Current Forum: Session 4: Ideology and Race	Read 11 times 	
Date: 03-Feb-2001 20:55:51	
Author: CASHIN, KATHRYN K. <kkc2311@mailer.fsu.edu>	
Subject: Mirroring Life 	
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       Omi and Winant might say that Imitation of Life exemplifies the "difficulties of defining and assigning individuals or groups to racial categories" and "how the racial legacies of the past - slavery and bigotry - continue to shape the present." (79) Sara Jane despite her light skin cannot escape her Negro heritage. Her racial legacy "colors' her treatment and excludes her from white society. Sara Jane presents a particular problem because she is misrecognized
when first seen. Her light skin contradicts the "common sense" of race and begs the question of how her skin color alone cannot explain social difference. (82 and 83)
       In contrast, her mother, Annie, supports the common sense of race. Her dark skin sets her apart and rationalizes the "distinct treatment of racially identified individuals and groups." (82) Therefore, race in Imitation of Life both supports and contradicts the common sense of racial difference. This in turn bears out Omi and Winant's statement that race is not biologically given, but a socially constructed way of differentiating human beings. (85) Race and power intersect with class and gender in several instances in the movie. Class and race are poignantly 
emphasized through Lora's and Annie's relationship. The entire movie emphasizes Lora's right to pursue her dream, while Annie's only function is to serve and provide for her daughter. This might be what McIntosh would call "white privilege," thus providing a pattern of assumption.
       Two scenes at the end of the movie particularly illustrate this. In one, Annie is telling Lora about the friends she wants invited to her funeral. Lora states that she didn't know that Annie had any friends, to which Annie replies "that is because you never asked." Lora, it appears, had assumed that Annie was the perfectly happy "mammy" - asexual and content raising the white person's family. (Weber, 150) This is an assumption that negates Annie's need on the basis that 
she is black and lower class. In another scene shortly thereafter, the two ladies are discussing Lora's failure as a mother. Annie points out that she failed as a mother with Sara Jane, to which Laura responds that Annie's situation is different - her situation with Suzie is more important.
Again, Lora reduces Annie's situation to something less important or consequential than her own. It implies (and, again assumes) that Annie and Sara Jane's plight is less important because of their race and lower class.
       In these scenes, the camera usually focuses on Lora while it subordinates Annie to the side of the frame. Furthermore, Lora is dressed in feminine finery while Annie is seen in matronly, less sexualized clothing. Annie is still (seated or in bed) while Lora moves restlessly about
emphasizing her ability (power - supported by her skin color) to affect change.
       Gender intersects with race and class in one particularly powerful scene when Sara Jane meets her white boyfriend. The boy has learned that Sara Jane is not white, nor rich. He uses his gender and accompanying power to beat and humiliate her. The camera films the beating through the mirror image of a glass window. The mirror technique points out that both are equally white skinned, but are of different genders. Visually, it appears that the conflict is more about unequal power because of gender and class difference, rather than skin color.
       In summary, the movie offers several good examples of how race intersects with class and gender. The movie is a good match with the Omi and Winant and McIntosh articles because it questions how we differentiate human beings by skin color (or the lack there of) while illustrating the concept of white privilege.