Set It Off Response- Springer Essay
The quote that I chose to focus on considering the film "Set It Off" comes from Kimberly Springer's essay "Waiting to Set It Off".
" In popular culture and accepted historical iconography it would be redundant to speak of 'African American women's violence' or the 'violent African American woman.' Black people depending on the icons in current usage, are thought to be inherently violent. I maintain that when it comes to women, race, and violence, white North American women are assumed to have been provoked to violence; they are not permitted violent impulses. Oppositionally, African Americans are thought to be always already violent due to their 'savage' ancestry..." (Springer 174).
When you first begin watching Set If Off, the opening scene is the bank robbery that Vivica A. Fox's character, Frankie, gets fired for, and potentially blamed for because of her African American status. The police assumed that because the bank robbers happened to be black, that Frankie was somehow conspiring with her "friends" in the robbery. You immediately side with Frankie since she is being discriminated because of her race. Springer reestablishes this concept when she discusses the stereotypical idea of inherent violence among African American women. White North American women also knowingly commit crimes, but they are not born with the "violent tendencies" that African American women are. Frankie's co-workers for the most part were white, specifically one female co-worker that is standing right next to her during the bank robbery. However, the police never discriminate the white woman co-worker and threaten her with conspiracy charges. Instead, they focus the blame on Frankie because after all...Frankie is an African-American woman working at a bank during a robbery by three African-American men. This, in turn, helps you to continue siding with Frankie throughout the film. Even while the women are planning and then actually robbing a few banks, deep-down inside you are rooting for them to come out victorious! For so long they have felt oppressed or discriminated because of their race, and now it was their turn to take a stand (in a very bold and drastic way). This is because you, as the viewer, and unlike the police questioning Frankie in the very beggining of the film, are aware of the proposterious association with innate violence due to "savage ancestry" in African American women (Springer 174).