Cops aren't going to hassle you if you're a white male..

Group One: How does the role of the white cop differ in narrative function in "Thelma and Louise", "Set it Off" and "Little Miss Sunshine"? How does this reflect on gender, race, and sexuality as represented in these films? Do not repeat what students have written in prior log entries.
It's really interesting to see the role of the "white cop" in the last three movies we've watched. In Thelma and Louise he was almost like a father figure- even though the women had murdered someone and continued to commit random crimes, he was concerned about their well-being, and wanted to protect them. Over the phone he tried to let them know that he understood what they were going through, and he wanted to help them before the situation got any worse. In Set It Off, the white cop at first didn't care about the women, he wanted to catch them because they were criminals. He didn't give any consideration to what they had been through, why they were robbing banks; there was no compassion from him towards the lead characters. Even once the cop knew exactly who was committing the robberies he made no point in contacting them, he wanted to catch them in action. It isn't until the end of the film where he begins to feel remorse for all these women have been through, but it doesn't matter at that point because three of them are already dead. In Little Miss Sunshine, the white cop is basically a joke. He doesn't even notice the dead body wrapped up in the sheet in the trunk, and reaches right for the porno mags. Instead of doing his job, he jokes around with Mr Hoover about the porn and which ones are his favorites, and then lets him go without searching the rest of the vehicle. You have to wonder how this situation would have gone if the people getting pulled over by this cop were black, or if they were all women. If they were all women, he probably would have made sexual remarks and acted like a pig; if they were all black, the car probably would've been searched thorougly, and all in it would've been assumed to be criminals. Looking at the white cop's role in all three of these films shows just how much privilege a white male has in our society, they can pretty much get away with anything, and the cops will just look the other way.