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Representation of minorities in american cinema
Representation of minorities in american cinema
Controversial films of minorities
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During this time film studios began making cheap genre pictures that featured African Americans or that targeted specific groups like Asians or Latinos. These films are known as blaxploitation films. Most of them failed to address any real political issues. These were exploitation films. This was around the same time that a few women and african american men began gaining a small degree of power in Hollywood. More than a bit of irony figures in these films. Blaxploitation might as easily and accurately describe the cruel injustice of slavery, or, for that matter, much of the historical sojourn of black folk in America. These films exploited African Americans (or the group ‘represented’ in the) in that they took money out of African American
communities to fill white pockets. Ultimately, the adding pressures of the controversy surrounding these films forced Hollywood to respond to the rising expectations of African-Americans by making black-oriented features. These films allowed for quite a bit of exposer for new actors of color. These films even opened the door for women.
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.
In his documentary Classified X, Martin Van Peebles describes three areas where African-Americans could be receive some sanctuary from the racism that pervaded almost all Hollywood films. These three places were: the Hollywood version of an all-Black film, the church, and entertainment. Black culture and music is prominent in mainstream society, but the people behind this culture don’t always receive recognition and respect for their creations. Mainstream White pop culture excitedly consumes and appropriates Black culture, but disrespects the source.
Depiction of Latinos in 20th Century Film Graphs Not Included Over the course of this past century, the depictions of assimilated Latino characters has improved a great deal. Early portrayals of Latino assimilation generally proved to be a montage of unrealistic caricatures which seemed to convey the filmmaker's creativity more so than true representations. This formed the manner in which the American people at large viewed not just Latino characters attempting to assimilate, but also those who were not. As Cine-Aztlan puts it, film "manipulates the human psychology, sociology, religion, and morality of the people, in a word the ideological super-structure of modern capitalist society" (pg.275, Chicanos and Film).
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).
Blaxploitation was a revolutionary movement that brought civil rights progression in America to the silver screen. Developed around the early to mid-1970s, Blaxploitation was a genre that sought to break the boundaries of the stereotypical portrayal of African- Americans at the time, which were generally loyal slaves, unintelligent ruffians, and criminals. Instead, these films included black protagonists, supporting characters, and other things characteristic of a contemporary black society such as Rhythm-and-Blues soundtracks.
Another movie that has a negative connotation of black people is Madea. As comedic as all Madea movies are it also portrays a negative side of blac...
In 2008 the worst financial crisis since the great depression hit and left many people wondering who should be responsible. Many Americans supported the prosecution of Wall Street. To this day there have still not been any arrests of any executive on Wall Street for the financial collapse. Many analysts point out that greed of executives was one of the many factors in the crisis. I will talk about subprime loans, ill-intent, punishments, and white collar crime.
Blaxploitation films engraved a foundation of black men wanting to become pimps or drug dealers with flashy jewelry and nice cars. Therefore, black women were confined to being the prostitute or the other woman, which shaped their existence of being belittled. Then, there are films that deal with black women being the bad foxy brown woman, whereas, the women took action and demanded their respect. Still, the films displayed the criminal stereotype for blacks. On the other hand, the Blaxploitation
Not all African Americans are thugs and people that do not work. A lot of them have successful careers and have put in the time and effort to have good work ethic and be good people. African Americans have had a difficult history in the American film industry. During the early 20th century of filmmaking, blacks were stereotyped as not worthy of being in films, and they were only certain types of characters such as servants, mammies, and butlers. From several decades of filmmaking, African Americans have been sought out to be trouble makers, incapables, intellectually limited, and also lazy.
Woll, Allen L and Randall M Miller. Ethnic and Racial Images in American Film and Television: Historical Essays and Bibliography. n.d. Print.
...ent from the silent era of film, overt racism of ethnic minorities was blatantly apparent within the film medium. However, presently this overt racism however has shifted into a more subtle segregation of casting and racial politics within the film medium. It seems that both the problem and the solution lies in the Eurocentric domination within the Hollywood film industry – and it seems that it still remains challenged to this day.
There is constant talk of the bad representations of blacks that come from these movies. In his article Engles states that “Criticizing blaxploitation as exploiting black filmmakers, actors, audiences and the community as a whole, those against the cinematic movement blasted the films and the industry for producing films that “glorified drugs, imitated successful white stereotypes, set forth impossible and ultimately debilitating fantasies, [and] developed a negative image of the American black man and woman…” (Engles). Similarly, in The Race and Media Reader Sut Jhally and Justin Lewis article White Responses writes about black TV and specifically The Cosby Show. In the piece Jhally and Lewis say “One criticism that black people have made about The Cosby Show is that the Huxtables behave just, as Gates put it, “just like white people” (Jhally and Lewis, 111). It has been shown that while both of these entertainments performed by black actors are well liked by the African-American communities, it is also watched by the
Over the course of approximately one-hundred years there has been a discernible metamorphosis within the realm of African-American cinema. African-Americans have overcome the heavy weight of oppression in forms such as of politics, citizenship and most importantly equal human rights. One of the most evident forms that were withheld from African-Americans came in the structure of the performing arts; specifically film. The common population did not allow blacks to drink from the same water fountain let alone share the same television waves or stage. But over time the strength of the expectant black actors and actresses overwhelmed the majority force to stop blacks from appearing on film. For the longest time the performing arts were the only way for African-Americans to express the deep pain that the white population placed in front of them. Singing, dancing and acting took many African-Americans to a place that no oppressor could reach; considering the exploitation of their character during the 1930's-1960's acting' was an essential technique to African American survival.
African American representation in the film industry has always been a topic for discussion. Whether talking about character types and roles, the actors being cast or not cast, and the lack of diversity in front of and behind the camera. ‘The contemporary status of race in mainstream American culture is intimately bound to the process of representation within and through the mass media.’ (Rocchio, 2000, p. 4). Any role that was to be played by an African American kept in with the dominant stereotypes of the time of production; incompetent, child like, hyper-sexualised or criminal.
In Hollywood there is also a lack of representation with executives because the most of the power resides in people that are ethnically white. Brent Lang and Dave McNary believe that black films are usually not picked up by studios because very few people in powerful positions are black. Therefore, most studios don’t understand what would appeal to black audiences. This causes analysts to undervalue the potential profit of black films, turning executives away from being interested in pursuing black film projects. Examples of black movie profits far exceeding predictions are found in this quote from their article , How Tracking Fails Diverse Movies: “"Straight Outta Compton 's" $60.2 million debut was roughly $20 million more than most trade publications had predicted. "War Room," a faith-based drama about the power of prayer, more than doubled predictions with its $11.3 million launch. And last weekend 's champ, Sony 's "Perfect Guy," exceeded expectations by nearly $15 million when it kicked off with $29.4 million” (Lang and McNary). The history between black and whites in America come into play with the existence of a phenomenon called the “Hollywood plantation arrangement” which alludes to the relationship of black slaves and white slaveowners pre-civil war. This idea describes how “the relationship between African Americans and White Americans is rooted in a tradition of ownership, guidance, and responsibility” which “directly influences African Americans’ ability to access economic power and ownership, thereby limiting creative control and cultural protection (Ndoubou 7). The ruling class, which in Hollywood is the whites, use their power to maintain control by creating these images in media that make the blacks seem lesser...