We've talked before about how some negative stereotypes from the past are, somehow, still showing up in today's movies , and even in recent video games . But those are our grandfathers' prejudices, just in a modern form, like an old man cursing at an Asian nurse with a megaphone ( that's why we don't visit, Grandpa ). It turns out there are other, more subtle ways that Hollywood has been enforcing wrongheaded ideas right under our noses, and sometimes in our favorite films. Like ...

6 Everyone in Africa Is Uncivilized or a Warlord

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In Hollywood movies, Africa is a shitty place to be. One of the most iconic scenes in action movie history comes at the end of Independence Day, when we see that the invading army of aliens has finally been defeated by a concerted, collaborative effort by the entire world (but mostly the U.S., and mostly Jeff Goldblum), and we get a montage of the wreckage on different continents. America gets a military base ...



Fort Burntodeath.

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... Australia gets some of that crazy architecture ...

... and Africa gets ... naked dudes brandishing spears?



"No, don't stop, keep poking it until it's all the way down!"

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Apparently, this barren land is the closest thing the aliens could find to a major population center in Africa. That's because for Hollywood, the entire continent hasn't advanced much since Jesus was still around. The opening to Casino Royale, for instance, introduces us to Africa with the image of a bunch of black guys betting on a fight between a mongoose and a snake.