In the primitive years of cinema black characters were subjected to use of several stereotypes. These stereotypes were used in a cookie cutter type manner, with black characters playing almost the same roles in film. Donald Bogle a scholar in this field defined many of these stereotypes used in cinematic films. The film The Littlest Rebel by Edwin J. Burke used many of these stereotypes but one of the most prevalent categories of stereotyping was the coon. This was one of the most degrading of all the black stereotypes used in film at the time. Defined by Donald Bogle, the Coon was a source of comic relief and depicted to be unreliable, crazy, lazy, and a stumbling, stuttering idiot (Bogle, 7-8). In the film, The Littlest Rebel (1935), the character James Henry showed the cinematic stereotype of the Coon perfectly. In every scene of the film you see can see how unintelligent this character is through his speech and actions.
The coon was a character that first came about in cinema in
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the 1905 film Wooing and Wedding of a Coon, this film shows a black couple on their honeymoon auctioning like “stumbling and stuttering idiots” (Bogle,8). The idea of this stereotype, servers to degrade the intelligence of black people in this time period. The Coon is always depicted as a person that cannot think for him or herself and is often seen doing something completely wrong. In one of the first scenes of The Littlest Rebel, our Coon character James henry is easily relieved. We see him being a servant to the Virgie Carry, while doing so we can see his mouth open and his eyes wide open. These facial expressions are put there to show that he’s not really there mentally. We can come to this idea initially when we first see him in the shot. Later in this seen Uncle Billy asked James Henry to give a bowl of ice cream to a child at the table. James henry responds with “is this for me” this goes to show us that this charter has no idea of his surroundings and is mentally off. The main point made by the use of a coon character is that black people lack intelligence. A larger apart of expressing ones intelligence is the ability to communicate, whether it be through speaking or writing. In Donald Bogle text he states that an attribute of the Coon character is the butchering of the English language. This leads us to another example of how James henry meets the fundamental idea of the coon character, but this time it’s through his speech (Bogle,8). After the scenes were uncle Billy is dances to amuse the children we hear James henry talk about himself dancing. Here he refers to himself being uncoordinated and unable to dance. While he is talking we can tell he is slow because of his slow speech and slurred words. Whenever he talks to Virgie Carry it gives off the feeling of humor because of the children around the table laughing at what he say. In a way this is similar to 1990s sitcoms where they have an audience in the background cueing people to laugh. They use the idea of the coon to inspire comic relief at the expense of stereotyping black people with these degrading ideas. Through this example you can see clearly that James Henry is a character to be laughed at for him stupidity and therefore an example of a coon by Donald Bogles definition. Another way of checking for intelligence is to see how well people are able to listen and follow directions. In a scene where Virgie is leading a couple of slaves in a military style march we can see how mentally not aware James Henry is. We see him not stop when all the rest of the marching slaves stop in response Virgie’s demands. Virgie even states, “Oh James Henry you always do it wrong”. This line serves to convey that James Henry is unable to do it right after a number of tries. This again shows the subhuman intelligence level of this character. In the picture he appears to be slouched over and not paying attention because his character by definition is unable to be attentive. Along with showing his unintelligence the scene also serves to show comedy when James henry talks about the Yankee soldiers. James henry states. “Oh Miss Virgie, them Yankees is mighty powerful. They can even change the weather”, then goes on to say “ Whenever they come around, I don’t Know whether it’s winter or summer. I start shivering and sweating at the same time.” This quote serves to show how unintelligent James Henry is and how this can be used for comedy. The idea that the Yankees can change the weather is preposterous to a person of normal intelligence but to him it makes sense because of how it makes him feel. His feeling of sweating and shivering at the same time is there for comic relief. We also see that he his unable to use the English langue correctly when he uses “is” instead of “are” The whole quote together demonstrates how writers used the coon character’s stupid nature to create comic relief at the expense of black individuals intelligence and to appear to an audience, stuck in their racist ways. James Henry is without a doubt portrayed to be a coon type character according to Donald Bogle analysis.
He describes uncle Remus as another coon character because of his harmless, naïve and comic philosophizing ways (Bogle, 9). One scene in The Littlest Rebel in particular shows the harmless and comic ways of James Henry; this is the scene when James is found hiding in the closet. The Yankee solider goes on to ask why he was in the dark closet and James Henry response with the fact that he was just trying to get some air. The solider lets this go and laughs in response to James Henry’s statement. The soldier’s reaction to James shows how harmless and comical James is to him. The solider pays no mind to him because he sees James as so dumb that he’s not a threat. Again in this scene you can tell by his facial expressions and language that he is very unintelligent and absent minded. This coon character is depicted as so unintelligent that he is not be taken as threat or
seriously. In one scene of the movie James Henry looks to be showing some intelligence when he is making a trap for the Yankee soldiers. We see James digging a hole and explaining that he’ll cover it up so that if Yankees come by they will fall through, warning him of their presences. This achieve is short lived because when the Yankees arrive James Henry runs right over the hole he jut dug. This results is him falling through his own hole and slurring the words “ I didn’t know that hole was there. Again we see how unintelligent the coon character is made to be. Him going through his own hole shows us how he was unable to think and remember where the hole he just spent time digging was. Along with this we can also we how the writer plays this act off as a thing of comedy further degrading the image of the Blackman. Even before this scene we see James running around in confusion in response to the Yankee soldiers coming. Again we have another example of how unaware he is of his surroundings, which leads us to believe he is not too smart. In the film The Littlest Rebel we see array of stereotypical characters defined by Donald Bogle text. One of the most obvious was the character of James Henry. He was used to depict the coon role in the film. This is one of the most degrading roles, portraying black people as extremely unintelligent and avenue of comic relief because of this role. James henry gives us many examples of stupidity that is inhuman to say the least. These stereotypes only serve to give false depiction of a race and to humiliate a people in the name of racist comedy.
Throughout the film of Smoke Signals, the story centers on two characters, Thomas and Victor. Thomas, through his storytelling shows Victor that there's more to life than cynicism and pure anger, while Victor let's Thomas know what it means to be a real Indian. We can see this in the scene where Victor tells Thomas that Indians are not supposed to smile to white people and that Indians always should look mean in order to gain the respect of white folks. However, we can see that after they return to the bus their seats have been taken by two white men and neither did Victor’s mean face and faded smile help him gain their seats back. This scene shows us that those stereotypes about how what an Indian is supposed to act are not in fact true because
...Their dialogues included nothing very intellectually stimulating, which would suggest a lack of intelligence. By portraying the characters as such, the film was able to represent the judgmental racial stereotypes commonly associated with African Americans.
A Comparison of the Representation of the Afro-American Actresses Hattie McDaniel and Whoopie Goldberg in the Scam Scenes of Gone With the Wind
After viewing the film Bamboozled by Spike Lee I feel as though he is suggesting that racial stereotypes will continue to be emphasized in television and other mass media outlets but as a way to provide entertainment. From a person working with the media’s perspective, many communities are growing towards becoming more diverse in which would lead them to think of an effective way to connect with a hugely diverse audience. Many races have common stereotypes that the media would use to connect with their audience on a personal level, sometimes it would be seen as offensive, but avoid conflict with their audience and maintain their image they would add comedic effect so it would only appear as a joke.
In class, we watched a film called Ethnic Notions. In this film, it brought to light how devastating and powerful images can be. Due to exaggerated images and caricatures created pre-civil war era of black men and women, stereotypes were created and have negatively affected the black race in society. Caricatures, such as the Sambo, Zip Coon, Mammy, and Brute, have unfortunately been engrained in the minds of generations. So much so their stereotypes still persist today.
The movie 'Ethnic Notions' describes different ways in which African-Americans were presented during the 19th and 20th centuries. It traces and presents the evolution of the rooted stereotypes which have created prejudice towards African-Americans. This documentary movie is narrated to take the spectator back to the antebellum roots of African-American stereotypical names such as boy, girl, auntie, uncle, Sprinkling Sambo, Mammy Yams, the Salt and Pepper Shakers, etc. It does so by presenting us with multiple dehumanized characters and cartons portraying African-Americans as carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, savage Brutes, and wide-eyed Pickaninnies. These representations of African-Americans roll across the screen in popular songs, children's rhymes, household artifacts and advertisements. These various ways to depict the African ?American society through countless decades rooted stereotypes in the American society. I think that many of these still prevail in the contemporary society, decades after the civil rights movement occurred.
helping. Television is making the shows out to seem like one race is better than another. For
The movie Crash was directed by Paul Haggis is a powerful film that displays how race is still a sociological problem that affects one 's life. It also focuses on how we should not stereotype people based on their color because one may come out wrong in the end. Stereotyping is a major issue that is still happening in today 's society and seems to only be getting worse. This movie is a great way to see the daily life and struggle of other races and see how racism can happen to anyone, not just African Americans which seems to only be seen in the news and such.
Identity is a substantial component of a person, it’s something that determines who they are and help establish themselves with people who you find enjoyable and shares similar interests. It could bring people together, and provide a sense of belonging and unity. However, there are times where these people who are within certain cliques are perceived more negatively or believe that all people within that group perpetually have a certain set of traits. In most cases, these negative perceptions lead to discrimination and conflict, and obscures the positive and more genuine traits of an individual. In S.E. Hinton’s book, The Outsiders, there is a group of poor and lower-middle class teens who are labeled as greasers. This group of wild teenagers
African American men both through film and books were shown to be the least importance of the Caucasian Southern Man. These men can be said to have followed the Southern Code even though they were never respected, not to say all was disrespected because there were some who were of importance. Pork, in Gone with the Wind, was highly respected by by the O’Hara family. At one point Scarlett gave Pork the pocket watch of her father when he died. Tom Robinson, in To Kill a Mockingbird, would be the the common Southern African American because he worked hard and was a helping hand, to anyone no matter their ethnicity if asked. Mead in Mandingo would probably the lowest of all the characters because he was only bought to fight and kill other black men during fights. It was until The Color Purple where you saw African American the focus of the book and movie. Mr. Albert would be considered the Patriarchy in this book/film because he was controlling of Celie, Harpo and many others. Mr. Albert owned a fairly large house on some land. A character in The Color Purple, who was kind of odd was Harpo. Harpo did not truly fit in the role of the Southern Black man because he was often controlled by his wife
Nationalities in society today have a stereotype that they are unfortunately characterized by. People assume that Asians are smart and good at martial arts, that the Irish swear too much and consume too much alcohol, that Americans are obese and lazy, and that African Americans are criminals into drugs and are in prison. These stereotypes make everyone of one nationality to be the same as individuals. There are, of course, people who fit the stereotype, which is how the stereotype came to be, but there is a large number of people who defy the stereotype of their race. The film industry helps to reiterate the stereotypes of certain races by matching the race of the actor with the character in the film for a certain effect. African Americans, specifically, in modern day films have been frequently seen to both
In the 1999 film The Green Mile directed by Frank Darabont, Michael Clarke Duncan is portrayed as John Coffey a giant simple minded black man in 1934 who is accused of raping and killing two white girls. This is a stereotype that has been used in films about black men for over four decades. Black males have always been thought of as savages who will rape of kill a white woman when they get a chance. This stereotype was more prevalent in the 1940’s and 1950’s when segregation was still the law.
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
Film, as a traditional and beloved media, has been influential on people's life. We spend time in the cinema to be entertained, touched, scared and experience romantic love story and exotic places. As one of the most famous film industry base in the world, Hollywood, produces and sell their movie products all over the world.
Even though Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb screened in the midst of the sobering Cold War, critics were keen on praising the film for its mastery of humor applied to such a sensitive matter. The film is exceedingly loaded with metaphors, innuendos, and allusions that nothing can be left undissected or taken for face value; the resulting effect is understood to be part of Kubrick’s multifarious theme. Kubrick has stated that what began as a “the basis for a serious film about accidental war ” eventually birthed an absurd and farcical classic comedy. The director fuses together irony, satire, and black humor to create a waggish piece but most of all the situation of the times and its gravity is the essence of what the audience finds so hilarious . Using caricatures rather than characters, exaggerated script, and sexual undertones, Kubrick manifests to the audience their own predicament and just how ridiculous it is to even consider brinksmanship as a means to preserve the American lifestyle.