ABSTRACT
This chapter considers three films that show how certain teen film stereotypes – specifically the cheerleader, the bully, and the nerd – construct whiteness in relation to black culture. Through their use of variations on stereotypical white stock characters, these three films show how interracial cultural borrowing (or sometimes theft) alters particular types of whiteness. The chapter expresses that black music is an important resource for white teenagers, both in film and in the real world. They use it to feel cool, to add 'spice' to their lives, as a vehicle for dance, and to gain some sort of spirituality, authenticity, or history – that is, to feel more real, more human, more whole. The films highlight the constructed nature of racial discourse by focusing on the connotations of black music for which many white people (and others) seek it out.
