Silver Screen Cops

By Sienna Bland-Abramson

In light of George Floyd, a (long overdue) reckoning of racial injustice has now gripped the nation. Hollywood, nevertheless, is still ripe with mixed signals. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given their penchant for sweet-talking as many people as possible, including a starkly divided population, where palpable discomfort and white guilt about our country’s racial history remain. This is particularly evident in Hollywood’s divided stance on the issue of police iniquities towards African-American citizens – and other marginalized groups, for that matter – by how it adopts both favorable portrayals of law enforcement, while also perpetuating racial stereotypes. 

It is a truism to say that culture informs Hollywood, no less than Hollywood informs the culture. Up until recently, for instance, Hollywood’s message was largely that “Cops = Good and Criminals = Bad”, though of course there were notable exceptions, the movie Training Day, for example. That said, here’s the spoiler: due to the fundamental flaws in our judicial system and our heinous racial history, prisons in the United States are unduly populated with African-Americans, and other marginalized peoples, who have little hope of ever relieving their often faulty criminal records. Is it any wonder that Hollywood knows exactly which side of their bread is buttered? Here’s the double spoiler: our police force is predominantly white and politically conservative, and their ideology is cemented to the notion that the world is a profoundly dangerous place. These perspectives, needless to say, inevitably lead to cinematic portrayals of normalized injustice and racial bias in crime-related media genres.

On the other hand, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement also indisputably informed our culture, and by doing so, then informed the culture that Hollywood portrays. Here are some interesting facts. Prior to the protests for George Floyd, NBC reported that only two Fortune 500 companies made any sort of public endorsement of Black Lives Matter. Yet, in the summer of 2020, Facebook alone made 62 public endorsements of Black Lives Matter. Thus, it certainly makes sense to me why television shows and movies are now being produced in Hollywood exemplifying a notable increase in their internal scrutiny of racial animus, particularly in terms of ensuring that their films and TV programming remain politically correct: stemming, I believe, from the George Floyd protests. Paramount, in fact, promptly canceled the show Cops, largely due to how it portrayed police brutality, as both necessary and appropriate, against people of color. At the same time, the global BLM network had also accrued over 6.5 million dollars in grants in the Summer 2020. All of which can be attributed, I believe, to the general rule that what’s introduced and maintained in popular culture, follows the prevailing zeitgeist, as well as the money. 

One consideration that cannot be disregarded is that Hollywood still perpetuates stereotypes, and unconditional support for law enforcement. Is this because Hollywood knows their own color line? Hollywood racial demographics, as reported by UCLA in 2017, are still largely white (60.6%), and the bulk of those people weren’t raised to oppose police practices. Ney, one could even argue that Hollywood – during its own upbringing – actively perpetuated depictions of law enforcement that emphasized public safety, benevolence, and racial bias. That portrayal, however, is by no means limited to the quintessential old white male, but is even evident in recent Hollywood TV shows, ranging from Cops, 9-1-1 to Luke Cage. If fact, it seems like when shows are created by non-minority people for a non-minority audience, it’s still the same old story. Promoting unmitigated goodness into the agencies that govern our society; lest they reveal the unattractive reality of what it truly means to be a person belonging to a marginalized group who continues to be subjected to police injustice. That continuing division on both the frequency and the nature of stereotypical representations of people of color – in both movies and television shows that highlight police officers – suggests that the entertainment industry still pitches itself to its most lucrative audience, meaning white people. And Hollywood will continue to do such as long as it believes that white audiences want to see this message.  

The reality is that this relationship seems to be bi-directional. What the media produces is largely consumed by the society that wants to view it. That said, in the case of Hollywood, the target audience is by no means limited to the United States, but instead, to the world at large. For example, Hollywood could produce a TV show that contains egregious stereotypical representations, but it could, nonetheless, easily become wildly popular overseas. Then, resulting from its commercial success, it could have a high degree of visibility back in the states, due largely, once again, to the way that media coverage tends to rapidly spread. While I don’t think it’s charitable to assert that Hollywood bears the brunt of the responsibility of creating the divisions in our society, those creating content in Hollywood surely have an ethical responsibility to make things better. But to do so, creators first need to explicitly acknowledge that they have a responsibility, given their overwhelming influence on their audiences, and then act accordingly. 

At the end of the day, everyone needs to put food on the table. But it’s up to each of us – be it the director, the cinematographer, the actor, and so forth – to choose how to do this. Perhaps looking in the mirror would help. That said, this issue is assuredly nuanced. Yet, I firmly maintain that given the way that Hollywood is so integral to our culture and society, it cannot, in good conscience, operate without making a significant contribution toward improving our societal divide. Keep in mind that in the long run, remaining neutral won’t make headlines or sell tickets.

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Sienna Bland-Abramson (she/her) is a third-year undergraduate psychology student with a special interest in social justice and gender/sexuality studies at UCLA. She utilizes both writing and film photography as mediums of self-expression, and as a means to create content that illustrate her commitment to causes of importance. She also continues to work as the senior research analyst for two civil rights law firms.