Discussions on racial discrimination in cinema with examples from American and Turkish cinema

The phenomenon of racism is a phenomenon that has settled in human life from the past to the present and is always up-to-date. This phenomenon is reflected in human life, sometimes secretly and sometimes openly and violently. Despite the fact that there are written and verbal protective laws against this phenomenon, it seems that the phenomenon of racism will not leave the social life. Cinema presents the reality of human life to large masses through the big screen. Ideological discourse and representations are very common in cinema. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the elements and conditions in which American and Turkish cinemas reflect the phenomenon of racism on the big screen. The discourse analysis method samples were tried to be supported by analyzing racism with the semiotic analysis method through representative dialogues, symbolic signs and character analysis. Films in both American and Turkish cinema were selected and analyzed by purposive sampling method. It has been determined that American and Turkish cinemas represent the phenomenon of racism in different ways in the context of ethnicity, racial difference, religious diversity and bodily difference. In particular, American cinema has kept the representation of the "superior race", which is accepted as the supremacy of whites, in a separate place by reflecting the racism phenomenon on the big screen more harshly and violently than Turkish cinema.