History Film / WhiteMansBurden

* UnfortunateImplications: Apply the movie's own Aesop to itself. Thaddeus played by a white guy would have been a more educated, wealthier, less likeable version of Archie Bunker, while Louis and his family as black would have played into the "blacks are an ignorant, stupid, foolish race that needs to be protected from themselves for their own good" stereotype.

''White Man's Burden'' is a 1995 film starring JohnTravolta and Harry Belafonte in an [[AlternateUniverse alternate]] America in which blacks are the racial majority, and whites are a minority group. Travolta plays as Louis Pinnock, a factory worker, and Belafonte plays as 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' supervisor, 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.

* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding / DownerEnding: Thaddeus comes to see the error of his ways, but Louis is shot and killed by police, his surviving family now lives in a run-down hotel, and it is implied that Louis' son is probably heading down a bad path.]]
* GlorifiedSpermDonor: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] when 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.

* StereotypeFlip: 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 white youth is heavy metal instead of rap.
* [[spoiler: TheHeroDies: Louis is shot dead by police when they see him holding a gun, even though he is trying to get arrested.]]

Not to be confused (and it's not related) [[Main/WhiteMansBurden with the trope]] of the [[NamesTheSame same name]].

Not to be confused (and it's not related) [[Main/WhiteMansBurden with the trope of the [[NamesTheSame same name]].

* AngryBlackMan: But fitting with the theme of the film, it's actually a StereotypeFlip, with Louis being white instead of black in this film, but it being played in the exact same way.

* AngryWhiteMan: Subverted. Instead of it being a white man feeling threatened by political correctness, this trope is played just like AngryBlackMan.

* GlorifiedSpermDonor: 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.

* ScaryMinoritySuspect: 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, [[spoiler: and eventually leads to his death when the police find him surrendering while he is holding his gun.]]

* PoliceBrutality: Louis becomes a victim of this when two cops mistake him for a perp with a similar appearance.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: 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.

* StereotypeFlip: 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.

* ScaryMinoritySuspect: 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, [spoiler: and eventually leads to his death when the police find him surrendering while he is holding his gun.]]

* ScaryMinoritySuspect: 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.

''White Man's Burden'' is a 1995 film starring JohnTravolta and Harry Belafonte in an [[AlternateUniverse alternate]] America in which blacks are the racial majority, and whites are a minority group. Travolta plays as Louis Pinnock, a factory worker, and Belafonte plays as 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.

* NeverTrustATrailer: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaX41DhH870 The trailer]] makes the movie look like an action thriller where Louis is a {{Badass}} AntiHero. In actuality, the action moments in the trailer are practically ''all'' of the action moments in the entire film. Also, Thaddeus is made to look more villainous. For example, his line "white people are genetically inferior" is taken out of context so that it sounds like he's stating his own opinion.

* NeverTrustATrailer: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaX41DhH870 The trailer]] makes the movie look like an action thriller where Louis is a {{Badass}} AntiHero. In actuality, the action moments in the trailer are practically ''all'' of the action moments in the entire film.

* NeverTrustATrailer: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaX41DhH870 The trailer]] makes the movie look like an action thriller where Louis is a {{Badass}} AntiHero. The actual movie is more of a drama and social satire.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: 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.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: 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 ''CSAConfederateStatesOfAmerica'' for an ironic inversion of the idea). Instead the story focuses on a stock murder plot.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: 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, and instead the story focuses on a stock murder plot.

''White Man's Burden'' is a 1995 film starring JohnTravolta and Harry Belafonte in an [[AlternateUniverse alternate]] America in which black Americans are the racial majority, and white Americans are a minority group. Travolta plays as Louis Pinnock, a factory worker, and Belafonte plays as 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.

* StereotypeFlip: The entire movie has blacks and white reversing roles. 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.

* PoliceBrutality: Louis becomes a victim of this when two cops mistake him for a prep with a similar appearance.

* InSpiteOfANail: Despite the cultural reversal, America turned out pretty much the same, just with blacks in traditionally white roles, and vice versa. Glimpses of TV shows have black cowboys for example.