Discrimination and prejudice always result in pain and suffering. The magnitude of these can vary from the Nazi genocide of Jews, the American use of Blacks as slaves – which could involve e.g. using them as test subjects, for instance, to perform more than thirty gynecologic surgeries on a 17-year-old girl (Cohen, 2009), – to contemporary difficulties of Blacks related to employment, education, and the judiciary system in the U.S. Fortunately, there are attempts to eradicate the bias; some movies also depict the adverse consequences of it. In this paper, we will discuss a 1984 motion picture “A Soldier’s Story,” and see how racial prejudice and the ideas of dominating masculinity led to a disaster to a number of its characters.
Clearly, the main topic of the movie is racism. The film is set in 1944 in the U.S. when there is an ongoing war against Nazi Germany. It depicts the life of a group of American soldiers who are staying at an army base near Louisiana. A larger part of the soldiers, the ones who are of the lowest ranks, are Black; they are managed by a number of White officers. The disrespect of Whites towards Blacks can be felt in the air; the Whites repeatedly insult the Blacks and show their contempt towards them. Of course, no local Blacks appear to have a significantly higher rank than a private; only Pvt. Wilkie used to hold the rank of a sergeant, but he lost it due to misbehavior.
In this atmosphere, an intoxicated Sgt. Waters is killed after visiting a local pub. Sgt. Waters appears to be of mixed race; he is not completely White, but he is not Black. Regardless, he is known for his racist views. At the same time, Waters believes that Blacks should strive to prove their worthiness; he demotes Sgt. Wilkie to the rank of a private, arguing that Wilkie is a shame for his race; “you are supposed to be an example to your men,” Sgt. Waters says (Palmer, Schwary, & Jewison, 1984, 20:50-21:00).
To investigate the murder, a (Black) Capt. Davenport arrives (his experiences with the locals also mostly consist of racist issues). As a result of the investigation, Capt. Davenport finds out that Sgt. Waters often treated his Black subordinates unfairly. As the story unfolds, it turns out that the reason for the murder was Sgt. Waters’ attitude and behavior towards one of the Black soldiers, C. J. Memphis, and the resulting death of C. J. Waters despised Memphis (Palmer et al., 1984, 77:38) and eventually attempted to “teach him a lesson” (Palmer et al., 1984, 77:25) and put him in jail for some time by planting a pistol under his bed in the barracks after there was a shooting outside.
Memphis, being shocked at the accusation, punched Waters in the face (Palmer et al., 1984, 59:30), and, despite the fact that it was later found out that the pistol had not been his, C. J. was to be imprisoned for five years for “striking a superior officer” (Palmer et al., 1984, 67:05). Memphis could not handle the imprisonment, and killed himself in the jail (Palmer et al., 1984, 69:40).
It is clear that Sgt. Waters’ disdain for Memphis was caused not only by racial prejudice, but by a combination of racism and Waters’ other perceptions, on masculinity in particular. C. J. had many talents; he was one of the best baseball players, played the guitar, and was a great blues singer. Apparently, Sgt. Waters was jealous of Memphis’ abilities; at the same time, he did not view him as worthy enough. Waters says: “…everybody thinking he’s a strong, blackbuck. White boys envy his strength, his speed… He can’t talk, can barely read or write his own name, and don’t care… says colored folks aren’t supposed to have too much sense” (Palmer et al., 1984, 78:00-78:50).
It can be seen that Waters did not view him as male enough, and he thought that C. J. could bring disgrace to his race. That is why he does to Memphis what he did. Waters says: “You see, the first war changed nothing for Negroes, but this one gonna change everything. Them Nazis ain’t all crazy; a whole lot of people don’t seem to fit in where things seem to be going. Like you, C. J. See, the Black race can’t afford you anymore. Oh, there used to be a time, we’d see somebody as you singin’, clownin’… and we wouldn’t do anything. Folks like that. You were good. Homey kind’ a Negro. When they needed somebody to mistreat, call a name or two, they paraded you. Reminded them good ole’ days. Not no more. The day to gotcha is goin’, boy. And ya goin’ with it” (Palmer et al., 1984, 67:20-68:25).
Therefore, racial prejudice in Sgt. Waters was paradoxically combined with a wish to promote the Black race, and the latter involved getting rid of its “unworthy members,” in particular, the ones who were funny “clowns” rather than stereotypic alpha-males. Again, due to the racist environment, a semi-White Sgt. Waters was not punished for framing a Black private, which eventually resulted in Pvt. Peterson killing intoxicated Waters in order to take some vengeance for Memphis’ death.
To sum up, the movie provides an example of how discrimination and bias lead to disasters. It tells a story about how the ideas of Sgt. Waters about race and masculinity, together with a throughout racist environment, led to a tragedy. The film explicitly shows that discrimination and prejudice can only result in pain and suffering.
References
Cohen, W. (2009). Medical apartheid: The dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 6(4), 356-360. Web.
Palmer, P. J., Schwartz, R. L. (Producers), & Jewison, N. (Producer & Director). (1984). A soldier’s story [Motion picture]. USA: Columbia Pictures. Web.