Guess who’s coming to dinner

Guess who’s coming to dinner was a movie released in 1967 and its biggest difference from the movies we’ve seen before is its overall lighthearted themes of love and commitment followed by its sense of doubt and uncertainty. This film stars Sidney Poitier playing John Prentice a black man that has no flaws and Katharine Houghton playing Joanna Drayton a woman that can only see the good in the world. The main conflict of the movie is between John Prentice a black man and Joanna Drayton an interracial couple that wants to get married during a time this is extremely unacceptable. Throughout the movie, we see the main person opposed to the marriage is Joanna’s father played by Spencer Tracy.

 

I found this movie to be the most relatable to some of the aspects we see in race relations and interracial marriage today. Similar to the movie dating outside of your race can seem like a betrayal or an insult to others while in most cases it’s just a matter of personality. Yet the main point the movie discussed was the fact that the couple has not yet thought of the hardships they would face.

First is society's perception of them even today we see a lot of harmful stereotypes for interracial couples. For example, if people were to stereotype John, they would assume he’s with Joanna to take advantage of her privilege and he likes her because she is passive and docile compared to black women. In terms of Joanna people would assume she was with him to disobey her parents for a brief phase in her life or for sexual reasons only. These stereotypes can take a toll on a lot of couples and quickly become a frustration to combat.

The second hardship is raising interracial children, this was a main concern in the movie. Today we see a struggle for some interracial couples to raise mixed children. Joanna could struggle with taking care of the children’s hair skin and overall hygiene, while John could struggle with understanding his children not being able to feel accepted in the black or white community. Interracial children are also heavily stereotyped alone, but this often comes from people forcing them to pick a side as their primary race.  Raising a child is already difficult adding these extra aspects can be detrimental.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie I found it endearing that despite the hardships and consent doubts love still prevailed in the end. However, I did agree with Joanna’s father that this decision was rushed after just meeting there was no possible way substance talk about dealing with stereotypes or raising an interracial child was made. However, I feel that with the support system and immense amount of love this couple possesses that they can overcome the hardships despite their rush to get married.

Additional Links

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/interracial-marriages-now-more-common-but-not-without-challenges/

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/70371/2/Iankilevitch_Maria_201511_MA_thesis.pdf