In the class discussion following the documentary, we were all amazed at how many racist characters we were able to name from today's popular culture, all of whom we had never realized fit into racial stereotypes. The Suite Life's Mr. Moseby was one that we talked about in class for being a mammy-like figure in that he took care of Zack and Cody. Adding to this list of mammy characters, we could say that Eddie Murphy's character in movies such as Daddy Cay Care or Imagine That or Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's role in The Game Plan, could also be considered mammy roles.
Also fitting into roles defined by Ethnic Notions to be racist are the "Black Rambos" (I think that's what the film called them) which are the African American sidekicks, normally cops, who crack jokes and like violence. Again, a whole list of characters come to mind: Chris Tucker in Rush Hour, Eddie Murphy (again) in Tower Heist, etc. I'm sure you can come up with many more, especially if you generalize and count black sidekicks (there seems to be one in every show/movie)
My first reaction was one of horror, I've been consuming all of these stereotypes, not realizing any of it? As evidenced, there are so many examples of African American characters who fit into certain racist categories. Even our favorite character Jar Jar Binks, from the first Star Wars movie, is suggested to be racist because of his Caribbean accent, dim-witted character, bell bottoms and vest, and ears that are suggested to look like dreadlocks.
At some point, it seems like we've gone too far. Are we just looking for racism? What's wrong with having a funny alien with long ears? And as for the African American sidekicks and babysitters/single fathers, aren't there hundreds of white characters who play the exact same roles?
I think that the problem with our depictions of African Americans is not that there are too many funny sidekicks, it's the lack of serious black characters.
On the drive home from the Ethnic Notions movie night, Natalie Hummel and I tried to see if we could think of a single thoughtful African American protagonist in recent films/TV shows. We could barely come up with five. That is, in my opinion, scarier than the long list of comedic relief characters.
You're definitely right, there aren't a lot of African American protagonists in anything, and the ones that exist aren't particularly original either. I feel like the same is true of women, though. While there are probably more female protagonists in general, most of them feel very trope-y and uninspired. Women in fiction tend to fit a couple of roles. There's the obvious mother figure and the pure maiden, but those are more just remnants of past ideas. More common today are the quirky Not-Like-Other-Girls-Girl, who is in fact, just like other girls, and the bad-ass chick whose depth doesn't go much farther than violence and sex appeal.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the solution to unoriginal African American and female characters is to simply let African Americans and women write themselves. Media is largely controlled by white males, and nothing against them, but ultimately it's just hard to put yourselves in other people's shoes, and as such, a lot characters that aren't white males end up be one dimensional.
I think your comment about the lack of serious black characters in the mainstream film and TV industries is spot on. There are white characters who fit into the same roles etc., but it's quite hard to find serious black characters (and main characters especially). One thing I noticed when thinking about movies is the lack of black couples/characters in the familiar "rom-com" or "chick flick" movies. Most of the couples who fall in love are white and upper middle class--not very representative of the general public even though they are made for the general public to digest.
ReplyDeleteThis is true, but I think it's also more complex than this. Once you start putting premises together with two black protagonists, let's take the rom-com for example, it becomes a very fine line between promoting respectable black representation in film and going out of one's way to include them to either cash in on a certain audience or avoid anger from them. Let's say you have a black couple in a romantic comedy. If they're both educated and upper middle class, how would you distinguish them from "being" white? If you couldn't, then it would quickly seem to others that you haven't attempted to represent black Americans at all but rather kept the same white characters and changed their skin color for your own purposes. If you did find a way for them to be perceived as actual "black" characters, then you would have a very difficult time avoiding stereotypes.
DeleteI like the point you make about TV shows and movies lacking respectable African American leads. Just the other day, when I was on YouTube and one of those ads before the video started playing, I was actually quite surprised by what I saw. Though I forget the name of the movie, it was basically the reincarnation of The Notebook, but with black leads. I was then surprised at myself for being surprised by the existence such a movie, and started wondering why I hadn't seen this before. I suppose I hadn't consciously realized that a majority of the romantic comedies we consume contain white actors, and flipping the roles hasn't really been done before.
ReplyDeleteI know Jonah will probably give me crap for saying it, but one of the many factors that makes The Wire stand out so strongly among its TV peers is the true diversity of its cast--not only racial diversity, but diversity within racial diversity, including "good guys," "bad guys," and a whole range of ambiguous figures in betweeen (African American cops, street-level drug dealers, school teachers, politicians, high-level gangsters, gay men, lesbians, school kids who want to do well in school, school kids who are attracted to "the corner," etc.). And of course there are a wide range of white and Latino characters depicted as well, all with a remarkable degree of individuation. The same is true of David Simon's second major cable series, Treme, set in New Orleans in the years after Katrina.
ReplyDeleteBut this exception only proves the rule you're pointing out: these shows stand out because they represent such a wide range of contemporary urban experience and avoid one-dimensional stereotypes. And for this reason, they're pretty demanding of their viewers--stereotypes are easy characterization, and these shows are more like reading a novel in their degree of complexity and multileveled plotting. Diversity isn't a "feel-good" detail but an essential part of the shows' aesthetic and ethos: the contemporary American city is a diverse place, racially, ethnically, politically, sexually, etc. Few shows really try to tackle such a complex picture.