African-American representation in Hollywood

Veress 1

Anna Veress
Frank Prescott
Advanced writing skills
28. 11. 2016.

African-American representation in Hollywood
Has the racism in films disappeared?

Racism? It is a phenomenon that seems to be inherent in many cultures and subcultures. In film industry there are hidden and not hidden views on this topic. Now, it is a well-known fact that in the past many directors represented the black people just as the society related to them, but there are still ongoing debates about racial discrimination presented in Hollywood.

Films in the past (first half of the 20^th century) depict African-Americans quite differently than nowadays. Directors made films that many would regard as outrageous in respect of racism. The norms in American society was so different in the 19^th century that today’s people would not be able to truly understand the behaviour of the white towards blacks. That might be the reason that films depicting slaves are difficult to watch in these days. One of the most well-known films that portrays black men in highly controversial way is Birth of a Nation (1915). In that film, the blacks were represented as merely beasts, who could not be stopped only by the valiant Ku Klux Klan. In the following decades, there were other similar films, depicting African-Americans in socially disadvantaged point of view. Gone with the Wind (1939) has been criticised for its illustration on the worshiped acts of slavery. Still, this production was the first step to regard black people differently in cinemas: in 1940 Hattie McDaniel (as Mammi) won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, being the first African-American to be rewarded on the ceremony (Shoard, “Undeniable racist”).

From the 1970s, the number of African-America actors have increased (Mason, “Black actors”), but they still cannot be seen often in blockbuster films. Not many black actors and actresses could maintain their film career, but there has been a tendency to create more films with African-American actors and on their cultural themes. The typical genre is Blaxploitation films that emerged in the early 1970s were originally targeting urban black audience, but later effected white people as well (Sims, “Blaxploitation movies”).  Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee can be taken as an example of such film director; his films deal with race relations, colourism, urban crime and poverty (Rogererbert.com). Few of his many works are the following: Do the Right Thing (1989), 4 Little Girls (1997), and He got Game (1998).  Even though African-American people have suffered hardships because of segregation, there were films that lay emphasis on the need of change in attitude.  The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) and King (1978) are for instance films of that kind, based on positive portrayal of black people.

These days, most people have an opinion that racism has disappeared from Hollywood. There are several examples of black actors who has pioneered in film history. Whoopi Goldberg was the first to win Golden Globe Award for Best Actress (The Color Purple 1985). Denzel Washington is the first African-American actor to receive two Academy Awards (Glory 1989, Training Day 2001). In 2001, Halle Berry successfully won the Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her acting in Monster’s Ball (Biography.com). Nevertheless, there are only few black people on current top lists of best or famous actors, those are only Denzel Washington and Will Smith[1]. Although there are surveys that the proportion of African-American actors/actresses are too low, their number is similar to the entire black population in the United States. Therefore, it cannot be stated that they are currently discriminated in the film industry (Fogg, “Diversity and racism”).

On the whole, racism against African-American actors and actresses seems to have disappeared. Even though there have been extreme cases in the first part of 20^th century, those depicted only the perception and attitude of the society at that time. In recent years, there are some who claim that there is still discrimination against black actors, but data show that the Academy, for example, is not racially biased anymore. The problem is rooted in the fact that it is difficult for African-American actors to win against a greater group of people (namely white people).

Works cited

Erbert, Roger. “Do the Right Thing”. Rogererbert. 27 May. 2001.
www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-do-the-right-thing-1989

---. “4 Little Girls”. Rogererbert. 24 Oct. 1997.
www.rogerebert.com/reviews/4-little-girls-1997

---. “He got Game”. Rogererbert. 1 May. 1998.
www.rogerebert.com/reviews/he-got-game-1998

Fogg, Erik. “Data in policy debate: diversity and racism in the Oscars”. Byline. 2 Feb. 2016. www.byline.com/column/25/article/774

Mason, Everdeen. “Black actors present at the Oscars way more often than they win. What does that mean?” The Washington Post. 28 Feb. 2016.
www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/02/28/academy-awards-presenters-black-oscar-winners-history/?utm_term=.eb8a4e437943

Sims, Yvonne. “Blaxploitation movies”. Britannica. 1 Sep. 2016. www.britannica.com/art/blaxploitation-movie

Shoard, Catherine. “US critic: ‘undeniably racist’ Gone with the Wind should be banned from cinemas” The Guadian. 25 Jun. 2015.
www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/25/us-critic-deniably-racist-gone-with-the-wind-should-be-banned-from-cinemas

Unknown author. “African-American Firsts: Film & TV”. Biography.com. Unknown date.
www.biography.com/people/groups/african-american-firsts-film-tv.

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[1] According to Internet Movie Database (IMDB): http://www.imdb.com/list/ls000004615/; http://www.imdb.com/list/ls004429898/