Reflections on "Talk to Me". By Thanh Diep Truong
"Talk to Me" is clearly a movie about race and power during the late 60s and early 70s. It addresses stereotypes that people used to have and still have now for certain groups of race, ethnic, and different back grounds. The movies points out how sometimes people judges others for their past and their race. For example, when Petey comes to the office of WOL for the first time after being released from prison, the lady at the front desk gets scared because he told her he just got out of jail. And again and again, Petey's credibility was questioned by WOL's boss. Then finally he gets to do the morning talk for the first time at WOL. Right before the show, the boss repeatedly tells him to watch his language. I take this as another stereotype pointed out from the movie. Even Petey are warned before, he still says what he wants to say, what he thinks. When Petey says things that he does not supposed to say, he offends the people of higher position than him, and in most cases, they are whites. Also, this is why Dewey was "afraid to say things" that Petey said. Dewey works in an environment where white men are the ones with higher positions and power. Dewey himself is an African- American man, but he acts, speaks, dresses, more like a white man. To me, Dewey doesn't have the courage like Petey to be different, to speak out things that offends people with more power. I think it's courage and self-esteem that Dewey admires from an ex-convict, chain-smoking, womanizing Petey.
In my opinion, Petey himself is a little racist, he just doesn't realize that. He denies to perform in front of an audience full of white people on the Tonight Show. I don't think he would act that way if the Tonight Show were hosted by an African-American and geared to a black audience. He thinks he would be a a clown in front of the white audience and he expects them to discriminate him. He himself puts stereotypes on people on the show. I think that makes him a racist as well.