White Man's Burden (film)

White Man's Burden is a 1995 film starring John Travolta and Harry Belafonte in an alternate America in which blacks are the racial majority, and whites are a minority group. Travolta plays Louis Pinnock, a factory worker, and Belafonte plays Thaddeus Thomas, the owner of the factory. One day, Louis is asked to deliver a package to Thaddeus' house. However, he accidentally walks by a window in which Thaddeus' wife is undressing by. Thaddeus sees him, and reports him to Louis' employer, who fires him the next day. Shortly afterwards, Louis is beaten by cops on the way home, evicted from his house, and lands in a sore spot with his family. Unable to find a stable job, Louis kidnaps Thaddeus in order to gain money for his family. A series of events follow that change both of their lives forever.


 * Angry White Man: Subverted. Instead of it being a white man feeling threatened by political correctness, this trope is played just like Angry Black Man.
 * Glorified Sperm Donor: Thaddeus makes a reference to this when his wife is discussing an event she was at that had impoverished white children at. She is not amused.
 * In Spite of a Nail: Despite the cultural reversal, America turned out pretty much the same, just with blacks in traditionally white roles, and vice versa. One slight cultural change that is shown is that heavy metal is the music of ghetto youth, instead of rap.
 * Persecution Flip
 * Police Brutality: Louis becomes a victim of this when two cops mistake him for a perp with a similar appearance.
 * Scary Minority Suspect: Like many other race tropes, subverted in this movie. Louis is thrust into this when two black cops mistake him for a similar looking perp.
 * Stereotype Flip: The entire movie has blacks and white reversing stereotypes. The white Louis' form of speech is very street-wise, whereas the black Thaddus is much more articulate. One minor difference is that the music of shady ghetto youth is heavy metal instead of rap.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Thaddeus gives Louis this after he almost escapes him. Ignorant of what Louis has gone through up until his kidnapping, he insists that all of his short-comings are his fault, and his fault alone.
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The entire society has been Race Flipped, with blacks really in charge of government, business, and above all, the media. Just the sheer implications of this are staggering, (check out CSA: Confederate States of America for an ironic inversion of the idea). Instead the story focuses on a stock murder plot.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Thaddeus gives Louis this after he almost escapes him. Ignorant of what Louis has gone through up until his kidnapping, he insists that all of his short-comings are his fault, and his fault alone.
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The entire society has been Race Flipped, with blacks really in charge of government, business, and above all, the media. Just the sheer implications of this are staggering, (check out CSA: Confederate States of America for an ironic inversion of the idea). Instead the story focuses on a stock murder plot.