Pierre Delacroix Bamboozled Racial Stereotypes

The movie, “Bamboozled” is about the quick uprising and downfall of Pierre Delacroix, a television producer. Viewers follow the life of Delacroix as he tries to please the television network he works for. Delacroix seems to be opposed to low-class black people; he agrees with black stereotypes. His white boss has an understanding of black culture better than him. He speaks with a European accent, even though he is from New York. With all his efforts to be more “white”, people at his company still treat him differently. Delacroix decides he’s had enough and wants to get fired. He decides to create a minstrel blackface television show set in a watermelon patch on a plantation. Spike Lee feeds his audience with satire, scene after scene. He succeeds

at his attempt to re-appropriate black stereotypes. Lee uses his characters to show how successful American TV shows often stereotype minorities in many ways, in this case, blacks.
The movie showcases black stereotypes, both old and new.

Delacroix decides to pitch the most racist show imaginable; Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show. Delacroix creates characters Mantan and Eat ‘N’ Sleep, dresses them up in blackface, and puts them on a watermelon plantation. He thinks that he will get fired, but the show becomes a huge success. The audience thinks they are connecting with black culture, but they’re really watching something that is exploiting. He expects the television network, CNS, to get bashed by the media for airing something so racist. Delacroix thinks the public would never accept a show of the

sort,
but he is wrong and the show becomes a hit. The main characters of ‘Bamboozled’: Thomas Dunwitty, Pierre Delacroix, and Manray fulfill their roles as stereotypes. In American television and film, toms and coons are two of the main black stereotypical presences.
Delacroix is considered a tom. Like a tom, Delacroix seeks to appeal the white masses even at the expense of his own identity. During the scene of him convincing characters Manray and Womack to star in the show, he is squishing a gummy bear between his fingers. The gummy bear symbolizes him shaping them into whatever he wants; he is exploiting his own race. He bashes his own race saying, “I don’t want to have anything to do, with anything black, for at least a week”. Delacroix rejects his culture by changing the tone of his voice to replicate a more European or French tone. Not surprisingly, he changed his original name from Peerless Dothan to sound more European. Spike Lee perfectly displayed the characteristics of a tom in Pierre Delacroix. He is intelligent, but he constantly takes abuse from his boss Thomas Dunwitty; Dunwitty often uses the word nigger.
When the audience meets Thomas Dunwitty, Delacroix’s boss, it is questionable if he seriously acts the way he does.

Almost every time he opens his mouth, he says something offensive. He thinks he likes black people and understands black culture. Dunwitty talks like he’s from the hood and proudly claims to be more black than Delacroix. While speaking to Delacroix, Dunwitty says, “You know, I grew up around black people my whole life. I mean, if the truth be told, I probably know niggas better than you.” to justify himself. He feels that he can use nigger because he is married to a black woman. He commissions programs that he thinks are pro black but are actually racist under the surface. He rejects Delacroix’s scripts for television shows that positively portray black people. Dunwitty is a stereotype because of his white privilege. He has power with his position as a Senior V.P OF entertainment at CNS. It’s his choice whether or not he portrays black people as good or bad. He can be responsible for encouraging the stereotypes, or he can break down of the misrepresentations of black people. He has control of what Americans view when they see the characters Mantan and Sleep ‘N’

Eat.
Lee gives new meaning to the coon through the characters of the show, Mantan and Sleep ‘N’ Eat, also Manray and Womack. They are also considered coons outside of the show in their regular lives. Manray and Womack are both homeless. Every day, Manray tap dances on the streets in order for them to eat; Womack is his hype man. Viewers can see how their harsh conditions lead them to desperation, which causes them to take the jobs offered by Delacroix. They not only play the roles of coons, but Lee presents the men behind the characters as coons also. Their desperation pushes them into the television business, portraying them as self-haters.