Batiste1

Julian Batiste
Freddy Garcia
English 114 B
4/21/15
The Social Deconstruction of White Chicks
White Chicks is a film that came out in 2004 and has since been a very popular and
people-favorite comedy. This film can be offensive because stereotypes and social constructions
occur throughout the movie. The film mainly is stereotypical to white people, but is also
stereotypical to black people. As for being intended for the white audience, there are clich jokes
of whites having privilege over other races, white girls being spoiled, white girls having the only
interests in shopping and boys, etc. The black stereotypes mostly include language, as to what
may be called black terminology. For instance, words like fo-shizzle my nizzle are used by
the two black FBI agents. Other stereotypes include the black characters being one of the few
that are rich in a predominantly white space, enjoying and being very familiar with rap music,
black men being fond of white women, and other derogatory stereotypes. These stereotypes can
be offensive, but since they are being used in a comedic film, they are seen more as jokes and are
not supposed to be taken seriously. Additionally, binaries such as white vs black, women vs men,
rich vs poor, and reality vs fiction are created in this film. These binaries create stereotypes and
show the different between the two subjects. The stereotypes like white people being rich and
pretentious and the derogatory jokes towards black culture in White Chicks is taken lightly and
not so serious because of the fact that it is a comedy movie presenting these stereotypes only as
jokes.

Batiste2

The film is about two black FBI agents who impersonate and disguise themselves as
two twin-white females, who are sisters. The two sisters were supposed to attend events at the
Hamptons for fashion week, but decided not to because of some cuts and bruises they got from a
small accident the two FBI agents caused while driving them to the Hamptons. The guys decided
to do the extreme and impersonate the white girls for fashion week in order to not get caught and
lose their job. The jokes and stereotypes kick in here as two black males are acting as white
females. Race is the main social construction at play. The comedic jokes and actions in the movie
can be racist and very stereotypical, such as when the white characters in the film say the nword when rapping to a song. In this film, the scene is in the Hamptons. The Hamptons is a
wealthy place in New York full of rich people. This space is predominantly white in the movie
with very few blacks and other races. This gives out the hidden message that the majority of rich
folks in America are white.
White Chicks really expresses, unintentionally or maybe intentionally, the white
privilege. White people are often looked at as the people who have the advantage in society or
in the social system. So as the film has almost all white people in a rich space, the Hamptons, it
perpetuates the stereotype of whites having that advantage over others. Perpetuating this
stereotype of the white privilege is expected and is not odd to see in a film because it is a
common thing in reality for white people to have the advantage in the social system, so it is just
being continued when being displayed in films. If anything, it would probably be odd and
unexpected if it was vice versa. Since it is a common stereotype, the film would probably throw
people off if the Hamptons werent predominantly white. That is how race is typically thought of
in our society, so the movie continued with the general perspective we have on race today just to
not throw people off or maybe even confuse them in a way. In Demonstrating the Social

Batiste3

Construction of Race, Brian Obach says, "The socially constructed nature of racial categories
can, in part, be demonstrated by reviewing historical developments in which the commonly used
racial categories were established in addition to showing the way in which those categories and
those meanings have changed over time (253). Looking back at history, white people have
always had the advantage and privilege over others. They were commonly the rich ones and were
on top of any other race. This is why society views the whites as having the advantage over
others and is why the film continues this perspective. The film is only going to use common
stereotypes, ones that the public are familiar with because if unfamiliar or newly made up
stereotypes are used, the viewers are not going understand what is going on. So seeing the
comedic racism in this movie can tell us what the basic stereotypes are of certain races today. For
example, mentioning how white people are the majority of the Hamptons, the only black male
that was in the Hamptons was a professional basketball player who had a strong liking towards
white females. This is again, a typical stereotype. The identities of the white and black race are a
bit misrepresented because the movie makes it seem like all white people and all black people
follow along with what is being shown in the movie. Edouard Machery and Luc Faucher in
Social Construction and the Concept of Race state, Our position aims at accounting for the
similarities and for the differences between culturespecific concepts of race. Of course each
culture is different in their own way. Society depicts the differences of each race and points the
differences out. This is what is being done in the film.
White Chicks creates a binary between whites and blacks, and also between whites
and all other cultures. A good example of this is the scene where they are in the car listening to
the radio. In the car are the two FBI agents disguised as the twin sisters and the sisters Hampton
friends. The radio is playing a soft-pop love song by Vanessa Carlton and the Hampton friends

Batiste4

are all singing along while the disguised white chicks dont because they arent fond of the
music. Then once the radio station changes, a gangster rap song by 50 cent comes on and the FBI
agents begin to sing and say nigga while the Hampton friends are all confused. This shows the
difference in not only the typical music taste, but how white people and black people are
culturally drawn to two different things.
Language plays a significant role in the film too. There moments in the movie where
the black guys disguised as white girls would say something in slang that the Hampton friends
would not understand or say. Terms like fo-shizzle my nizzle are used only by the black
characters. There is even a part in the movie where one of the Hampton friends tells one of them,
If I didnt know any better, Id say you were black. The way the guys talk is black. This is
the stereotype of the black culture using a lot of slang and having their own lingo. These
statements basically say that to fit in with the black community, phrases like fo-shizzle my
nizzle would be necessary to use. In Race, Ethnicity, and Film Robyn Wiegman says, To the
extent that all stereotypes of human groups are predicated on the reduction of complex cultural
codes to easily consumable visual and verbal cues, the film stereotype is paradigmatically linked
to racial discourse. White Chicks shows the visual and verbal differences between the white
and black race and also reveals their social class. For example, in the film, white people are the
ones that tend to be rich and black characters use plenty of slang. These are a couple of examples
that depict the differences of the culture. The difference between the film and reality is that the
film shows these differences in a stereotypical way. Since this is a comedy film, the stereotypes
that are linked to racial discourse are just jokes in the movie, but at the same time they can really
mean they are true because it may be common in society and the film wouldnt be using certain
jokes for certain ethnicities.

Batiste5

The stereotypes in the film White Chicks can understandably be offensive and
racist. Reason why a movie like this is a crowd favorite and not something people are spiteful
towards is because it is a comedy that uses racial stereotypes in good humor and not for the bad.
Even though some stereotypes can be derogatory, they are taken lightly by the audience and the
public. Identities are still misrepresented in the film since it is full of stereotypes towards the
white and black race. The Hamptons being predominantly rich white people and the language
that is used by the black people is what brings out the stereotypes and the social constructions in
the film. People are quick to believe the stereotypes they see in film. This is why the fiction can
relate towards reality because people bring these stereotypes with them and into society when
used more.

Batiste6

Works Cited
Machery, Edouard, and Luc Faucher. "Social Construction and the Concept of Race." Philosophy
of Science, 72.5 (2005): 1208-1219.
Obach, Brian K. "Demonstrating the Social Construction of Race." Teaching Sociology, 27.3
(1999): 252-257.
Wiegman, Robyn. Race, Ethnicity, and Film. 156-165