I saw Gran Torino
with my dad
when it came out
in 2008. I left the
theater mostly
confused. Was
the acting bad, or
too real? Had the
movie been
entertaining or
disconcerting? And what to make of
Clint Eastwood’s growling, grumpy Walt
Kowalski? I’ll admit that my fascination
with these questions lasted the car ride
home and was then displaced by some
other Saturday afternoon activity.
It wasn’t until I revisited the film in
an academic frame of mind that I began
to truly appreciate its complexities.
My Writing 20 class, “Staging History,”
focused on the way in which popular
entertainment, including theater and
cinema, reflects and influences cultural
and historical circumstances. We discussed big issues: race, class, and gender identity to name a few.
This was, to say the least, a demanding revision process. I found myself
dealing with a lot of the problems outlined in the paper itself. Finding a middle ground between milquetoast and
distractingly controversial can be very
challenging when dealing with a
loaded topic like race. How politically
correct can you be when discussing the
pitfalls of political correctness?
I know my treatment of race is simplified and limited by the length and
scope of the assignment, but even
much longer, professional works on the
subject leave many questions unanswered. I hope, in reading this, you get
a sense of my uncertainty in writing it.
Walt’s words prevent me from wholly
endorsing him, but his deeds will not
allow me to dismiss him altogether.
This is a character who begs the audience’s forgiveness by the end of the
film, but does he earn it?
Politically Incorrect:
Gran Torino and Racial Façades
Laurel Burk
Writing 20 (Spring 2010): Staging History
Professor Nancy Mullenneaux
I
n a class discussion about race, a white student has something to say. She
looks around the room and finds that her fellow classmates are of different
ethnicities. So much potential for someone to get offended. What was at
first a simple opinion or impulse reaction becomes an intricate calculation.
Confronted with the diverse make-up of her class, the student is suddenly
unsure whether to say “black” or “African-American,” “Latino” or “Hispanic.”
When alluding to racial generalizations or stereotypes, she makes painstaking
efforts to dissociate herself from the sources of such notions, and hesitates on the
brink of racially charged phrases like “affirmative action.” After all this maneuvering, the resulting comment likely consists of a watered-down collection of politically
correct buzzwords that barely makes a statement at all.
Political correctness emerged as a reaction and alternative to racially derogatory
language, meant to offer a new vocabulary for discussing race. Its primary goal is to
minimize offense by avoiding words, associations, and generalizations that demean a
group of people sharing, for example, a common ethnic background, sexual orientation, or biological sex. While PC terminology may be preferable to the bald racial
insults of earlier generations, it manages to create a whole new kind of paranoid uneasiness. According to scholar John L. Jackson, Jr., “PC policies actually lose their
ability to cultivate the kinds of good-faith dialogues they were meant to foster.”1
Excessive concern for political correctness can prove paralyzing for both speakers and
listeners in explicit discussions of race, if anyone has the courage to broach the subject
in the first place. In fact, many whites would prefer to avoid the issue altogether. A
recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that
whites often employ “strategic colorblindness” to avoid appearing racially prejudiced.
While PC terminology may be preferable to the bald racial
insults of earlier generations, it manages to create a whole new
kind of paranoid uneasiness.
1 John L. Jackson, Jr., Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correct ness (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2008), 77.
21
Racism has gone underground and still lurks in
people’s hearts, even if it
does not clearly manifest
itself in their words and
actions.
Those most concerned with seeming racist were
more likely not to mention race while performing a photo identification task. They would
describe physical details of the people in the pictures, but fail to utilize race as a means of identifying them. Ironically, this tactic often backfired, with avoidance of race often causing black
observers to perceive white subjects as more
racist. Their supposed colorblindness came
across as disingenuous and deliberate, suggesting that the race-avoidant white subjects were,
in fact, concealing their true attitudes on race.2
The ability of political correctness or supposed colorblindness to mask bigotry applies
on a larger scale, influencing the racial climate
of America as a whole. In Racial Paranoia: The
Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness, Jackson proposes that the racial tensions
of contemporary America spring from what he
terms “de cardio racism.” This insidious form
of modern racism is not based in law or overt
action, but is instead “most terrifying because
it is hidden, secret, papered over with public
niceties and politically correct jargon.”3 It is,
literally, “racism of the heart,” replacing racism of the law (de jure). This new paradigm,
Jackson argues, leads to a prevailing suspicion
that racism has gone underground and still
lurks in people’s hearts, even if it does not clearly manifest itself in their words and actions.
With political correctness paving the way for
“racial paranoia,” twenty-first century America does not provide an environment conducive
to overcoming long-standing racial tensions.
A film from this new era of de cardio ra cism, Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino (2008),
addresses contemporary racial tensions through
the relationship between neighbors of different ethnicities. The film’s main character, Walt
Kowalski, an old, white war vet, defies political correctness in his interactions with people
of all races, but especially with the Hmong im migrants who live next door to him. Through
continued interaction with this family — especially the son, Tao — Walt begins to contradict
his expressed bigotry with generous acts,
though he still clings to his offensive language. He is a difficult character to figure out,
reinforcing general racial prejudice with his
mouth, while following his heart across racial
lines to forge bonds on an individual level.
Walt exhibits the inverse of Jackson’s de
cardio racism; he seems like a flaming racist
on the surface, but — by the end of the film —
his actions demonstrate that, deep down, he
does not harbor true racial hatred. Walt’s
racist exterior shocks twenty-first century
viewers accustomed to political correctness.
However, after moving beyond the initial
shock and uncovering the true attitudes in
Walt’s heart, the viewer finds a pleasant surprise, as opposed to the unpleasant, ugly truth
associated with the de cardio racism.
In the script for Gran Torino, screenwriter
Nick Schenk introduces Walt as “a full-blown,
unrepentant racist.”4 This description is presented almost like an objectively observable
physical feature, just one detail in a suite of
characteristics that includes “hawk-like eyes”
and a military “buzz cut hairstyle.”5 A surface
analysis of Walt, based on his voiced racial
attitudes, supports this initial characterization. Schenk peppers the entire script with
racial slurs and assigns a considerable portion
of them to Walt. In one of the film’s early
scenes, he grumbles under his breath, “how
many swamp rats can they cram into a living
room?”6 when he sees partygoers flocking to
his Asian neighbors’ house. Walt continues to
demonstrate his penchant for racial epithets
when criticizing the upkeep of the family’s
property, lamenting, “Damn chinks let their
yards go to hell.”7 Throughout the film, he
refers to the family’s teenaged son, Tao, as
“zipper-head” and mocks the pronunciation
of his name, calling him “Toad.”
Walt also presents a racist exterior by
propagating racial stereotypes. When he finds
Tao’s sister, Sue, walking in a bad neighborhood, he says, “I thought all you Asian girls
2 Evan P. Apfelbaum, Samuel R. Sommers, and Michael I. Norton, “Seeing Race and Seeming Racist?
Evaluating Strategic Colorblindness in Social Interaction,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
95 (2008): 918-932.
3 Jackson, 87.
4 Nick Schenk, screenwriter, Gran Torino, full text from a film directed by Clint Eastwood (Los Angeles:
Warner Bros., 2008), 6.
5 Schenk, 1.
6 Schenk, 6.
7 Schenk, 12.
22
8 Schenk, 39.
WARNER BROS.
were supposed to be so smart.”8 Similarly,
after he runs off a few gang members who
want Tao to join them, Sue invites Walt to a
barbeque. He reluctantly accepts, telling Sue
that she and her family had better “keep
[their] paws off my dog,” implying that the
neighbors, by virtue of their Asian heritage,
would want to cook his pet.9
When he throws around slurs and tired
stereotypes, it is difficult to argue that Walt is
anything but racist. While racist speech is
harmful in itself, de cardio racism, in Jack son’s words, “highlights the difference between what people do and what they say,
what people do and why they do it.”10 In
positing Walt as a de cardio non-racist, so to
speak, the full picture of his racial attitudes
emerges through an examination of the contrast between Walt’s words and actions.
Despite his callous, racist front, Walt
forms a close bond with Tao. Their relationship starts off on the wrong foot when Tao
tries to steal Walt’s cherished car — his 1972
Gran Torino—as part of a gang initiation. Walt
catches Tao in the attempt and it appears
Walt’s attitude towards his Hmong neighbors
will only grow more negative. Urged on by his
family, however, Tao looks to redeem himself
to Walt, who puts him to work fixing up the
neighborhood. Walt quickly assumes the role
of mentor, helping Tao get a construction job,
advancing him money to buy tools, and
encouraging him to pursue the girl he likes.
The two even share a touching handshake at
the hardware store, and their faces show — as
denoted in the script — that “it’s really quite a
moment for both of them.”11
Walt does not have a close relationship with
his own family and balks at any measure that
might reduce his independence. He cannot
stand to be treated like a helpless elderly person, and kicks his son out of the house for suggesting he consider a retirement community.
This violent reaction prompts Walt’s son to say,
“He just won’t let anyone help him.”12 Al though he will not accept aid from his own
family, Walt comes to rely on Tao. When he
needs to move a heavy appliance, Walt calls on
Tao for help, rather than persisting in his stubborn independence—a testament to the strength
of their relationship. He even goes on to sell the
freezer to Tao’s family at a discounted price.
Walt’s trust in Tao also shows itself through
the Gran Torino. Walt beams watching Tao
wash the very car he once tried to steal. Sue
notices, asking, “You like him, don’t you?”
Walt denies any fondness, but Sue, of all the
film’s characters, seems the least convinced of
Walt’s racist front. She sees past his façade,
pointing to his actions, rather than his superficial racist words: “You spend time with him
and you teach him how to fix things and you
saved him from that [gangbanger] cousin of
ours.”13 Walt confirms Sue’s suspicion when
The full picture of his
racial attitudes emerges
through an examination
of the contrast between
Walt’s words and actions.
9 Schenk, 45.
10 Jackson, 87.
11 Schenk, 89.
12 Schenk, 44.
13 Schenk, 77.
23
he lets Tao drive the Gran Torino on a date, the ultimate measure of trust, considering the car is Walt’s
“pride and joy.”14
The film’s conclusion solidifies Walt’s bond with
his Asian neighbors and further suggests that, in his
heart, he does not harbor racial hatred. It may be
that the relationship weakens negative feelings he
had to begin with, or merely provides an opportunity to reveal that there was never genuine conviction
behind his words. Once Walt takes Tao under his
wing, he acts fiercely protective of the boy, threatening gang members when they continue to hassle him.
Ignoring these warnings, the gang eventually rapes
Sue and even opens fire on the family’s house. After
this incident Walt comes to the realization that “there’s
no way Tao or Sue are ever gonna have any peace if
these gang guys don’t go away. Go away forever.”15
Tao wants to get revenge on the gang, but Walt
does not want him to be involved in any bloodshed.
He invites Tao over, under the pretense of involving
him in a retaliation plot against the gang, but ends
up locking him in the basement instead. Walt then
drives to the gang’s hangout, where he provokes
them, unarmed. The gang members unleash a barrage of gunfire when Walt reaches into his pocket
for a lighter, which they assume is a weapon. Walt
lies dead outside the apartment complex when the
police show up to cart the shooters off to jail. He
ultimately sacrifices himself to better a couple of
Asian kids’ lives, and this action blows holes through
the racist façade he sets up with his words.
The last item in Walt’s will sums up his attitudes
towards race:
To my friend, Tao Vang Lor, I leave my 1972
Gran Torino, on the condition that you don’t
choptop the roof like one of those beaners, don’t
paint any idiotic flames on it like some whitetrash hillbilly, and don’t put up a big gay spoiler
on the rear-end like you see on all the other zipper heads’ cars. It just looks like hell. If you can
refrain from doing any of that, it’s yours.16
On the surface, the bequest consists of slurs against
various ethnic groups, but the true significance of
the action peeks through the harsh exterior. Walt
leaves his most valuable possession — monetarily
and sentimentally — not with a family member or a
white friend, but with an Asian teenager.
In an era of political correctness in which people
“see smiles on white faces and hear kind words
spilling from white mouths without the least bit of
14 Schenk, 5.
15 Schenk, 99.
16 Schenk, 118.
17 Jackson, 78.
24
certainty about whether those gestures are representative of the speakers’ hearts,”16 Walt’s character is
refreshing. He is an appealing sort of hypocrite, with
good-hearted substance peeking through a repulsive
front, rather than the other way around. Contemporary audiences expecting politically correct dialogue may not be able to forgive his language, but
viewers can have a hopeful suspicion that Walt’s
words do not reflect his heart — that he is, in fact,
less racist than he seems on the surface. When Walt’s
actions, including his ultimate sacrifice, contradict
his voiced racism, the film provides a twenty-first
century audience with a pleasant surprise, rather
than the devastating one they have come to expect
from de cardio racism.
Necessary reliance on outward expression to
divine inner feelings is one of the great frustrations of
the de cardio racism paradigm. Walt uses racially
offensive language throughout
Gran Torino; his external signals Walt leaves his most
remain constant from beginning to valuable possession—
end. A viewer can never know
monetarily and sentiwhether Walt undergoes an internal transformation over the course mentally—not with a
of the film, or if his relationship family member or a
with Tao and Sue just provides an
white friend, but with
opportunity to reveal non-racist
feelings that were present all an Asian teenager.
along. In the first scenario, Walt
ultimately overcomes his racist attitudes. In the second, he never had genuine racist feelings to begin
with, but — for whatever reason — wanted to conceal
this from the rest of the world. He learned his vocabulary in an era in which slurs were more commonplace (though not less harmful) and seems inordinately stubborn about changing his manner of speaking.
Either way, this unconventional character is a far
cry from that white student nervously sidestepping
racially charged terms in a PC classroom; he represents the opposite extreme. Walt does not suffer
from racial paranoia; he could not care less whether
others suspect he is racist. The benefit of this character’s strange profile is that viewers have the novel
experience of being able to suspect that Walt is truly
better than he appears, not worse. The ideal, of
course, is non-racist words matched with non-racist
actions, but when everyone is bandying about politically correct phrases, it is unfortunately difficult to
determine whether a person’s true attitudes are as
pristine as their words.