Race & Ethnicity - The Revolution in Cinema

Welcome Back Everyone!!!

Looking at the new cinema releases that are currently trending in the cinema, made me think how far we actually have come from the early days of cinema. Race & Ethnicity of different groups have been majorly misrepresented, but as era moved on and years past equality has finally reached the on screen cinema of what we see.

The way different races and ethnicity has changed throughout the years, from slavery ages to the apartheid in South Africa, to segregation in America. The nation has progressed gradually to the acceptance of different nations. This has led to a diverse culture and stories being brought to the screen....

Lets Take a Look Back....

To talk about Race and Ethnicity we need to know to which it is defined

Race can be defined as 'the category to which human beings are placed, based upon external features such as skin color and hair' (Benshoff & Griffin 2009)

Ethnicity can be defined as ' the social grouping based upon shared culture and customs' (Wright & Doughty 2011)

In the early 70's and 80's films displayed ideologies that that conveyed what was to believed as right . Which makes sense as what we are taught in society is how we gain understanding of good and bad for our moral instinct. 'the ideologies of western superiority were used to justify the oppression of colonized people' (Blauner, 2001)

This statement made by Blauner conveys how majority of the time the stereotypes would be taken on by colonizers. Often the stereotypes where inaccurate and dehumanize opposite race. This could have been as their culture was not understood clearly by them. Or it could be down to ignorance also at the time.

Here are a few example of these stereotypes used in Hollywood Film History :

'The Tragic Mulatto'

• This was a term brought about in the 19th century, which was used in American literature first and then later used on the big screen. It was and still is politically incorrect. It was used to describe a mixed - race character and person who was assumed to be suicidal or sad which was believed that they did not fit in with either the 'White race' or the 'Black race; (Clay Cane, 2011)

• The character is usually a female, whose ethnicity is not at first determined. One of the common scenarios of the story-line would go that she would pass for 'white' and society her race as that. She would then fall in love with a guy from that race and eventually her true race is revealed and the story ends in tragedy (Nadra Nittle, 2016)

'Uncle Tom'

• Uncle Tom was first used in an 1852 novel

• It is a racial slur, mainly used towards the 'African - American' race. It often meant that the black race could not make decisions for themselves and it sometimes means that the person is complicit in his own suffering and subjection. (Collins, 2004)

Shot From Quentin Tarantino's 2012 film, Django Unchained, a trusted house slave, which profile displays an example of a character that would be classed as 'Uncle Tom'

The misrepresentation happens in films when story-lines would, change history that actually happens in society. Or even the omitting of the diversity of races that would normally be seen. Leading back to racism, that was displayed heavily in films. 'The generalized and final assigning of values to real or imaginary differences, to the accusers benefit and at his victims expense, in order to justify another races privilege or aggression' (Stam, 1994)

Take a look at the 1915 'The Birth of a Nation' (Griffith) a very controversial film that displayed the Ku Klux Klan in a positive light linking to spectatorship. This is an example of a film that had strong misrepresentation of a key part of history. Displaying the 'KKK' in a positive light can be detrimental to how people viewed and encouraged it. Conveying ideology of the hate towards the African-American race was right.

In 1927 'The Jazz Singer' came out (Crossland) which displayed Al Jolson as a singer who wears black face. Being the first sound film it was a key film in the Hollywood history timeline. Blackface was used by white actors to play as African-American individuals. As they were not allowed to play a part that was representing their race. This often led to misrepresentation with with these characters as they were portray as comedic due to them having speech impairments and often they were labelled as not the smartest.. This was used as a way to ridicule their race.

Manthia Diawara the writer says 'films can position us to identify with racist portrayals, but African American spectators can resist to identify with these stereotypes'

It can also be argued that cinema has black characters for the pleasure of white spectators e.g. comedic reasons

Later on past the black face era, the genre of Blaxploitation came along around the 1970's

Blaxploitation is defined as the exploitation of black people, especially with regards to stereotyped roles in films. They had predominantly African American cast of actors and audiences. Blaxploitation focused on black men and women as anti-heroes and anti- heroines. The films focused on topics relating to the war against white supremacy and the white establishment, known as 'The Man' (Aawomeninbe,2011)

Later on in the 1980's African-Americans began to create independent films directors such as 'Spike Lee' Set the tone for many other directors and producers to create their own content.

One of his controversial films was 'Jungle Fever released in 1991.

About A married black lawyer who begins an affair with, his white secretary. When the news is leaked through an acquaintance, Flipper's wife kicks him out of the house. Flipper decides to begin courting his mistress, only to be greeted by disapproval from friends, family and even strangers. The relationship continues to be strained in a society not ready to accept it, and people are hurt during its inception. (IMDb, 1991)

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As changes occurred throughout the years a diverse society as helped leak over into the on screen cinema. Given us diverse stories and new insights onto cultures that were never looked at before.

'Today's films exhibit a much larger variety of African American characters and concerns, behind the camera, black filmmakers have also made great progress' (Benshoff and griffin 2009 p. 99-100)

Hate is still around and discrimination will always exist with people who still hold different views on this topic. But society continues to progress. For example look at the new Annie 2014 was remade from the 1982 original film with an African - American young girl. Before in the past this would not be accepted but the fact the opportunity was enabled this to occur. The film had great success, although the film still had trolls that would attack the film due to the color of the skin of the young girl. But that did not halter its success.

References

• Griffin, H. M. B. a. S., 2009. America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the movies. 2nd Ed. Oxford. Blackwell

• Doughty, C. E. -. W. & R., 2011. Understanding Film Theory. 1st ed. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan

• Blauner, B., 2001 Still the Big News: Racial Oppression in America. 1st ed. Philadelphia : Temple University Press

• Clay Cane, 2011. The Root. [Online] Available at: http://www.theroot.com/halle-berry-and-the-resurgence-of-the-tragic-mulatto-1790862855 [Accessed 9 May 2017].

• Stam, E. S. & R., 1994. Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media. Oxon: Routledge

• http://aawomeninbe.blogspot.co.uk/, 2011. Aawomeninbe. [Online] Available at: http://aawomeninbe.blogspot.co.uk/ [Accessed 20 Feb 2017]

#Diversity #Cinema #History #Culture