Nine Hollywood Tropes Moviegoers Loathe: Part Nine

Blackup

When the popular regard in mainstream movies toward blacks went from exclusion to sycophancy is unclear. Maybe once the general public collectively understood that black people existed outside of inner-cities and were bound for inclusion in every facet of everyday life (except in Montana).

Whatever the tipping point was, we now see the full-on effects of constant white-on-black ass kissery in film. Ironically, this has done nothing to dissolve racial stereotypes as the most common black prostration is having a black character act as a cool, hard, tough sidekick to the white protagonist.

Remember good ‘ole Paul Walker from 2 Fast, 2 Furious? There wasn’t a thing he could get into that his handy, black sidekick couldn’t get him out of. Dedicated, violent, loud, and shirtless, Tyrese Gibson was the quintessential blackup. If you missed this fine example, check out Death Race where Gibson plays the exact same character for Jason Statham.

Let’s not forget Police Academy, where simpering Steve Guttenberg had not one but two blackups. There was Larvell Jones (comic relief, moral support), and Hightower (just in case things got physical). Any call for blackup was immediately met with arbitrarily loud laughter in Jones’ case, mostly so that white moviegoers could show their colorblindness by respecting how hilarious every black person is, or the inevitable “whooooooaaaa” sound when Hightower stood full height whenever it was time to defend his homeboys (or when aforementioned color blindness was not displayed by less socially astute white people).

But let’s face it: blackup is no better than what Spike Lee called “The Magical Negro” in film. It’s not a tribute, and it really just reinforces moronic racial tropes of no real entertainment or practical value.