Subtle Racism in Modern Film

So I was recently watching “X-men: First Class” in preparation of the new x-men film when I realized something. Darwin, the only black main character, is killed off after only a few minutes of screen time. This made me think about other movies where often the token black character is quickly eliminated or the first to die. I remember watching Transformers in theatres with some friends a few years back and there was this robot named Jazz that spoke in a very stereotypically vernacular and tone. After he first spoke someone in the audience called out “oooh he gonna die first” and many laughed while some chuckled uncomfortably but sure enough Jazz was the first and might have been the only autobot to be ripped apart by Megatron. Needless to say I was stunned at the time. I knew that it had been a common theme in the horror movie world to kill of certain types of characters but until then I had not really been looking for it in mainstream media. The man’s comment opened my eyes to the subtle racism present modern film and now I see it everywhere. It makes me wonder why this theme/trope is still so common today and why people are ok with it?