Ku Klux Klan Discrimination

While watching the first couple of movies, I learned that the directors and actors and most of the population were extremely racist in the early 1900’s. Instead of casting actual black or Asian men and women, white actors would play blacks and Asians as seen in The Birth of a Nation and Broken Blossoms, respectively. Not only were the actors painted to look like black men and women but they also acted like the stereotypical version of black people: unintelligent, foolish, bad grammar, and unruly behavior. Additionally, during the film, The Birth of a Nation, you learn that the blacks are portrayed as the “bad guys” throughout the movie who run around creating chaos and frightening the townspeople. Consequently, the Ku Klux Klan are portrayed
as the heroes who save the town and the townspeople from the unruly, rotten black people. This shows me that the population in the early 1900’s had extreme views about the races.
Similarly, in the film Broken Blossoms the main character who is suppose to be Asian is once again played by a white man. Furthermore, throughout the movie people call him the yellow man and chinky, two racist names against Asians. However, instead of the Asian man being portrayed as the “bad guy” like the blacks were in The Birth of a Nation, he actually is seen as the hero who wanted to bring peace to England and who saved the young girl from her abusive father. This shows me that maybe because The Birth of a Nation was criticized as being too racist, D.W. Griffith wanted to turn people’s views around.