White Enough Scholarly Article

This article addresses how race impacted Dirty Dancing. When thinking of race during the movie Dyer brings up a lot of interesting points that make up the general feelings from the movie. Race also counteracts with class-rank in the movie. A lot of the lower working class people were not white while most of the upper class was strictly white. The two higher class boys were paired with the two higher class women. Dancing in the movie was displayed very sexually, which came from the background of the dance and the song that was played during the dance. Dyer stressed that a lot of the songs chosen for the film were by black artists. We might look at African Americans as dirty dancers because they were shown a few times among the dancers. Johnny wants to create a dance that involves an African-American dance, which shows his knowledge of that culture. This article also brings up the person in charge of the music in the film. His name was Honi Coles and he was often associated with black music. It looks at which songs were played in which settings and why. When white music was played sexuality was usually not shown. White-artits were played when there was more of a professional tone in the movie instead of a sexual one. The lyrics also tie into the whole feeling of sexuality in the dances and are major symbols in the overall message. Another interesting point made is that the movie is taken place in a Jewish setting, which I didn't even realize. It ties the Jewish culture and the African American culture together at some points, but not really noticeable today.

When I think of race and the movie I can see the class-ranks and race intertwine with one another. I didn't realize there were African American dancers while watching the movie, as well as I didn't realize race played an important role when choosing the song or singer for each dance. I think that we live in a more accepting society today where African American women are common when listening to songs on the radio- which may have not been the case during the time frame of the movie.

I don't think race has a lot to do with the message of the movie. After reading the article that provided many facts I can see how race impacted several parts of the movie, but I don’t' think that race is a topic that is that obvious. I think that even though it was important to the basics of making the movie it doesn't affect the characters personalities or actions. Unless race as an issue was pointed out before or during the movie I don't think many viewers would be thinking about the topic as an issue while watching the film, even though a lot of the article makes sense. In movies today there is a lot more diversity of race in films. At the Oscars an African American actress was highly recognized for her acting as a lead role in a film. During the time when Dirty Dancing was created main actors of a different race were not common at all, so we can really see how society has changed it's view on race.

Dyer, Richard. "White Enough." The Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture. Eds. Yannis Tzioumakis and Sian Lincoln. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2013. 73-85