requirements dictating the size of the stars' names to psychological studies on which colors and fonts produce which emotions in viewers. But Ron Henriques at Latino Review suggests there might be more to it. In a very amusing article -- or an infuriating one, depending on how seriously you take it -- he shows multiple examples of what he considers racist "rules" in the way minorities are shown in posters.

For example, Henriques says it's only OK for a minority (he's mostly talking about African Americans) to brandish a gun in a movie poster if they're cops, secret agents, or FBI. What's more, he says, the posters tend to make it clear that the person is in law enforcement, either through costume elements or in the text on the poster, lest observers think he's a criminal. (White people, he implies, are allowed to hold guns on posters without being identified as cops.) "Perhaps this will change in time if the powers that be will get over their fears that minorities brandishing weapons on a simple movie poster is going to make their kids go postal," Henriques writes, making it hard to tell whether he's exaggerating for the sake of humor or whether he really believes that that's what movie marketers believe.

Another of his observations: Minorities brandishing weapons often have their faces partially obscured from the poster. He shows American Gangster, Smokin' Aces, and Matrix Reloaded as examples; in each case, the black actors' faces are cut off just above the nose. But in fairness, so are the white actors' faces.


It goes on like that. Some of the trends are funny -- Bruce Willis' minority co-stars always seem to wind up behind him rather than next to him -- and all of them make you stop and go, "Huh. Interesting," at least for a minute. But the article doesn't prove anything. It barely even makes a case for anything.

There's certainly some truth to the idea that movie marketers are hesitant to put minorities front-and-center lest viewers think the movie is meant only for that demographic. But even with the examples this article gives, it's hard to conclude that there's a "code" going on, even subconsciously. It's not enough to show us posters where the black guys with guns are identified as law enforcement, thus making their gun ownership nonthreatening. You'd also have to count how many posters show white guys with guns being identified as cops. Maybe the trend holds true for all races, not just minorities. Maybe it doesn't, either -- but you can't just show one side of the experiment. And maybe it's not just minorities with guns whose faces get cut off on the posters. You'd need to get a random sampling of all posters with half-faces, then count how many of those half-faces are minorities.

Still, the trends are interesting to consider. What do you think? Is Ron Henriques article on the mark, or is he reading too much into it? And what's his obsession with minorities wearing sunglasses on posters more than white people do? So what? Are sunglasses a racial thing now? I'm still not clear on that point.

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Tags: featured, minorities, posters, sunglasses

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