英国留学生dissertation：二十世纪美国黑人电影研究
07-30, 2014
1963年8月28日马丁·路德·金在华盛顿林肯纪念堂发表演讲，以《我有一个梦想》为题，但是他没有意识到这次演讲会有如此大的影响力，会导致黑人在以后的走向自由民主的道路上,不断前进。。(克兰斯基186)1968年,他被刺死,但他的梦想仍在继续。四十年后,另一个黑人巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)登上美国大选,最后成为美国新总统,创建了这个国家的历史,使“美国梦”有一个更实际的意义。
DECLARATION
I declare that this thesis is the result of an independent research I have made under the supervision of my supervisor. It does not contain any published or unpublished works or research results by other individuals or institutions apart from those that have been referenced in the form of references or notes. All individuals and institutions that have made contributions to my research have been acknowledged in the Acknowledgements. I am fully aware that I myself will bear all the legal responsibility arising from violation of the above declaration.
Signature:
Date:
The Black Representations in Hollywood Films
August 28, 1963, when Martin Luther King in Washington Lincoln memorial mass meeting, entitled the I have a dream speech, he may not have realized that this speech has such shattered power, can lead to blacks in the later on the road towards liberal democracy forward continuously. (Kurlansky 186)In 1968 he was stabbed to death, but his dream continued. Forty years later, another black people Barack Obama boarded the American election and finally becomes a new American President, created the history of this country, make the "American dream" has a more practical meaning.
Films produce or create dreams, add a lot of footnotes for "American dreams", becomes the most successful kind of art to reappear the "American dream".As time goes by, the proportion of black actors in the 21st century of Hollywood is increasing day by day, and the number of black actors who won the Oscar Academy Award is increasing too. Denzel Washington by the virtue of Training Day won the 74th Oscar Academy Award for best actor, Halle Berry with film Monster’s Ball won the 74th Oscar Academy Award for best actress, Morgan Freeman with film Million DollarBaby won the 79th Oscar Academy Award for best supporting actor, Sidney Poitier won the 74th Oscar Academy Award for lifetime achievement award. In addition, Jamie Fox, Forrest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson and other black actors all gained the honor of Oscar Academy Award.#p#分页标题#e#
For more than a century, the image of the blacks in American movies has dramatically changed. But to a certain extant it is still thoughtless to acknowledge a equal status between the blacks and white. The proportion of main roles of blacks is far less than their counterpart. Obtaining the same status as whites in the movie still has a long way to go for the blacks. Entman, Robert, and Rojecki (1) argue that although the physical conditions for black people has been improving since 1960s, the color of skin is still the racial identity determining the social appraisal and disadvantages the blacks in social competition. It is not only the problem about films but the issue concerning racial discrimination and human rights.
Films are naturally linked to culture, society and public attentions. To a certain extent, film is not only a reflection of public desires and social thoughts, but also a guide to influence them. It seems that unreal film cannot directly change people’s mindset or impact the social development, but it can affect people’s view of things subtly, especially those epidemic films. In the history of American films, the images of black people are changing with the time pace and present different characters on the screen. Therefore, it is valuable to discuss the relationship between the change of American social environment and the change of black images in American movies.
After the great voyages movement of the 15th century, western colonialists used to plunder on African continent and American continent. The slave trade had been launched for hundreds of years. Black people of Africa had been captured and sold to the farms and plantations of America. Since black people entered the American continent, the identity of them was slave. Black people were socially disadvantaged, and were considered the opposite of white people. In addition, because of the gap of language, the conflict of religious belief and the imperfection of education, the blacks lost their discourse power for about one hundred years, even in American which claims to be liberal, democratic and equal. From the birth of movie to the World War II, black images of Hollywood mainstream films were uglified optionally and the living condition of them was dodged deliberately. According to Paul Gormely (57), the common characteristics of the African-American film at the beginning of 20 century were the images of the violent and uncontrollable lives of black males. The films of that time were the propaganda of racial discrimination.
By the influence of literature, the film called Uncle Tom’s Cabin which is based on Stowe’s famous novel has made “Tom” become a classic black image in American film. The basic quality of Tom is simple, integrity, loyalty. He dedicated himself to his white master. In the history of world film, Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been repeatedly adapted for movies. Other films with such black image are For Master’s Sake (1911), The Debt (1912), In Slavery Days (1912), etc. This kind of movies shaped quite a lot of black slaves of Tom type, who are extremely loyal to their masters, and drastically exaggerated the plot, believed that black people are born slaves and must be loyal to whites. The different between black slaves is only whether the master is good or bad, and according to this, to get a better or worse treatment. The aim to shape those images of good master and good servant is to disrupt the revolt of the blacks.#p#分页标题#e#
During the World War I, American shot a film with strong racial discrimination, namely The Birth of the Nation which is directed by so called “the father of the American film” D.W.Griffith. “This film portrayed blacks as unquestioning slaves and ignorant criminals, who is specialized in murder, robbery and rape......whereas Ku Klux Klan, the ancestor of secret police, has been depicted as an army made up of honest American people.” This film especially stressed the figure of “evil blacks”, tremendously exaggerated the fear of the whites caused by the blacks. Therefore, the whites get a heroism-like reason that the aim of persecuting the blacks is to purify the society and to prevent white women from being infringed by them. Since the film successfully catered to the prevailing sentiment of racism, its sales performance was second to none. This film had been showed for a long time, therefore, the racial discrimination of it had been propagandized for years. Meanwhile, after this movie, black images in films had been setted as the representative of barbaric, evil and erotic.
Directed by Victor Fleming, Gone With The Wind (1939) is also a famous film which aimed to whitewash the racial contradiction. In this movie, there is no evil black man. Some of the black characters in this movie are unwieldy and extremely depend on their white masters, such as black servant Sam. The movie focused to express the harmony relationship between white masters and black servants, conceal the exploitation of the whites. It made audience believe that the blacks do not want to be liberated, instead they are quite satisfied with the tend of their white masters and could not bear the life without white hosts. Racial inequality is covered by the love of Scarlett and Rhett and the nostalgia of the South before the Civil War. However, in the film Casablanca (1942), directed by Michael Curtiz, the situation had changed. In this movie the black character Sam is a painist. Although he is still an insignificant role, his personality is becoming kind and gentle. The relationship between Rick and him is almost equal, which can hardly be seen in other movies.
After the World War II, with the improvement of urbanization level and the development of the Civil Rights Movement, the shape of the black image in Hollywood is showing a variety of features. Blatant racial discrimination can no longer be found in films, instead the movies showed the possibility of communication between whites and blacks. But these films exist a tendency that to separate the educated blacks from uneducated ones. Those educated blacks deserve help and save; on the contrary, those barbarians are not worth be concerned about. Representative films of this standpoint are Pinky (1949), which had won the Oscar award, Lost Boun-daries (1949), Home Of The Brave (1949) and Intruder in the Dust (1949). Those four movies all describe a black gentleman who is better than other black folks cannot get help from his black companions, but only be saved by white people.#p#分页标题#e#
Woman as the protagonist of a film can hardly be seen in hollywood, therefore the emergence of Pinky possess a very positive significance. In this film, Pinky is a self-dependent black woman with wisdom and ability, quite different from the image of obedient black woman in former films. Pinky is completely different from ordinary black women on both cultural background and the color of skin: first, she had studied in professional nurses’ school, so she could get rid of the character of fat black servant; second, she has white skin; third, she is self-dependent.
In another movie called The Boundary Disappeared, the leading role of it is a black man named Mr.Johnston, whose profession is doctor. Since his skin is white, his job application was refused by black hospital. Therefore, he had to pretend to be a white and then work in a white hospital. In this movie, although the director did not shape the blacks as clown, servant nor evil, the attitude of him is still commanding.
To sum up, during the period between the birth of film and the end of World War II, black image of American movies had been improved to a certain extent. At the aspect of education, black intellectual had appeared and more and more soldiors, coaches and doctors are played by blacks. The role of the blacks is no longer only slave or cooly. At the aspect of looks, more and more images of ordinary black men had appeared, instead of the images of ugly and fat black people. First and last, the status of black actors did not changed much in 1940s. The main images of black people is still clowns, loyal servants and evil thugs. The black image in American film was still “the others” in the eyes of white people, lack of independence, is just the typical symbol.
Under the influence of social atmosphere, the themes of films tend to be serious social problems and reflect the contradiction between races no matter the film is directed by a white or black people. Films such as Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (1967), Black Like Me (1964) and In the Heat of the Night (1967) achieved good results in both art and commercial.
The film Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner brings two popular white performers (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn ) and famous black actor Sidney Pothier together. The film caused great repercussions in the society as soon as it begin to show on the screen. The movie narrates the story that the Drydens’ daughter Joanna (a white girl) falls in love with black boy John. In order to make the young couple realize what situation they would face with in the future, the Drydens decided to invite the Johns to come to dinner. While racial discrimination is prevalent at that time, the movie discussed the marriage between whites and blacks through the comedy way. It implies that whether the marriage between whites and blacks success or not depends on whether the black boy is good enough or not.
Sidney Pothier is the black movie star who plays the role of good black people first. The black roles he played not only have the personality of kind, honest and loyalty, but also are full of wisdom and reasonable manner, hence he changed the old black image. Thanks to his good looking, firmness of character and skilled acting, Sidney Pothier became the black movie star welcomed by both whites and blacks. Since his casting roles in Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and Ralph Nelson are cooperated with white performers, Sidney Pothier became the “bridge” to alleviate racial contradiction. In 1964, thanks to Ralph Nelson, he became the first Oscar best actor in history. In 1968, his Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner and In the Heat of the Night won the nomination of Academy Award for Best Picture.#p#分页标题#e#
Since the 1990s, the Hollywood film appeared a series of black film stars, who are welcomed by both the United States and around the whole world. They presented wonderful performances to the audience by their excellent acting skills and became the climax of the rise of black actors. The names of Morgan Freeman, Danzel Washington, Will Smith, Samuel Jackson, Jamie Fox, Halle Berry are becoming more and more familiar. Thanks to the effect of them and other unfamous black actors, the image of black people in American films has been further improved. The images of black hero can be easily found during this period, such as black president, agents and even the image of black God. The creative and unique performance of excellent black actors on the screen, left people the impression of noble and wisdom.
In The Matrix, the role of guide is played by a black man, while the prophet is actually a black women, whose counterparts are white savior and white program creator.In the film Bruce Almighty, the role of God is played by a black man. In commercial film Men in Black, the role who save the world many times is still played by black actor. In addition, the image of black people is changing from bad to good. In Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption, the character played by Morgan Freeman competely wiped the black image of clumsy and evil, and the black image of film is turning to be appreciated.
During this period, the friendship between whites and blacks is the main theme of films. Lethal Weapon (1998) conveys its audiences an image of the friendship between the whites and blacks in America. The white cop with his black partner cooperates and support to each other and the inseparable relation they established makes the race irrelevant (Vera, Hernán, and Gordon 5). As the representative film disseminated the spirit of America, Forrest Gump had condensed 30 years history of the United States. The figures in it covers quite a lot of areas, from President Kennedy and President Johnson to Elvis Aron Presley and John Lennon of the Beatles, from the Vietnam War to the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and U.S.A, from the hippie movement to the anti-war demonstrations, from football to table tennis. Besides, the film also focused to express the friendship between Gump and black folk Babu. If we consider that Gump is the representative spirit of American white, then we can say that the friendship between Gump and Babu implies the meaning of communication between whites and blacks.
At the same time, the love between whites and blacks became an important subject in film. In film called The Bodyguard (1992), agent Frank played by Kevin Costner is hired by a black singer Melendez, played by Whitney Houston. Ecentually, they fall in love with each other.
Case study: King Kong (1933)
As a monster themed science fiction movie in 1933, King Kong directed by Merian C. Cooper could be defined as a milestone in the history of Hollywood not only for its attractive plot, distinctive theme, but also for its profound social reflections in that era. It is the case to analyze the representation of Black male sexuality and uglifying the Black into beasts.#p#分页标题#e#
King Kong presented images of a berserk King Kong rampaging through the blocks of the New York, Manhattan, with a young beautiful white lady. The destructions and panic were consequent on the emergence of King Kong. Specifically, the character Kong living in an isolated island on the Pacific Ocean with other beasts was captured and brought to New York City for exhibition. After escaping from the “Eighth Wonder of the World”, Kong causes a dramatic panic within the New York City and even climbs the city land mark—Empire State Building for protecting the actress heroine named Ann Darrow who is offered to Kong as a sacrifice. The scene recording the battle between Kong and fighter planes on the Empire State Building has been the classic scene of the Hollywood films. Although the giant gorilla King Kong is irresistible, it is still defeated by the unscrupulous attacks from the modern weapons of the Whites. Ended in the Whites’ victory, King Kong was a representation Hollywood film in 1930s with an obvious racism.
According to Dines (291-307), during 1980s the cartoonists generally used ape to symbolize the Black people because of the similar features such as the dark skin and undersize head. Snead (1994) also points that the misreading of the Evolutionism mislead to a ridiculous conception that gorilla and blacks are kindred and phylogenetically, sexually close. To a certain extant, King Kong symbolized the impressions of blacks in the whites’ minds. King Kong was finished in a 1933, few years after the Depression. Therefore, some associates certain scenes with the social reality. Snead (1994) argues that the classic scene mentioned above, Kong was climbing the Empire State Building, is a metaphor of the “increasing economic emasculation of White men in the Depression years” as well as the rising fear towards the competition with the huge African migrants for jobs. The death of King Kong, or the fail of blacks, remasculinizes the whites through the victories on battle as well as the competition for lady (Dines 291-307).
Actually, uglifing the blacks and also exaggerating the sexuality were the pattern of the movies featuring the blacks. According to Dines (291-307), the extreme restricting pornographies generally “depict the Black men as more sexually dehumanized than White men”, and focus on the Black man body especially the penis and “insatiable sexual appetite”. On the deeper profile, the violent masculinity of whites and blacks depicted in the Hollywood movies were different. Compared with the white man in terms of the violent masculinity, the black men show more brutish nature. The difference of the sexual behavior suggests an “inferior psychic inferiority” of the blacks and “the superiority of White masculinity” (Jones 250). The porn movie and other films in that era featuring the blacks have defined the sexuality as abnormal, insatiable and the threat to the social order based on the characters such as the “woman as Jezebel” and black male as savage. These images were the mainstream perception of the whites towards the blacks (Wiegman 170).#p#分页标题#e#
Through the analysis towards the King Kong (1933) and relative movies featuring the Blacks, the basic profile and pattern of Hollywood films at the beginning of 20 century presented a undeniable racism and discrimination towards the dark skins. King Kong (1933) uglifies the black men into the beast, monster gorilla specifically, and suggests that the whites generally adopted a hostile attitude towards the blacks. Furthermore, the relative movies especially the porn films characterized by black men or women commonly coded the blacks’ sexuality as aggressive, brutish, and savage. Thus the conclusion of this case study is that King Kong and relative Blacks featuring movies involving the porn films to a certain extent conveyed a racial discrimination towards the black race in that certain age.
Case study: The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)
The Pursuit of Happiness is a success story, or to be exact, a story of thought-provoking philosophy and unswerving struggle illustrating as much of a sort of ideologies in a complicated dilemma as an individual undaunted spirit, with a message that the pursuit of happiness is an arduous process ever since the utterance was created with each pursuer, whether he is desperate or strategic, involved in a chaos of the sophisticated surroundings and in conflict with ironic and tormenting reality. Being a black in a mobile and stratified mufti-ethnic society especially needs to cling to the pursuit of happiness no matter how challenging, frustrating and unpredictable it is. The process of seeking happiness is exemplified by an ordinary individual that can be explored in depth in association with the cultural background and philosophy like a kaleidoscope reflecting glorious illusions. Based on the life-experience of a famous black American, the film illuminates diverse personalities and life-styles in confusion and at a loss, in which people can balance neither the individual versus the society nor the oppressed versus the hegemony.
The film illustrates the social stratification in the American society. William Julius Wilson stresses the growing division of American blacks into a middle class, continuing converge according to many economic indicators with the white majority, and an underclass, diverging ever further from either the whites or the black middle class. The black underclass, with its social pathologies, is a crucial social problem. Gayle McKeen (409) places contemporary emphasis upon self-help in the context of African-American thought. He raises the question as to what a self-help strategy, under what circumstances it is urged upon African Americans, and to what end. Feyishola Apena Richard L. Allen and Richard P. Bagozzi (3-28) argue that the black with low self-esteem are expected to perform poorly on a wide range of tasks. Likewise, social identity or lack thereof has been credited with influencing a wide range of attitudes and behaviors. Linwood H. Cousins (294-316) uses a cultural and relational framework of social class to present an ethnographic portrait of class as it unfolds with race and gender in a black high school and community. William Oliver (918-937) concludes that for many marginal black males, "the streets" is a socialization institution that has a major influence on their psychosocial development and life-course trajectories and transitions. In addition, some of the problematic consequences are associated with the pursuit of manhood and social recognition in "the streets."#p#分页标题#e#
The story is intended for the highlight` the pursuit of happiness' and the will to change one's own fate as the title indicates. In addition, the gap between the black and the whole society is sometimes apparent in the film, where the special profundity of racial disparity is presented unconsciously, sometimes gaining weight to the individual strife and at other times hindering individuals from fulfilling their social roles perfectly in the mufti-ethnic society. Its overall tone, being optimistic and enterprising, is to disclose an unpredictable society, and to a further degree is to illustrate some subtle ideologies that loom large in the minds of the social members and individualistic strength that is abstracted from the true social life in the United States. There seems to be an invisible hand grasping one's destiny tightly no matter how laboriously he turns against the hand.
In the beginning, full shots and long shots are employed to raise a sensitive question and to reflect the scenario of the American society as a whole. At first come the words of The Declaration of Independence-"the pursuit of happiness". Then in a montage the scene shifts into the bedroom of Chris Garden, the hero, who wakes up his five-year-old son to be sent to the daycare later in the morning. It seems that this family is doomed to pursue the happiness with every effort despite the gloomy economic condition. Then in a montage the scene shifts again to a long shot of the skyscrapers protruding into the grey sky and the Golden Gate Bridge, the famous landmark of San Francisco, against the dim grey sky viewed from the stance between two skyscrapers, as oppressing and obscure as the oscillating mood of the protagonist and the background of the film. The jungles of cement and the high buildings that are great masterpieces created by human-beings seem as ruthless and inhuman as a cage trapping the human beings, the so-called intelligent animal, blocking the expansive long-ranged sight of the residents and undermining the seemingly unremitting yet desperate individual attempts to go beyond himself and the individual attempts to burst out of the invisible bondage like the material barriers and the spiritual instability.
The next full shot is the bustling crowd striding in the prosperous street surging drop of waves in an expansive sea. Drowned in the sea, each one seems as tiny water melted into the expansive ocean. In the street are the busy figures: a middle-aged women of a blank visage in the passers-by with a briefcase in hand; a ragged and long-haired drunk man prostrating on the ground among the moving shoes without anyone to halt to care whether he is all right; a young black drummer immersed in his own playing as if he were forgetting the people past him; a grey-haired aged-man dressed neatly followed by a middle-aged man; a black who is dressed neatly in the traditional Southern suit and with a hat of the Southern style anxiously waiting in the flushing crowd for another prestigious and decent gentleman. Although Thomas Jefferson declares that everyone has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it seems easier said than done, for a common individual can't always act as he originally expects. The long shots and full shots implicitly signal the background of the story and various economic status that compose the same society and regulate the course of the individual life. Each of them is seeking the happiness defined by himself and by the standard set by the dominant society, some able to have access to happiness and others contriving for happiness in vain on their way forward. If success can be explained by the criteria of career, family and accumulation in wealth and prestige, the pursuit of happiness is a ceaseless, trying and arduous process bound by the stratification of the American society. 'The pursuit of happiness, in the eyes of the majority of Americans of various education, gender, ethnicity and careers, in the main not only means gaining#p#分页标题#e#
Wealth and fame and climbing up the social ladder by individual efforts at any cost but also embodies American individualism, the pursuit of equality and enterprising spirit despite the conspicuous and entrenched social stratification. Bustling in the street indicates that Americans including black Americans adapt themselves to the rapid tempo of occupied life in haste, edified by the unique American cultural pattern of activity orientation.
For more than a century, the image of the blacks in American movies has undergone earth-shaking changes. But if you simply believe blacks and whites enjoy the same equal status, you are apparently thoughtless. The proportion of main roles of blacks is far less than their counterparts. Obtaining the same status as whites in the movie still has a long way to go for blacks. It is not only the problem about films but the issue concerning racial discrimination and human rights. Nowadays the image of blacks in American movies exist two tendencies:
The first one is so called “clowns”. This kind of black image occupies a large proportion of black characters in American movies. This is because in quite a long time ,black comedy are prevalent in American movies. It seem like that black actors/actresses can performance well only in comedy. This black comedy is rooted in the continuation of the black clown in early films, and often the sound type of clown is easier to get the mainstream’s recognition. Famous star Whoopi Goldberg played a loquacious funny witch (which is absolutely a role of “clown”) in Ghost, which made her become the best supporting acctress of Oscar Academy Award. In the other film Purple, in which she showed her brilliant acting skills, Whoopi Goldberg did not attract the attention of Oscar Award Committee, because she played the role of a suffering black women.
The second tendency is that the representation of black Africans in American movies remain the very primitive stage, still lazy, original, violent, ignorant and evil. The quality of hard-working and honest are seldom can be seen in them. For example, in the film of Black Hawk Down, the black African is still uncivilized.
Both The Pursuit of Happiness and King Kong expose some entrenched atrocious social evils and the distinct social stratification in the United States mixed with the problems of the black such as familial separation, racial discrimination, work-related stress, the loss of traditional morality among the black teenagers and their lack of proper education by the black families and schools. King Kong as a representation of the 1900s Hollywood movie reflects a perception hold by the White people towards the black race during that years. Using the symbolic means to uglify the black men into the awesome giant gorilla, King Kong as well as other cotemporary black-characters-featuring movies also exaggerated the inhumane sexuality of blacks. And considering the historical background of the Depression, King Kong suggests a fear in the whites’ brains towards the black migrants in terms of the job seeking during that period with a dramatically high unemployment rate. Respectively, The pursuit of Happiness explores the living conditions, ordinary life and the view of the world of the black in low social positions of various ages. They pursue their American dreams with self-respect and decent social values regardless of the social problems and personal frustrations in their life. The films also present how an individual struggles to accomplish his own desire in conflict with the tough elements from the irresistible social forces in a more complicated sense. Basically, the films center on the individual fulfillments, growth and maturity in pursuit of American dream and happiness.#p#分页标题#e#
In general, Based on the statements and analysis above, especially through the study and analysis of two Hollywood movies: King Kong and The pursuit of Happiness, a profile of the black characters developing along with the history is basically depicted. The century witnessed the development of movie products as well as the dramatic change or improvement of the black character in the Hollywood movies. From the King Kong (1933) which emphasizes the monster image of the blacks to the Lethal Weapon (1998) presents a friendship and absent racism between the whites and blacks. But it is still not accurate to state that the blacks have shared a same status with the whites already. Through The pursuit of Happiness, the film reveals that the working condition and living condition for the blacks in the United States of America are still inferior compared with the whites to a certain extent. Hence the race discrimination still exists in the Hollywood movies.
Reference List
Apena, Feyishola, Richard L Allen. and Richard P. Bagozzi. “Consequences of the Black Sense of Self.” Journal of Black Psychology. 27.1 (2001): 3-28. Print.
Dines, Gail. "King Kong and the White Woman Hustler Magazine and the Demonization of Black Masculinity." Violence Against Women 4. 3 (1998): 291-307. Print.
Entman, Robert M, and Andrew Rojecki. The Black Image in the White Mind : Media and Race in America. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2000. Print
Gormley, Paul. The New-brutality Film: Race and Affect in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. Bristol: Intellect, 2005. Print
Kurlansky, Mark. 1968 The Year That Rocked the World. The United States of America: Random House. 2005. Print.
Jones, J. “ The construction of Black sexuality: Towards normalizing the Black cinematic experience.” Black American cinema. Ed. M. Diawara. New York: Routledge. 1993. 247-256. Print.
Linwood H. Cousins “‘Playing between Classes’: America's Troubles with Class, Race, and Gender in a Black High School and Community.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly. 30.3 (1999) : 294-316. Print.
Mckeen, Gayle. “Whose Rights? Whose Responsibility? Self-Help in African-American Thought.” Polity. 34.4 (2002): 409. Print.
Oliver, William. “‘The Streets’: An Alternative Black Male Socialization Institution.” Journal of Black Studies. 36.6 (2001): 918-937. Print.
Snead, J. White screen, Black images: Hollywood from the dark side. New York: Routledge. 1994. Print.
Vera, Hernán, and Andrew M. Gordon. Screen Saviors : Hollywood Fictions of Whiteness. Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,2003. Print
Wiegman, R. (1993) “Feminism, ‘The Boyz,’ and other matters regarding the male.” Screening the male: Exploring masculinities in Hollywood cinema. Eds. S. Cohan & I. R. Hark. New York: Routledge.173-193. Print.#p#分页标题#e#
电影的制造创造了梦想，人们对“美国梦”不断的演绎，成功以艺术的形式再现“美国梦”，随着时间的流逝，黑人演员在21世纪好莱坞中的数量逐渐增加，黑人演员获得奥斯卡奖杯的数量也越来越多。丹泽尔·华盛顿因其作品《美德的训练》获得了第74届奥斯卡学院奖最佳男演员，哈莉·贝瑞因电影《死囚之舞》获得了第74届奥斯卡学院奖最佳女主角，摩根·弗里曼与电影《百万美元宝贝》获得第79届奥斯卡奥斯卡最佳男配角奖,西德尼•波奥斯卡获得了第74届奥斯卡终身成就奖。此外,杰米·福克斯,福勒斯特·惠特克,詹妮弗·哈德森和其他黑人演员都荣获奥斯卡的各种奖项。
DECLARATION
I declare that this thesis is the result of an independent research I have made under the supervision of my supervisor. It does not contain any published or unpublished works or research results by other individuals or institutions apart from those that have been referenced in the form of references or notes. All individuals and institutions that have made contributions to my research have been acknowledged in the Acknowledgements. I am fully aware that I myself will bear all the legal responsibility arising from violation of the above declaration.
Signature:
Date:
The Black Representations in Hollywood Films
August 28, 1963, when Martin Luther King in Washington Lincoln memorial mass meeting, entitled the I have a dream speech, he may not have realized that this speech has such shattered power, can lead to blacks in the later on the road towards liberal democracy forward continuously. (Kurlansky 186)In 1968 he was stabbed to death, but his dream continued. Forty years later, another black people Barack Obama boarded the American election and finally becomes a new American President, created the history of this country, make the "American dream" has a more practical meaning.
Films produce or create dreams, add a lot of footnotes for "American dreams", becomes the most successful kind of art to reappear the "American dream".As time goes by, the proportion of black actors in the 21st century of Hollywood is increasing day by day, and the number of black actors who won the Oscar Academy Award is increasing too. Denzel Washington by the virtue of Training Day won the 74th Oscar Academy Award for best actor, Halle Berry with film Monster’s Ball won the 74th Oscar Academy Award for best actress, Morgan Freeman with film Million DollarBaby won the 79th Oscar Academy Award for best supporting actor, Sidney Poitier won the 74th Oscar Academy Award for lifetime achievement award. In addition, Jamie Fox, Forrest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson and other black actors all gained the honor of Oscar Academy Award.#p#分页标题#e#
For more than a century, the image of the blacks in American movies has dramatically changed. But to a certain extant it is still thoughtless to acknowledge a equal status between the blacks and white. The proportion of main roles of blacks is far less than their counterpart. Obtaining the same status as whites in the movie still has a long way to go for the blacks. Entman, Robert, and Rojecki (1) argue that although the physical conditions for black people has been improving since 1960s, the color of skin is still the racial identity determining the social appraisal and disadvantages the blacks in social competition. It is not only the problem about films but the issue concerning racial discrimination and human rights.
Films are naturally linked to culture, society and public attentions. To a certain extent, film is not only a reflection of public desires and social thoughts, but also a guide to influence them. It seems that unreal film cannot directly change people’s mindset or impact the social development, but it can affect people’s view of things subtly, especially those epidemic films. In the history of American films, the images of black people are changing with the time pace and present different characters on the screen. Therefore, it is valuable to discuss the relationship between the change of American social environment and the change of black images in American movies.
After the great voyages movement of the 15th century, western colonialists used to plunder on African continent and American continent. The slave trade had been launched for hundreds of years. Black people of Africa had been captured and sold to the farms and plantations of America. Since black people entered the American continent, the identity of them was slave. Black people were socially disadvantaged, and were considered the opposite of white people. In addition, because of the gap of language, the conflict of religious belief and the imperfection of education, the blacks lost their discourse power for about one hundred years, even in American which claims to be liberal, democratic and equal. From the birth of movie to the World War II, black images of Hollywood mainstream films were uglified optionally and the living condition of them was dodged deliberately. According to Paul Gormely (57), the common characteristics of the African-American film at the beginning of 20 century were the images of the violent and uncontrollable lives of black males. The films of that time were the propaganda of racial discrimination.
By the influence of literature, the film called Uncle Tom’s Cabin which is based on Stowe’s famous novel has made “Tom” become a classic black image in American film. The basic quality of Tom is simple, integrity, loyalty. He dedicated himself to his white master. In the history of world film, Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been repeatedly adapted for movies. Other films with such black image are For Master’s Sake (1911), The Debt (1912), In Slavery Days (1912), etc. This kind of movies shaped quite a lot of black slaves of Tom type, who are extremely loyal to their masters, and drastically exaggerated the plot, believed that black people are born slaves and must be loyal to whites. The different between black slaves is only whether the master is good or bad, and according to this, to get a better or worse treatment. The aim to shape those images of good master and good servant is to disrupt the revolt of the blacks.#p#分页标题#e#
During the World War I, American shot a film with strong racial discrimination, namely The Birth of the Nation which is directed by so called “the father of the American film” D.W.Griffith. “This film portrayed blacks as unquestioning slaves and ignorant criminals, who is specialized in murder, robbery and rape......whereas Ku Klux Klan, the ancestor of secret police, has been depicted as an army made up of honest American people.” This film especially stressed the figure of “evil blacks”, tremendously exaggerated the fear of the whites caused by the blacks. Therefore, the whites get a heroism-like reason that the aim of persecuting the blacks is to purify the society and to prevent white women from being infringed by them. Since the film successfully catered to the prevailing sentiment of racism, its sales performance was second to none. This film had been showed for a long time, therefore, the racial discrimination of it had been propagandized for years. Meanwhile, after this movie, black images in films had been setted as the representative of barbaric, evil and erotic.
Directed by Victor Fleming, Gone With The Wind (1939) is also a famous film which aimed to whitewash the racial contradiction. In this movie, there is no evil black man. Some of the black characters in this movie are unwieldy and extremely depend on their white masters, such as black servant Sam. The movie focused to express the harmony relationship between white masters and black servants, conceal the exploitation of the whites. It made audience believe that the blacks do not want to be liberated, instead they are quite satisfied with the tend of their white masters and could not bear the life without white hosts. Racial inequality is covered by the love of Scarlett and Rhett and the nostalgia of the South before the Civil War. However, in the film Casablanca (1942), directed by Michael Curtiz, the situation had changed. In this movie the black character Sam is a painist. Although he is still an insignificant role, his personality is becoming kind and gentle. The relationship between Rick and him is almost equal, which can hardly be seen in other movies.
After the World War II, with the improvement of urbanization level and the development of the Civil Rights Movement, the shape of the black image in Hollywood is showing a variety of features. Blatant racial discrimination can no longer be found in films, instead the movies showed the possibility of communication between whites and blacks. But these films exist a tendency that to separate the educated blacks from uneducated ones. Those educated blacks deserve help and save; on the contrary, those barbarians are not worth be concerned about. Representative films of this standpoint are Pinky (1949), which had won the Oscar award, Lost Boun-daries (1949), Home Of The Brave (1949) and Intruder in the Dust (1949). Those four movies all describe a black gentleman who is better than other black folks cannot get help from his black companions, but only be saved by white people.#p#分页标题#e#
Woman as the protagonist of a film can hardly be seen in hollywood, therefore the emergence of Pinky possess a very positive significance. In this film, Pinky is a self-dependent black woman with wisdom and ability, quite different from the image of obedient black woman in former films. Pinky is completely different from ordinary black women on both cultural background and the color of skin: first, she had studied in professional nurses’ school, so she could get rid of the character of fat black servant; second, she has white skin; third, she is self-dependent.
In another movie called The Boundary Disappeared, the leading role of it is a black man named Mr.Johnston, whose profession is doctor. Since his skin is white, his job application was refused by black hospital. Therefore, he had to pretend to be a white and then work in a white hospital. In this movie, although the director did not shape the blacks as clown, servant nor evil, the attitude of him is still commanding.
To sum up, during the period between the birth of film and the end of World War II, black image of American movies had been improved to a certain extent. At the aspect of education, black intellectual had appeared and more and more soldiors, coaches and doctors are played by blacks. The role of the blacks is no longer only slave or cooly. At the aspect of looks, more and more images of ordinary black men had appeared, instead of the images of ugly and fat black people. First and last, the status of black actors did not changed much in 1940s. The main images of black people is still clowns, loyal servants and evil thugs. The black image in American film was still “the others” in the eyes of white people, lack of independence, is just the typical symbol.
Under the influence of social atmosphere, the themes of films tend to be serious social problems and reflect the contradiction between races no matter the film is directed by a white or black people. Films such as Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (1967), Black Like Me (1964) and In the Heat of the Night (1967) achieved good results in both art and commercial.
The film Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner brings two popular white performers (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn ) and famous black actor Sidney Pothier together. The film caused great repercussions in the society as soon as it begin to show on the screen. The movie narrates the story that the Drydens’ daughter Joanna (a white girl) falls in love with black boy John. In order to make the young couple realize what situation they would face with in the future, the Drydens decided to invite the Johns to come to dinner. While racial discrimination is prevalent at that time, the movie discussed the marriage between whites and blacks through the comedy way. It implies that whether the marriage between whites and blacks success or not depends on whether the black boy is good enough or not.
Sidney Pothier is the black movie star who plays the role of good black people first. The black roles he played not only have the personality of kind, honest and loyalty, but also are full of wisdom and reasonable manner, hence he changed the old black image. Thanks to his good looking, firmness of character and skilled acting, Sidney Pothier became the black movie star welcomed by both whites and blacks. Since his casting roles in Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and Ralph Nelson are cooperated with white performers, Sidney Pothier became the “bridge” to alleviate racial contradiction. In 1964, thanks to Ralph Nelson, he became the first Oscar best actor in history. In 1968, his Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner and In the Heat of the Night won the nomination of Academy Award for Best Picture.#p#分页标题#e#
Since the 1990s, the Hollywood film appeared a series of black film stars, who are welcomed by both the United States and around the whole world. They presented wonderful performances to the audience by their excellent acting skills and became the climax of the rise of black actors. The names of Morgan Freeman, Danzel Washington, Will Smith, Samuel Jackson, Jamie Fox, Halle Berry are becoming more and more familiar. Thanks to the effect of them and other unfamous black actors, the image of black people in American films has been further improved. The images of black hero can be easily found during this period, such as black president, agents and even the image of black God. The creative and unique performance of excellent black actors on the screen, left people the impression of noble and wisdom.
In The Matrix, the role of guide is played by a black man, while the prophet is actually a black women, whose counterparts are white savior and white program creator.In the film Bruce Almighty, the role of God is played by a black man. In commercial film Men in Black, the role who save the world many times is still played by black actor. In addition, the image of black people is changing from bad to good. In Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption, the character played by Morgan Freeman competely wiped the black image of clumsy and evil, and the black image of film is turning to be appreciated.
During this period, the friendship between whites and blacks is the main theme of films. Lethal Weapon (1998) conveys its audiences an image of the friendship between the whites and blacks in America. The white cop with his black partner cooperates and support to each other and the inseparable relation they established makes the race irrelevant (Vera, Hernán, and Gordon 5). As the representative film disseminated the spirit of America, Forrest Gump had condensed 30 years history of the United States. The figures in it covers quite a lot of areas, from President Kennedy and President Johnson to Elvis Aron Presley and John Lennon of the Beatles, from the Vietnam War to the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and U.S.A, from the hippie movement to the anti-war demonstrations, from football to table tennis. Besides, the film also focused to express the friendship between Gump and black folk Babu. If we consider that Gump is the representative spirit of American white, then we can say that the friendship between Gump and Babu implies the meaning of communication between whites and blacks.
At the same time, the love between whites and blacks became an important subject in film. In film called The Bodyguard (1992), agent Frank played by Kevin Costner is hired by a black singer Melendez, played by Whitney Houston. Ecentually, they fall in love with each other.
Case study: King Kong (1933)
As a monster themed science fiction movie in 1933, King Kong directed by Merian C. Cooper could be defined as a milestone in the history of Hollywood not only for its attractive plot, distinctive theme, but also for its profound social reflections in that era. It is the case to analyze the representation of Black male sexuality and uglifying the Black into beasts.#p#分页标题#e#
King Kong presented images of a berserk King Kong rampaging through the blocks of the New York, Manhattan, with a young beautiful white lady. The destructions and panic were consequent on the emergence of King Kong. Specifically, the character Kong living in an isolated island on the Pacific Ocean with other beasts was captured and brought to New York City for exhibition. After escaping from the “Eighth Wonder of the World”, Kong causes a dramatic panic within the New York City and even climbs the city land mark—Empire State Building for protecting the actress heroine named Ann Darrow who is offered to Kong as a sacrifice. The scene recording the battle between Kong and fighter planes on the Empire State Building has been the classic scene of the Hollywood films. Although the giant gorilla King Kong is irresistible, it is still defeated by the unscrupulous attacks from the modern weapons of the Whites. Ended in the Whites’ victory, King Kong was a representation Hollywood film in 1930s with an obvious racism.
According to Dines (291-307), during 1980s the cartoonists generally used ape to symbolize the Black people because of the similar features such as the dark skin and undersize head. Snead (1994) also points that the misreading of the Evolutionism mislead to a ridiculous conception that gorilla and blacks are kindred and phylogenetically, sexually close. To a certain extant, King Kong symbolized the impressions of blacks in the whites’ minds. King Kong was finished in a 1933, few years after the Depression. Therefore, some associates certain scenes with the social reality. Snead (1994) argues that the classic scene mentioned above, Kong was climbing the Empire State Building, is a metaphor of the “increasing economic emasculation of White men in the Depression years” as well as the rising fear towards the competition with the huge African migrants for jobs. The death of King Kong, or the fail of blacks, remasculinizes the whites through the victories on battle as well as the competition for lady (Dines 291-307).
Actually, uglifing the blacks and also exaggerating the sexuality were the pattern of the movies featuring the blacks. According to Dines (291-307), the extreme restricting pornographies generally “depict the Black men as more sexually dehumanized than White men”, and focus on the Black man body especially the penis and “insatiable sexual appetite”. On the deeper profile, the violent masculinity of whites and blacks depicted in the Hollywood movies were different. Compared with the white man in terms of the violent masculinity, the black men show more brutish nature. The difference of the sexual behavior suggests an “inferior psychic inferiority” of the blacks and “the superiority of White masculinity” (Jones 250). The porn movie and other films in that era featuring the blacks have defined the sexuality as abnormal, insatiable and the threat to the social order based on the characters such as the “woman as Jezebel” and black male as savage. These images were the mainstream perception of the whites towards the blacks (Wiegman 170).#p#分页标题#e#
Through the analysis towards the King Kong (1933) and relative movies featuring the Blacks, the basic profile and pattern of Hollywood films at the beginning of 20 century presented a undeniable racism and discrimination towards the dark skins. King Kong (1933) uglifies the black men into the beast, monster gorilla specifically, and suggests that the whites generally adopted a hostile attitude towards the blacks. Furthermore, the relative movies especially the porn films characterized by black men or women commonly coded the blacks’ sexuality as aggressive, brutish, and savage. Thus the conclusion of this case study is that King Kong and relative Blacks featuring movies involving the porn films to a certain extent conveyed a racial discrimination towards the black race in that certain age.
Case study: The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)
The Pursuit of Happiness is a success story, or to be exact, a story of thought-provoking philosophy and unswerving struggle illustrating as much of a sort of ideologies in a complicated dilemma as an individual undaunted spirit, with a message that the pursuit of happiness is an arduous process ever since the utterance was created with each pursuer, whether he is desperate or strategic, involved in a chaos of the sophisticated surroundings and in conflict with ironic and tormenting reality. Being a black in a mobile and stratified mufti-ethnic society especially needs to cling to the pursuit of happiness no matter how challenging, frustrating and unpredictable it is. The process of seeking happiness is exemplified by an ordinary individual that can be explored in depth in association with the cultural background and philosophy like a kaleidoscope reflecting glorious illusions. Based on the life-experience of a famous black American, the film illuminates diverse personalities and life-styles in confusion and at a loss, in which people can balance neither the individual versus the society nor the oppressed versus the hegemony.
The film illustrates the social stratification in the American society. William Julius Wilson stresses the growing division of American blacks into a middle class, continuing converge according to many economic indicators with the white majority, and an underclass, diverging ever further from either the whites or the black middle class. The black underclass, with its social pathologies, is a crucial social problem. Gayle McKeen (409) places contemporary emphasis upon self-help in the context of African-American thought. He raises the question as to what a self-help strategy, under what circumstances it is urged upon African Americans, and to what end. Feyishola Apena Richard L. Allen and Richard P. Bagozzi (3-28) argue that the black with low self-esteem are expected to perform poorly on a wide range of tasks. Likewise, social identity or lack thereof has been credited with influencing a wide range of attitudes and behaviors. Linwood H. Cousins (294-316) uses a cultural and relational framework of social class to present an ethnographic portrait of class as it unfolds with race and gender in a black high school and community. William Oliver (918-937) concludes that for many marginal black males, "the streets" is a socialization institution that has a major influence on their psychosocial development and life-course trajectories and transitions. In addition, some of the problematic consequences are associated with the pursuit of manhood and social recognition in "the streets."#p#分页标题#e#
The story is intended for the highlight` the pursuit of happiness' and the will to change one's own fate as the title indicates. In addition, the gap between the black and the whole society is sometimes apparent in the film, where the special profundity of racial disparity is presented unconsciously, sometimes gaining weight to the individual strife and at other times hindering individuals from fulfilling their social roles perfectly in the mufti-ethnic society. Its overall tone, being optimistic and enterprising, is to disclose an unpredictable society, and to a further degree is to illustrate some subtle ideologies that loom large in the minds of the social members and individualistic strength that is abstracted from the true social life in the United States. There seems to be an invisible hand grasping one's destiny tightly no matter how laboriously he turns against the hand.
In the beginning, full shots and long shots are employed to raise a sensitive question and to reflect the scenario of the American society as a whole. At first come the words of The Declaration of Independence-"the pursuit of happiness". Then in a montage the scene shifts into the bedroom of Chris Garden, the hero, who wakes up his five-year-old son to be sent to the daycare later in the morning. It seems that this family is doomed to pursue the happiness with every effort despite the gloomy economic condition. Then in a montage the scene shifts again to a long shot of the skyscrapers protruding into the grey sky and the Golden Gate Bridge, the famous landmark of San Francisco, against the dim grey sky viewed from the stance between two skyscrapers, as oppressing and obscure as the oscillating mood of the protagonist and the background of the film. The jungles of cement and the high buildings that are great masterpieces created by human-beings seem as ruthless and inhuman as a cage trapping the human beings, the so-called intelligent animal, blocking the expansive long-ranged sight of the residents and undermining the seemingly unremitting yet desperate individual attempts to go beyond himself and the individual attempts to burst out of the invisible bondage like the material barriers and the spiritual instability.
The next full shot is the bustling crowd striding in the prosperous street surging drop of waves in an expansive sea. Drowned in the sea, each one seems as tiny water melted into the expansive ocean. In the street are the busy figures: a middle-aged women of a blank visage in the passers-by with a briefcase in hand; a ragged and long-haired drunk man prostrating on the ground among the moving shoes without anyone to halt to care whether he is all right; a young black drummer immersed in his own playing as if he were forgetting the people past him; a grey-haired aged-man dressed neatly followed by a middle-aged man; a black who is dressed neatly in the traditional Southern suit and with a hat of the Southern style anxiously waiting in the flushing crowd for another prestigious and decent gentleman. Although Thomas Jefferson declares that everyone has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it seems easier said than done, for a common individual can't always act as he originally expects. The long shots and full shots implicitly signal the background of the story and various economic status that compose the same society and regulate the course of the individual life. Each of them is seeking the happiness defined by himself and by the standard set by the dominant society, some able to have access to happiness and others contriving for happiness in vain on their way forward. If success can be explained by the criteria of career, family and accumulation in wealth and prestige, the pursuit of happiness is a ceaseless, trying and arduous process bound by the stratification of the American society. 'The pursuit of happiness, in the eyes of the majority of Americans of various education, gender, ethnicity and careers, in the main not only means gaining#p#分页标题#e#
Wealth and fame and climbing up the social ladder by individual efforts at any cost but also embodies American individualism, the pursuit of equality and enterprising spirit despite the conspicuous and entrenched social stratification. Bustling in the street indicates that Americans including black Americans adapt themselves to the rapid tempo of occupied life in haste, edified by the unique American cultural pattern of activity orientation.
For more than a century, the image of the blacks in American movies has undergone earth-shaking changes. But if you simply believe blacks and whites enjoy the same equal status, you are apparently thoughtless. The proportion of main roles of blacks is far less than their counterparts. Obtaining the same status as whites in the movie still has a long way to go for blacks. It is not only the problem about films but the issue concerning racial discrimination and human rights. Nowadays the image of blacks in American movies exist two tendencies:
The first one is so called “clowns”. This kind of black image occupies a large proportion of black characters in American movies. This is because in quite a long time ,black comedy are prevalent in American movies. It seem like that black actors/actresses can performance well only in comedy. This black comedy is rooted in the continuation of the black clown in early films, and often the sound type of clown is easier to get the mainstream’s recognition. Famous star Whoopi Goldberg played a loquacious funny witch (which is absolutely a role of “clown”) in Ghost, which made her become the best supporting acctress of Oscar Academy Award. In the other film Purple, in which she showed her brilliant acting skills, Whoopi Goldberg did not attract the attention of Oscar Award Committee, because she played the role of a suffering black women.
The second tendency is that the representation of black Africans in American movies remain the very primitive stage, still lazy, original, violent, ignorant and evil. The quality of hard-working and honest are seldom can be seen in them. For example, in the film of Black Hawk Down, the black African is still uncivilized.
Both The Pursuit of Happiness and King Kong expose some entrenched atrocious social evils and the distinct social stratification in the United States mixed with the problems of the black such as familial separation, racial discrimination, work-related stress, the loss of traditional morality among the black teenagers and their lack of proper education by the black families and schools. King Kong as a representation of the 1900s Hollywood movie reflects a perception hold by the White people towards the black race during that years. Using the symbolic means to uglify the black men into the awesome giant gorilla, King Kong as well as other cotemporary black-characters-featuring movies also exaggerated the inhumane sexuality of blacks. And considering the historical background of the Depression, King Kong suggests a fear in the whites’ brains towards the black migrants in terms of the job seeking during that period with a dramatically high unemployment rate. Respectively, The pursuit of Happiness explores the living conditions, ordinary life and the view of the world of the black in low social positions of various ages. They pursue their American dreams with self-respect and decent social values regardless of the social problems and personal frustrations in their life. The films also present how an individual struggles to accomplish his own desire in conflict with the tough elements from the irresistible social forces in a more complicated sense. Basically, the films center on the individual fulfillments, growth and maturity in pursuit of American dream and happiness.#p#分页标题#e#
In general, Based on the statements and analysis above, especially through the study and analysis of two Hollywood movies: King Kong and The pursuit of Happiness, a profile of the black characters developing along with the history is basically depicted. The century witnessed the development of movie products as well as the dramatic change or improvement of the black character in the Hollywood movies. From the King Kong (1933) which emphasizes the monster image of the blacks to the Lethal Weapon (1998) presents a friendship and absent racism between the whites and blacks. But it is still not accurate to state that the blacks have shared a same status with the whites already. Through The pursuit of Happiness, the film reveals that the working condition and living condition for the blacks in the United States of America are still inferior compared with the whites to a certain extent. Hence the race discrimination still exists in the Hollywood movies.
Reference List
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Linwood H. Cousins “‘Playing between Classes’: America's Troubles with Class, Race, and Gender in a Black High School and Community.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly. 30.3 (1999) : 294-316. Print.
Mckeen, Gayle. “Whose Rights? Whose Responsibility? Self-Help in African-American Thought.” Polity. 34.4 (2002): 409. Print.
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Snead, J. White screen, Black images: Hollywood from the dark side. New York: Routledge. 1994. Print.
Vera, Hernán, and Andrew M. Gordon. Screen Saviors : Hollywood Fictions of Whiteness. Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,2003. Print
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