African American Women in Early Film
In early film many African American actresses portrayed roles as mammies, slaves, seductresses, and maids. These roles suppressed them not allowing them to show their true talents. Although they had to take on these degrading roles, they still performed with dignity, elegance, grace and style. They paved the way for many actresses to follow both blacks and whites. These women showed the film industry that they were more than slaves, mammies, and maids. These beautiful actresses showed the film industry that they are able to hold lead parts and even carry the whole cast if need be. Phenomenal actresses such as Hattie McDaniels, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Waters, Nina Mae McKinney, and Dorothy Dandridge, to name a few, are African-American stars who paved the way for so many African-American actresses today despite the hardships that they were faced with. These women displayed beauty, intellect and talent, which allowed the stars that followed that they do not have to just settle for stereotypical roles. In early film there was much propaganda and even today, which lead to these demeaning roles that they had to betray, Professor Carol Penney of Yale-New Haven writes, “Film is one of the most influential means of communication and a powerful medium of propaganda. Race and representation is central to the study of the black film actor, since the major studios reflected and reinforced the racism of their times. The depiction of blacks in Hollywood movies reinforced many of the prejudices of the white majority rather than objective reality, limiting black actors to stereotypical roles” (1).
Hattie McDaniels, a trailblazer amongst African-American film, acquired many firsts for African-American actors. McDaniels was the first African-American to sing on the radio, first to receive an Oscar for best supporting actress in Gone with the Wind. She was also the first African-American to star in a sitcom in 1951 that featured an African-American actress in the title role (Pax 1). “McDaniels appeared in more than three hundred films during the twenties and thirties. Her career was built on the ‘Mammy’ image, a role she played with dignity” (Smith 7). She received much flack from the blacks because of the roles she played in film and on radio. Blacks felt that she was degrading the race but her reply was to these views were...
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...reen and feel that they are beautiful too.
Work Cited
The African-American Almanac, 1997. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997.
Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 10&16. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987.
“Ethel Waters.” Online. 10 March 2005. Available: www.http://www.redhot jazz.com/waters.html.
“Honoring Black History Month.” Pax Stars. Online. 10 March 2005. Available: www.http://www.pax.tv/bios/one-bio.cfm/hattie-mcdaniel.
“Nina Mae McKinney.” South Carolina African American History Online. Online. 11 March 2005. Available: www.http://www.scafam-hist.org/aahc/.
“Pearl Bailey.” Black History: Virginia Profiles. Online. 13 March 2005. Available: www.http://www.gatewayva.com/pages/bhistory/1996/bailey.shtml.
Penney, Carol. “Black Actors inamerican Cinema.” Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Online. 12 March 2000. Available: www.http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/cirriculm/units.
“Pioneer black actress Dorothy Dandridge has a famous cast of modern-day admirers.” Online. 12 March 2005. Available: www.http://ohio.com/bj/fun/tv/0299/002827htm.
A Comparison of the Representation of the Afro-American Actresses Hattie McDaniel and Whoopie Goldberg in the Scam Scenes of Gone With the Wind
When I was a little girl I often saw the caricature of a big black woman holding a broom I was always curious as of who she was and what she portrayed. I quickly came to find out that this would be the mammy character. She was characterized to care for her white family and be pleased by doing so. Even though the mammy is well loved and has considerable power with her white family, she still knew her place as a servant. Annie played a big role as a black maid in imitation of life. Even though she was given an immense role not overshadowed by a white actress, she was still stereotyped by playing a mammy role. The mammy character was seen as a good figure to the whites but it was seen
She was the first black to win an academy award. Hattie Mcdaniel’s role in Gone With the Wind only confirms the stereotype of the Mammy caricature in film by expressing her character as a big old woman with the small, sharp eyes of an elephant. Her skin assumed her to be pure African and this, in this era, was said to be ugly in the eyes of white society. Her character was devoted to the family that she was enslaved to. She was desexualized in the films as an ugly black woman who was enormously obese. No white man in their right mind would want a woman such as this. This character directly correlates to the Mammy caricatures that were first made in animated format. The Mammy caricature was created by whites to imply that black women were only meant to be domestic servants.(Authentic
The history of Hollywood cinema in the past is marked by the exclusion and marginalization of colored actors, but more and more African American actors have appeared on the Hollywood screen since 1890s. Sydney Poitier is one of them who was perceived as the most important African American integrationist due to his plenty of outstanding works. The film No Way Out is Poitier’s first movie, but audiences can see all the shining points from Doctor Brooks that would make Poitier’s characters laudable for the future decades (Bogle, 2001).
Back in the 1800’s, when calculating the population, African Americans were counted as 3/5 of a person (Antonia, p2). One would think that in the past two hundred years people’s beliefs would have changed a little bit, but the general white public are stuck into believing the common stereotypes commonly portrayed in movies. In films and television shows blacks are almost always portrayed as murderers, robbers, rapists, pretty much anything negative, like American History X, for example. Two black men are shown breaking into a white man’s car. People see this, and in turn believe that all black men will try and steal their car; as stupid as it may seem, it is true, and as a result, film producers try to incorporate this into their films. Very rarely, if ever, is it possible to see a minority depicted as a hero-type figure. Every once in a while, there will be an independent film from a minority director, but as Schultz states in Lyon’s piece, “We [blacks] are still being ghettoized in Hollywood, a serious black project of any scope is as difficult to get marketed today as it was in the ‘70s.” By making a barrier to entry for minorities in the film industry, it’s almost as if America is trying to keep black films out of the popular media. At first glimpse, it may appear that minorities are very hard to be seen in the filming industry, when in reality, they are becoming more and more apparent in America’s mainstream media culture, particularly in action movies.
The history of African Americans in early Hollywood films originated with blacks representing preconceived stereotypes. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, Birth of a Nation, stirred many controversial issues within the black community. The fact that Griffith used white actors in blackface to portray black people showed how little he knew about African Americans. Bosley Crowther’s article “The Birth of Birth of a Nation” emphasizes that the film was a “highly pro-South drama of the American Civil War and the Period of Reconstruction, and it glorified the role of the Ku Klux Klan” (76). While viewing this film, one would assert that the Ku Klux Klan members are heroic forces that rescue white women from sexually abusive black men. Griffith introduced “mulatto, faithful mammy, Uncle Tom, and brutal buck” character; some were disguised as villains and obnoxious individuals. Donald Bogle’s “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks” describes the brutal black buck as “big, bad niggers, sexed and savage, violent and frenzied as they lust for white flesh” (13-14). Some of the film’s most objectionable scenes depict black men trying to rape white women and Negros destroying the south however, the Ku Klux Klan is riding to the rescue. Bogle also recorded some scenes in the film that presented blacks as a joke. For instance, Bogle reaffirms that “freed Negro legislators are depicted as lustful, arrogant, and idiotic: one bites on a chicken leg, another sneaks a drink from a liquor bottle, and another removes his shows during legislative meetings” (12).
Film Historian Donald Bogle, the author of “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films,” offers compelling and informative examples of various stereotypes of African-Americans performers. He emphasizes on historical characteristics of gifted black actors/entertainers; renovating their roles to disseminate specific representations that are significant to the economics and history of America’s shifting environmental circumstances.
The term groupthink in this report is defined as, the social psychological phenomenon that results in groups during pressure situations. This social psychology theory is broken down into eight signs. Illusion of invulnerability, Collective rationalization, Belief in inherent morality, Stereotyped views of out-groups, Direct pressure on dissenters, Self-censorship, Illusion of unanimity, Self-appointed “mindguards”. According to research conducted by Irving Janis, there are three conditions to groupthink. The first, "high group cohesiveness" which is the direction for a group to be in unity while working towards a goal, or to satisfy the emotional needs of its members. Secondly, the structural faults such as insulation of the group, lack of norms and central leadership, in addition social background of group members. The third, situational context includes the circumstances of the groups meeting, social roles and expected behavior. This notion is exemplified during the movie, "12 Angry Men". The purpose of this essay is to examine the movie content to display the groupthink symptoms in place. Groupthink consists of eight major factors that occur during the film's scenes, as the twelve men debate a premeditated murder court case. All of the factors continue to rise as the jury discusses the young man's fate. During the film, a unanimous vote must be reached, despite this one man refuses to vote guilty. In 1957 the Orson Welles directed film opens as the judge explains the case and its severity. Soon after the group forms as the 12 men enter the jury discussion room. During these scene frames, the case evidence is explained. As the men talk they give details of an old man living beneath the boy testified, that he heard a fight, stat...
It is human nature to tell stories and to appreciate and participate in theatre traditions in every society. Every culture expresses theatre and may have their own traditions that have helped pave the way for how they are today. The involvement of African-Americans has increased tremendously in theatre since the nineteenth century and continues to increase as time goes on. African-Americans have overcome many obstacles with getting their rights and the participation and involvement of Theatre was something also worth fighting for. American history has played an important role with the participation of African-Americans in theatre. Slavery occurrence in America made it difficult for blacks in America to be taken seriously and to take on the characters of more serious roles. With many obstacles in the way African-Americans fought for their rights and also for the freedom that they deserved in America. As the participation of African-Americans involvement within the theatre increase so do the movements in which help make this possible. It is the determination of these leaders, groups, and Theaters that helped increase the participation and created the success that African-Americans received throughout history in American Theatre.
When I was a little girl I often saw the caricature of a big black woman holding a broom I was always curious as of who she was and what she portrayed. I quickly came to find out that this would be the mammy character. She was characterized to care for her white family and be pleased by doing so . Even though the mammy is well loved and has considerable power with her white family, she still knew her place as a servant. Annie played a big role as a black maid in imitation of life . Even though she was given an immense role not overshadowed by a white actress, she was still stereotyped by playing a mammy role. The mammy character was seen as a good figure to the whites but it was seen as a disgraceful one for the african american women.
Those who deny the existence of the racism rooted into modern day Hollywood are far from reality. They may think that in the United States we are getting closer to equality when it comes to casting but we in fact are not. While there is the belief that America has progressed when it comes to social issues, the percentage of roles held by black actors in film and TV has dropped from 15 to 13 percent from the early 2000’s to 2011 (McClintock and Apello 2).
Seitz argues that M.Ns are happy to help their masters at any time. African-Americans are serving whites to succeed in their life and these mentors willingly serve whites. Seitz states, “Magical Negro”: a saintly African-American who acts as a mentor to a white hero… [their] relationship is that of a master and servant… one that truly lives to serve, has no life to speak beyond his service” (Seitz 357). Years after the end of slavery, blacks are still considered as servants of whites in America. Even though social reforms have ended slavery and the exclusion of blacks from society, whites still consider blacks as their slaves and this has been portrayed ambiguously in many movies. In pro-white popular culture, African-American actors and actresses have not received fair treatment to perform at the highest of their abilities. In today’s modern world, there are roots of racism; popular culture and mass media production are very important key factors in promoting the racial distinction in our society. In this modern world, media and television are a part of everyday life. People have easy access to movies and TV shows; viewers of these shows tend to believe what is being shown. Films and TV shows have played a significant role in reestablishing racism and discrimination in popular culture. Many of the mass media production industries have characterized racial stereotypes. Omi reveals racial stereotypes, “[in
In Twelve Angry Men, there is no typical uni-directional association of the jury through Tuckman’s stages of group development, but a series of the stages that were repeated throughout the process while some stages occur simultaneously (Russ & Dickinson, 1999). The main center of Tuckman’s theory is the development of inside relations between the members of the team. The primary forming stage in the movie is established when the men are making informal conversation about sports, news, climate, business, etc. while trying to chill the room with a fan that doesn’t seem to function and waiting for one team member to reply them from the men’s room (Lidz, 1995). Some...
According to a survey by one research group, there are more “born again Christians” getting married than any other group. Nevertheless, 26% of those surveyed were “Evangelical Christians,” who indicated that their marriage had ended in divorce. It is unfortunate that today’s culture has “grown comfortable with divorce.” In America, divorce is commonly accepted as well as becoming “a natural part of life.” Moreover, most materials found today on divorce and remarriage are not based on Scripture, but “life experience and opinions.” Unfortunately, getting a divorce is definitely a modern-day tragedy. Nevertheless, as pointed out by many authors, “the concept of divorce is biblical.” Therefore, it is imperative to establish a solid view on divorce and remarriage. Therefore, a correct view is one that is grounded on the Bible, rather than personal opinion.
What is Marriage? Marriage is when people are being united together as husband and wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by the law. Marriage hasn’t always been how it is now, where women have a say in family problems, and where woman have the right to choose whom they want to marry. Before during the ancient times, women had to marry those in their families, and could not marry those that were Marriage use to be all about doing what you needed to support your family, which meant you married someone who was able to give you what you needed. Marriage wasn’t because you loved someone, but it was always because people wanted to preserve power. Now in the marriage, people marry, because they love each other, and because they want to make an effort to spend the rest of their lives together.