Film+and+TV

=How Has Race Been Portrayed Over Time in American Films and Movies? = //By Nicole A. and Maryam K.//

//There are few aspects of life that race does not influence, and it certainly influences the entertainment business. Cicely Tyson, a black actress, once said, "You are limiting yourself if you only do roles that are positive for black women. But I decided early on in my career I would only do those roles." However, not all people only played positive roles; in fact, for a long time races other than whites were not portrayed in a good light. Examples of this are seen throughout films and TV shows since the beginning of film history. Today, there is still racial prejudice seen in film, but progress is being made.//

//We decided to use the terms "black" and "white" to describe African-Americans and Caucasians. We feel that neither of the later terms are appropriate (African-Americans aren't always from Africa), so we chose to use simpler, though less politically correct, words. Since we do not yet have a clear definition of what race is and how people can be grouped racially, we did not know any better terms to use. We do not mean to offend anyone by using these terms. //

Movies
 Racial stereotypes are seen throughout children's [|films and shows], such as //Happy Feet// and //Power Rangers,// and they are seen especially throughout the Disney "empire". Stereotypes are seen in films, such as //Jungle Book// and //Dumbo//, but it is also apparent in the Disney Princess films. //Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs// came out in 1937, and was followed by //Cinderella// (1950), //Sleeping Beauty// (1959)//, The Little Mermaid// (1989)//,// and //Beauty and the Beast// (1991)//.// All the princesses in these movies (Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, and Belle) were white and obviously European. In 1992, //Aladdin// came out, featuring the first non-white princess: Jasmine. Jasmine, as all of the characters in the movie are, is an Arab. Even though this was a good step, the movie is still incredibly racist. Some of the lyrics to the theme song, "Arabian Nights", are "Where they cut off your ear, if they don't like your face: It's barbaric, but hey, it's home." Two following movies, //Pocahontas// (1995) and //Mulan// (1998), were better. //Pocahontas// is loosely based on the real life Native American Pocahontas and //Mulan// is based on a Chinese folk-tale. Both feature strong female characters, unlike some earlier movies, such as //Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs// and //Cinderella.// Both were steps towards non-racist equal movies. During the holidays of 2009, a new movie is being released, //The Princess and the Frog//, which features the first black Disney princess. After years of racism in their princesses, Disney seems to be taking steps to make amends.



//The Birth of a Nation// is a 1915 silent film that was based on a [|novel] by Thomas Dixon called __The Clansman__//.// There was much controversy about this movie for its support and promotion of white supremacy and for displaying the Ku Klux Klan as heroes. The Birth of a Nation facilitated the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, and even in the 1970s the Ku Klux Klan used this film as a recruitment tool. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ([|NAACP]) ferociously protested the premiering of the film in many cities and published articles protesting that the film was inaccurate and racist. After the film was shown, riots broke out in major cities. There were some cities that didn't even allow the film to open such as Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. On the other hand, some people took the movie to heart and one white man, after seeing the movie, killed a black teenager. Some people were so unhappy with the movie, and decided to make movies in response. One, produced by Emmett J. Scott and John W. Noble, was called //The Birth of a Race//, portraying blacks in a positive way. Another, produced by Oscar Micheaux, was called //Within Our Gates//, portraying whites in a bad way (in the movie, a white man assaults a black woman). In 1992, the United States Library of Congress categorized //The Birth of a Nation// as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films" and preserved it in the National Film Registry. Even though The Birth of a Nation is such a controversial movie, it has been praised by Roger Ebert, a film credit, who argued that "//The Birth of a Nation// is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl's //Triumph of the Will//, it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil." //The Birth of a Nation// was an early film that dealt with the subject of race.

In the movie, //The Greatest Thing in Life// (1918), there is a touching scene that created a lot of controversy. This is one of the only early movies that portrayed blacks and whites working together on the same level. A black soldier saves a white soldiers' life, and becomes mortally wounded because of his heroic action. In return, while the black soldier is dying and crying for his mother, the white soldier acts as his mother in order to comfort him. The white soldier cradles him in his arms, and even goes as far as giving him a kiss as the black man dies. In 1918, this kind of action was almost unheard of. This movie had a completely different view compared to //The Birth of a Nation//, and because of that was a very controversial subject. In early times, not many people were open to the kind of new ideas shown by this scene, but as time went on, more people began to treat blacks with kindness and fight for the rights they deserved.

 Many early movies showed blacks in highly stereotypical roles. In the 1900's to 1910's, many movies were about the Civil War; they had a nostalgic Southern point of view and blacks were cast mainly as slaves. One can even infer something from the names of the some of the movies: //A Reconstructed Rebel// (1912)//, Days of War// (1913)//, A Flag of Two Wars// (1913)//, The Suwannee River// (1913)//, A Fair Rebel// (1914)//, A Girl Spy// (1913)//, For the Cause of the South// (1912)//, The Littlest Rebel// (1914)//, Old Mammy's Secret Code// (1913)//, A Slave's Devotion// (1913)//,// and //Old Mammy's Charge// (1913), to name a few. There were two main stereotypes, according to the "Encyclopedia of Black America": the "insolent and cruel" town Negroes who "abused freedom" and the "faithful Negro servants who sacrificed their own self-interest for the honor of preserving their masters' fortunes and families". Obviously, these are highly exaggerated stereotypes. Early movies about the Civil War kept blacks restricted to stereotypical roles.

In the late 1930's to early 1940's, Million Dollar Pictures and other companies made several films with all black casts. According to the Black Encyclopedia, "their goal was good quality acceptable to white theater chains, good Afro-American casts, and where it did not intrude too obviously, an entertaining black theme of uplift or self-help." The genre of films that seemed most suited to these requirements was gangster films. Some examples are //Gang War// (1940), //Bargain with Bullets// (1937), //Underworld// (1937), //Double Deal// (1939), //Am I Guilty?// (1940), and even some post-war films, such as //Dirty Gertie from Harlem// (1946). The good thing about these films is they promoted blacks acting. The tagline for //Mystery in Swing// (1940) was "With a 100 Percent ALL STAR COLORED CAST!" The movies made in the 1930's and 1940's with all black casts were helpful because they allowed more blacks to get into acting.

//Check and Double Check// is a 1930 comedy film based on the popular radio-show //Amos and Andy//. The name of the movie, //Check and Double Check//, came from one of the very popular catch phrases that Amos and Andy used on the show. The radio show was very stereotypical of blacks, but was very popular at the time because of that; therefore, the movie was expected to be very popular. During the making of the movie, they encountered many problems. First and foremost, the characters on the radio-show were two white men playing the parts of two black men. Obviously, this hadn't been a problem with the radio-show, but was going to be a huge problem in the movie. On top of this, the radio-show had been very stereotypical of blacks, so getting two blacks to perform instead of the whites was going to be difficult. The solution turned out to be blackface, a theatrical type of make-up (reference the picture below). Another problem was the length of the movie. Since the radio show had only been 15 minutes long, it would be difficult to make a full-length picture. The producers of the movie stupidly decided to make a love triangle with white women. Even though the movie was profitable, in the end, it turned out to be a disappointment and critiqued harshly.



//Gone with the Wind //(1939) was the highest grossing film of all time in America, but it contains many racial stereotypes. The basis for the plot revolves around the Civil War in the South. It portrays the slaves as helpless and overly-loyal. Two main characters, the slaves and later servants, Prissy and Mammy are especially stereotypical. Prissy is portrayed as stupid and with a shrill voice, incapable of taking care of herself. Mammy is portrayed as loyal, but still incapable of handling things by herself. Hattie McDaniel won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Mammy; she gave a very touching [|acceptance speech]. She was criticized for the stereotypical role and many later ones she played, but she said, "I'd rather play a maid and make $700 a week than be one for $7." //Gone with the Wind// included many racial stereotypes, especially the roles of Prissy and Mammy.

In 1942, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and several of the studios made an agreement. This agreement gave way to "liberal changes" according to the "Encyclopedia of Black America". War films, as well as musicals and westerns, began to include more black roles, as well as having more blacks working with technical parts of movies. Some films that included better roles for blacks were //Mission to Moscow// (1943)//, The Ox-Bow Incident// (1943)//, Cabin in the Sky// (1943)//, Stormy Weather// (1943)//, Sahara// (1943)//, Crash Dive// (1959)//, Lifeboat// (1944)//,// and //Shoe Shine Boy// (1943)//.// The federal government even made a few films in an attempt to fight racism: //The Negro Soldier// (1944)//, The Negro College in Wartime// (1943)//, Henry Brown// (194?)//,// and //Farmer// (194?), among others. The agreement made in 1942 helped blacks achieve more equality in movies.

//To Kill a Mockingbird// (1962) was based off of the [|novel] __To Kill a Mockingbird__//,// a Pulitzer Prize winning book written by Harper Lee in 1960. The movie is an Oscar-winning film that struck the hearts of many in 1962. This book is a classic of modern American literature, and even though it deals with racial inequality and rape issues, it is humorous and warm. The main characters' father, Atticus Finch, fights for the rights of a black man in a town where there is much prejudice. The main themes of //To Kill a Mockingbird// include racial injustice, the destruction of innocence, issues of class, courage, and compassion, prejudice, tolerance, and gender roles in the South. Although //To Kill a Mockingbird// sparks awareness and has great themes, some people believe it should not be taught in schools since the novel doesn't treat black characters in the ideal way. This movie, as well as the novel, helped people come to the realization of how bad the racism problem in America was. After reading this novel or watching the movie, many people tried to evaluate themselves compared to the people in the movie and tried to change their ways if they didn't like what they found. The impact of this novel was so large it's hard to describe, but one critic stated accurately that "In the twentieth century, __To Kill a Mockingbird__ is probably to most widely read book dealing with race in America, and it's protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism." //To Kill a Mockingbird// was an influential film because it dealt with the subject of race; it was unique in the fact that the main characters did not view other races as "bad".

 //Guess Who's Coming to Dinner// (1967) is a film that shows an inter-racial couple who tell their parents that they wish to be married and their parents' reaction to it. The white girl's parents are played by Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, two of Hollywood's biggest stars, and the young black man is played by Sidney Poitier, one of Hollywood's biggest black stars. This casting was probably a deliberate attempt by the producers to get people to see the movie. The movie portrayed many people's feelings against interracial marriage at the time, but in the end the young couple win over their parents. Spencer Tracy delivers a [|touching speech] at the end of the movie, that makes several good points for why race doesn't matter in love. The film was a very good vehicle for getting its message out into the world. The movie did very well and it won two Academy Awards and two BAFTAs (British Academy of Film and Television Arts): two Best Actress Awards for Katherine Hepburn, one Best Actor Award for Spencer Tracy, and one Original Screenplay Award.  //Guess// //<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif';">Who's Coming to Dinner // showed the feelings of many people in 1967, but it also delivered a heartwarming and necessary message.

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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">//The Great White Hope// (1970) was a movie that depicted the story of a real man (the movie was based on a play almost exactly the same as the movie). This man was a famous boxer named Jack Johnson. Jack Johnson's goal was to be the world's first black heavyweight champion. Even though Jack was very close to achieving his goal, he was arrested for having a white girlfriend. After his trial, Jack was sentences to three years in prison. Jack escaped from prison and left the USA, but he had the detriment of a bad reputation; therefore, he couldn't get any boxing jobs. Meanwhile, his white girlfriend was overwhelmed by all the emotions and racism, and in desperation, she committed suicide. Jack Johnson never achieved his goal of becoming the world's first black heavyweight champion because of his racist arrest. This movie supported the idea of inter-racial marriages being bad and tried to portray that they didn't work out in the end.



<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Superfly// is a blaxploitation film made in 1972; it's the story of a black cocaine dealer who is trying to stop the underworld drug businesses. This film is mostly known for its soundtrack, but there were motives behind the making of this film. Many critics of this film believe that the film's close look on drug dealers is there to subtly critique the civil rights movement's failure to provide better economic opportunities for the blacks living in America. The black community is portrayed as being controlled by the drug dealers in this movie making the subtle point that the goals of the civil rights movement were far from accomplished. The film makers argue that their goal was to show the negative and empty aspects of drugs. This is visible throughout the whole movie because when the priest tells everyone he wants to leave the drug business, almost every character in the movie tried to dissuade the priest from this decision by tellin him that dealing drugs is the best the he could ever do in life. Still, it is viewed as a blaxploitation film that is trying to convey the point that the civil rights movement was far from being finished.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">First broadcast on PBS in 1974, "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" was one of the first films to portray blacks in a good light. Starring Cicely Tyson as the title character, this movie was based on the novel by Ernest J. Gaines (1971). A northern journalist goes to the South to interview Pittman for a possible book; the story is told through her flashbacks. It follows her life as a slave in the South at the age of 19 to a participant in the Civil Rights Movement at the age of 110. It won nine Emmy Awards: Actress of the Year, Best Directing in Drama, Best Lead Actress in a Drama, Best Music Composition for a Special Program, Best Writing in Drama, Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design, Outstanding Achievement in Makeup, and Outstanding Special- Comedy or Drama. According to Wikipedia, this film was "one of the first films to deal with African-American characters with depth and sympathy."



<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Television
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">One early show that portrayed people of different races as being married was "I Love Lucy". It first aired in 1951, starring the real life couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Lucille Ball was of Scottish, Irish, French, and English descent and her ancestors were traced back to early colonists. She was basically the classic American girl, but Desi Arnez was from Cuba. Ball was in a radio show, "My Favorite Husband", in 1947. Ball suggested that the station cast Arnez as her husband, but they refused and cast Richard Denning instead. CBS claimed that no one would believe that they were married. Ball persisted, and in 1951, the station gave in and planned a TV-show to feature the couple. "I Love Lucy" first aired on October 15, 1951 and continued until June 24, 1957; the show was hugely popular. Re-runs still show today. "I Love Lucy" broke barriers, because it proved that people could accept a white woman married to a Latino man.



<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">"The Nat King Cole Show" first aired on NBC-TV on November 5, 1956. This show was the first music variety series to be hosted by an black, causing much controversy. It started out as a fifteen minute program but was later extended to a half hour. Some companies even refused to sponsor the show causing financial problems. "The Nat King Cole Show" lasted for about a year ending in December of 1957. Even though his show ended, Cole continued in the television business until 1964 when he made his final television appearance on "The Jack Benny Program". This was his most memorable performance, and he sang one of his most famous songs, "When I Fall in Love." Although his show didn't last long, Cole still tried to make an impression by fighting racism all his life. He even refused to perform in segregated venues. There is a tribute to Nat King Cole in the form of a bust and jukebox in the Hotel Nacional located in Cuba. "The Nat King Cole Show" broke ground in being the first musical variety show hosted by a black man.

"All in the Family", a sitcom that first aired in 1971, included the highly racist character, Archie Bunker. Archie Bunker is a "blue-collar worker" and a family man, but he is an extreme bigot. Archie's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, provided the liberal counterpart and contrast to him. Archie Bunker was highly racist, but also somehow made America love him. He was not evil in his bigotry, but simply like some of America. The show broke ground in putting many subjects on TV that had not been mentioned before. "All in the Family", and especially Archie Bunker, showed race in a context it had never been seen in before on TV.

//Get Christie Love// is a 1974 made-for-television film that followed the story of an undercover female police detective, played by Teresa Graves, who has her mind set on overthrowing a drug ring. This movie is based on Dorothy Uhnak's Crime-Thriller novel called __The Ledger__, but the main character was drastically changed from a white polite police detective to "Christie Love" a sassy, black police officer whose catchphrase was, "You're under arrest, sugah!" Since the film was such a big success, a short-lived television drama series spawned from it. Teresa Graves continued to play the main actor, and she became the first black woman to star in an hour long television drama. The television series couldn't hold and was canceled due to financial problems. This show was a big step in the fact that it starred a black woman as the main character for a full hour of television.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> "The Cosby Show" portrayed a normal, upper-middle-class black family dealing with family problems and joys. Before the show started, Bill Cosby was already famous: he was the first black man to have a lead role on a television sitcom //("//I Spy", a TV comedy from the 1960s)//.// This show first appeared on NBC on Thursday nights in 1984 and lasted until 1992. "The Cosby Show" broke ground because it was the first comedy show that was about the everyday life of a black family. Other shows like "The Jeffersons" and "Good Times" also had black families in it but the comedy wasn’t about their everyday lives; it was more self-depreciating towards the black families. Bill Cosby wanted to change that, and so he decided to make a different kind of show. Since experiences between humans were important to Cosby, his show depicted a family that cared for one another (the grandparents were there supporting and giving advice to the rest of the family) and taught life lessons. "The Cosby Show" was based on Bill Cosby's personal experiences as a parent and in his own youth. The blacks in "The Cosby Show" have professional jobs such as a doctor and a lawyer, yet most of the other shows have portrayed blacks as stupid or dumb and incapable of thinking. There is a stereotype that the children of blacks get into a lot of trouble and are hard to deal with; however, in this show, the children get into some trouble, but nothing more than white children on other shows. The praise for the show was that it depicted the loving nuclear black family and the fact that the humor in the show was funny. The criticism for the show included that they show didn't look at racism or social issues, and that they focused on small, trivial things (nothing important). Even though the show was criticized, it received top ratings. "The Cosby Show" ended in 1992 because of the riots in LA after the Rodney King accident link. The show still continues on TC in reruns, maybe because of its success at portraying a realistic black family.



<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Oprah Winfrey] is an American icon, something she could not have been in the 1950's. Oprah is the ultimate rags to riches story: she was the daughter of a single teenage mother and grew up in poverty in Mississippi. She became pregnant at the age of 14, but the baby died in infancy. Today, she has her own talk show (the highest rated talk show in American history), publishes two magazines, and has starred in films such as //The Color Purple//; she also dedicates a lot of her time and money to charity work. Oprah has power in America and worldwide; she was ranked as the world's most powerful celebrity by Forbes in 2005, 2007, and 2008. All of this is an amazing feat for a black woman whose life began in poverty.

"The Tyra Banks Show" is a talk show hosted by Tyra Banks, a black supermodel. "The Tyra Banks Show" premiered on September 12, 2005 in front of a live audience at CBS Television City in Los Angeles. In the summer of 2007, the show transferred to New York City, where it is now filmed in Chelsea Studios. "The Tyra Banks Show" focuses on a variety of different issues including women's rights, racial issues, psychological problems, etc. Recently, The CW began airing "The Tyra Banks Show" every day during the CW daytime block. "The Tyra Banks Show" won a Daytime Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Talk Show Informative" category. Tyra Banks has become one of the most popular black women in America and she definitely wouldn't have been able to do this 50 years ago, as she is a huge presence in American society. Instead of acceptance, she would have been treated with racism and prejudice. Tyra Banks, much like Oprah, has a huge American prescence, something that would not have been possible before. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Downtown in Linden, New Jersey at 6:30 A.M., two Hispanic day laborers were having trouble ordering coffee and a sandwich at a deli because they didn't speak English very well. Instead of being helped or even getting served, they got a string of insults from a clerk working at the deli. When the two Hispanics tried to order again, they were hit with racist and prejudiced remarks from the same clerk such as, "Get back in your pickup truck with the rest of your family." The whole episode is here: What Would You Do if Confronted with Racism? In truth, the racist clerk and the two day laborers were actors hired by ABC news, and the scene wasn't real at all. It was part of a "What Would You Do?" experiment to see if anyone would stand up for the two fake day laborers. At first, everyone in the store agreed with the racist clerk without knowing that this was an experiment, but someone finally stood up for the two day laborers, also oblivious of the experiment, saying, "We don't treat people like that here [in America]." This episode shows that even though some people are still racist and are not willing to stand up for the rights of others in modern times, there are more people that are willing to help than in the past.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> //Films are now becoming more racially equal due to having successful actors of different races (Will Smith, Whoopi Goldberg, Selena Gomez, etc.). Even though, in retrospect, we as a human race have come very far, we still have far to go. The world is not completely absolved of racism; in the "What Would You Do Episode" many people supported the false claims of the clerk, although in the past// <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">no one //would have stood up for the Hispanic workers. Slowly but surely, humans are starting to treat each other equally. As we look into the past, we also need to look into the future. Hopefully, as time passes there will be no racism left in the world as well as the United States of America.//

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Linking Race to the Civil Rights Movement
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Civil Rights movement influenced the equality of races in films and movies. Films in the early 1900s, contained many racial stereotypes. This may suggest that people at the time stereotyped other races. In 1919, in Chicago, 38 people were killed in race riots. In 1948, the Executive Order 9981 (which founded equality in the Armed Forces) was signed by the President. Just six years earlier, the NAACP made an agreement with several studios that led to more equality in films. In 1954, the Supreme Court banned segregation in all American public schools. In the 50's, a popular show was "I Love Lucy", which showed an inter-racial marriage. Another show was "The Nat King Cole Show", which was the first show to feature a black host. In the 60's, many protests were held against segregation. In the 60's, two movies, To Kill a Mockingbird and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, were released; both films dealt with race. In 1988, the Civil Rights Restoration Act was passed by Congress. Views in the 70's seemed to have changed; there were many shows and films that portrayed other races in a good light: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Get Christie Love, and "The Cosby Show". In the 90's and into the next century, racial prejudice subsided. Tyra Banks and Oprah Winfrey have popular shows, and all races have a more equal role in the media. Clearly, racism in films and television are directly linked to the current events of the time in America.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">What We Plan to Do Next:
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Now that we have learned about race in American movies and TV shows, we want to learn more. We think it would be cool to expand this to include radio and news-casting. For instance, it seems like every newscast has to have a mix of races. It also might be interesting to contrast race in American media to race in media from around the world. Another interesting topic is race in music and music videos, such as how most rappers tend to be black.

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