The Purge: White Saviours and the Black Help(less)
Queen Nzingha Lecture 16. America’s Racial Past and Future in The Help and The Purge by Dr Althea Legal-Miller. The widespread appeal of Hollywood movies makes this particular medium a crucial site for examining the meanings of race in the United States. Popular films have the power to reconstruct the racial past of a nation, as well as envision its future. This presentation will provide readings on The Help (dir, Tate Taylor, 2011) and The Purge (dir, James DeMonaco, 2013) in order to examine both the racial and gender discourse that is embedded in these representations of two key social contexts – the 1960s civil rights era and the post-civil rights not-too-distant future. Analysis will highlight the ways in which these narratives draw on the preexisting cinematic racial order of white saviours and