Black Representational Politics In Spike Lee's 'Bamboozled'

Kara Walker is an accomplished black female artist who explores race and gender issues through the historical impact of slavery in a dark manner. She has a distinctive style that utilizes sharp value contrasts between black and white hues that highlight the racial thematic aspect of her artwork. She uses cut paper silhouettes as her medium of choice, popular during antebellum period and lacking an elegant connotation, they were seen as a form of craft. Famous for her cut paper silhouettes and lithograph prints, Walker unapologetically depicts black figures that are reminiscent of minstrel figures in a confrontational way not meant to comfort the viewer. Restraint is a lithograph print created in 2009 that depicts the profile of a black figure

Activist Lens In 1954 Supreme Court unanimously outlawed segregation in public schools in Brown v. Board of Education. Spike Lee the director of “Do the Right Thing” was born a few years after the event of Brown v. Board of Education. Even though he did not experience much segregation he experienced the harshness of racial tension. The issue of racial tension was huge at the time Spike Lee created this film, despite that there was no slavery and segregation was banned, and African Americans were looked down on.

Where do we draw the lines between adoration and mockery, influence and appropriation, and individuality and stereotyping? Accordingly, the racial subject has always been a touchy topic to discuss, but with the lasting effects that the black minstrelsy has left in the society, we most definitely need to deal with the racial subject. Only this way can the American society move forward both as a nation and as a species, and through such efforts, only then can we ensure that such history can never repeat

Although race relations in the United States between whites and African Americans have significantly improved since the abolishment of Jim Crow laws, director Spike Lee’s socially conscious satire, Bamboozled shows that discrimination has only evolved. Released in 2000, the film sought to edify the African American population about the racist and stereotypical treatments blacks endured during the Jim Crow era when they were used to entertain the white masses. Moreover, it also shows how that culture is still propagated today, with African American film makers just as guilty. From the time the first African set foot in the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, race relations have always been whites’ superiority over blacks.

The film Do The Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee, uses various elements of settings, costumes, props and lighting to help convey the film’s overall tone and highlight the complicated issue of racial tension in the early 90’s which is still relevant today. For instance warm red, orange, and yellow lighting is used to show anger and tension which is especially evident in the film’s intro where Tina is dancing in front of a red cityscape. The lighting and costume colors are purposeful in setting the mood in this film. Also, Radio Raheem’s rings, which read “love” and “hate”, are carefully displayed at certain points throughout the film. When confronting Sal in the pizzeria by blasting “Fight the Power” on his boombox, light appears to gleam

In Marlon Riggs’ 1992 documentary film titled Color Adjustment, Riggs, the Emmy winning producer of Ethnic Notions, continues his studies of prejudice in television. The documentary film looks at the years between 1948 and 1988 to analyze how over a 40 year period, race relations are viewed through the lens of prime time entertainment. The film examined many of television’s stereotypes and mythes and how they changed over the years. The one hour and twenty-two minute documentary is narrated by Ruby Dee, the American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist.

The film that I watched for my music appreciate course by the name of Bamboozled is a satire on how the America tends to stereotype African Americans. Even though there are many comedic and humorous bits in this film, there are also very serious social undertones when it comes to the perception of black people in “white America”. One specific and important element that this film uses to portray the racial tension between white and black individuals are minstrel shows. Minstrel shows use to incorporate variety shows, but often had stereotypical and racially offensive towards black people. In a Minstrel show, Caucasians and sometimes African Americans would act out the show in black face.

The documentary The Skin We’re In explores the severity of anti-black racism in Canada. It chronicles Desmond Cole’s journey to spread awareness regarding the issue. I found the video to be very powerful and educational although it was very biased. The Skin We’re

Popular culture, a new name for low culture, refers to cultural products that most people share and know about (Martin and Nakayama 361). Meanwhile, identity is the concept of “who people are”, and people tend to understand the characteristics of identity differently depending on the perspective (Martin and Nakayama 170). By delivering African American identity through a popular culture, the movie may encourage the audience to view African American identity as something equal with other racial

One realizes who he is when in contact with others. One of the main aspect which we should consider when reading Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks is the idea of the self and the other. We define ourselves when in contact with the other. When we take into account one of the main argument of Chapter 5, this idea is enforced. The black man only becomes aware of his blackness when in contact with the white world.

In Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon writes in first person, provides a historical critique stating the detrimental consequences of racism and colonialism in the psyche of the black man. In chapter five, ‘The Fact of Blackness’, he describes the ways in which black people are objectified and the ways in which he realized that he was just an object in the middle of other black objects. The black man’s identity would simply be reduced to a “dirty nigger” or “a Negro”. He goes on to explain how the very glance of the other fixes him in a predominantly white world. When the black man is amongst his own people, there is minimal scope for him to face any internal conflicts when he recognizes himself on the basis of his experience of being through others.

With the arrival of minstrelsy in the U.S., a new brand of entertainment infiltrated the stages and screens of antebellum America. As the theatre and film industry caught on to the concept of blackface, Black actors at the time were faced with a dilemma: perpetuate the racial stereotypes that lingered in the smears of cork oil, or be denied the few roles available to Black performers at the time. In this paper, I argue that this choice, while seemingly simple to today 's audience, was further complicated by the social climate of the time as financial and political barriers to success influenced the Black actor to become complicit in their own oppression. Although Black actors benefited financially by performing in blackface, the unpredicted

Blackface and Yellowface Blackface is part of a history of dehumanization, of denied citizenship, and of efforts to excuse and justify state violence. From lynchings to mass incarceration, whites have utilized blackface (and the resulting dehumanization) as part of its moral and legal justification for violence. It is time to stop with the dismissive arguments those that describe these offensive acts as pranks, ignorance and youthful indiscretions. Blackface is never a neutral form of entertainment, but an incredibly loaded site for the production of damaging stereotypes...the same stereotypes that undergird individual and state violence, American racism, and a centuries worth of injustice. - David J. Leonard, professor of critical culture

The stage version of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’s cabin’ utilises blackface minstrelsy in its production. When white actors wear black-face makeup giving them the impression of huge white eyes and large round mouths all the while speaking in a heavy Southern black accent it is called blackface minstrelsy, it paints a poor image of blacks. When married with a simple plot, blackface minstrelsy successfully highlights racially charged stereotypes with the characters in question becoming representative of this. Stowe was contacted after finishing Uncle Tom’s Cabin about collaborating on a dramatization of her novel. Due to Stowe’s Congregational upbringing she believed that theatre was pointless and as such declined to collaborate.

There are no blatant examples of blackness; afros, fists in the air or red, black and green attire. Further lacking are any signs listing demands, a large group of black bodies walking in unison or black people being attacked by police or dogs. Instead, what the viewer engages with, at the surface level, is an image of a group of black boys sitting on a car in their Sunday’s best. However, closer analysis reveals the