Reappropriating Identity: We are in a Post-Racial Era!

Trayvon Martin

Obama becoming President was seen as a sign by some that we now live in a post-racial era (Powell, 2012, p. 8). However, society shows that we are not in a post-racial era – Trayvon Martin’s shooting in February 2012 most recently made this clear. Martin was a 17-year-old walking home from a shop, shot because being an African-American wearing a hoodie meant the gunman found him suspicious, his murder leading to renewed interest in race relations (Birzer, 2013, p. 24-25). The media generalises black hooded youths as threatening to civilisation (Flower, 2008, p. 56). As such Martin’s murder highlights a belief that the media stereotype is correct, ignoring that there is more than meets the eye to these youths, and that we are not in a post-racial era, as this has become another racial stereotype.

Spike Lee

hooks highlights (“bell hooks Pt 6 cultural criticism (spike lee)”, 2006) that contemporary cinema reflects that we are not in a post-racial era, and speaks truth. Critics called Crooklyn (Lee, 1994) a film without plot, yet Terms of Endearment (Brooks, 1983), about a young white mother dying of cancer, received critical acclaim and five Oscars (N/A, n.d.). This does suggest that some critics do take more interest in narratives about white characters, with a sense of prejudice present. Today cinema still reflects that we are not in a post-racial era. If we were then approaches to race in Jackie Brown (Tarantino, 1997) and Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012) would not have been met with such hostility by Lee (Sieczkowski, 2013, para. 7).

We are not in a post-racial era, but the progress towards one is undeniable, not least because the 1968 Civil Rights Act abolished racial segregation (Hasday, 2007, p. 103). To wrap up, here is the montage of old film clips from Bamboozled (Lee, 2000), as a reminder of how far cinema has come from constant degrading stereotypes of African-Americans.

Word Count: 316

Bibliography

bell hooks Pt 6 cultural criticism (spike lee) [Webcast]. (2006, December 10). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEQh-Zpb4XU

Birzer, M. L. (2013). Putting Racial Profiling into Context. In Racial Profiling: They Stopped Me Because I’m____________! (pp. 23-44). Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.

Flower, L. (2008). Taking Literate Action. In Community Literacy and the Rhetoric of Public Engagement (pp. 44-72). Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.

Hasday, J. L. (2007). How Far Have We Come? In The Civil Rights Act of 1964: An End to Racial Segregation (pp. 96-107). New York: Infobase Publishing.

N/A. (n.d.). The 56th Academy Awards (1984) Nominees and Winners. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/56th-winners.html

Powell, J. A. (2012). Post-Racialism or Targeted Universalism? In Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society (pp. 3-28). Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Sieczkowski, C. (2013, January 18). Jamie Foxx Calls Spike Lee ‘Shady,’ ‘Irresponsible’ For ‘Django Unchained’ Criticism. Huffpost Entertainment. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/18/jamie-foxx-spike-lee-django-unchained-criticism_n_2505894.html

Filmography

Brooks, J. L. (Director). (1983). Terms of Endearment [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.

Lee, S. (Director). (1994). Crooklyn [Motion Picture]. United States: 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks/Universal Pictures.

Lee, S. (Director). (2000). Bamboozled [Motion Picture]. United States: 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks/New Line Cinema.

Tarantino, Q. (Director). (1997). Jackie Brown [Motion Picture]. United States: A Band Apart/Miramax Films.

Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2012). Django Unchained [Motion Picture]. United States: A Band Apart/Columbia Pictures.

White Directors Can’t Make Black Films?

Historically white directors depicting African-Americans on screen has been very problematic. Griffith used The Birth of a Nation (Griffith, 1915) to introduce the stereotypical Buck to audiences (Bogle, 1973, p. 10). In Gone with the Wind (Fleming, 1939) servant Prissy is bumbling, idiotic and afraid of her impatient mistress Scarlett. And despite embodying the positive loyal trait of “The New Negro” (Pickens, 2007, p. 83) in The Defiant Ones (Kramer, 1958), Sidney Poitier played the degrading role of crippled beggar Porgy in Porgy and Bess (Preminger, 1959).

More recently white directors depicting African-Americans has been problematic for different reasons. The Color Purple (Spielberg, 1985) was criticised within the African-American community for negative portrayals of African-American men and adapting the novel (Walker, 1982) with an unnecessary “Hollywood flair” (Bates, 2005, p. 90). Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012) caused controversy mainly due to excessive use of the n-word, but also because it depicts the slavery era (Day, 2013, para. 1, 5). White (2013, para. 10) believes the film (lacking historical accuracy or emotional righteousness) was made out of juvenile amusement. I personally found Tarantino’s use of the n-word very excessive, and the impact was lost as he has used it regularly since Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992). As such White’s point is valid, as Tarantino’s attitude towards the n-word comes across as very juvenile, due to over a hundred casual uses of it in the film.

To say that white directors cannot make black films is an essentialist statement. Despite being directed by a man Thelma & Louise (Scott, 1991) is hailed as a feminist film (Nelmes, 2012, p. 268); while Brokeback Mountain (Lee, 2005) has a straight director but is a renowned queer text (Kuhn & Westwell, 2012, p. 289). Black people are seen as an “exotic other”, fascinating white people who do not understand them (Sidbury, 2007, p. 37). However, it does not mean that white directors will never successfully make black films at some point. This is a possibility which cannot be ruled out, particularly when male directors have successfully made feminist films, and straight directors made queer films.

Word Count: 348

Bibliography

Bates, G. (2005). The Color Purple (1982). In Alice Walker: A Critical Companion. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. Pp. 90.

Bogle, D. (1973). Black Beginnings: from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Birth of a Nation. In Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films (4th ed., pp. 3-18). London: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Day, P. K. (2013, January 3). ‘Django Unchained’s’ word-use controversy rages on. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/03/entertainment/la-et-mn-django-unchained-controversy-20130102

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2012). New Queer Cinema (Queer New Wave). In A Dictionary of Film Studies (pp. 289). Oxford; Oxford University Press.

Nelmes, J. (2012). Gender and Film. In J. Nelmes (Ed.), Introduction to Film Studies (5th ed., pp. 262-297). Oxon: Routledge.

Pickens, W. (2007). The New Negro. In H. L. Gates, Jr., & G. A. Jarrett (Eds.), The New Negro: Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892-1938 (pp. 79-84). New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Sidbury, J. (2007). The First “Africans”. In Becoming African in America: Race and Nation in the Early Black Atlantic (pp. 17-38). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Walker, A. (1982). The Color Purple. California: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

White, A. (2013, January 7). Still Not a Brother: Armond White on ‘Django Unchained’. New York Press. Retrieved from http://nypress.com/still-not-a-brother-armond-white-on-django-unchained/

Filmography

Fleming, V. (Director). (1939). Gone with the Wind [Motion Picture]. United States: Selznick International Pictures/Loew’s, Inc.

Griffith, D. W. (Director). (1915). The Birth of a Nation [Motion Picture]. United States: David W. Griffith Corp./Epoch Producing Corporation.

Kramer, S. (Director). (1958). The Defiant Ones [Motion Picture]. United States: United Artists.

Lee, A. (Director). (2005). Brokeback Mountain [Motion Picture]. United States: River Road Entertainment/Focus Features.

Preminger, O. (Director). (1959). Porgy and Bess [Motion Picture]. United States: Samuel Goldwyn Productions/Columbia Pictures.

Scott, R. (Director). (1991). Thelma & Louise [Motion Picture]. United States: Pathé Entertainment/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Spielberg, S. (Director). (1985). The Color Purple [Motion Picture]. United States: Amblin Entertainment/Warner Bros. Pictures.

Tarantino, Q. (Director). (1992). Reservoir Dogs [Motion Picture]. United States: Live Entertainment/Miramax Films.

Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2012). Django Unchained [Motion Picture]. United States: A Band Apart/Columbia Pictures.

Ghetto: Perpetuating the Myth of the Violent Black Man?

Ghettos are poverty stricken urban areas, home to ethnic minorities, where despair leads to crime and drug addiction, and anger to lots of inner-community violence (Fusfeld & Bates, 1984, p. 2). Ghettos were rife with gang wars; across America thousands of African-Americans formed gangs, associating themselves with either the Crips or the Bloods, and by 1987 gang-related deaths averaged at least one per day in some parts of America (Davis, 2006, p. 268-270). Boyz n the Hood (Singleton, 1991) notably addresses this, the opening stating that one in twenty-one African-Americans will be murdered, mostly by other African-Americans, and this clip depicts such a murder.

The Crips and the Bloods adopted different colours, the Bloods adopting red (Rosen, 2005, p. 236), so the fact that the drive-by shooters are in a red car symbolises their allegiance with the Bloods. Ultimately this clip highlights how dangerous the ghetto is – that teenager cannot even walk home from the grocery store without his life being in danger. The fact that Ricky is gunned down highlights that people who were not directly part of gangs were often caught in the crossfire (Rosen, 2005, p. 236-237).

The myth that black men were violent, potential rapists was originally used to justify slavery (Thompson, 2006, p. 753). Ultimately the ghetto perpetuated this, as the typical gang member was seen as an urban savage, into whom white people would project fears of “social disorder and demographic change” (Nashashibi, 2007, p. 247). The belief that African-Americans were violent had gone from a myth to what the white community saw as a dangerous reality, with the same result – white people did not want to associate with African-Americans.

The early 1990s saw New Jack Cinema begin, realistic depictions of life in the ghetto (Farred, 1996, p. 119-120). Films such as Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society (Hughes & Hughes, 1993) do not downplay the dangers of the ghetto, but also focus on morality stories. Boyz n the Hood highlights the importance of keeping children out of gang culture (King, 2005, p. 217). Tre’s father represents this, doing everything he can to make sure Tre does not ruin his life; the success of which ultimately comes when Tre chooses not to avenge Ricky and eventually goes to university.

To summarise, the ghetto perpetuated the myth of the violent black man, but cinema highlights that living in the ghetto does not make you savage. Cinema highlights that some people in the ghetto want more from life, making moral decisions to ensure that they or their children do not become part of gang culture.

Word Count: 434

Bibliography

Davis, M. (2006). The Hammer and the Rock. In City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (2nd ed., pp. 265-322). London: Verso.

Farred, G. (1996). Menace II Society: No Way Out for the Boys in the Hood. In L. Goldstein, & I. Konigsberg (Eds.), The Movies: Texts, Receptions, Exposures (pp. 114-129). Michigan: The University of Michigan Press.

Fusfeld, D. R., & Bates, T. (1984). The Ghetto and the City. In The Political Economy of the Urban Ghetto (pp. 1-11). Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.

King, G. (2005). Alternative Visions: Social, Political and Ideological Dimensions of Independent Cinema. In American Independent Cinema (pp. 197-260). London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd.

Nashashibi, R. (2007). Ghetto Cosmopolitanism: Making Theory at the Margins. In S. Sassen (Ed.), Deciphering the Global: Its Scales, Spaces and Subjects (pp. 243-264). Oxon: Routledge.

Rosen, F. (2005). Los Angeles, California (1943-Present). In The Historical Atlas of American Crime (pp. 236-237). New York: Facts On File, Inc.

Thompson, D. (2006). Rape. In E. A. Beaulieu (Ed.), Writing African American Women, Volume 2: K-Z (pp. 752-755). Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Filmography

Hughes, A., & Hughes, A. (Directors). (1993). Menace II Society [Motion Picture]. United States: New Line Cinema.

Singleton, J. (Director). (1991). Boyz n the Hood [Motion Picture]. United States: Columbia Pictures.

Ain’t I a Woman too?

Sojourner Truth

“Ain’t I a Woman too?” was first asked in 1851 by Sojourner Truth, who opposed the far more humane treatment that white women received (Boles/Long Hoeveler, 2004, p. 33). The message was powerful – skin colour should not determine how you treat someone. This can be applied to cinema, which undeniably has depicted black women as inferior to white women. The Mammy and Tragic Mulatto stereotypes have been in films since the 1910s (Bogle, 1973, p. 9); while many films depict African-American women as foolish servants, notably Gone with the Wind (Fleming, 1939). Servant Prissy is depicted as bumbling, foolish, and afraid of mistress Scarlett, who mistreats her, even using violence.

Some black women tried to identify with beautiful white women in films; but most would refuse to as they could not recognise themselves on screen, making films painful to watch (hooks, 1992, p. 121). By refusing to identify with the female characters, black women adopted an oppositional gaze, resisting spectatorship (hooks, 1992, p. 128). Hollywood films objectified white women, glorifying their bodies, ignoring those of black women (hooks, 1992, p. 118). Imitation of Life (Sirk, 1959) for example even suggested that only white women could be considered beautiful.

bell hooks

hooks argues (1992, p. 117-118) that Feminist theory ignores race like cinema misrepresents black women, citing African-American youth Emmett Till’s murder for wolf whistling at a white woman. African-American directors both male and female have also objectified women (hooks, 1992, p. 118, 129). Upon viewing Illusions (Dash, 1982) the white male is left gazing at the black woman, in clear role reversal (hooks, 1992, p. 129); while in Eve’s Bayou (Lemmons, 1997) a serial womaniser represents how attractive black women can be found. Overall cinema’s representation of black women has undeniably improved over the years, highlighting their beauty and attractiveness, and in the case of Blaxploitation going so far as to empower them (Sims, 2006, p. 5), hugely contrasting inferior depictions in early decades of cinema.

Word Count: 325

Bibliography

Bogle, D. (1973). Black Beginnings: from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Birth of a Nation. In Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films (4th ed., pp. 3-18). London: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Boles, J. K., & Long Hoeveler, D. (2004). Historical Dictionary of Feminism (2nd ed.). Oxford: Scarecrow Press, Inc. Pp. 33.

hooks, b. (1992). The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators. In Black Looks: Race and Representation (pp. 115-131). Boston: South End Press.

Sims, Y. D. (2006). Women of Blaxploitation: How the Black Action Film Heroine Changed American Popular Culture. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. Pp. 5.

Filmography

Dash, J. (Director). (1982). Illusions [Short Film]. United States: N/A.

Fleming, V. (Director). (1939). Gone with the Wind [Motion Picture]. United States: Selznick International Pictures/Loew’s, Inc.

Lemmons, K. (Director). (1997). Eve’s Bayou [Motion Picture]. United States: ChubbCo Film/Trimark Pictures.

Sirk, D. (Director). (1959). Imitation of Life [Motion Picture]. United States: Universal International Pictures.

Creating a Black Aesthetic

Spike Lee

The New Black Aesthetic, independent films about African-American culture, began in the late 1980s, the filmmakers behind it including UCLA Film School graduates Charles Burnett and Julie Dash,  (Kuhn/Westwell, 2012, p. 35). Race issues were very prominent, and Spike Lee especially would aim his films for black audiences, with a message about taking initiative in solving race issues (Thompson/Bordwell, 2010, p. 677). Despite being about African-American culture with a black director and black cast, some New Black Aesthetic films would receive white funding, Daughters of the Dust (Dash, 1991) being just one example (Moore, 2011, p. 148).

Frazier stated that one black cultural tradition was taking on the morals and manners of more privileged white people, turning something with black authenticity potential into something “mulatto” (1957, p. 112-113). African-Americans as middle class urban professionals (similar to white people) also led to the term “buppy” being coined, defined in the late 1980s by education and income (Brazile, 2011, p. 212-213). New Black Aesthetic films can entirely embody Frazier’s statement, as white funding stops them from being wholly African-American productions. Spike Lee, however, does whatever he can to find the funds himself and keep the film his own. Lee has always struggled to find funds, despite critical acclaim and commercial success (Reynolds, 2011, p. 94). Possibly the most famous example of this is Malcolm X (Lee, 1992), as the below interview (“Spike Lee Malcolm X”, 2010) highlights.

This highlights that some directors will do all they can to get funding once their budget is exceeded. Malcolm X is a great testimony to black celebrities uniting to create something significant, that was received with much gratitude for being a realistic portrayal of who Malcolm X was (Bennett Jr., 1993, p. 8). Lee and John Singleton are currently the only semi-independent black filmmakers in the industry who can secure moderate budgets (Kuhn/Westwell, 2012, p. 35), highlighting that New Black Aesthetic films continue today. In conclusion, New Black Aesthetic films may not always be authentically black, but they began a new era in Independent Black American Filmmaking, with films such as Malcolm X highlighting just how important they are to the African-American community.

Word Count: 358

Bibliography

Bennett Jr., L. (1993, February). The Making of Malcolm X. Ebony, XLVIII (4), 8-12.

Brazile, O. R. (2011). Buppies (Black Urban Professionals). In J. C. Smith (Ed.), Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture (pp. 212-213). California: ABC-CLIO, LLC.

Frazier, E. F. (1957). Black Bourgeoisie. New Jersey: Prentice Hall & IBD. Pp. 112-113.

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2012). Authorship. In A Dictionary of Film Studies (pp. 25-116). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moore, T. (2011). Julie Dash. In Y. Tasker (Ed.), Fifty Contemporary Film Directors (2nd ed., pp. 142-153). Oxon: Routledge.

Reynolds, M. (2011). How to Apply Cultural Studies Criticism to Bamboozled. In How to Analyze the Films of Spike Lee (pp. 87-95). Minnesota: ABDO Publishing Company.

Spike Lee Malcolm X [Webcast]. (2010, August 12). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCag32uIa9E

Thompson, K., & Bordwell, D. (2010). American Cinema and the Entertainment Economy: The 1980s and After. In Film History: An Introduction (3rd ed., pp. 661-693). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Filmography

Dash, J. (Director). (1991). Daughters of the Dust [Motion Picture]. United States: Kino International.

Lee, S. (Director). (1992). Malcolm X [Motion Picture]. United States: 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks/Warner Bros.

The Buddy Movie: Tired or Classic Formula?

‘Trading Places’ poster

Bi-racial Buddy Movies date back to the 1950s and can be seen as very politically based. For example The Defiant Ones (Kramer, 1958) is about two escaped convicts (one white, one black) on the run from the law. Several of Sidney Poitier’s roles from the 1950s-1960s, including Cullen in The Defiant Ones, yielded positive results as on screen racial integration was undeniable (Maltby, 2003, p. 285), in an era where racial segregation was abolished in America (Hasday, 2007, p. 103).

A notable 1980s bi-racial Buddy Movie is Trading Places (Landis, 1983), which like some of Poitier’s bi-racial Buddy Movies reflects the political context. By 1983 approximately one in five African-Americans were unemployed, nearing double the number that had been unemployed during the recession of the 1970s (Harris/Sinclair-Chapman/McKenzie, 2006, p. 42), with major cities including Philadelphia hit hardest (Griffin, 2003, p. 68). Trading Places reflects this in the below clip.

While most extras in the opening credits are working class Philadelphia residents, the fact that the African-American community live in the worst conditions (including homelessness) clearly reflects that African-Americans especially were affected by poverty in the early 1980s. The film further emphasises this through Billy Ray, who is introduced as a homeless hustler, pretending to be a blind, paraplegic veteran to get money. The question still remains as to whether it is a tired or classic formula. Personally, however, I feel that the classic part of the question should be applied to the films themselves. Can films such as Trading Places be considered modern classics?

‘The Shawshank Redemption’ poster

Some films considered classics are full of political allegories – Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936) is a  very political film (Shapiro, 2009, p. 54), and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel, 1956) is full of political allegory concerning suburban life and McCarthyism (Geraghty, 2009, p. 118-119). If a key reason for these films becoming classics is their political content, then surely Trading Places can be considered a more contemporary classic. I also believe the Buddy Movie is far from a tired formula.

To me a tired formula suggests an unpopular formula, and the bi-racial Buddy Movie has clearly been popular in the last thirty years. Trading Places was one of 1983’s highest grossing films (N/A, n.d.), while The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont, 1994) received huge critical acclaim, and the Men in Black film franchise (Sonnenfeld, 1997 to present) received great commercial success. To summarise, the Buddy Movie is far from a tired formula, while some individual films could be argued to be modern classics.

Word Count: 415

Bibliography

Geraghty, L. (2009). Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). In J. White, & S. Haenni (Eds.), Fifty Key American Films (pp. 118-123). Oxon: Routledge.

Griffin, S. P. (2003). 1968-1974: Social Movements, Social Systems and the Black Mafia. In Philadelphia’s ‘Black Mafia’: A Social and Political History (pp. 67-88). The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Harris, F. C., & Sinclair-Chapman, V., & McKenzie, B. (2006). Good Times and Bad: Trends in the Economic, Social, and Political Conditions of African Americans in the Post-Civil Rights Era. In Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism, 1973-1994 (pp. 27-52). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hasday, J. L. (2007). How Far Have We Come? In The Civil Rights Act of 1964: An End to Racial Segregation (pp. 96-107). New York: Infobase Publishing.

Maltby, R. (2003). Washington Goes to Hollywood. In Hollywood Cinema (2nd ed., pp. 280-286). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

N/A. (n.d.). 1983 DOMESTIC GROSSES. Retrieved from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1983&p=.htm

Shapiro, E. (2009). Modern Times (1936). In J. White, & S. Haenni (Eds.), Fifty Key American Films (pp. 50-55). Oxon: Routledge.

Filmography

Chaplin, C. (Director). (1936). Modern Times [Motion Picture]. United States: United Artists.

Darabont, F. (Director). (1994). The Shawshank Redemption [Motion Picture]. United States: Castle Rock Entertainment.

Kramer, S. (Director). (1958). The Defiant Ones [Motion Picture]. United States: United Artists.

Landis, J. (Director). (1983). Trading Places [Motion Picture]. United States: Cinema Group Ventures/Paramount Pictures.

Siegel, D. (Director). (1956). Invasion of the Body Snatchers [Motion Picture]. United States: Allied Artists Pictures Corporation

Sonnenfeld, B. (Director). (1997 to present). Men in Black [Motion Picture Franchise]. United States: Amblin Entertainment/Columbia Pictures.

Blaxploitation: Exploitation or Empowerment?

‘Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song’ poster

Being mass produced in the early 1970s (Tzioumakis, 2006, p. 201), Blaxploitation films broke away from the peaceful approach to on screen racial progress, and films including Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (Van Peebles, 1971), Shaft (Parks, 1971) and Super Fly (Parks, Jr., 1972) served to empower the black male in confrontational and very sexualised depictions (Kimmel and Aronson, 2004, p. 86). This highlights that Blaxploitation films were similar politically to the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party were notorious in the 1960s-1970s for approaching race issues with spontaneous, violent confrontations, leading to a number of brutal deaths, including the shootings of two Police officers in 1971 (Singh, 1998, p. 80-81). Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song titular Sweetback embodies this when he nearly kills the Police officers who arrested him, while he is sexualised on screen by working a sex show performer.

Pam Grier

Blaxploitation empowered African-American women, who felt liberated to be depicted as headstrong women, very protective of their families, as opposed to maids (Sims, 2006, p. 5). For example Pam Grier portrayed a vigilante in Coffy (Hill, 1973), and a woman avenging her husband’s murder in Foxy Brown (Hill, 1974), both of which clearly break away from stereotypes such as the Mammy and the Mulatto. Despite empowering women, however, Blaxploitation films undeniably would also often exploit women at the same time. Exploitation films exaggerate sex, drugs and violence, and many women in Blaxploitation films were whores who behaved crudely and dressed provocatively, resulting in prostitutes often being featured in Blaxploitation films (Olsen, 2006, p. 165). This is depicted in Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song as a prostitute unashamedly seduces Sweetback when he is still a child.

To summarise, Blaxploitation does empower black people by making them more powerful, headstrong individuals who would break away from stereotypes. However, Blaxploitation undeniably exploits women in particular, as they are greatly sexualised on screen, highlighting that it is not as simple as exploitation or empowerment, rather both exploitation and empowerment.

Word Count: 325

Bibliography

Kimmel, M., & Aronson, A. (2004). Blaxploitation. In Men & Masculinities: A Social, Cultural and Historical Encyclopedia (pp. 85-86). California: ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Olsen, D. C. (2006). Films, Exploitation. In M. H. Ditmore (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work, Volume 1 (pp. 165-166). Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Sims, Y. D. (2006). Women of Blaxploitation: How the Black Action Film Heroine Changed American Popular Culture. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. Pp. 5.

Singh, N. P. (1998). Th Black Panther and the “Undeveloped Country” of the Left. In C. E. Jones (Ed.), The Black Panther Party [Reconsidered] (pp. 57-106). Maryland: Black Classic Press.

Tzioumakis, Y. (2006). American Independent Cinema: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Pp. 201.

Filmography

Hill, J. (Director). (1973). Coffy [Motion Picture]. United States: American International Pictures.

Hill, J. (Director). (1974). Foxy Brown [Motion Picture]. United States: American International Pictures.

Parks, G. (Director). (1971). Shaft [Motion Picture]. United States: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

Parks, Jr., G. (Director). (1972). Super Fly [Motion Picture]. United States: Warner Bros.

Van Peebles, M. (Director). (1971). Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song [Motion Picture]. United States: Cinemation Industries.

The New Negro: The Acceptable Face of Blackness?

“The New Negro” emerged during the 1920s, giving African-Americans artistic freedom as they sought to have their own voice, rather than that which society gave them (Powers, 2008, p. 137). “The New Negro” was switched on and sensible, seeking to overcome obstacles to integrate with society (Pickens, 2007, p. 84). “The New Negro” was also often of a more powerful social position, as well as someone who wanted race relations to progress (Lamothe, 2008, p. 91).

Sidney Poitier

One of cinema’s most notable examples of “The New Negro” is Sidney Poitier. Denzin (2002, p. 27) describes Poitier as “a paragon of black middle-class values. He was intelligent, educated, a conservative dresser.” This can be seen in No Way Out (Mankiewicz, 1950), where Poitier portrays a recently qualified doctor, who had worked extremely hard to qualify, embodying also the aforementioned powerful social position. In this example “The New Negro” fulfills a key purpose of Race Movies, which was to depict African-Americans realistically, which would include depictions of them as people of “talent and intellect” (Cripps, 1993, p. 76), as a doctor who achieved top grades throughout his education is undeniably a man of intellect.

Poitier’s role of escaped convict Cullen in The Defiant Ones (Kramer, 1958) also notably embodies “The New Negro”. A key characteristic of “The New Negro” is that he is extremely loyal (Pickens, 2007, p. 83), and Cullen embodies this by refusing to abandon Jackson, forsaking his best chance of escaping their pursuers and reaching freedom. These examples are films with white directors, showing clear progress where on screen racial equality is concerned. White directors had previously made African-American characters conform to stereotypes such as the Coon and the Buck, as the below montage from Bamboozled (Lee, 2000) highlights with clips from films including The Birth of a Nation (Griffith, 1915) and Judge Priest (Ford, 1934).

Examples of “The New Negro”, such as Poitier’s aforementioned performances, yielded positive results, such as racial integration becoming undeniable on screen (Maltby, 2003, p. 285). However, this integration with white characters led some to criticise Poitier’s characters for not confronting racial issues enough (Francis, 2012, p. 339). Despite this I believe “The New Negro” is the acceptable face of blackness. It is a realistic depiction of African-Americans, breaking away from negative stereotypes, and proves racial cooperation possible, before the 1968 Civil Rights Act abolished racial segregation and discrimination (Hasday, 2007, p. 103).

Word Count: 398

Bibliography

Cripps, T. (1977). Two Early Strides toward a Black Cinema. In Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film, 1900-1942 (2nd ed., pp. 70-89). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Denzin, N. K. (2002). The Cinematic Racial Order. In Reading Race (pp. 17-46). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Francis, T. (2012). Spectacle, stereotypes and films of the African diaspora. In J. Nelmes (Ed.), Introduction to Film Studies (5th ed., pp. 329-358). Oxon: Routledge.

Hasday, J. L. (2007). How Far Have We Come? In The Civil Rights Act of 1964: An End to Racial Segregation (pp. 96-107). New York: Infobase Publishing.

Lamothe, D. (2008). Inventing the New Negro: Narrative, Culture, and Ethnography. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. Pp. 91.

Maltby, R. (2003). Washington Goes to Hollywood. In Hollywood Cinema (2nd ed., pp. 280-286). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Pickens, W. (2007). The New Negro. In H. L. Gates, Jr., & G. A. Jarrett (Eds.), The New Negro: Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892-1938 (pp. 79-84). New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Powers, N. (2008). The Undertow of Reason: Re-defining the Sublime Through the Middle Passage. Michigan: ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Pp. 138.

Filmography

Ford, J. (Director). (1934). Judge Priest [Motion Picture]. United States: Fox Film Corporation.

Griffith, D. W. (Director). (1915). The Birth of a Nation [Motion Picture]. United States: David W. Griffith Corp./Epoch Producing Corporation.

Kramer, S. (Director). (1958). The Defiant Ones [Motion Picture]. United States: United Artists.

Lee, S. (Director). (2000). Bamboozled [Motion Picture]. United States: 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks/New Line Cinema.

Mankiewicz, J. L. (Director). (1950). No Way Out [Motion Picture]. United States: 20th Century Fox.

Why is the Mulatto a Tragic Figure?

Mixed race star Fredi Washington

The Mulatto stereotype can be seen as a tragic figure, dating all the way back to the Mulatto’s origins. The Mulatto – somebody of mixed racial heritage who could pass for white (Bogle, 1973, p. 9) – originated during slavery, when mixed race children were born as the result of slaves being raped by their masters (Scruggs and VanDemarr, 1998, p. 24). Before one even begins to think about the depiction of Mulattoes in cinema, the Mulatto is undeniably a tragic figure, as they came to prominence as a result of circumstances as tragic and horrific as rape.

Before the 1968 Civil Rights Act abolished racial segregation and discrimination in America (Hasday, 2007, p. 103), the Mulatto was a tragic figure both on and off screen. A notable negative portrayal of a Mulatto in early cinema is The Birth of a Nation (Griffith, 1915), where antagonistic Silas Lynch (a Mulatto) tries to force Elsie to marry him, leading to the Ku Klux Klan having to save her. However, one of the most notable examples is Imitation of Life (Sirk, 1959). Mulatto Sarah Jane wants to make it as an actress, however, the only way in which she can is to pretend to be white, which means she has to disown both her black heritage and her mother.

‘Imitation of Life’ poster

Sarah Jane represents a saddening issue in America – that Mulattoes had no choice but to pretend to be white in order to fit in with white communities (Dorr, 2008, p. 59). Their skin tone made a lot of difference in some parts of America as their far lighter skin tone also meant a superior education to most black people, but Mulattoes would nonetheless be excluded by a white community that were aware of their black ancestry (Jones, 2003, p. 269).

To summarise, the Mulatto is a tragic figure as in America they initially resulted from rape, and they not only had to lie about their heritage to fit in with the predominantly white culture, but would be excluded by the white community if their black heritage came to light. This tragic figure status was furthered by cinema, not only by examples of them lying to fit in, but also by examples of them being antagonistic figures.

Word Count: 374

Bibliography

Bogle, D. (1973). Black Beginnings: from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Birth of a Nation. In Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films (4th ed., pp. 3-18). London: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Dorr, G. M. (2008). Rearing the Human Thoroughbred. In Segregation’s Science: Eugenics and Society in Virginia (pp. 48-69). Virginia: University of Virginia Press.

Hasday, J. L. (2007). How Far Have We Come? In The Civil Rights Act of 1964: An End to Racial Segregation (pp. 96-107). New York: Infobase Publishing.

Jones, T. (2003). Shades of Brown: The Law of Skin Color. In K. R. Johnson (Ed.), Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader (pp. 268-275). New York: New York University Press.

Scruggs, C., & VanDemmar, L. (1998). Sparta. In Jean Toomer and the Terrors of American History (pp. 8-32). Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Filmography

Griffith, D. W. (Director). (1915). The Birth of a Nation [Motion Picture]. United States: David W. Griffith Corp./Epoch Producing Corporation.

Sirk, D. (Director). (1959). Imitation of Life [Motion Picture]. United States: Universal International Pictures.

Film Star: We Wear the Mask

Emerging black film stars were exploited by Hollywood (Regester, 2010, pp. 327-328), but there was more to them than what the audience believed, resulting in we, the audience, being the ones to wear the mask. One of the best examples of this is Stepin Fetchit, the below clips from Judge Priest (Ford, 1934) and Miracle in Harlem (Kemp, 1948) being examples of his performances.

Stepin Fetchit

The clips clearly show that Fetchit is portraying the stereotypical Coon – a buffoon, childlike, harmless and naive (Bogle, 1973, pp. 7-8). While the white audience were very likely laughing at Fetchit, due to the stereotypes being created to entertain through depicting black people as inferior (Bogle, 1973, p. 4). It was all an act, however, as in real life Fetchit was “as intelligent and shrewd as the twentieth century business man” (Everett, 2001, pp. 164-165). Fetchit genuinely did successfully fool the white audience, as he had cleverly crafted his entire act to trick them into believing that he was stupid (Myers, 2000, p. 335). In that we the audience are unaware that we are wearing a mask, as what we see masks our ability to distinguish what the truth about Fetchit is.

Paul Robeson

This is something which happened a number of times with black stars, another notable example being Paul Robeson. Robeson’s roles in films such as Show Boat (Whale, 1936) quickly led to him being classed as an Uncle Tom, particularly by those who knew little about him (Killens, 1973, p. 24). However, his strong political views and critiquing of American racism (Gerlach, 2004, p. 715) means that there is far more to him than people believed. This can be seen as similar to Fetchit – the on screen conforming to stereotypes masking an audiences’ ability to see that there is more to him than meets the eye. So with examples as notable as Fetchit and Robeson starring in films, it is clear that metaphorically it really is us the audience who wear the mask, as our ability to look deeper is masked by what is presented on screen.

Word Count: 344

Bibliography

Bogle, D. (1973). Black Beginnings: from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Birth of a Nation. In Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films (4th ed., pp. 3-18). London: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Everett, A. (2001). Cinephilia in the Black Renaissance. In Returning the Gaze: A Genealogy of Black Film Criticism, 1909-1949 (pp. 107-178). North Carolina: Duke University Press.

Gerlach, L. R. (2004). Robeson, Paul. In H. L. Gates Jr., & E. B. Higginbotham (Eds.), African American Lives  (pp. 714-717). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Killens, J. O. (1973). Who Needs It: The Black Culture Generation Gap. Black World, 22 (10),  22-33.

Myers, J. (2000). What to Keep/What to Toss Away. In Afraid of the Dark: What Whites and Blacks Need to Know About Each Other (pp. 331-348). Illinois: Lawrence Hill Books.

Regester, C. (2010). Conclusion. In African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900-1960 (pp. 326-332). Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Tate, E. E. (2001). Going Back in Time. In Mysteries Through Time: The Minstrel’s Melody (2nd ed., pp. 157-162). New York: Windmill Books, LLC.

Filmography

Ford, J. (Director). (1934). Judge Priest [Motion Picture]. United States: Fox Film Corporation.

Kemp, J. (Director). (1948). Miracle in Harlem [Motion Picture]. United States: Herald Pictures/Screen Guild Productions.

Whale, J. (Director). (1936). Show Boat [Motion Picture]. United States: Universal Pictures.