African American Study essay
Cecil White 9/27/11
SWAG 2224 Mid-Term
Like most industries in the United States, the film industry is dominated and controlled by profit. Throughout history, this greed and desire for monetary gain by Hollywood producers, directors, and screenwriters has often come at the expense of African American males, and how they are portrayed and represented in films. One of the earliest examples of this trend was initiated by W.F. Griffith’s A Birth of A Nation. It later perpetuated with films like The Color Purple, She’s Gotta Have It, and Waiting to Exhale. Through these films, the image of black males in the media has been hyper masculated, and in many ways tarnished. A prime example of this may be demonstrated in Byron Hurt’s Beyond Beats and Rhymes. Birth of A Nation was released in 1915, and became a box office hit. In fact, tickets to the film were marketed at about $2.00, which in today’s economy is equivalent to about $30.00 per ticket! People came in “droves” to witness the film; to many, it was regarded as “the media event of a decade.” The film was a huge success to its viewers, including the 18th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, who regarded the film as: “History written in lightening!” However, this success came at a cost, particularly for black men. Throughout the film, African American males, in particular, were made to look like animalistic, lazy, barbaric, rapist savages. Black soldiers in the Civil War were portrayed as violent guerillas, invading peaceful white towns, breaking into quaint southern houses looking for innocent white women and children. Griffith even went so far as to give the soldiers, who were primarily white men with their faces painted
SWAG 2224 Mid-Term
Like most industries in the United States, the film industry is dominated and controlled by profit. Throughout history, this greed and desire for monetary gain by Hollywood producers, directors, and screenwriters has often come at the expense of African American males, and how they are portrayed and represented in films. One of the earliest examples of this trend was initiated by W.F. Griffith’s A Birth of A Nation. It later perpetuated with films like The Color Purple, She’s Gotta Have It, and Waiting to Exhale. Through these films, the image of black males in the media has been hyper masculated, and in many ways tarnished. A prime example of this may be demonstrated in Byron Hurt’s Beyond Beats and Rhymes. Birth of A Nation was released in 1915, and became a box office hit. In fact, tickets to the film were marketed at about $2.00, which in today’s economy is equivalent to about $30.00 per ticket! People came in “droves” to witness the film; to many, it was regarded as “the media event of a decade.” The film was a huge success to its viewers, including the 18th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, who regarded the film as: “History written in lightening!” However, this success came at a cost, particularly for black men. Throughout the film, African American males, in particular, were made to look like animalistic, lazy, barbaric, rapist savages. Black soldiers in the Civil War were portrayed as violent guerillas, invading peaceful white towns, breaking into quaint southern houses looking for innocent white women and children. Griffith even went so far as to give the soldiers, who were primarily white men with their faces painted