Kelechi Campbell

Explore the ways in which black males in the US are represented throughout film from the 1990’s to present day

My thesis focuses on black males in the 1990s being generalised in society through the use of stereotypes to depict them incorrectly. Thus, a large majority of black males in the US have been misrepresented through media such as film. My study focuses the change in representation of black males in film from the 1990’s to present day. I will be exploring the reasons for these adaptations considering cultural, social and political issues. I will consider how these aspects may have changed the representation of black males while relating it to how this is presented throughout films. A majority of stereotypes towards black males have remained negative, the most common stereotypes are associated with crime and violence, which was and is still represented through media outlets such as film today.

The 1990’s marked an era of chaos as a plethora of socially shocking events occurred, creating a spiral of riots through the US, more specifically, South Central LA. This led to the rise of stereotypes towards the black community. In the early 1990’s, the case of Rodney King follows the assault of speeding suspect Rodney King by four white police officers.1 The event made national news as it was one of the first incidents of police brutality to be caught on tape. This sprouted an outrage through the US, bringing about the escalation of the negative perception of police officers as they were meant to protect the people but instead were abusing their power. Police were then commonly associated with unlawful police brutality of the black male. The black community chose to riot in 1991, as a derived result of Rodney Kings’ assault, crime rates in all areas rapidly escalated. Even after the population increased after the 1990s, crime rate still fell.2 This behaviour was portrayed through films such as Menace II Society(1993) and Boyz N The Hood(1991), which touched upon such topics such as police brutality and stereotypes of black males such as crime, drugs, guns and gang activity. This is shown in the scene where Tre is confronted and wrongfully held at gunpoint by a police officer, the use of a black police officer connotes the issue of police brutality was boundless. This genre of film was used to reflect America’s attitude towards black males at the time, this further influenced and reinforced mass audiences to believe in the genralised perception of black males. This depicted black males in particular to be perceived in an

1 http://www.kidzworld.com/article/4255-1990s-timeline2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_California#State_statistics

Kelechi Campbell

aggressive manner through the media. This then led to the association of black males to crime, regardless of statistics. The attitude towards black males became more cautious and leery. This was largely due to the media shown during the riots, depicting the minority of aggressive acts and using it to generalise it to the rest of the black community.3 These perceptions were portrayed through the films of that era in such bodies of work as Boyz N The Hood & Menace II Society.

In Menace II Society, the opening scene uses a shot reverse shot of O-Dog, Caine and an Asian convenience store worker. O-Dog gets agitated as the woman persistently follows them both around the store. The director uses a medium close up shot to show the woman’s facial expression, her eyes are following the boys connoting feelings of intimidation towards the audience. This displays the view on black males at the time to the audience, association with crimes such as theft and murder. This scene clearly shows the view of black males diminishing following the years of the riots, the woman is so wary of them both she chooses to follow them to prevent them from stealing. This supports the idea of the media at the time having influenced the US society in a significant way. Furthermore, O-Dog ends up killing them, I believe this also depicts the tensions of Eastern Asians and Blacks at the time. In a scene the director uses diegetic sound in the form of dialogue to suggest tensions between races when O-Dog says “I can’t stand y’all” this evokes feelings of prejudice to the audience. This scene is used to highlight the wider issues in society at that point in time, there was a clear divide between African Americans and Asians. In 1991, two weeks after the beating of Rodney King, a 15-year old young black woman named Latasha Harlins entered a liqour store and was accused of stealing by a Korean woman named Soon Ja Du. As Du tried to take her backpack, Latasha hit her in response and as she turned her around, Du pulled out a gun and shot her in the back of her head.4 Du was only charged with a $500 fine, south Central residents were outraged and unfortunately it did not get much coverage outside of LA. However, those who did hear about it, spoke about it, such as Ice Cube, who wrote a song titled “Black Korea”.5 This sparked a growing tension between Koreans (Eastern Asians in general) and blacks, proving to be evident in the US society.

3 http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/29/newsid_2500000/2500471.stm4 http://www.southcentralhistory.com/la-riots.php5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFwA0UwnuS8

Kelechi Campbell

In both films, Boyz N The Hood and Menace II Society, it is set in South Central LA, in the early 1990’s, surrounded by a gritty, ghetto environment, implying the living conditions of the blacks were not desirable, the people in the area were deprived economically and were poor working class citizens. This is used to indicate the economic status of the characters living within these areas, indicating them at the lower end of the economic chain. The director uses various establishing shots of the environment to show the audience the neighborhood. In the films, particularly Boyz N The Hood, it touched on subjects to deal with the stereotypes of gangs such as Bloods and Crips. There was a growing problem of gang activity is LA in the 1990s6, and this was portrayed in the films by the crimes committed in them. Black males were represented in a violent and aggressive manner in the films. An example of how they illustrated this in the movie is the use of Bloods and Crips. For example, In Boyz N The Hood when Ricky, Tre and Doughboy go to hang out in Compton, they are startled with gunfire(Doughboy is also carrying a firearm), the mise-en-scene uses costume, in the form of red clothing and jewellery, to clearly show that the opposing people are Bloods. The colour red was chosen as it has negative connotations and suggests things such as blood, danger and harm. This supports the stereotypes of gang violence in the black community and also implies that black people, primarily males cannot even function properly with their own race, instead of being at one with themselves, they are inclined to harm one another. The Bloods and Crips show that even in the same race, there can be segregation. In both films Boyz N The Hood and Menace II Society, there is only one character(Ricky)that talks about education, this implies to the audience that these males do not go to school, displaying the behaviours in that decade, the number of black people attending college compared to the number of white children were vast. By 2000, the percentage of whites going to college in the state California was 39.3% contrasting to the amount of black children going to college in California, which was 16.7%.7 This was largely due to factors such as lower wealth, lower parental educational levels and more dealings with the justice system.8 In the scene where Ricky is visited by a representative of a university, the

6 http://www.streetgangs.com/crips/blackstreetgangs#sthash.PuuhY9mE.dpbs7 https://www.bostonfed.org/economic/neer/neer2004/neer04b.pdf

8 http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/01/28/us-education-still-separate-and-unequal

Kelechi Campbell

director uses mise-en-scene such as clothing and sound to create contrast. The contrast in costume is evident, the characters outside are wearing dark clothing, hoodies and hats, suggesting the affiliation to gangs while Ricky is wearing a yellow shirt and a colourful tie, giving off a more open and welcoming appearance. The director uses this contrast to show the audience how you can catergorise people just by looking at clothing. The director also uses diegetic sound in the form of dialogue to contrast also. The characters outside use colloquial language and profanity such as “Nigga please, ain’t nobody going to church to catch no b***hes” reinforcing the perception of the black community using slang. Whereas Ricky speaks in a much more presentable manner. This connoted to the audience that the people that were not sucked into the life of gangs and crime followed a more academic route and created a more educated and positive representation for the black male as Ricky acted as a countertype.

After the 1990s, the attitudes towards the black community started to change. In 2003, there were significant population shifts and reduced resistance to residential integration, this led to more blacks living in the suburbs of Los Angeles and other cities rather than on the limits of the cities. Various events led to the change of perception towards the black community, the unemployment rate after the 1990’s began to creep lower9. The rise of black leaders in politics was also significant. An example of this is in 2004 Barack Obama was elected to the US Senate from Illinois10, followed by him getting elected as the first African American US president in 2008. The rise of black CEOs was also a significant factor to societies attitudes changing, between 1999 and 2010, there was the appointment of 14 black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies11. Although the earlier stereotypes still existed, they were not the dominant stigmas of black people. The black community were starting to be seen as more intellectual and powerful than before. These attitudes in society made black people feel more equal as they did before. This led to the roles of black characters in films taking a different approach. Rather than committing crimes and being associated with gangs, they were in a more positive position, such as in The Pursuit

9 http://qz.com/364354/the-level-of-black-unemployment-in-the-us-is-crisis-level-for-everyone-else/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_career_of_Barack_Obama#U.S._Senate_campaign11 http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/diversity_among_ceos.html

Kelechi Campbell

of Happyness(2006). This shows the true story of Chris Gardener(Will Smith), struggling to sell his bone density scanners to hospitals as he is also looking after his five year old son after his wife’s departure. This contrasted from the earlier films in the 1990s, one feature that stuck out is that in this movie, it is a single black father looking after his son. One stereotype of the black community is that the fathers are never around so The Pursuit Of Happyness showed how the perception of society may have changed in that time period. The film evokes underlying feelings of prejudice and racism however it is overshadowed by the triumph of the black male. For example in the scene where Chris shares a taxi ride with Jay Twistle(his employer), Chris states he thinks he can solve the rubik’s cube “I’m pretty sure I can do it”. Jay repeatedly tells Chris that he can’t “No you can’t”. Jays comments highlights the dominant culture’s ideologies that African Americans are not intellectual, but through the short taxi ride, Chris solves the rubik’s cube in a timely fashion. This represented black males as underestimated but at the same time portrayed to the audience that they have powerful minds and are intellectual. It also connoted that African Americans are overcoming adversity and are determined to succeed. This relates to my thesis as society being influenced by stereotypes has caused them to prejudge them incorrectly. I believe this prejudice stems from the belief that African Americans only excelled at physical activities such as sport and thus they were not exceptional at academics shown through sports such as the NBA, where 76.3% of the players are African American12. Therefore, in this one scene there are elements that emphasize the dominant ideology of African Americans being less intellectual than Whites while simultaneously debunking this idea.

The use of mise-en-scene also sets Chris apart from the rest of the people you see in the film. The director uses costumes to show contrast between people. Throughout a majority of the film, Chris is seen wearing a suit. But in one scene where he has an interview he is seen wearing a jacket, a worn out tank top and paint in his hair. The director uses this to make him stand out from everyone else, contrasting the black male to he white males. This connotes that Chris, although in the same establishment as them, is seen as below the whites that are there, the clothing suggests more of a gritty and urban lifestyle as opposed to a suit which indicates success and accomplishment. Again, Chris actually gaining the internship eclipses this implication. This shows even when the odds are against them(due to various prejudice and racial stigma) the black

12 http://www.nba.com/2013/news/06/25/nba-diversity.ap/

Kelechi Campbell

community is shown to have the capability to overcome adversity they face in everyday life.

Following the election of Barack Obama as President, this enabled many white Americans to observe an individual of the black community who defied the negative stereotypes such as gang culture and crime. Contrasting to the slavery era, this was an enormous triumph as black people went from property of the people to president of the people. This ruptured the limitations set onto black people in the US, showing them that in the US, all things are possible. Seth K. Goldman carried out a study in which he called “The Obama Effect”13. Goldman found that after the election, there was a very clear and downward trend in racial prejudice during the campaign.14 . This led to the black community being able to affirm their humanity and dignity, which helped to improve status and opinions of black communities. This attitude was transferred into modern day films such as Top Five(2014). Andre is forced to spend the day with Chelsea, a profile writer for the New York Times. Similar to The Pursuit Of Happyness, Top Five also shows underlying indications of prejudice and racism but is nearly is eclipsed by the success of the black male. This was to reflect the US mindset at the time as black people had moved up in society yet there is still a sense of subtle prejudice in everyday activity. This is touched upon in the opening scene of Top Five where the director uses a tracking shot following Andre and Chelsea. They speak on the perception of a black president from a white persons perspective. The director uses dialogue such as “That nigger’s ruining everything.” to connote that even through a time of progression for black males, there are still obstacles in the form of prejudices preventing the stop to racism. The director also reinforces the advancement of black males in this scene by using mise-en-scene in the form of dialogue. Chelsea says “Things are changing, you need to wake up and smell the progress” illustrating the common view on black advancement. Andre then says “Some things never change, look at this, black man trying to get a cab”, this relates back to a stereotype that taxis do not stop for black males in the US. The stereotype is adhered to when a taxi swiftly drives by Andre, representing the underlying prejudices shown in this film. However the second taxi abruptly stops for Andre, supporting the suggestion of the black community progressing. This reinforces Chelsea’s argument on how “Things are changing.” This is used to directly show the views and opinions of black people advancing with time, to the point where even in film

13 https://www.russellsage.org/publications/obama-effect14 http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2012-10-11/research/media-obama-effect-and-racial-prejudice

Kelechi Campbell

stereotypes such as cabs not stopping for black males are being debunked.

In Top five, the audience see the influence of the advancement of the black communities in film as Andre is portrayed as an already successful comedian with an equally as famous black fiancée. In earlier films we see black males portrayed us uneducated, unemployed and gang affiliated. Andre being portrayed as a film star represents the development of the black community in the US society. The director uses Andre’s backstory to identify the earlier attitudes towards the black community. For example, Andre explains to Chelsea he used to be an alcoholic and also used to be promiscuous, this reinforced the stereotypes of earlier time periods. Andre triumphs over the addiction of alcohol and is engaged, showing the personal growth used as a reflection of the evolution of the black community as a whole. This is used to show that positive representations of the black male exist however the media may not choose to show it due to factors such as entertainment and ratings. The development of the black community may not appeal to others however representing them in a negative way could get the media more attention.

The representation of black males in the US has changed in contrast to how they were represented during the 1990s. Stereotypes surrounding crime and gangs provided black males with an inferior representation, and they were looked down upon in film. Although prejudice towards black males still occur in film, the representation of them proves to show much more respect for the black community because of social changes. Race roles are practically equal. There are still underlying prejudices shown in modern day film however, due to social and political impacts too, there has been a large transformation of the representation of black males in the US in film, presenting them in a more positive way.

Word count: 2884

Bibliography:

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/4255-1990s-timeline

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_California#State_statistics

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/29/newsid_2500000/2500471.stm

http://www.southcentralhistory.com/la-riots.php

Kelechi Campbell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFwA0UwnuS8

http://www.streetgangs.com/crips/blackstreetgangs#sthash.PuuhY9mE.dpbs

https://www.bostonfed.org/economic/neer/neer2004/neer04b.pdf

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/01/28/us-education-still-separate-and-unequal

http://qz.com/364354/the-level-of-black-unemployment-in-the-us-is-crisis-level-for-everyone-else/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_career_of_Barack_Obama#U.S._Senate_campaign

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/diversity_among_ceos.html

http://www.nba.com/2013/news/06/25/nba-diversity.ap/

https://www.russellsage.org/publications/obama-effect

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2012-10-11/research/media-obama-effect-and-racial-prejudice