On page 116 in chapter 3 Nakamura talks about the idea of blackness being transcodeable "cool" and whiteness is exposed as "killingly normative" in many types of media and technology. She uses the example of The Matrix trilogy's idea of whiteness giving entitlement, masculinity, and mastery over all new technology, while blackness is given little focus and the use of old technology, yet blackness is given the "cool" factor in these movies. She is pointing out the clear distinction of blackness as being "cool" and low tech while whiteness is "intelligence" and high tech.
The movie Men in Black is similar because it has a white actor (Tommy Lee Jones) and a black actor (Will Smith) who play roles of one being the entitled leader, and the other being the "cool" follower. In this movie they both play MIB agents, Jones plays the superior to Smith. Jones who is the intelligent one who needs another agent to work with him notices how "cool" Smith is when he decides to chase after one of the aliens. This film depicts Jones as the boss and Smith as his employee. During the film they use high tech guns and sunglasses, Smith is given the smaller gun and is not given use of all the technology that other agents are.
This movie emphasizes the "cool" factor of Will Smith, and the intelligence of Tommy Lee Jones, or their characters as agents.
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Your comment on my blog was very interesting, so i just had to come by and read yours! I too dont notice these kinds of things, but now that you mention it with Men In Black I think your right on track. I see what Nakamura was discussing in her book with, and relating it like you did with this very movie. And its crazy how i never noticed it before...Great blog thanks for bringing up such a great controversy you yourself noticed in this movie...I think i'll be paying attention a lot more the roles different races play in different films thats for sure.
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