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Lecture 8: Lecture 8: Being Black in White HollywoodBeing Black in White Hollywood

Professor Michael Green

Hollywood Shuffle (1987) Directed by Robert Townsend

This LessonThis Lesson

• Black Stereotypes in Hollywood Cinema

• The Black New Wave

• Los Angeles and ‘Hood Films

• Hollywood Shuffle

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Black Stereotypes in Hollywood Black Stereotypes in Hollywood CinemaCinema

Lesson 8: Part I

Song of the South (1946) Directed by Harve Foster and Wifred Jackson

Donald BogleDonald Bogle• Important black writer and scholar on African

Americans in film and television.• He wrote a well-received biography of

Dorothy Dandridge.• He wrote Toms, Coons, Mulattoes,

Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in Films in 1973.

• He updated it in 1989, but didn’t have to change much, as the stereotypes did not change much.

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Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies and BucksMammies and Bucks

• In the book he divides the portrayals of African-Americans on film into the five stereotypes of the title that range from the overtly racist to the more subtly demeaning.

• He traces the history of these images from the blatantly disparaging The Birth of a Nation in 1915 to the “Blaxploitation” films that were a box office phenomenon around the time of the book’s publication.

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““Black BeginningsBlack Beginnings””• The first black character in American movies

was Uncle Tom from Edwin Porter’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

• He was played by a white actor in blackface.• “After Tom’s debut, there appeared a variety

of black presences. All were character types used for the same effect: to entertain by stressing Negro inferiority. None of the types were meant to do great harm, but at various times individual ones did.”– Bogle 6

Black Actors Playing StereotypesBlack Actors Playing Stereotypes• “Later, when real black actors played the

roles and found themselves wedged into these categories, the history became one of actors battling against the types to create rich, stimulating, diverse characters.”

• At various time, the types were brought to life by Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Stepin Fetchit, Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr., Dorothy Dandridge, Ethel Waters, Jim Brown, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover.

The TomThe Tom• Porter’s Tom was the first in a long line of

socially acceptable “Good Negro” characters.

• “Always as toms are chased, harassed, hounded, flogged, enslaved, and insulted, they keep the faith, n’er turn against their white massas, and remain hearty, submissive, stoic, generous, selfless, and oh-so-very kind. Thus they endear themselves to white audiences and emerge as heroes of sorts.”

Bogle on Sidney Poitier as TomBogle on Sidney Poitier as Tom• “When insulted or badgered, the Poitier

character stood by and took it. He knew the white world meant him no real harm. He differed from the old servants only in that he was governed by a code of decency, duty, and moral intelligence. There were times in his films when he screamed out in rage at the injustices of a racist white society. But reason always dictated his actions, along with love for his fellow man.”

ExampleExample

To Sir, With Love (1967)Directed by James Clavell

The CoonThe Coon• The coon represented blacks as amusement

objects and buffoons. They were represented as the pure coon and two variants: the pickaninny and the uncle remus.

• “The pickaninny was the first of the coon types to make its screen debut. It gave the negro child actor a place in the black pantheon. He was a harmless little screwball creation whose eyes popped, whose hair stood on end at the least excitement, and whose antics were pleasant and diverting.”

ExampleExample

The Pure CoonThe Pure Coon• Before it began to disappear from movie

screens, the pure coon developed into one of the most blatantly degrading of all black stereotypes.

• “The pure coon emerged as no-account niggers, those unreliable, crazy, lazy, subhuman creatures good for nothing more than eating watermelons, stealing chickens, shooting craps or butchering the English language.”– Bogle 13

Uncle RemusUncle Remus• “The final member of the coon triumvirate is

the uncle remus. Harmless and congenial, he is a first cousin to the tom, yet he distinguishes himself by his quaint, naive, and comic philosophizing.

• Remus’s mirth, like tom's contentment and the coon’s antics, has always been used to indicate the black man’s satisfaction with the system and his place in it.”– Bogle

The Tragic MulattoThe Tragic Mulatto• A female character of mixed blood (generally

black and white).• Some early silent films explored the plight of

the mulatto, usually fair-skinned, who is trying to pass for white.

• “Usually the mulatto is made likeable – even sympathetic (because of her white blood, no doubt) – and the audience believes that the girl’s life could have been productive and happy had she not been a victim of divided racial inheritance.” 15

The MammyThe Mammy• Mammy, the fourth black type, is so closely

related to the comic coons that she is usually relegated to their ranks.

• Mammy is distinguished, however by her sex and her fierce independence.

• She is usually big, fat, cantankerous and slightly militant, but despite her brashness, she “knows her place.”

• Pause the lecture and watch clip #1 from Gone with the Wind.

Contemporary MammiesContemporary Mammies

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The Brutal Black BuckThe Brutal Black Buck• Birth of a Nation included all the stereotypes

named by Bogle and touched off controversy.• Some say that the movie defined the way that

Hollywood would represent blackness.• The movie propagated the myth of slave

contentment and made it appear as if slavery had elevated blacks from bestial instincts.

• It introduced the figures of the black brutes and the black bucks.

The Black Buck (continued)The Black Buck (continued)• The black brute was a barbaric black out to

raise havoc. Audiences could assume that his physical violence served as an outlet for sexual repression.

• The black bucks are also big, oversexed and savage, violent and frenzied as they “lust for white flesh,” a great sin to whites.

• These two characters reveled the tie between sex and racism in America.

• Pause the lecture and watch clip #2.

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The Black New WaveThe Black New Wave

Lesson 8: Part II

She’s Gotta’ Have it (1986) Directed by Spike Lee

HistoryHistory• Until the 1990’s, most of the Hollywood’s

black-themed movies were directed by white filmmakers.

• Although studios released a few films by black directors in the late 1960’s and early 1970s, including films by Charles Burnett, Melvin Van Peebles, and Gordon Parks, films by African Americans would not emerge in force until almost 100 years after the birth of cinema.

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New VoicesNew Voices• Black (and some white) directors would react

to the racist stereotypes of a century of film by creating movies that represented black people much more centrally and complexly than in the previous decades.

• The turning point in the history of the new black cinema was She’s Gotta’ Have it, the first feature film by Spike Lee (1986).

• Robert Townsend also helped open doors with Hollywood Shuffle (1987).

• Both films were independently financed.

Spike LeeSpike Lee• Lee was a pioneer who had a lot of success

early in his career. Because his early films made money – including School Daze, Do the Right Thing and Mo’ Better Blues – the studios gave other black directors a chance.

• Lee has now directed more then 20 films (including documentaries like Get on the Bus and When the Levees Break) and is considered the “dean” of black directors by virtue of his talent, productivity and attitude.

Other directorsOther directors• Other directors from the Black New Wave –

1986 – 1996 included:• John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood, Poetic Justice)• Bill Duke (A Rage in Harlem, Deep Cover)• Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang)• Mario Van Peebles (Posse, New Jack City)• Carl Franklin (One False Move, Devil in a Blue Dress)• Charles Burnett (To Sleep with Anger, The Glass

Shield)• The Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society, Dead

Presidents)• Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust)

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Style and ContentStyle and Content• The movies were hip and cool, many

featuring rap soundtracks and flashy cinematography.

• They also tended to be more formally sophisticated then their 1970s counterparts.

• They were more complex in characterization, emotion and theme; most importantly, there was a wide range of stories.

• Pause the lecture and watch clip #3 from House Party.

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Los Angeles and Los Angeles and ‘‘Hood FilmsHood Films

Lesson 8: Part III

Boyz n the Hood (1991)Directed by John Singleton

‘‘Hood MoviesHood Movies• Hood films detail the difficult coming of age of

a young black male protagonist in an economically depressed, socially contained, often violent inner city setting, or “Hood.”

• They were born, as their seventies urban-themed counterparts had been, of a Hollywood economic depression and studio decisions to produce inexpensive films targeted at niche audiences in the hopes of making quick profits.

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‘‘Hood Films (Continued)Hood Films (Continued)• These new black-themed urban films

emerged also out of specific economic and social conditions that African Americans were enduring in the nation’s decaying urban centers, such as Los Angeles.

• They depicted what their (mostly) young, black male filmmakers felt were the difficult realties in black America.

Boyz n the HoodBoyz n the Hood• The most visible and successful of these

urban-themed films was Boyz in the Hood.• Directed in 1991 by 23-year old USC film

school graduate John Singleton, the movie is a rite of passage narrative about three teenage friends – Tre, Ricky and Doughboy –who grow up together in a poor neighborhood in South Central L.A. and struggle, in addition to the normal travails of adolescence, with marginalization, gang violence, and racism.

Boyz n the Hood Boyz n the Hood (continued)(continued)• Violence and shootings broke in theaters• Columbia Pictures stood behind it and it

became an enormous financial success, grossing 57 million dollars on a budget of around seven million.

• Many of the nation’s foremost film critics praised the film and Singleton became the first (and only) black director ever to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar.

• Pause the lecture and watch Clip #4.30

TemplateTemplate• In many ways Boyz n the Hood was a

template for other films in the Hood genre that followed.

• Not only did the films financial success prompt Hollywood to make films in a similar vein, but its tropes found their way into most of the black urban films released in the next few years.

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Tropes and ThemesTropes and Themes• Blighted urban cityscapes• Guns and violence • Drug use• The marginalization of black women• The use of gangsta’ rap music on the

soundtrack and rap stars in the cast• The coming of age narrative• Absent black fathers• Mobility/Entrapment

L.A L.A ‘‘Hood FilmsHood Films• Some of the most prominent ‘Hood films were

set in L.A, including not only Boyz in the Hood but also Menace II Society, Deep Cover, South Central, The Glass Shield and others.

• The films reflected the real life race and class turmoil in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, which included the polarizing O.J. Simpson trial, the beating, trial and acquittal of Rodney King, the L.A. riots, and various other police abuse cases.

ExampleExample

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Menace II Society (1993)Directed by Albert and Allen Hughes

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Hollywood ShuffleHollywood Shuffle

Lesson 8: Part IV

Hollywood Shuffle (1987)Directed by Robert Townsend

BackgroundBackground• Hollywood Shuffle was co-written and directed

by Robert Townsend, an actor who became frustrated by the opportunities available to African Americans in Hollywood.

• He raised $100,000 in cash from credit cards and made the movie with Keenan Ivory Wayans, who would go on to a successful movie and television career himself.

• Like In Living Color, which would follow it, the movie is primarily sketch comedy.

SatireSatire• Like The Player, Hollywood Shuffle is a

pointed satire that skewers Hollywood’s treatment of African Americans in the industry and the representation of blacks and other minorities in Hollywood films.

• The movie grotesquely parodies most of the stereotypes outlined by Bogle, as well as other black stereotypes.

• Pause the lecture and watch clips #5 and #6.

QuestionsQuestions• What kinds of stereotypes is Townsend

criticizing in clip #5? What points is he making?

• Define the choice that Bobby makes in clip #6. Why does he make it and what factors into his decision?

• Have the kinds of stereotypes outlined by Bogle and criticized in Hollywood Shuffle dissipated at all in contemporary cinema, or have things not changed much?

End of Lecture 8End of Lecture 8