How Black Individuals Have Been Shown Throughout the History of Slavery: The “Black Affect” V.S. “The Black Condition”
Picture this: The year is 1915, and you are a black man in America. The country is still in the swings of racism and prejudice against African Americans stemming from a history of slavery that has only officially ended under 60 years ago. In addition to a general mindset of racism, the United States is currently in a time period known as the segregation era.
This era, known for its separation of white and black people in most aspects of life, was a particularly hard time for black Americans because they were forced to reinvent their own lifestyle in the absence of slavery. However, systematic racism targeted black people meaning that finding this way of life was nearly impossible. Very few credible businesses even thought about hiring black people, and many industries were not supportive of black culture. Insert the film industry. As we know from modern-day cinema, the film industry has never been against breaking the status quo or reflecting the underground yet true nature of the national mindset. Given the struggle of black people at this time, I decided to ask the question, “How has the portrayal of race relations changed in the world of cinema?”
At first thought, this question seems very open-ended; however, I have boiled this depiction down to two different categories. “The Black Effect” and the “Black Condition.” To truly understand the difference between these two, I looked at various films and journals that dissect how black life has been shown throughout the years. The first film that I looked at was The Birth of a Nation by D. W. Griffith, which, in fact, came out in 1915. To give a brief synopsis, this film was made to categorize the way that black males were seen in white America. Specifically, this film was somewhat of a public service announcement to warn white women about the dangers of black men.
I would consider this film to show the black affect because instead of telling the story of the black life, it tells the story of the white life and how black people affect it. Coupling this way of depiction with the overall theme of racism at the time, it is clear that this film posed many issues of racism for those who saw racism as a legitimate problem. The group that first posed questions about Birth of a Nation was the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) which had only been founded six years prior to this film coming out. In a journal written in 2015, Melvin Stokes writes,
The Los Angeles NAACP objected to the film on five grounds: that it revived the issues of the Civil War period, simultaneously belittling the North and the cause of liberty; that it made the black man “look hideous” and invested him “with the most repulsive habits and depraved passions”; that it was immoral in suggesting an illicit relationship between Stoneman and his mulatto servant; that the confrontation between the “Little Colonel” and black soldiers encouraged the perception that differences between the races might best b e solved through violence; and that the scene of the meeting of Silas Lynch, the mulatto politician, and the “Little Colonel” was “calculated to excite feelings of animosity between the races.
Besides the NAACP, all five of these issues were at the forefront of black people’s minds. What struck me the most was the idea that the film “made the black man ‘look hideous.’” After some thought, I wondered if this statement was more focused on the acts of black men or if it was focused on the literal depiction of black men in the film. An interesting aspect of this is the use of black face throughout the film.
Black face has been a very prevalent issue in modern history; however, in 1915, it was a normalized practice. As I stated earlier, black people were not allowed to join specific industries, and film was no exception. To make up for the lack of black people on set, directors at the time often had their actors paint black on their faces to give the impression that they were black in the film. As early as 1909, black people began to recognize black face for the harmful practice that it was and began to denounce it all together. Charlie Regester talks about this idea in ‘Michaux and His Circle.’ “The press played a dual role in its response, both denouncing the negative screen representations and encouraging African Americans to assert themselves in the industry by becoming actors, actresses, filmmakers, producers, directors, and technicians.”
What is slightly revolutionary about this is that by being uncomfortable with the idea of black face, people began to recognize that black people can actually be a large part of the film industry.
From 1915 to the early 1940’s many things changed. For starters, the segregation era was beginning to end, the great depression had come and left, creating a vast equalization in terms of poverty across racial barriers, and many more black individuals had become a part of the film industry. A modern-day film made in 1996 called “The Watermelon Woman” examines the role of black women in cinema through the 1930s. The protagonist, Cheryl, investigates a fictitious actress known as the Watermelon Woman to highlight the pattern of black women being shown as the “mammy” character through early film. The mere fact that this is being investigated tells me that between the years of 1915 to 1940, the way that black people are being shown has flipped from the effect to the condition. Black people started to be shown as more than what makes up their physical characteristics and more what makes up their way of life.
Another film that perfectly depicts this switch from affect to condition is The Negro Sailor. This film follows an African American employee at a local newspaper and how they transitioned from their normal life to a life in the Navy. What is different about this film in comparison to The Birth of a Nation is the fact that the black characters had more of a sense of development. Black characters were then worthy of a fully developed character arch rather than just being seen in one light.
Now that we have nailed down the fundamental difference between the black affect and the black condition, the question becomes, how do we continue this progression through the modern-day? Many famous movies like Get Out, Miss Juneteenth, and BlacKkKlansman have done a great job of showing the black condition; however, they have been accused of only showing the black struggle. Although it is true that being black in America is not easy, it is not true that every black American has to struggle to fulfill basic needs. A vast majority of black films have been accused of only showing black people in this bad light, and it is rare to see a cinema that does otherwise. One of the most famous examples of cinema highlighting black people in an affluent manner may be The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air by Andy and Suzan Borrowits, starring Will Smith.
While this show does highlight some of the struggles of black people in America, it is set in a mansion owned by the black aunt and black uncle of Will Smith. Although it is hilarious and currently seen as a comedy classic, this show was one of the first popular pieces of cinema that shows black people as more than impoverished and uneducated people.
Perhaps what is the most interesting about this topic is the discrepancy between how white people have been depicted and how black people have been depicted. This investigation has shown me that the film industry to this day is a predominantly white industry that uses the topic of “blackness” as a theme or film topic. Of course, that is a blanket statement, and there are exceptions, but when you look at the trend of black films from the early 1900s to today, it is extremely easy to make that conclusion. In my opinion, the only way that we will be able to change the status quo and start making more black films that show black people who we are rather than who people think we are is by increasing the number of black people in the industry. The topic of “whiteness” is a seldomly used film topic because being white in the film industry has become normalized. If we can now normalize the idea of black people in the film industry, I believe that the fantasized topic of “blackness” in the film will become less of a topic and more of a reality.
Work Cited
Naacp, et al. “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom The Segregation Era (1900–1939).” Library of Congress, 10 Oct. 2014, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/segregation-era.html.
Griffith, D. W., et al. The Birth of a Nation.
Waterman, Richard W. The Dark Side of the Farce: Racism in Early Cinema, 1894–1915.
Stokes, Melvyn. D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation a History of “the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time” . Oxford University Press, 2007.
Fronc, Jennifer. “‘HISTORICAL PRESENTATION’ OR ‘LIBEL TO THE RACE’?: CENSORSHIP AND THE BIRTH OF A NATION.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, vol. 14, no. 4, Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 612–15, doi:10.1017/S1537781415000432.
“National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: Sixth Annual Report, 1915.” Black History Bulletin, vol. 71, no. 2, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc, 2008, p. 19–.
“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Oct. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fresh_Prince_of_Bel-Air.
“The Negro Sailor.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Jan. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Sailor.
Regester, Charlene B. “Micheaux, Oscar.” African American Studies Center, 1999, https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.16892.
“9 Black Filmmaking Pioneers from the Earliest Days of Cinema.” Rotten Tomatoes Movie and TV News 9 Black Filmmaking Pioneers from the Earliest Days of Cinema Comments, https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/black-filmmaking-pioneers-from-the-earliest-days-of-cinema/.
“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion Special Coming to Crave on November 19.” MobileSyrup, 13 Nov. 2020, https://mobilesyrup.com/2020/11/13/fresh-prince-of-bel-air-reunion-crave-canada-november-19/.
