An Analysis of Racial Practices in the Film Mississippi Burning by Alan Parker
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
AN ANALYSIS OF RACIAL PRACTICES IN THE FILM MISSISSIPPI BURNING BY ALAN PARKER A Thesis Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Strata I Degree Mustika Dendy No. 102026024567 ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA 2009 APPROVEMENT AN ANALYSIS OF RACIAL PRACTICES IN THE FILM MISSISSIPPI BURNING BY ALAN PARKER A Thesis Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Strata I Degree Mustika Dendy No. 102026024567 Approved by Advisor Elve Oktafiyani, SS. M.Hum. NIP. 150 317 725 ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA 2009 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or the other institute of higher learning, Except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text. Jakarta, December, 2009 Mustika Dendy LEGALIZATION The thesis entitled “An Analysis of Racist Practices in the Film “Mississippi Burning by Alan Parker” has been defended before the Letters and Humanities Faculty’s Examination committee on December, 2009. The thesis has already been accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the strata I degree. Jakarta, December, 2009 Examination Committee Chair Person, Secretary, Dr. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd. Drs. A. Saefuddin, M.Pd. NIP. 150 299 480 NIP. 150 261 902 Members: Examiner I Examiner II Innayatul Chusna, M.Hum. Drs. Abdul Hamid, M.Ed NIP. 150 331 233 NIP.150 181 922 ABSTRACT MUSTIKA DENDY, an Analysis of Racial Practices in the Film Mississippi Burning by Alan Parker. English Letters Department, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Syarif Hidayatulllah State Islamic University, Jakarta 2009. This research is aimed to know, the Racial Practices in Mississippi Burning Film, especially in how racial discrimination most heated during 60’s in daily American life. The writer uses qualitative method and uses descriptive analysis, where he describes per scene that related to racial practices. To support the analysis, the writer uses James M. Blaut theory to explain the scene. The result of this study is the author knew that acts of racial practices since long bloom occurred on American soil, especially in the southern part of Mississippi. Hostility between the white and colored very thick in southern areas of Mississippi that many people-oppressed people of color. As the conclusion, the writer finds the scenes that describe the including of discrimination like: violence, burning, kidnapping, lynching, and intimidation in Mississippi Burning Film. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The writer would like to thank to Allah the one for divine gift of grace. He alone we ask for help, for guidance and everything. He has given the writer many favors and he has allowed the writer to finish this thesis. Praise and peace be upon the Master of the Messengers, the prophet Muhammad SAW. May we always he in straight way until the end of the world. The writer also absolutely deserves to thank to his advisor, Elve Oktafiyani, SS. M.Hum for guiding him by counseling and advising the writer until this thesis finished. Without her guidance, this thesis will never be completed. The writer also wants to thank to: 1. Dr. Abdul Chair, MA, the Dean of Faculty of Adab and Humanities. 2. Dr. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd, the Head of English Letters Department. 3. Drs. A. Saefuddin, M.Pd, the Secretary of English Letters Department. 4. Best regarded must be expressed to his beloved parents (Kasman. T & Evi Ziarni), they have supported him much morally and materially, their merits and sacrifice will never paid. 5. All of lecturers in English Department for having taught and educated him during his study at UIN. 6. All staff of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Main library, all staff of English Department library, all staff of Cultural Science Faculty of Indonesia University library, and all staff of Atmajaya library, South Jakarta. Finally, the writer hopes this thesis will be useful for the writer himself and for those who are interested in literary research. Jakarta, December, 2009 Mustika Dendy TABLE OF CONTENTS APPROVEMENT……………………………………………………...…….. i DECLARATION…………………………………………………………….. ii LEGALIZATION………………………………….………………………… iii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………….. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT…………………………………………………….. v TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................. vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of Study…………………………… 1 B. Focus of Study………………………………….. 5 C. Research Question……………………………… 5 D. Significance of the Research…………………… 5 E. Research Methodology…………………………. 6 1. Objective of the Research……………………. 6 2. Method of the Research………………………. 6 3. Data Analysis…………………………………. 6 4. Unit of Data Analysis…………………………. 6 5. Research Instrument…………………………... 7 CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK A. Definition of Racism……………………………. 8 B. Racism in Mississippi…………………………… 12 1. Historical Racism of Mississippi…………….. 12 C. Reflection Theory of Cultural Racism………… 19 CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS A. Data Description………………………………… 25 B. Data Analysis……………………………………. 27 C. Further discussion of Data Analysis………….... 37 CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A. Conclusion……………………………………... 41 B. Suggestion……………………………………… 43 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………….. 44 APPENDIX CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of Study The United States of America was established as a white society, founded upon the genocide of another race and then the enslavement of colored people. This enslavement happened for long time ago. In short the history of the United States is the history of enslavement. From this point of view, we may see how American life, claimed to be the most democratic country in the world, started his history by enslavement. Many historians argue that 1451 as the starting date for Atlantic slave trade, for that was when substantial numbers of African slaves, perhaps 700 to 800 a year, began to reach Portugal. The Atlantic slave trade therefore was generally seen as running from 1451 to 1870, roughly the effective end of the slave trade to American.1 In 1619, the first Africans arrived at Jameskrwn, Virginia, consisting of twenty people with the status of “indentured” servants with the growth of slavery, many thousand of Negroes were brought to the cogaporelonies.2 1 David M Brownstone and M, Frank Irene, Facts about America Immigration. (New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 2001), p. 321. 2 Everett D. Dyer. The American Family: Variety and Change, (New York: McGraw–Hill Book Company, 1979), p. 60. For a long time period, American slavery under the white supremacist must go on until the end of 19 century. Finally, slavery period disappeared when Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation proclaimed, but the end of slavery came only with Union victory in the Civil War. In reality, however, Negro families were under white people’s shadows. For many years forward, the black people’s lives have to become under the shadow of white people. This subordination makes the fate of Black people into racial discrimination in every field of life such as in education, political, social life, occupation, etc. There is no right for black people to get equality as well as white people get. But the time change and the fate of black people also change. In the early of 20 century African American has little chance to gain their dream. One by one Black society has the raising stars just for his community in every formal or informal field such as preacher, politician, labor, literary figures, etc. They born not to be slave anymore but born to be fighter against intimidation, hatred, cruelty of white people in America. Slowly but sure during 1960s they were able to make American history more colorful with their mob most well known by the Civil Rights Movement. The struggle of African Americans for equality reached its climax in the mid- 1960s. During this time, the Civil Right movements spread in the rest of America soil, especially in the South, the bases of African American stay in. Since that time groups that previously had been submerged or subordinate began more forcefully and successfully to assert themselves: African Americans, Native Americans, women, the white ethnic offspring of the "new immigration," and Latinos. Much of the support they received came from a young population larger than ever. They realize their future by making the mob possible through a college and university system, street long march, community gathering in various place and etc. They presented the "countercultural" life styles and radical politics, many of the young people of the World War II generation emerged as advocates of a new America characterized by a cultural and ethnic pluralism that their parents often viewed with discomfort. According to Leon E. Wynter, essayist and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, that the 1950s set up the social political and technological disorders of the 1960s and 1970s. This decade also became much more representative of the long- term pattern of American identity formation and thus perhaps is more important in understanding the meaning of the 1980s.3 But America still remains the same before. Racial practices such as prejudice, discrimination,