Highlighting specific examples (characters or symbols), critically discuss how Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" connects the history of blackface to contemporary images.
In Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” there were many characters and symbols throughout the film that illustrated how the film connects to the history of blackface to contemporary images. Pierre (Damon Wayans) was the one who created the minstrel show Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show. This show that Pierre and his personal assistant Sloan produced was filled with blackface characters who told unbelievably racial jokes and puns.
Pierre’s boss in the film, Thomas Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport) who is an inconsiderate white man, was extremely thoughtless in his ways of speaking. He would talk as though he were a black man and felt that his use of the “N” word was perfectly fine do to the fact that he was married to a black lady. I fill in today’s society and what I have seen personally; this is still a thing that happens constantly. One would be surprised to know how many “Thomas Dunwitty’s” there are out there still today. The “N” word is used as slang (nigga) all the time. Even though most of the time this word is used, that I have noticed, is when a friend is referring to his other friend and often times referring to someone with anger. I feel there are no exceptions to this word and it’s very wrong.
Like the “N” word used in the film and how it is unnecessary and extremely degrading there are other things that stand out just as offensive. In the film, for instance, the two main characters Manray and Womack. These two black men, emphasis on the black, proceeded to paint their faces and other exposed skin charcoal black and used red lip sticks to draw in very huge lips. I feel like this is a large stereotype in today’s world and I feel is emphasized in images as well.
In the film after the first couple episodes, the audience which held a variety of different races, Hispanics, Asians, blacks, and even elderly white women began to show up in blackface. I feel this action that took place in the film really connects to contemporary images. I have actually encountered such events this year. The first experience was during Halloween when a friend, who is white, dressed up as the black rapper lil wayne. He painted his body a dark brown to add distinctness to the costume, a lot like the men in Mantan. My second experience was during during Michigan Mock Rock when the same exact idea came about, to paint a shorter white boy black to play a black singer. However, luckily not proceeding to do it, it was realized that that could have been extremely offensive like Pierre’s show Mantan in Spike Lee’s show “Bamboozled.”
Monday, May 31, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Glory - African Americans in the Civil War
Response: Discuss how the film Glory counters assumptions about African Americans and the Civil War as well as images found in Birth of a Nation.
The film Glory was an excellent film that drew in many different views on how the Civil War actually occurred. At the beginning of the film it began with a war, where nearly everyone on Col. Shaw’s side was killed. After the war scene was when the film first introduced the African Americans. The African American were walking around picking up the dead bodies, still leaving the impression that there was still a great deal of slavery going on at the time. All the action that took place in Glory is very dissimilar to that of images found in Birth of a Nation. These dissimilar images were according to the fact that those men who fought in the Civil War in Birth of a Nation were indeed white men.
After watching Glory, it was quite evident that the film forgot one major aspect of the war and of the men who fought in it, the part of where African Americans also played a huge role. In the reading “Glory,” the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, and Black Soldiers in the Civil War indicated that the screenwriter conveyed a critical message through the film that even within the circumscribed world of military service, blacks were a force. It states that in truth, these African Americans had means of influencing the world around them, of taking matters into their own hands when individuals or the system were treating them unfairly.
When Col. Shaw took on the duty to create the 54th Massachusetts (colored) Infantry was when the movie took a stand on how much the African Americans did throughout the process of the Civil War. Not only in aspects such as fighting in the war, which was a shock to me, but also all they went through in the time prior to the battle.
These African Americans were brought together and separated into many different groups to train for the war. They were vocally abused but they did this all without proper equipment; they did this without shoes. The most unforgettable episode was the beating and whipping of Trip for desertion. This scene of the movie also conveys the sense that African American soldiers would tolerate such abuse.
The main point I feel the film Glory counters assumptions about African Americans and the Civil War was that it gives the African American race credit of their duties in the battle. Like it said in the “Glory” reading, most Americans probably had no idea blacks fought in the Civil War, let alone so courageously.
The film Glory was an excellent film that drew in many different views on how the Civil War actually occurred. At the beginning of the film it began with a war, where nearly everyone on Col. Shaw’s side was killed. After the war scene was when the film first introduced the African Americans. The African American were walking around picking up the dead bodies, still leaving the impression that there was still a great deal of slavery going on at the time. All the action that took place in Glory is very dissimilar to that of images found in Birth of a Nation. These dissimilar images were according to the fact that those men who fought in the Civil War in Birth of a Nation were indeed white men.
After watching Glory, it was quite evident that the film forgot one major aspect of the war and of the men who fought in it, the part of where African Americans also played a huge role. In the reading “Glory,” the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, and Black Soldiers in the Civil War indicated that the screenwriter conveyed a critical message through the film that even within the circumscribed world of military service, blacks were a force. It states that in truth, these African Americans had means of influencing the world around them, of taking matters into their own hands when individuals or the system were treating them unfairly.
When Col. Shaw took on the duty to create the 54th Massachusetts (colored) Infantry was when the movie took a stand on how much the African Americans did throughout the process of the Civil War. Not only in aspects such as fighting in the war, which was a shock to me, but also all they went through in the time prior to the battle.
These African Americans were brought together and separated into many different groups to train for the war. They were vocally abused but they did this all without proper equipment; they did this without shoes. The most unforgettable episode was the beating and whipping of Trip for desertion. This scene of the movie also conveys the sense that African American soldiers would tolerate such abuse.
The main point I feel the film Glory counters assumptions about African Americans and the Civil War was that it gives the African American race credit of their duties in the battle. Like it said in the “Glory” reading, most Americans probably had no idea blacks fought in the Civil War, let alone so courageously.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Stereotypes in Birth of a Nation and Amos and Andy
Response: Discuss how tragic aspects of stereotypes in Birth of a Nation are reiterated by Amos and Andy.
There were many tragic aspects of stereotypes in The Birth of a Nation that were later reiterated by the TV show Amos and Andy. The Birth of a Nation, as I found, is one of the few silent films of its time to utilize the sexual stereotype of the black male in order to emphasize the principle of white superiority. This stereotype is also present in the Amos and Andy TV shows. During the Days of major inequality, and the struggle to overcome segregations between the blacks and the whites, it is obvious that the problem occuring was that whites were overpowering the blacks, which is very evident in these two films. In the Birth of a Nation there were a lot of scenes where the KKK attacked the blacks. In Amos and Andy, the two main characters that are black are very uneducated taxi drivers. This alone shows the stereotypes of the blacks and how they are viewed as being less superior than the whites in the film; Characterizing them as being unitelligent servent workers.
Additionally, another insulting stereotype that was present in both films was the fact that the characters that played the role of an African American were actually white in reality. This means they would actually paint their faces and any exposed skin black to take on the role, to appear as a black individual. This would obviously be viewed as an insulting interpretation for the blacks. Watching a white man play the role as if they were of a different skin color.
There were many tragic aspects of stereotypes in The Birth of a Nation that were later reiterated by the TV show Amos and Andy. The Birth of a Nation, as I found, is one of the few silent films of its time to utilize the sexual stereotype of the black male in order to emphasize the principle of white superiority. This stereotype is also present in the Amos and Andy TV shows. During the Days of major inequality, and the struggle to overcome segregations between the blacks and the whites, it is obvious that the problem occuring was that whites were overpowering the blacks, which is very evident in these two films. In the Birth of a Nation there were a lot of scenes where the KKK attacked the blacks. In Amos and Andy, the two main characters that are black are very uneducated taxi drivers. This alone shows the stereotypes of the blacks and how they are viewed as being less superior than the whites in the film; Characterizing them as being unitelligent servent workers.
Additionally, another insulting stereotype that was present in both films was the fact that the characters that played the role of an African American were actually white in reality. This means they would actually paint their faces and any exposed skin black to take on the role, to appear as a black individual. This would obviously be viewed as an insulting interpretation for the blacks. Watching a white man play the role as if they were of a different skin color.
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