Hattie Mcdaniel

892 Words2 Pages

Hattie McDaniel was one of thirteen children born to Henry and Susan McDaniel. Her father was a former slave who joined the military after liberation. Then he became a minister and took his family down to Tennessee. Hattie was a talented child who could sing and act. She dropped out of high school her sophomore year to pursue acting. Like most actors, she took a side job as a cook, a clerk and a washwoman to make money until her career took off. She moved to LA with one of her brothers and sisters and really started to pursue acting. Soon she landed roles as a servant in multiple movies in Hollywood. It was until 1940 that she was recognized for one of these roles. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind. …show more content…

I know what it feels like to be too white for the black crowd and too black for the white crowd. I have people constantly telling me I am an Oreo because I speak properly and don’t like rap music and I am not the stereotype people want me to be. Obviously, Hattie faced it on a bigger scale, being an actress and facing racism and criticism from all sides. I think it’s truly admirable that even in that she stuck to what she was happy doing. At the end of the day, it isn’t about if you made other people happy, it’s about if you are happy. That is one thing I will take away from reading about Hattie and writing about her. She never let anyone tell her she wasn’t good enough. She stuck for herself too. When the director wanted her to say the N-word in Gone With The Wind, she straight up said no and she is the reason you never hear the N-word in that movie. She is amazing and it sucks that the black community back then didn’t see her full potential. They just wanted to look at the negatives. The NAACP disowned because she played a servant but she repeatedly said she wasn’t happy to play a servant. That was all she could play. Her playing a servant had nothing to with who she really was and people don’t really see the difference between what she played and who she was. She was a person and to quote Ms. Hattie McDaniel herself, “I am an actress, when you say ‘cut’ I am no longer

Show More
Related

  • Biographical Essay- Myra Belle Starr

    1323 Words  | 3 Pages

    Myra Maybelle Shirley, also commonly known as the “Bandit Queen” was born on February 5, 1848, on a farm near Carthage, Missouri. She was one of six children, but the only daughter of her farmer parents, John and Elizabeth Shirley. When her family moved into Carthage, her father became a prosperous innkeeper and slave holder. Belle attended the Carthage Female Academy, where she excelled in reading, spelling, grammar, arithmetic, manner, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and developed a love for playing the piano. She later attended another private school named Cravens, where she further nurtured her love for music.

    Read More

  • Analysis: The Eye On The Sparrow

    1536 Words  | 4 Pages

    When Ethel was asked to play there, she was excited until she got there. Charles was a rude white man who did not care or want to help colored people. Ethel requested to have her piano tuned, but Charles would refuse to fix it because she was not white. Ethel responded by telling Mr. Bailey, “And no Georgia cracker is telling me how to run my act… and I’m standing on my grounds. And you or no other cracker sonofabitch can tell me what to do” (166). This phrase is monumental. Not only because Ethel is such a young brave girl, but also because she knows she is not supposed to talk back to white folks but she does it anyway. Ethel believes in sticking up for herself and she thinks she deserves just as good treatment as a white performer would. This shows the business side of the entertainment world and how it is not always pretty. Many people claim that entertainers live in a lavish world like ”Hollywood people” do, but in Ethel’s case it’s the farthest thing from quality treatment. Ethel has a lot of courage to stick up for herself to Bailey. She doesn’t want Africans Americans to accept their placement in their world; she wants people to treat her how whites are treated. Ethel demands respect by Charles because she does not want to rip her audience off. An untuned piano could throw off the entire show and she wants the audience to like her, and she wants to perform as best as she can. Even though Charles

    Read More

  • It Ll All Come Out In The Wash By Joanne Crutchfield

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    One story that the Author told that really struck a chord with me was when she went to the diner and was yelled at for just standing in front of the diner. You hear stories from like this from the past often, but it gives it a different perspective when it’s a young girl. If I was put in this situation, I would personally have a breakdown. I would want to lash out in anger and frustration, but the consequences of lashing out against a white person during this time period were very large. I have lived in predominantly white areas for most of my life, and I have not experienced any overt racism like the author

    Read More

  • Essay On Josephine Baker

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    Josephine Baker was an exceptional woman who never depended on a man. She never hesitated to leave a man when she felt good and ready. In her lifetime she accomplished many great things. She adopted 12 children, served France during World War II, and was an honorable correspondent for the French Resistance. She fought against fascism in Europe during World War II and racism in the United States. She grew up poor and left home at an early age and worked her way onto the stage. Baker was more popular in France than in the states. Audiences in America were racist towards Baker and that’s when she vowed she wouldn’t perform in a place that wasn’t integrated.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...nspired to make a change that she knew that nothing could stop her, not even her family. In a way, she seemed to want to prove that she could rise above the rest. She refused to let fear eat at her and inflict in her the weakness that poisoned her family. As a child she was a witness to too much violence and pain and much too often she could feel the hopelessness that many African Americans felt. She was set in her beliefs to make choices freely and help others like herself do so as well.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Carrie Mae Weems And Lorna Simpson

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    (Lorna Simpson) majority of Simpson 's work uses the black woman’s body and embraces every part of it, from her skin tone, to her hair, and every one of her facial features. Lorna Simpson does not care that people are offended by her artwork because it is not intended for them, she makes it clear that if you are taking umbrage to her work than it is simply not intended for you. (Lorna Simpson) Lorna Simpson’s message to little black girls is beyond powerful because representation is very important, Lorna has a young daughter and she said that she never wants her daughter to feel like she is not important. We live in a society that sees black kids as both less innocent and older than white children, not so much with little girls but also with young black males. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that “black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent. The U.S. Department of Education revealed in a report that black children face discrimination as early as preschool.” (Naadeyah Haseeb 1) black kids need people to look up to for how to live and feel confident just as adults do and that is why Lorna Simpson does not care about people criticizing her work and not appreciating it because she is appealing to an audience that needs her work as

    Read More

  • African American Stereotypes In Wolfe's The Colored Museum

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    As I read Aunt Ethel’s recipe, “now ya add a heap of survival/ and humility, just a touch/ add some attitude/ oops! I put too much” I thought about how society has tried to manufacture the perfect African American that suits their needs. The perfect African American is one that doesn 't “play the drums” as described by Miss Pat. Aunt Ethel continues to say, “now that you got ‘em, cause child, that’s your problem” I think this means that if you step outside the perfect stereotype it is your problem to deal with. For example, society apprizes black musicians and athletes but shames the thug who is deteriorated by

    Read More

  • White Teacher by Vivian Gussin Paley

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    This passage bothered me. It is probably the part that bugged me the most about this book. There are many African Americans who are better behaved, smarter, more artistic, more athletic, etc. then white children. There are also many African Americans who are less educated and more poorly behaved than white children, but the same for both of these things go with white children. It bothers me that she knows that if the worst child in the class was white she wouldn't care if the best child in the class was white. I think that throughout the book she often generalizes with African Americans and doesn't even realize it. She claims that she is getting better, but I don't think that she really is. She keeps trying to have the African American children become the same as the white children.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Dozens By Rachel Wiley

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    Raven Symone has been a popular black entertainer since her days in the Bill Cosby Show, however, in recent years she told Oprah that she does not want to be identity as black and gay because she is tired of labels (Merhl 2016). Indeed, American culture loves to label everything, however, to reject one’s own intersectionality is rejecting the very existence of the injustice people of color have suffered. Symone, refusing her blackness, had conformed completely to whiteness since she knows by doing so, she can make an income. This can be seen when The Hunger Games casted black actresses to play some roles of characters: Rue, Thresh and Cinna. Although, Cinna’s skin was not mentioned, Rue and Thresh characters had dark or brown skin in the novel and yet people were upset that black people were casted in those roles in the movie (Stewart 2012). From a financial perspective, The Hunger Games movie was lucky that it was based off of a popular book series for it make the amount of money it made at the box office. In contrast, if the movie was not based off a popular book, the movie box office gross income would had been a flopped. Of course, Symone one of the many people of color who chose to still believe racism does not

    Read More

  • Miss Simone: The Appearance And Performance Of Nina Simone

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin with, the appearance of Zoe Saldana in the movie is the most criticized. Zoe Saldana’s makeup is darker than her own compilation and she is also wearing a prosthetic nose to look similar to Nina Simone. Some find this very distracting and feel offended; in the past blacks often was teased and tormented because of their wide noses and dark skin, but then again is that the very reason of why the director those to do the dark makeup and prosthetic nose? Zoe Saldana responds to all of the negative comments by saying she has the highest respect for Nina Simone and is honored to play her, and many other actors and actresses back her up by saying she is very talented and she has full faith in her performance. In addition to all the comments, there was one that ceased most of the controversy: Zoe Saldana is not the one to blame for her appearance or even the fact that she was chosen for the

    Read More

  • Kiki Smith

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kiki Smith is a feminist artist who is known for using the human body and its substances in ways that no other artist has before. “This work displays often grotesque and uncomfortable themes that would usually only be seen in private, however socially suppressed ideas towards things such as defecation and human fragility are often purposely overlooked today.” (Feminist Blog). Some of the issues she displays through art are abortion, AIDS, gender, race and women. Smith is known for using animals, fairytale icons, and other elements of nature in her artwork.

    Read More

  • Being Biracial-Personal Narrative

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    I was late for school, and my father had to walk me in to class so that my teacher would know the reason for my tardiness. My dad opened the door to my classroom, and there was a hush of silence. Everyone's eyes were fixed on my father and me. He told the teacher why I was late, gave me a kiss goodbye and left for work. As I sat down at my seat, all of my so-called friends called me names and teased me. The students teased me not because I was late, but because my father was black. They were too young to understand. All of this time, they thought that I was white, because I had fare skin like them, therefore I had to be white. Growing up having a white mother and a black father was tough. To some people, being black and white is a contradiction in itself. People thought that I had to be one or the other, but not both. I thought that I was fine the way I was. But like myself, Shelby Steele was stuck in between two opposite forces of his double bind. He was black and middle class, both having significant roles in his life. "Race, he insisted, blurred class distinctions among blacks. If you were black, you were just black and that was that" (Steele 211).

    Read More

  • Racism and Other Themes in Disney´s Pocahontas

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pocahontas indirectly proclaims that race shouldn’t determine a person’s position in class ranking but the kind of person they are should. The film is based of economic class ranking depending on the color of ones skin. Someone with dark skin is known as a “savage” who lives off the land such as Pocahontas and her tribe. Someone with a white skin is known as a “pale face” that lives with many luxuries such as the British colonists from England in the film. If the Native Americans went into British territory, they would not be welcomed and vise versa. The British colonists would not be welcomed into the Native tribes land. But ultimately by the end, the film focuses on the idea that race shouldn’t matter and that the type of person should. Discrimination amongst races becomes resolved through time and getting to know people. The character John Smith, for example, being a w...

    Read More

  • Biracial Identity Analysis

    1974 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ann Perkins, Jones’ character, is supposed to be an ethnically ambiguous person and in reality, Rashida is biracial (Glamour). Leslie Knope, the white protagonist of the series, frequently uses words like ‘exotic’, ‘tropical’, and ‘ethnically ambiguous’ when complimenting Ann. The ‘compliments’ also act as the only instances where race is spoken about in reference to Ann’s character. One would believe that Leslie’s constant complimenting of Ann is beneficial to viewers with a biracial identity, but there are some serious problems with Leslie’s behavior. There has been an historical and recent fascination with ‘mixed’ children. This fascination has crossed over into fetishizatoin of biracial or mixed children and people. Biracial people are seen less as people and more as a kind of spice that bell hooks mentions in her work “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance” (21). They are something that helps liven up the blandness of the pervasive white culture. Another harmful aspect of Ann’s depiction relates to her class. In Edison’s work, she notes that “biracial individuals living in a middle- and upper-class environments are more likely to be perceived as biracial (rather than black) than those living in working- and lower-class environments” and that “‘color blind’ portrayals of middle- and upper-class Black and biracial characters support the notion that race no longer matters (at least for middle- and upper-class people)” (Edison, 302; 304). Ann’s character is a successful college-educated nurse which is not problematic until one realizes that her race is never truly discussed. This feeds into the stereotype that race does not matter and that all people in the U.S. have the same opportunities. Again, the lack of racial representation leaves one character the duty of depicting a whole group of

    Read More

  • Racial Discrimination and The Civil Rights Movement

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...s not only between the help and the employers, but also the problems between the black and white communities. In the eyes of her friends, she is a strong woman who tends to have a bit of a temper, but her true fears bubble to the surface over time. The tight knit group of maids shows the true sense of unity that Africana womanism embodies in the black community. Kathryn Stockett is able to successfully embody an African American woman through her characterization and the ideology of Africana womanism in The Help.

    Read More

More about Hattie Mcdaniel

Open Document