In the recent readings, I paid special attention to the essay regarding race and ethnicity. I found it very interesting to read about the history of racism in Hollywood. For example, I never realized how many stereotypes existed in Hollywood movies. These stereotypes included the blood-thirsty Indian, the Latino greaser, the Mexican gangster, and the violent African American. These roles are quite offensive, and they only acted as a way to validate cruel treatment of these races. I was also surprised to find out that Hollywood knew relatively little about other cultures. For example, all indian tribes are portrayed in the same fashion. They live in tipis; they hunt buffalo. In reality, indian tribes are extremely different. Very few live in tipis, and they all speak different languages and wear different clothes. It is offensive that Hollywood took no time to learn about these differences. That is like saying everyone that lives in the South is extremely racist. It is a broad generalization that is only true for a small percentage of people. I also found it upsetting that only white actors could play major roles. Non-whites had to be satisfied with the subordinate roles. This is seen in Casablanca when Sam plays the subordinate role of the piano player in the cafe. All the major roles went to white actors. Even when the major role was meant for a person of another race, a white person would just wear the proper makeup so he or she looked Asian or African American. It took a while for the major roles to open up to all races. When it did, America was finally able to learn about other cultures. Thankfully, we now have an integrated cinema. We have seen different races play major roles and do a phenomenal job. This can be seen in Denzel Washington's performance in Remember the Titans or Jackie Chan's performance in Rush Hour. The more integrated Hollywood becomes, the more America will learn about other cultures. This will help us be more well-rounded, because, lets face it, a large percentage of the Americans don't read. We need these movies.