JUST RANKIN’ SH!T
The 5 Most Shameless White Savior Roles in Film, Ranked
Oh, the audacity of trope
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5. Neo in ‘The Matrix’
A computer nerd pops a pill and enters an alternate reality in which he learns martial arts and how to stop bullets mid-flight, becoming the messiah who saves Laurence Fishburne and his people (of color) from annihilation. Sounds about White!
4. Dr. King Schultz in ‘Django Unchained’
Virtually every modern slavery film has a redeemable White character — but most don’t include a bounty hunter who helps a Black man find freedom and become some trigger-happy mash-up of Nat Turner and Rambo. Don’t even get us started on the name.
3. Phyllis Saroka in ‘Sunset Park’
A gym teacher who doesn’t know a pick and roll from a finger roll learns the game of basketball and leads a troubled inner-city high school squad to the championship? Technical foul on the play.