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The Evolution of Protagonist-Zombie Interactions in American Zombie Cinema: A Mirror of

Evolving Race Relations Between White and Black America

Caleb Smith

Writing 3: The End…Post-Apocalyptic Fiction and Art

Professor Alan Taylor

June 19th, 2016

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Introduction

Just like the ever-growing horde in which the zombie travels, the popularity of the

zombie in American culture has skyrocketed since its arrival in William Seabrook's 1929 book,

The Magic Island.1 From the appearance of Nielsen-chart topping TV shows like AMC’s The

Walking Dead, to critically acclaimed movies such as 28 Days Later, to zombie apocalypse

themed 5k runs, it is evident that our fascination with the zombie is growing—and shows no

signs of stopping anytime soon.2 For perspective, the number of zombie books published

annually has quadrupled over the past decade.3In 2013, the television ratings for The Walking

Dead beat all other competitors airing in the same time slot—including Sunday Night Football.4

Furthermore, the amount of JSTOR scholarly articles based on zombies published in the past

decade is more than five times the amount of journals published in the decade before.5

The zombie, as well as other popular aspects of a culture's entertainment forms, can be

used as a "barometer for measuring an era's cultural anxieties."6 When examining the zombie in

American culture through the lens of the Cultural Studies movement, one can see that the zombie

is a manifestation of white America's fear of its black citizens. The zombie, (which “originated”

in Africa)7 is similar to a human, but has less intelligence, a carnal mentality, and poses a danger

to society. These same characteristics were also assigned to African-Americans, but have

declined over time as America became more tolerant and accepting.8

Using the knowledge that the American zombie is a possible representation of black

America, one can dissect zombie-based forms of entertainment in order to analyze white

America's attitudes towards its black citizens. While effective in theory, analyzing the

progression of zombie entertainment as a whole is potentially too broad of a topic. In this

research paper, I will be scrutinizing, specifically, zombie cinema, and the chronological

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progression of the interactions between protagonist and zombie—in order examine the evolution

of the relationship between white and black America.

Protagonist-Zombie Interactions Pre-Civil Rights Movement

(1932-1964)

The concept of the zombie has its roots in West African culture and folklore, but the

semi-dead creature known as the "zombi," in West African culture differs greatly from the rabid,

flesh-eating zombie seen in today's entertainment.9 The West African zombi was essentially a

soulless slave, doomed to serve his master for eternity.10 Theoretically, it was a manifestation

originating from the indigenous peoples' fear of living out their days in enslavement, during the

age of New World slavery.11 The concept of the zombi "crossed” the Atlantic ocean through the

oral tradition essential to slave culture.12,13 Even after slavery was abolished, the concept of the

zombi persisted because of marginalized groups’ fear of colonialism.14 The zombi ultimately

came to represent a combination of the slave doomed to work for eternity, and a country's people

doomed to support a colonizer.15

In 1929, William Seabrook's book, The Magic Island, introduced the zombi to

mainstream American culture.16 The Magic Island detailed Seabrook's travels and experiences in

Haiti, but most importantly described the zombi to the white American public.17,18 Seabrook

described the zombi as a "soulless human corpse" often made to be a "servant or slave" by its

white master.19 The zombi was "clearly associated with the belief system of people of African

descent," and consequently the American zombie became associated with African-Americans.20

The Magic Island happened to be released shortly after a period of African-American

racial protesting and rioting, which stemmed from the stoning of a black Chicago teenager, and

the police department’s subsequent refusal to arrest the white perpetrator.21 This time period in

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the early 20’s, known as the “Red Summer,”22 marked a period of racial unrest between white

and black America, in which both sides incurred heavy casualties from violence against each

other. The rise of the zombie during the race riot filled 1920's, specifically as a representation of

African-Americans, held great appeal to white America for several reasons.23 The fact that the

zombie was mindless and perpetually controlled by a white master insinuated that African-

Americans, although legally freed from slavery, would still continue to work mindlessly for their

white counterparts. Thus, it was essentially a continuation of slavery.24 Furthermore, the zombi

described in Seabrook's book could not harm the white protagonists by its own volition because

the zombi was at the beck and call of its (white) master.25

The compliant nature of the zombi reinforced the idea of the African-American as a

helpless creature dependent on its white master—directly contrasting the African-Americans of

the current time period, who were actively uprising against inequality and racism. Ultimately, the

zombi's inability to turn against its master appealed to white America's wishes for a docile

African-American workforce that would not resent and seek revenge for previous enslavement

and current subjugation.26

White Zombie (1932)

The Magic Island, which was adapted into a film titled White Zombie, would set the tone

for pre-civil rights movement zombie cinema. In White Zombie, the main antagonist is an

Eastern-European voodoo bokor (Haitan word for “shaman”)27 who controls a horde of Haitian

zombies. The bokor "zombifies" a white banker's fiancé, Madeleine, so that he can command and

steal Madeleine to be his wife. 28The zombies in this film, who are almost all black, play the role

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of minions who pose little threat to the protagonist banker and his wife. The primary role of these

black zombies is to serve as an emotionless workforce at the shaman's sugar factory.29 While

these black zombies show obvious ties to a slave workforce, what is most interesting about White

Zombie, is that the film focuses more upon the zombified Madeleine—the "white zombie" from

which the film derives its title, than it does on the mindless workers.

While Madeleine, in her zombified state, is the "object of pity," the shaman's zombies are

viewed with aspects of "fascination," "horror," and even slight humor.30 The zombies are

unintelligent and "cartoonish," characteristics which are epitomized when the zombies pitifully

walk off of a cliff when their master's spell is broken.31

Figure 1. The pitiful zombies tumble off of a cliff when their bokor’s spell is broken, in Victor Halperin’s White Zombie (United Artists, 1932)32

While the zombie-slaves could represent white America's wish for a return to African-

Americans as a docile workforce (under the control of their white masters), White Zombie has

much more to say about race relations than an attitude of nostalgia. The comical attempt of the

zombies to harm the banker, during which the banker simply sidesteps the oncoming zombie

horde as they topple off a cliff, demonstrates a belief that although there were race riots and

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uprisings, that the black population as a whole, did not truly pose a great threat to white

America.

Ultimately, the most important protagonist-zombie interaction in White Zombie is simply

the fact that Madeleine is a zombie. Arguably, the primary fear in this film does not come from

the pitiful native zombie-slaves, but the white voodoo bokor, who embodies the fear of becoming

a zombie. The fact that White Zombie was "fueled" by the fear of becoming a zombie, and not

the zombie itself, provides an effective lens for race relations in the early 1930s. The fear of

becoming a zombie is a possible manifestation of white America's fear during the Great

Depression that poverty would force them "down" to the same lifestyle or profession as the

majority of the Black population at the time, who were near slave-like sharecroppers.

Furthermore, the fact that the zombie-slaves simply died after the curse was broken, compared to

Madeleine's return to her previous non-zombie state, could demonstrate a hopeful message for

white viewers: regardless of the poverty at the time, African-Americans will perpetually be

subordinate, whereas white-America will face hardship, but ultimately prevail.

I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

The film, I Walked with a Zombie, is very similar to White Zombie: both films are set in

the Caribbean, center around trying to cure a female “white zombie,” and involve indigenous

zombie hordes controlled by a bokor. But there is one crucial difference between the films—in I

Walked with a Zombie, the bokor is Black.33

I Walked with a Zombie was the most critically acclaimed in a string of pre-Civil Rights

movement zombie movies, including Ouanga (1935), Revolt of the Zombies (1936), King of the

Zombies (1941), Voodoo Island (1957), and Zombies of Mora Tau (1957), in which viewers saw

the emergence of the non-white bokor, instead of the white bokor characteristic of The Magic

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Island and White Zombie.34 I Walked with a Zombie and similar films’ display of a Black bokor,

represented a turning point in the evolution of zombie cinema in which directors began to

explore the concept of zombies (symbols for Black America) rising up against white

protagonists. I Walked with a Zombie was essentially the most important of the films which

explored a concept even more terrifying to white viewers than zombification: Black resistance.35

I Walked with a Zombie centers around Betsy, a nurse, who is sent to a Caribbean Island

to care for a sugar plantation owner’s wife, Jessica.36 Over the course of the film, Betsy realizes

that Jessica’s “tropical fever” mirrors the symptoms of zombification. In a desperate attempt to

cure Jessica, Betsy resorts to bringing Jessica to a voodoo houngan (zombie priest) in hopes that

the houngan can “unzombify” her. Ultimately going against Betsy’s wishes, the houngan and

native zombies decide to claim Jessica as one of their own. The houngan then uses a voodoo

doll, representative of Jessica, to attempt to will her to his bidding. Betsy rescues the houngan-

controlled Jessica from the houngan’s initial attempt to capture her. Nevertheless, the movie

concludes with parallel scenes in which the houngan stabs the voodoo doll, while the plantation

owner’s jealous brother stabs and kills Jessica.37 The climax of the film flipped racial hierarchy

in pre-Civil Rights movement America on its head: “the black ‘inferiors’ had reduced their white

masters to dolls, taking life from them as they please.”38

I Walked with a Zombie caused viewers to ponder the frightening thought: “are the white

characters ‘merely another tool in the hands of the powerful houngan?’” Furthermore, do the

black natives ultimately control “the will and destiny of the whites” on the island?39 In I Walked

with a Zombie, the viewer's fear is no longer derived simply from the fear of becoming a zombie,

the fear now encompasses non-whites commanding immense power, and furthermore, the ability

of the non-whites to inflict this immense power against their white counterparts.40 The

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emergence of the Black honguan and the zombies’ ability to go against the wishes of the white

protagonist was a theoretical manifestation of white America’s realization that black America

would fight back against inequality and subjugation.

Figure 2. A powerful still shows the native zombies carrying Jessica’s lifeless body back to her estate—an old plantation, in I Walked with a Zombie (RKO Radio Pictures, 1943)41

Ultimately, the rise of the Black bokor, or in this case houngan, could represent the rise

of leaders in the Black community who were advocating for equality. The houngan, a zombie

priest, and his followers, have clear ties to the black reverend and his black congregation. Church

was an aspect of Black culture which unified communities of African-Americans across the

nation. The fear of the Black zombie priest and his Black zombie followers was likely an

indication of white America’s fear that the Black Church was planting the seeds necessary for

black America to topple American racial hierarchy. White America’s fear of the black church

was conceivable, as the black church was the “dominant institution” in the Black community,

and its membership “provided individuals a frame for receiving the message and meaning” of

protesting for equality42

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While the fear of the houngan represented the fear of the black church’s power, the fact

that the fear was still directed at the leader of the zombies, instead of the zombies themselves,

demonstrated that in the time before the Civil Rights movement, the leaders of black America

were the ones who truly posed a threat to white hierarchy, not black America as a whole. I

Walked with a Zombie, as well as other pre-Civil Rights movement films ultimately demonstrate

that zombies were “little more than exotic set dressing, frightening in their lumbering movements

and dull stares, but never really constituting a moral threat to the film's protagonists.”43 The true

fear was still derived from the one who creates the zombies. Likewise, it would not be until the

era of the Civil Rights Movement that the black community itself, not just its leadership figures,

would be portrayed as fear inducing in cinematic representations of zombies.

However, before the Civil Rights movement occurred, World War II dawned upon

America. The attention of America’s citizens proceeded to shift from domestic issues of black-

white racial tension to international issues of national security.44 Consequently, the black native

zombie and its representation of the threat to white-America’s racial hierarchy held less appeal to

moviegoers. During this time period, the “walking dead were not enough to sustain a feature

[film],” so studios opted to use “zombies as subplots in larger stories.”45 These films, such as

King of the Zombies (1941), Revenge of the Zombies (1943), Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952),

and Creature with the Atomic Brain (1955),46 involved nazi zombies, “Nazi-ploitation,” “nazi

spies, mad doctors, mobsters, and ridiculous schemes to take over the world.”47 More

importantly, they were near devoid of any representation of African-Americans as zombies.

However, with the advent of the Civil Rights movement, the concept of the zombie as a

representation of black America would not only resurface, but also flourish.

Protagonist-Zombie Interactions During the Civil Rights Movement

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(1954-1968)

The era of the Civil Rights Movement encompassed the peak of tensions between white

and black America. During the Civil Rights Movement, black America rebelled against the

system of racial hierarchy that had persisted in America, protesting for an end to racial

segregation and discrimination. White America’s fear of a black uprising had become a reality.

“Just when the cinematic zombie seemed destined to be relegated to campy parodies and low-

profile cameos, a new kind of zombie was born” during the Civil Rights Movement, “one [a

zombie] both infectious and cannibalistic, with the release of Night of the Living Dead

(1964).”48,49

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Director George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead revolutionized zombie cinema, and

its characteristics have “become the industry standard ever since”50,51 Six key differences

separate Night of the Living Dead from its cinematic predecessors: (1) Romero “freed” the

zombie of its master and ties to Haitian voodoo; (2) the zombies far outnumbered the human

protagonists; (3) the zombies feasted on human flesh; (4) the zombie condition is contagious; (5)

the main protagonist/hero is black while the zombie horde is white; (6) zombies bring about the

apocalypse.52 These revolutionary cinematic characteristics and survival-based plot of Night of

the Living Dead would ultimately lead Night of the Living Dead to become one of the most

effective cinematic lenses used for examining white-black race relations during the Civil Rights

Movement.

In Night of the Living Dead, Romero forewent the love triangles, voodoo rituals, and

zombie puppeteers characteristic of previous zombie movies, and opted for a simple but

ultimately powerful plot, in which a small group of survivors are boarded up in a house and

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attempt to ward off a white zombie horde.53 Before even delving into the zombies themselves, it

is important to address one of the most startling zombie-protagonist interactions in Night of the

Living Dead: the existence of a black protagonist, instead of a the black zombie characteristic of

past zombie films. Not only was the protagonist, Ben, African-American, but he did not play into

the negative tropes presented by Civil Rights era Blaxploitation films--virtually the only type of

movie where a black actor could have a lead role.54,55 In Night of the Living Dead, Ben is the

main hero, who undertakes the task of killing the white zombie horde. Ben fends off the white

zombie horde, but is ultimately killed by police who mistake him for a zombie, in a scene that is

eerily reminiscent of a lynching, and has definite parallels to the assassination of Martin Luther

King that occurred the same year the film was released.

Scene after scene of Ben, an African-American, slaying white zombies, would have had a

startling effect on white viewers at the time. This effect would only be accentuated by the

condescending way in which Ben speaks to the white characters in the film, the most powerful

example occurring when Ben barks at Harry Cooper, “if you’re stupid enough to go die in that

trap [the basement] that’s your business. However, I am not stupid enough to follow you. It is

tough for [your] kid that her old man is so stupid. Now get the hell down in the cellar...I’m the

boss up here.”56 Ultimately, Romero’s depiction of an African-American, who was not afraid to

take action against other white characters, whether it be the actual fending off of the white

zombies, the killing off of the white family that becomes “zombified” by a bite from their

infected daughter, the execution-style killing of Cooper, or the punching of the emotional and

hysterical Barbara, made massive statements about the changing racial climate in America.57 In

his review of Night of the Living Dead, revered movie critic Roger Ebert described how the

theatre “was pretty quiet” and the “mood of the audience began to change” when the “Negro has

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to kill the [white] little girl...and then her father.”58 Renowned zombie expert, Kyle Bishop,

writes, “In the midst of the social upheavals of the Civil Rights movement, Ben manifests the

fear of many white Americans: that black men would become socially impertinent and come to

threaten the safety of white women.”59

A white moviegoer, who identifies with the white zombie horde, would be horrified by

the implications of a black man putting bullets in the white zombies’ heads. On the other hand,

another white moviegoer, who identifies with the survivors in general, would be horrified by

implications of a growing zombie horde, just like the growing population of black America,

overrunning the survivors and bringing about the apocalypse. In this way, Night of the Living

Dead derives its source of fear not only from the implications of an authoritative black

protagonist, but also from the implication that zombies, a representation of black America, could

overrun society.

Figure 3. Ben punches Harry Cooper after Harry attempts to lock him out of the house in Night of the Living Dead (Market Square Productions, 1968)60

Romero’s take on the zombie, which relinquished its master, preyed on human flesh,

grew through infection, and brought about the apocalypse, was inadvertently a perfect symbol

for white-America’s views of Black America during the civil rights movement. One of the first

fear-inducing characteristics of the “Romero zombie” was its lack of a master. The “Romero

zombie” was autonomous and acted on upon its desire to prey upon flesh. Kyle Bishop writes

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that by “freeing” the zombies from their masters, Romero inverted the “master/slave dialectic

present in the voodoo zombie films” made before the Civil Rights movement.61 In Night of the

Living Dead, the zombies “symbolize a slave or even proletarian revolution.” These zombies

“turn on those who could be seen as their one time oppressors; after all, the living humans get to

enjoy life while the dead have no access to such pleasures.”62 Similarly black America was

revolting against their oppressors, vying for access to the “pleasure” of racial equality. Night of

the Living Dead ultimately preyed upon white viewers’ most paramount fear at the time...the fact

that white America was literally witnessing the ultimate slave revolution -- the Civil Rights

Movement.

In addition to the lack of a master, the threat of the zombie to infect others only added

more horror to the zombies of Night of the Living Dead. White America’s association of black

America with zombies, was only strengthened by the new association of zombies with viruses

and infection.63 In the late 50’s and early 60’s, in a period termed “White flight,” many white

Americans moved from the racially mixed urban cities, to the predominantly white suburbs in an

attempt to distance themselves from the poverty-stricken, disease-ridden ghettos—where the

majority of black America resided.64 The correlation between black America, and the virus

carrying zombie served to further justify the belief that black Americans were not white

America’s social and racial equals.

The contagious nature of the zombie of the zombie horde also drew parallels to

miscegenation and the subsequent threat of African-Americans to “poison” a white bloodline.65

As academic Robert Smith writes, “zombie outbreaks are portrayed as a struggle to keep our

bodies and by extension our identities… safe from contact with dangerous, or tainted, blood.”At

the time African-Americans were categorized by the “one drop of blood rule,” wherein a person

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with a single drop of “Black blood” was African-American.66 Hitler had notoriously argued that,

“classes vanish, classes alter themselves, the destinies of men undergo changes, but something

always remains...the blood...it is in a racial sense the soul.”67 Therefore, the bite of the zombie

represents the tainting of purity, and subsequently the threat of black America to contaminate

whiteness itself—exactly what the Jim Crow laws strove to prevent.68

Figure 4. The Cooper family tends to their infected daughter in the basement of the house, in Night of the Living Dead (Market Square Productions, 1968)69

Furthermore, In Night of the Living Dead, the infectious zombies become so rampantly

spread that the protagonists can no longer run and hide from them; the apocalypse has arrived.

The protagonists must either kill or be killed. Similarly, during the Civil Rights movement, white

America could no longer ignore the spread of ideals, protests, and laws that threatened the

traditional racial hierarchy that had persisted for centuries; some members of white America felt

that they had to either fight against these progressive ideals or see the apocalypse of their society.

In addition to the autonomous, virus-carrying nature of the zombies in Night of the Living

Dead, was the zombies’ hunger for flesh. The taboo of cannibalism, combined with the aspect of

contagion made for a horrifying creature. The likeness of the Romero zombie to African-

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Americans presented the simple, but powerful implication that African-Americans presented a

direct threat to white America-- a desire to devour and transform white America.

But, most the most horrifying aspect of the “Romero zombie” was the emergence of the

trend in which the zombie horde brings about the apocalypse. In Night of the Living Dead, unlike

films which preceded it, the zombie horde became the “majority” and the humans became the

“minority.” The protagonists were no longer just humans… they were now “survivors” As

Bishop writes, “the zombies constitute more than just a rebellion; in Romero’s world, they are

also the new social order.”70 White movie viewers were presented with the insinuation that the

Civil Rights movement was the arrival of the American apocalypse. The issue of black America

could no longer be ignored--a new social order, black America, would rise up and cause white

America to become the minority. As such, the kill or be killed attitude seen in Night of the Living

Dead, could be seen in the vehement resistance of white America to the changes brought about

by the Civil Rights Movement.

Ultimately, Night of the Living Dead would come to represent the fear of white America

during the Civil Rights movement-- the rise and revolution of black America. Furthermore, Night

of the Living Dead would address the implications of the Civil Rights movement -- the

“apocalypse” of white America. In the end, Night of the Living Dead revolutionized the zombie

movie genre and provided a powerful lens for viewing the white-black racial climate during the

Civil Rights movement.

Protagonist-Zombie Interactions After the Civil Rights Movement

(1968-Present)

Although racial tensions between white and black America still exist today, in the post-

Civil Rights movement decades, those tensions declined from their peak during the 60’s.71 The

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decline in racial tensions between white and black America, and shift of America towards more

progressive racial attitudes, would be exhibited by the zombie cinema produced in the time

period after the Civil Rights movement. The zombie movie genre would “see” the emergence of

zombies with personalities, and even the new subgenre of the zombie romantic comedy, in which

the protagonist is in a romantic relationship with a zombie.72

Day of the Dead (1985)

George Romero’s film, Day of the Dead, was instrumental in bringing about the

“sympathetic zombie,” zombies with personality and emotions, to the Silver Screen.73 The plot

of Day of the Dead revolves around a small group of scientists, soldiers, and helicopter pilots,

who are trapped in an underground bunker during a zombie apocalypse.74 The scientists, chiefly

Dr. Logan, are experimenting on captured zombies in order to find a cure for the zombie

infection. Arguably the most important character in the film is Dr. Logan’s zombie research

subject, Bub.75

Bub’s introduction in the film, simultaneously introduced America to the concept of the

sympathetic zombie.76 Dr. Logan has a parental-like relationship with Bub, rewarding him with

music when he does something good and admonishing him with words such as “sit their in the

dark and think about what you’ve done,” when Bub “acts out.”77 When Bub is punished he reacts

with anger, thrashing around the chain that binds him to the wall in Dr. Logan’s lab. When

presented with some common household items, Bub demonstrates his memory of how to shave,

read a book, and even dial a telephone. When prompted, Bub even goes so far as to gurgle into

the telephone, “hello, Aunt Alicia.”78 When Dr. Logan introduces Captain Rhodes to Bub, the

human-like zombie immediately salutes the Captain. Dr. Logan nods, “he used to be a Marine,”

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but Captain Rhodes refuses to salute back. “Rhodes is instantly offended; he sees Bub’s

humanity and grows defensive at the increasingly blurred lines between human and inhuman.”79

Bub’s human-like characteristics and Captain Rhodes adverse reaction to meeting Bub, could

parallel white America’s realization, brought about by the newly integrated America, that black

and white America were truly not that different. The same blurring of the differences between

white and black America is epitomized when Dr. Logan remarks, “they [zombies] are us.”80

Figure 5. Bub “reads” a book in Day of the Dead (United Film Distribution Company, 1985)81

Nevertheless, fact that Bub has human-like characteristics is not the most important

protagonist-zombie interaction in the film. Even more important, is the fact that Bub’s human-

like characteristics lead him to be seen as a protagonist, and the soldiers, who eventually threaten

a forceful takeover of the bunker, are seen as antagonists. In this instance, roles are reversed; the

zombie represents the hero, and the human is a villain. Captain Rhodes, who comes to find that

Dr. Logan has been feeding his “experimental subjects” the soldiers who died during the process

of securing the bunker, begins to kill the scientists. While the zombies are villainized for killing

humans, Captain Rhodes becomes the ultimate villain when he kills another human. Captain

Rhodes becomes the main antagonist because he does not kill another human out of

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uncontrollable primal instinct, like a zombie, but simply his own volition. In this way, Captain

Rhodes demonstrates that, in Day of the Dead, “the humans are not necessarily humane,” while

Bub demonstrates that “neither are the zombies necessarily monstrous.”82 The same “civil

behavior” that Dr. Logan says “distinguishes us from lower forms” and allows us to “go about

things in an orderly fashion without attacking each other like beasts in the wild,” is seen the

“zombified” Bub… but lacking in Captain Rhodes. Consequently, Romero causes “audience

identification with the very monsters he had formerly taught them to fear.”83 In historical

context, the shift from audience identification with the protagonist could represent the growing

attitude that the actions perpetrated against black America, were what was truly monstrous, not

black America itself. More importantly, the “sympathetic zombie” as well as the villainous

Captain Rhodes were manifestations of the growing negative attitude towards discrimination

faced by black America.

After Day of the Dead opened the door for zombies to have human characteristics, movie

studios would run with the concept, establishing a previously unfathomable movie genre… the

Zombie Romantic-Comedy. In this new genre, the zombie-protagonist romantic relationship

would come to represent the rise of the black-white interracial relationship in America. Arguably

the first zombie romantic-comedy was the 1993 film My Boyfriend’s Back. Boyfriend’s Back

(1993)

In the film, My Boyfriend’s Back, high-school student Johnny Dingle tries to impress his

classmate and crush, Missy McCloud, by saving her from a staged robbery.84 During the staged

robbery, Johnny is accidentally shot. With his dying wish, Johnny asks Missy to senior prom.

She accepts and Johnny passes away. However, in a shocking turn of events, Johnny rises from

the dead the day after his funeral as a pasty zombie, still intent on taking Missy to prom.

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Throughout the film Johnny competes with the school’s most popular student, Buck, for Missy’s

affection, and the chance to attend prom with her. All the while, Johnny battles discrimination

from both his classmates and townspeople who disapprove of the human-zombie relationship

that he and Missy embody. The relationship between a zombie, which had African roots, and a

white woman, has obvious ties to an interracial relationship. 85As Chera Kee writes in her paper

on zombies and miscegenation, zombies themselves, “are visual/performative displays of

miscegenation--of the mixing of black and white cultures in an enslaved body.”86 Up until anti-

miscegenation laws were abolished in the late 1960’s, the Motion Picture Producers and

Distributors Association (MPPA) Production Code explicitly stated, that miscegenation in film

was forbidden.87 Consequently, the zombie rom-com would become a medium to address

attitudes towards miscegenation.88 Evidently, the most significant protagonist-zombie interaction

in My Boyfriend’s Back is the relationship between the “zombified” Johnny and Missy.

Figure 6. A group of gun-toting men arrive at Johnny’s house to threaten or kill him, in My Boyfriend’s Back (Buena Vista Pictures 1993)

The miscegenous symbolism is crystal clear in My Boyfriend’s Back. The small town is

initially shocked at the relationship, as demonstrated by a man exclaiming, “By god! If it ain’t a

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zombie out with a living woman!”89 The shock eventually becomes open hostility towards

Johnny and his relationship with Missy. Johnny is pelted with remarks that resemble the

derogatory epithets hurled at African-Americans. When one of the football players catches

Johnny and Missy kissing in the library, he snarls, “Come here, you stinkin’ dead ya-hoo

toucher!” and chases him away. A townsperson even spits at Johnny in the street, “We don’t like

your kind!” The most prominent representation of racism occurs when a group of men, touting

shotguns and rifles, show up to Johnny’s house with the intent to threaten or even kill him—

clearly reminiscent of the lynch mobs of the past.

While the townspeople are presented as antagonists, the stereotypically, preppy,

attractive, and popular Buck is presented as the primary villain. Buck is Missy’s other love

interest, who seeks to woo Missy away from Johnny. Buck, who is not a zombie, comes to

represent the white male, who is competing with the black male, for the white female’s heart. As

Kee writes, “in films such as My Boyfriend’s Back.... the white woman’s love for an undead male

not only speaks to the fears of miscegenation hinted at in…[zombie] films, but it also speaks to a

conscious choice. These women could choose a living male, but they choose the zombie

instead.”90 In this way, My Boyfriend’s Back still plays upon the fear that the white woman will

choose a black male over a white female.

Nevertheless, In My Boyfriend’s Back, the viewer is rooting for the teenage couple’s love

to triumph over the closed-minded townspeople and students. Viewer identification with the non-

traditional couple, who inadvertently are a metaphor for miscegenation, demonstrates America’s

growing view that romantic relationships between black and white America were acceptable.

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Figure 7. The pasty zombie, Johnny, dances with his human prom date, Missy in My Boyfriend’s Back (Buena Vista Pictures, 1993)

Conclusion

Undeniably, both American zombie cinema, and the white-black race relations it

portrays, have evolved since the early twentieth century. Early zombie cinema portrayed zombies

as a controlled, docile workforce, and the viewers’ fear was derived from becoming a zombie,

rather than the zombie itself. Likewise, before the Civil Rights movement, white America

viewed black America as a subservient workforce that did not truly pose a threat to the system of

racial hierarchy. With the dawn of the Civil Rights movement, zombies became the horrifying,

autonomous, cannibalistic, apocalypse-causing creatures that we know today. Comparably,

during the Civil Rights movement, black America revolted against systematic oppression,

bringing about the apocalypse of American racial segregation and legalized discrimination.

Following the Civil Rights movement, zombies “gained” personality, and even were portrayed in

romantic relationships with humans. The progressive change in the zombie film genre would

mirror the increase of progressive views regarding race occurring after the Civil Rights

Movement.

In the 2012 short comedic sketch “White Zombies,” (whose title is a nod to the first

zombie film, White Zombie) the evolution of zombie cinema comes full circle. The sketch

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consists of two black protagonists attempting to survive a zombie apocalypse. Faced with an

oncoming zombie horde, the pair decide that they must run through the horde in order to make it

to the safe haven of the sheriff's station.91 Dramatic music plays as they scamper through the

horde, until they realize that the zombies are actually avoiding them. When the protagonists

approach a car with two zombies inside, the zombies hastily lock the car door. With a look of

disgust, one of the protagonists exclaims, “These are some racist mother-fucking zombies!”

When the pair come across a zombie “family”, the mother and father pull their daughter away

from the black protagonists. One laments, “They seriously wouldn’t let her eat us!”

Figure 8. A white zombie couple shrinks away one of the black protagonists, in Key & Peele’s “White Zombies” (Comedy Central 2012)

Afterwards, another black character is introduced, who declares, “These racist zombies

are leaving us alone. Come on, we're having a party!” The camera pans to a backyard full of

black, zombie apocalypse survivors, who are drinking beer, listening to Funk, and having a

barbeque. The final scene ends with a lone white zombie attempting to hoist himself over the

fence in an attempt to ironically, escape the party. When observed within the context of this

research paper, “White Zombies,” ultimately makes the powerful statement that even though

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zombie cinema and race relations have both evolved over time, that racism still exists, and will

likely persist--even into the apocalypse itself.

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Notes

1. Christopher M. Moreman and Cory Rushton, eds., Race, Oppression and the Zombie: Essays on Cross-Cultural Appropriations of the Caribbean Tradition (Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 2011), 18.

2. Kyle William Bishop, How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture: The Multifarious

Walking Dead in the 21st Century, Contributions to Zombie Studies (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2015), 5.

3. Daniel W. Drezner, Theories of International Politics and Zombies, Revived edition

(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015), 2. 4. Daniel W. Drezner, “Metaphor of the Living Dead: Or, the Effect of the Zombie

Apocalypse on Public Policy Discourse,” Social Research 81, no. 4 (Winter 2014): 826. 5. Ibid. 6. Kyle William Bishop, American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the

Walking Dead in Popular Culture (Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2010), 9. 7. Richard Johnson, “What Is Cultural Studies Anyway?,” Social Text, no. 16 (1986): 72,

doi:10.2307/466285. 8. Elizabeth McAlister, “Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites: The Race and

Religion of Zombies,” Anthropological Quarterly 85, no. 2 (Spring 2012): 459. 9. Barbara Perry and Michael Sutton, “Seeing Red over Black and White: Popular and

Media Representations of Inter-Racial Relationships as Precursors to Racial Violence,” Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48, no. 6 (October 2006): 889.

10. Bishop, How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture, 8. 11. Moreman and Rushton, Race, Oppression and the Zombie, 3. 12. Ibid. 13. Ibid., 4. 14. McAlister, “Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites,” 464. 15. Moreman and Rushton, Race, Oppression and the Zombie, 5. 16. Kaiama L. Glover, “Exploiting the Undead: The Usefulness of the Zombie in Haitian

Literature,” Journal of Haitian Studies 11, no. 2 (2005): 107.

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17. David Flint, Zombie Holocaust: How the Living Dead Devoured Pop Culture (London: Plexus, 2008), 9.

18. Ibid., 10. 19. Sara Simcha Cohen, “Hearth of Darkness: The Familiar, the Familial, and the Zombie”

(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2013), 13, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1468954141/abstract/5911F121DDB848FBPQ/1.

20. William Seabrook, The Magic Island (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2016),

93. 21. Moreman and Rushton, Race, Oppression and the Zombie, 18. 22. Leslie M. Alexander and Walter C. Rucker, eds., Encyclopedia of African American

History (Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2010), 983. 23. Ibid. 24. Moreman and Rushton, Race, Oppression and the Zombie, 19. 25. Ibid., 20. 26. Lucy Viking Swanson, “Bringing out the Undead: Reinventing the Zombie in

Contemporary Fiction of the Francophone Caribbean” (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 2012), 6, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1289102762/abstract/6851FCF416F64F60PQ/1.

27. Moreman and Rushton, Race, Oppression and the Zombie, 18. 28. Glover, “Exploiting the Undead,” 108. 29. Peter Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia (Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co,

2001), 190. 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid., 191. 32. Ibid. 33. Victor Halperin, White Zombie (United Artists, 1932). 34. Flint, Zombie Holocaust, 17. 35. Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, 217.

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36. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 86. 37. Ibid., 83–85. 38. Jacques Tourneur, I Walked with a Zombie (RKO Radio Pictures, 1943). 39. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 92–93. 40. Ibid., 93. 41. Ibid.

42. Zulema Valdez, “The Abandoned Promise of Civil Rights,” Sociological Forum 30

(June 1, 2015): 612–26, doi:10.1111/socf.12180.

43. Tourneur, I Walked with a Zombie. 44. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 93. 45. Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, 4. 46. Glenn Kay, Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide, 1st ed (Chicago, Ill: Chicago Review

Press, 2008), 21. 47. Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, 217. 48. Kay, Zombie Movies, 21. 49. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 13. 50. Kyle Bishop, “Dead Man Still Walking: Explaining the Zombie Renaissance,” Journal

of Popular Film & Television 37, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 3. 51. Adryan Glasgow, “Race. Nation. Zombie: Imperial Masculinities Gazing at the

Undead” (Ph.D., Purdue University, 2015), 145, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1734037588/abstract/2CAF1152116B4C42PQ/1.

52. McAlister, “Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites,” 473. 53. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 94. 54. McAlister, “Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites,” 415. 55. Ibid., 478.

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56. Joshua K. Wright, “Black Outlaws and the Struggle for Empowerment in Blaxploitation Cinema,” Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men 2, no. 2 (2014): 64.

57. George A. Romero, Night of the Living Dead (Market Square Productions, 1968). 58. Moreman and Rushton, Race, Oppression and the Zombie, 69–72. 59. Kevin Heffernan, “Inner-City Exhibition and the Genre Film: Distributing ‘Night of

the Living Dead’ (1968),” Cinema Journal 41, no. 3 (2002): 60. 60. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 119. 61. Romero, Night of the Living Dead. 62. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 112–114. 63. Ibid., 114. 64. Stephanie Boluk and Wylie Lenz, Generation Zombie: Essays on the Living Dead in

Modern Culture (McFarland, 2011), 56. 65. Michael Reibel, “White Flight/Black Flight: The Dynamics of Racial Change in an

American Neighborhood By Rachael A. Woldoff Cornell University Press. 2011. 240 Pages. $22.95 Paper,” Social Forces 93, no. 4 (June 1, 2015): e110–e110, doi:10.1093/sf/sot012.

66. Justin Ponder, “Dawn of the Different: The Mulatto Zombie in Zack Snyder’s Dawn

of the Dead,” The Journal of Popular Culture 45, no. 3 (June 1, 2012): 559, doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2012.00944.x.

67. Chera Kee, “Good Girls Don’t Date Dead Boys: Toying with Miscegenation in

Zombie Films,” Journal of Popular Film and Television 42, no. 4 (October 2, 2014): 7, doi:10.1080/01956051.2014.881772.

68. Robert J Smith, Braaaiiinnnsss!: From Academics to Zombies ([Ottawa]: University of

Ottawa Press, 2011), 77. 69. Ibid., 78. 70. Romero, Night of the Living Dead. 71. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 114. 72. Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, 8–9.

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73. Zulema Valdez, “The Abandoned Promise of Civil Rights,” Sociological Forum 30

(June 1, 2015): 612–26, doi:10.1111/socf.12180.

74. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 159. 75. Kay, Zombie Movies, 132. 76. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 159. 77. Bishop, How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture, 26–28. 78. George A. Romero, Day of the Dead, videorecording, Horror (United Film

Distribution Company, 1985). 79. Ibid. 80. Cohen, “Hearth of Darkness,” 178. 81. Romero, Day of the Dead. 82. Ibid. 83. Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 159. 84. Ibid., 160. 85. Kee, “Good Girls Don’t Date Dead Boys,” 1–3. 86. Ponder, “Dawn of the Different,” 551. 87. Kee, “Good Girls Don’t Date Dead Boys,” 178. 88. Susan Christianne Courtney, “Hollywood’s Fantasy of Miscegenation” (Ph.D.,

University of California, Berkeley, 1997), 4, http://search.proquest.com/docview/304350112/abstract/76BF4380FB2F4BFFPQ/1.

89. Gerry Canavan, “‘We Are the Walking Dead’: Race, Time, and Survival in Zombie

Narrative,” Extrapolation (pre-2012) 51, no. 3 (Fall 2010): 433. 90. Bob Balaban, My Boyfriend’s Back (Buena Vista Pictures, 1993). 91. Kee, “Good Girls Don’t Date Dead Boys,” 183–184. 92. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, “White Zombies,” Key & Peele (Comedy

Central, 2012), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xyhVO-SWfM.

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The Journal of Popular Culture 45, no. 3 (June 1, 2012): 551–71. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2012.00944.x.

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1985. ———. Night of the Living Dead. Market Square Productions, 1968. Seabrook, William. The Magic Island. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2016. Smith, Robert J. Braaaiiinnnsss!: From Academics to Zombies. [Ottawa]: University of Ottawa Press,

2011. Snyder, Zack, James Gunn, Tyler Bates, George A. Romero, Mekhi Phifer, Ving Rhames, Sarah

Polley, et al. Dawn of the Dead. Videorecording. Universal Studios Home Video, 2004. Swanson, Lucy Viking. “Bringing out the Undead: Reinventing the Zombie in Contemporary Fiction

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13 McAlister, “Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites,” 464.

14 Moreman and Rushton, Race, Oppression and the Zombie, 5.

15 Kaiama L. Glover, “Exploiting the Undead: The Usefulness of the Zombie in Haitian

Literature,” Journal of Haitian Studies 11, no. 2 (2005): 107.

16 David Flint, Zombie Holocaust: How the Living Dead Devoured Pop Culture (London:

Plexus, 2008), 9.

17 Ibid., 10.

18 Sara Simcha Cohen, “Hearth of Darkness: The Familiar, the Familial, and the Zombie”

(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2013), 13,

http://search.proquest.com/docview/1468954141/abstract/5911F121DDB848FBPQ/1.

19 William Seabrook, The Magic Island (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2016),

93.


21 Leslie M. Alexander and Walter C. Rucker, eds., Encyclopedia of African American

History (Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2010), 983.

22 Ibid.


24 Ibid., 20.

25 Lucy Viking Swanson, “Bringing out the Undead: Reinventing the Zombie in

Contemporary Fiction of the Francophone Caribbean” (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania,

2012), 6, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1289102762/abstract/6851FCF416F64F60PQ/1.


27 Glover, “Exploiting the Undead,” 108.

Smith

35

28 Peter Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia (Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2001),

190.

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid., 191.

31 Ibid.

32 Victor Halperin, White Zombie (United Artists, 1932).

33 Flint, Zombie Holocaust, 17.

34 Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, 217.

35 Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 86.

36 Ibid., 83–85.

37 Jacques Tourneur, I Walked with a Zombie (RKO Radio Pictures, 1943).

38 Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 92–93.

39 Ibid., 93.

40 Ibid.

41 Tourneur, I Walked with a Zombie.

42 Allison Calhoun-‐Brown, “Upon This Rock: The Black Church, Nonviolence, and the Civil Rights Movement,” PS: Political Science & Politics 33, no. 02 (June 2000): 169–74, doi:10.2307/420886. 43 Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 93.


45 Glenn Kay, Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide, 1st ed (Chicago, Ill: Chicago Review

Press, 2008), 21.


47 Kay, Zombie Movies, 21.


Smith

36

49 Kyle Bishop, “Dead Man Still Walking: Explaining the Zombie Renaissance,” Journal

of Popular Film & Television 37, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 3.

50 Adryan Glasgow, “Race. Nation. Zombie: Imperial Masculinities Gazing at the Undead”

(Ph.D., Purdue University, 2015), 145,

http://search.proquest.com/docview/1734037588/abstract/2CAF1152116B4C42PQ/1.




54 Ibid., 478.

55 Joshua K. Wright, “Black Outlaws and the Struggle for Empowerment in Blaxploitation

Cinema,” Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men 2, no. 2 (2014): 64.

56 George A. Romero, Night of the Living Dead (Market Square Productions, 1968).

57 Moreman and Rushton, Race, Oppression and the Zombie, 69–72.

58 Kevin Heffernan, “Inner-City Exhibition and the Genre Film: Distributing ‘Night of the

Living Dead’ (1968),” Cinema Journal 41, no. 3 (2002): 60.


60 Romero, Night of the Living Dead.

61 Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, 112–114.

62 Ibid., 114.

63 Stephanie Boluk and Wylie Lenz, Generation Zombie: Essays on the Living Dead in

Modern Culture (McFarland, 2011), 56.

Smith

37

64 Michael Reibel, “White Flight/Black Flight: The Dynamics of Racial Change in an

American Neighborhood By Rachael A. Woldoff Cornell University Press. 2011. 240 Pages.

$22.95 Paper,” Social Forces 93, no. 4 (June 1, 2015): e110–e110, doi:10.1093/sf/sot012.

65 Justin Ponder, “Dawn of the Different: The Mulatto Zombie in Zack Snyder’s Dawn of

the Dead,” The Journal of Popular Culture 45, no. 3 (June 1, 2012): 559, doi:10.1111/j.1540-

5931.2012.00944.x.

66 Chera Kee, “Good Girls Don’t Date Dead Boys: Toying with Miscegenation in Zombie

Films,” Journal of Popular Film and Television 42, no. 4 (October 2, 2014): 7,

doi:10.1080/01956051.2014.881772.

67 Robert J Smith, Braaaiiinnnsss!: From Academics to Zombies ([Ottawa]: University of

Ottawa Press, 2011), 77.

68 Ibid., 78.

69 Romero, Night of the Living Dead.


71 Zulema Valdez, “The Abandoned Promise of Civil Rights,” Sociological Forum 30 (June 1,

2015): 612–26, doi:10.1111/socf.12180.

72 Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, 8–9.


74 Kay, Zombie Movies, 132.


76 Bishop, How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture, 26–28.

77 George A. Romero, Day of the Dead, videorecording, Horror (United Film Distribution

Company, 1985).

Smith

38

78 Ibid.

79 Cohen, “Hearth of Darkness,” 178.

80 Romero, Day of the Dead.

81 Ibid.


83 Ibid., 160.

84 Kee, “Good Girls Don’t Date Dead Boys,” 1–3.

85 Ponder, “Dawn of the Different,” 551.

86 Kee, “Good Girls Don’t Date Dead Boys,” 178.

87 Susan Christianne Courtney, “Hollywood’s Fantasy of Miscegenation” (Ph.D.,

University of California, Berkeley, 1997), 4,

http://search.proquest.com/docview/304350112/abstract/76BF4380FB2F4BFFPQ/1.

88 Gerry Canavan, “‘We Are the Walking Dead’: Race, Time, and Survival in Zombie

Narrative,” Extrapolation (pre-2012) 51, no. 3 (Fall 2010): 433.

89 Bob Balaban, My Boyfriend’s Back (Buena Vista Pictures, 1993).

90 Kee, “Good Girls Don’t Date Dead Boys,” 183–184.

91 Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, “White Zombies,” Key & Peele (Comedy

Central, 2012), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xyhVO-‐SWfM.

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