Analysis Of Spike Lee's Bamboozled

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Spike Lee’s Bamboozled is a contemporary critique of the black community, how it’s exploited, how it’s viewed, and how it fails to resist the persistent prejudices it faces in and outside of itself. Though this film is sixteen years old, many of his criticisms are still relevant to today’s media portrayals of black people. It is a continuing cycle that has yet to change on a large scale. Within the film we see a multitude of issues throughout that plays on the so called authenticity of blackness, the selling out of some of them, the poverty and desperation of others, the failure to use platforms of power for change, and the blind consumption of entertainment despite it’s harm to the image of black folk. Lee creates characters that are among …show more content…

His immediate thought to use the two poor black men who had previously asked for his help to no avail, depicts the idea that successful black people fail to go back and help other black people. This relationship is an important critique from Lee. This educated black man who normally would have nothing to do with the rest of the black community has reached out to use his power to exploit black folks in his quest to prove something to his white boss. Manray and Womack are barely in a position to decline so their desperation leads to their exploitation. Spike Lee furthers his criticism by also putting the blame on the community itself who consumes and enjoys the minstrel show. Although people of all races enjoyed it, I think the point being made is that it is the job of black folk to battle the negative images they see of themselves, they too are a part of the problem. Their lack of protest and their acceptance of these images allows those in power to continue to decide what it means to be black. As I’ve stated, Lee’s critiques of the media, those in positions of power, the consumption of the audience in the black community, and his trope characters are all present today. We see similar images in television and movie roles available for black people and in rap and hip hop music representations. The media has an immense amount of power in how the black body is portrayed. The music industry carries a similar power in deciding what will and will not sell in music. These executives are the deciding factor of what is “authentically black” and interesting to

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