I don't think it's precisely harmful for white people to fantasize about helping the people they have oppressed.
What's bad about it being a trope is that so many movies are based on it. You never see one of the oppressed rising up to save her/his own people. There are no movies that speak to audiences who identify more with the oppressed than with the oppressor.
It's not too different from the overload of movies with smart, strong, capable, likeable male heroes coupled with vapid, pretty, and useless women.
The overuse of one trope that speaks to one kind of person (whether it's male, white, or both) makes it glaringly and painfully obvious that Hollywood doesn't cater to other kinds of people.
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What's bad about it being a trope is that so many movies are based on it. You never see one of the oppressed rising up to save her/his own people. There are no movies that speak to audiences who identify more with the oppressed than with the oppressor.
It's not too different from the overload of movies with smart, strong, capable, likeable male heroes coupled with vapid, pretty, and useless women.
The overuse of one trope that speaks to one kind of person (whether it's male, white, or both) makes it glaringly and painfully obvious that Hollywood doesn't cater to other kinds of people.