feature
Blacks in film
Story by Kianna Coleman and Terri McNair
Afro-Americans have come a
long way in the entertainment world
which has been dominated by other
races for so long. Black people have
come from singing in the fields to
singing in helicopters in music videos.
Progress has also been made in films.
Long ago White Americans portrayed
Blacks through the use of make-up.
Years later, Afro-Americanswere
allowed to perform but still had minor
roles in films. Black actors ‘
and actresses such as
Louise Beavers who in
1934 played a stereotypi
cal mammy figure in
“Imitation of Life.” Today,
Afro-Americans are still
playing stereotypical roles
such as “gang-bangers”
and “project dwellers.” It
is a significant change
from the past, but is it for
the best?
Are African
Americans today por
trayed in a better way than
in the past? Originally, in
the days of mammies,
coons, and Uncle Toms,
degrading images depict
ed Black people with
bugged eyes, pouted lips,
and incorrect grammar
just for a minor role. Now
times have changed but
only for the worse. Blacks
are being stereotyped in television as
killers, prostitutes, drug dealers, pimps,
and unintelligent sidekicks. Shows
such as “Martin,” “Fresh Prince of
Belair,” and “Roc” were a few of the
comedies that showed African
Americans as funny, yet sometimes
ignorant characters.
In 1996, it seemed as if things
were looking better for Afro-Americans
when fall TV introduced two networks.
United Paramount Network (UPN) and
Warner Brothers (WB) along with sev-
THE BLACK INK
enteen predominantly Afro-American
shows. Afro-Americans thought they
were getting a long awaited representa
tion. They soon woke up from that
dream to face a horrible reality. The
shows being aired on the two networks
actually did more harm to the already
deteriorated image Afro-Americans.
Many of the shows , such as “The
Wayans Brothers” (WB) and
“Homeboys in Outer-Space” (UPN)
contained overly simplistic characters.
In recent news, the Beverly
Hills/Hollywood chapter of the NAACP
attacked the WB and UPN networks,
claiming their minority-theme shows
did not provide a fair representation of
Black America.
Networks are afraid to dive
into the world of black dramas, espe
cially ones that center on the balck fam
ily. Television critic Ken Perkins stated
, “Black dramas are among the most the
most difficult of all minority-theme
shows to get approval for air play. A
majority of shows that portray Afro-
Americans in a dramatic sense, such as
“Women of Brewster Place” and
“Frank’s Place” have made it on the air,
but were also shot-lived.”
Stereotypes of Afro-
Americans are also present in film.
Afro-Americans have made significant
strides against their stereotypes in
movies such as “Birth of a
Nation” and
“ The Mack,” however dam
aging images continues to
exist. Instead of being por
trayed as mammies and
pimps, we are steadily bar-
raged by images of us as
gang-bangers and drug deal
ers. The 1990’s introduced
anew decade of films high
lighting the Afro-American
struggles of “hustling to get
by.”
Many Afro-American
directors and producers
claimed these films were a
representation of Afro-
American reality. But, exact
ly whose reality were they
representing. The film
industry is a billlion-dollar
business, which means
whatever films Hollywood
executives will sell, will be
made. That means that Afro-
American’s true reality, more
often than not, will be put on the back
burner in order for shoot-em-up hood
movies and ridiculous sex comedies to
be made. So should Afro-Americans
blame Hollywood studios for not mak
ing and promoting positive Black films?
That could be the case, however, the
film “Love Jones” was highly adver
tised months before its release, and it
still only earned $11.7 million. Why are
Afro-Americans steadily responding to
See Blacks in Film on pg. 24
5
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1997
Illustration by Sabrina Tillman