Blacks+in+Film+History

When we look at film, we see the incline of professionally well-made movies, and the decline of racism within them. In the beginning of film history we would see blacks portrayed as servants, if any were even in the film. Down the years of film we see the gradual decline in racism. Stereotypes of blacks began to disappear while black celebrities were being made.

Near the beginning of film history there is a movie called //Birth of the nation in 1915.// In the film we see whites black faced, portraying as blacks. They display them as the whites’ servants (slaves), by showing cruel treatment towards them. Throughout the movie you witness the harsh racist treatment of blacks. The movie shows the KKK being inspired by black kids scarring their fellow friends by hiding under sheets. A white character sees this happening and then creates the KKK uniform based off of that event. The movie then continues and shares bloodshed, fighting, and cruel treatment between whites and blacks. However, in the middle of the film we see a change of history with a law being passed, allowing a black to marry a white. Even with this mercy this does not justify the extreme racist film. As a fare warning, you should only watch the film if you are able to handle its gruesome treatment towards blacks.

We then come to the years with actual black actors. The best-known black movie performer of the early 1930s was Lincoln Perry, who took on the professional name of Stepin Fetchit. He had a short but successful acting career through 1929 and 1935. He appeared in some twenty-six movies, often working on three or four at a time. Majority of his characters were dim witted, tongue-tied, slow gaited, and lackadaisical. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, black characters were typically kindly souls, slow moving (except when they danced), adept at only menial tasks, and happy to let the white folks manage the world. They rarely showed any signs of sexual desire. Stepin Fetchit appeared in the film //Judge Priest// in 1934. His character represents all stereotypes, which have just been said. The character is quite, slow, humorous, but in the cruel black stereotypes. The film itself is entertaining, and even with the racial implications, Fetchit character is as well. These depictions were all the more damaging, because he was able to do them so convincingly. His success spawned black imitators who found steady screen work at a time when his career was on the wane. However, Stepin is “the epitome of a comedian” who gave unflattering imitations of the African American. Fetchit’s demeaning portrayals often confirmed whites’ views. He used these “self-deprecations” to provoke laughter to whites and calm their fears about the African American. James Baldwin classified Stepin Fetchit with Willie best Manta Moreland stated “All of [these actors], rightly or wrongly, I loathed, it seemed to me that they lied about the world I knew, and debased it, and certainly I did not know anybody like them – as far as I could tell; for it is also possible that their comic, bug-eyed terror contained to be engulfed.” Eventually, Fetchit let his character he was imitating become the best of him and take over his true self. Sadly, the Fetchit who attempted to deceive his audiences deceived himself in the end.

If we then look at the actor Dooley Wilson, we see that he found a way to bring out a slightly enhanced version of the asexual black servant so prevalent in this era. Dooley Wilson worked in the film //Casablanca// as Rick’s piano man named Sam. Sam would play for Rick’s bar and the guest in it, but played one special song for Rick and Rick’s past lover. The song was //as time goes by,// which was sung beautifully. We see a friendship between the characters, but white dominance was always prevalent. At this time Wilson was under contract with Paramount, where he made $350 a week primarily playing porters. Then Warner bros borrowed him for a full7 weeks’ pay of $500 a week. (Wilson never saw the extra $150 a week.)

Film was not the only popular entertainment at this time. One of the most popular radio shows in 1930s and 40s was //Amos ‘n’ Andy,// which featured two whites named Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, in a black face comedy. (The birth of the nation became the radios theme music, leading us back to the cruel neglect and racism in the mass media.) If wanted, there is a website database (Internet Archive) that shares multiple of the Amos ‘n’ Andy broadcasts to listen to. The show captures the characters as slow, shiftless, simple, and unsophisticated. The characters owned the “Fresh-air-taxi-cab company” whose assets included one broken-down topless car, one desk, and one chair. Soon, Newspapers began to publish articles about the radio programs. One of which commented “For years Negroes have been subjected to the shrill or lazy yuk-yuking dialect voices of the radio stereotypes. These “characters” are intended to give the nation and the world a distorted and degrading image of the American Negro. And in spite of the constant protest against these disgusting shows, they have stubbornly persisted in radio. Now with their appearance on the nation’s TV screens, they threaten to set American culture back at least 20 years.” The paper continues and describes how a horrifically racist show called //the Beulah Show//, was one of the first radio shows to transition into a TV series. The article then leads us into talking about the Amos ‘n’ Andy show, “And if the Beulah Show wasn’t too much; the television bosses now have plans for bringing to TV, after much difficulty, the most despised anti-Negro show in the history of radio: (Amos ‘n’ Andy.)” The show was able to get onto the silver screen, but sadly did not end very well. The public enjoyed the act a lot more when they could imagine the characters actually being black, instead of two white men in black face. “The imaginary world of the show and characters was a far cry from the harsh reality of ghetto life.”

The screen image of blacks began to change during the Second World War. A film called //Bataan//, made in 1943, consisted with four characters; a black, Latino, and two Filipinos. The movie shows how the four men fight together to the very end for God and their country. The black demolitions expert (Kenneth Spencer) in the film was portrayed as a committed fighter who willingly sacrifices himself for God and his country. He led the group in prayer for their fallen captain and saves one of his white comrades from walking into enemy fire. I found this to be a good movie to bring up because it shows one of many changing points in film and racism. The film came out during the summer of 1943, which holds the history of violent race riots in Detroit and other cities. Not only that, but blacks were being denied decent housing and high-paying wartime civilian jobs, and were discriminated in the armed forces. Even though America was fighting against the racist doctrines of the Nazis; America’s military was racially segregated itself. That’s why this movie is bold. Despite all odds, this film, along with a few others, is one of the first films to portray a black man as not only intelligent, but a trustworthy, and respectable man that is fighting for America. While in reality, the American army and public see blacks as nothing more than tools.

The wartime plotline of a noble black, equally fighting along sides with a white man, continued into the postwar period. No one portrayed this stereotype of black nobility greater than Sidney Poitier, who was soon popularly known as “super Sidney.” He acted many roles in films such as; //No Way Out// (1950) playing the role of a doctor, and //The Defiant Ones// (1958), playing as a convict on the run chained to a racist redneck (Tony Curtis.) The film earned Poitiers first Academy Award, nomination him for best actor. However, there was discretion between South Africa and America’s view on discrimination in Poitiers Movies and the color line in union. During these times, Poitier commented on the topic stating, “Strictly enforced segregation policy represents a batter frustrating experience…. With serious physical and moral challenges.” Poitier eventually won an Oscar for a film called //Lilies of the Field// in 1963. He played a role of a kind handyman who helps a group of East German nuns build a chapel in Arizona. Later on, in 1968, Sidney became the number one box office star in the country. We see the progression in the acceptance of the black community through Sidney Poitier’s career. Poitier is one of the first few blacks to not only be nominated for, but also win an Academy Award. A triumph in American history has arrived! A black man is beginning to be accepted in this dense white dominated country.

The movie industry then had a shock when a film called //Guess who’s coming home for dinner// came out in 1967. The story is about a young white woman named Katherine Houghton bringing her black boyfriend (Poitier) home, and announcing she wants to marry him. The Film has one particular scene both da ring and shocking when we see a passionless kiss shown in a taxicab rearview mirror. Even with it being a bout an interracial couple the movie hade great feedback, “Mark your calendar and be sure to see this movie!”- Was posted at the end of a news review article.

As the film industry progressed, the public became more comfortable with black actors, and soon there was no discrimination with blacks performing. In fact, blacks started to become popular celebrity icons. The filming industry stopped portraying blacks with negative stereotypes and began to push forward. However, there are some movies that found their way around this. Skeptical remarks came to attention to the familiar racial and ethnic representations of the character Jar Jar Binks, in the movie //Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom menace// (1999.) Critics say Jar Jar Bink’s dim witted, big libs, bulging eyes, and wide noes come right out of Hollywood’s bag of caricatures.

They have the character step in animal dung, lards his speech with malapropisms, gets his tongue stuck in an electrical socket, and says things like “Why mesa always da one?” and “yousa Jedi not all yousa cracked up to be.” If looked at carefully his ears could also resemble similarly to dreadlocks. I understand that these characteristics could be miss- interpreted. In fact, I hope they are. But if under any circumstances they could be intentional, it just shows how far film has come to discriminate blacks.

Even with the skeptical questionings in some films, we see change within the film industry. As the years went on, the films gradually added more famous black actors into the business. Then finally ending the Racist cycle and presenting an equal career path for both blacks and whites. Black actors today are now looked as famous celebrities, when only a few decades ago, we would only see them as servants. In a way, film has demonstrated the process of the American Revolution.