Ethnic Notions Essay - Grade: A- PDF

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Saenz 1 Daniela Saenz Ms.Williams ENG3310 2/23/2018 The Truth Revealed with the Help of the Documentary: Ethnic Notions In the outstanding documentary, Ethnic Notions, directed by Marlon Riggs transparently shows its audience a supreme historical lesson from the 1820’s to the 1980’s that enlightens the unidentified knowledge of society to see the truths of the social construction of race, it identifies the evolution of the African American Culture, and reveals the tragic depictions of how an African American man, women, and children were perceived to the masses. As this brutally honest documentary investigates the many stereotypes that existed then and exist now thoroughly, the director discloses how racial discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice originated. Can you guess how? THE MEDIA. Through propaganda of the media, it has destroyed the true representations of African Americans as their portrayals in caricatures, films, and songs, were distorted, skewed, and falsified like no other. As media became one of the most powerful social forces during the 1900’s, as it still is in modern day, these tactics became so notable that it molded popular culture and the prominence of racism grew to become cultural/social normality’s. As this all began with caricatures, the figures, the tea pots, the dolls, and more, it became the conscious notion of how a black person is. But when technology innovated the contriving of TV and film, matters only got worse. Many characters were created in the twentieth century that were beyond popularized in cartoons which were constantly displaying the fabricated reputations of black people for the world to see. For example, the mammy, the coon, the sambo, Uncle-Tom and the pickaninny. Just a quick brief description to see the deception, the sambo was a dependent and irresponsible childlike man who would laugh about everything. The coon was depicted as a lazy unintelligent man who was easily frightened and inarticulate. And lastly but not least, the pickaninny’s were little African American babies who were always shown as bait to alligators and other threatening animals just to show how their lives weren’t valuable. As there were plenty of more stereotypes, they were all extremely insulting and dehumanizing due to the justification of them by white people of all of them being slaves. As television was essentially the main outlet to be the source of information, these representations became reality. Within psychological matters, white people were convinced that was the truth, which manifested so deeply to the point where African Americans did too. Then, this vile situation grew from cartoons being the best caricatures of all time to short motion pictures. The exposure of movies and Hollywood films was the cherry on top to solidify how African Americans weren’t humans; they were beasts, savages, and were a threat to society due to white supremacy. As black face was already popular, it was extremely successful when the stand up’s converted to film which continuously progressed the racial dilemma. For example, in 1927 the movie The Jazz Singer included performances of a white man in black face that was quite appealing to its audience. It was so popular due to the entertainment which concluded that African American’s purpose were solely to serve and entertain until the day they die. These irrational and foolish ideas that were circulated due to motion pictures was permeated in America’s psyche and was implemented in Hollywood to repeatedly be shown over and over again to assure that these repulsive stereotypes were not only acceptable but funny as well. Movies like Birth of a Nation became a part of popular culture as it assisted the notion of the mind and its understanding to think destructively against black culture.

Saenz 2 Now, to continue my argument, I hope the evident relationship between film and popular culture is surfacing. Ongoing with the specificity of African Americans, there were 3 concrete ideologies that was distinctly publicized to popular culture. The first being that all African Americans were savages. As I mentioned this before, this impression was crucial to blacks because society and the ones in power (white males) believed African Americans were descendants of savages which is why they were portrayed as violent, vicious, and heartless on film. They were thought to have no emotions and dangerous. This trope was called the “Black Brute.” Despite the undeniable lie, African Americans were sadly being lynched and killed off. Even so, in the 1920’s and 30’s the “New Negro” character became known which showed them to be intelligent, strive for an education, and remarkably strong but the old ideas were just as persistent and shown. Secondly, “all black is ugly.” From the beginnings of the caricatures and film, blacks were presented with excessively huge lips and noses. The famous role “the mammy” was characterized as the sweet maternal caring maid of the white household who was very large, not attractive with bulging eyes, and ultimately asexual. A movie of example would be the mammy in The Little Colonel or Imitation of Life. She had to be characterized as ugly to not be a threat to the master’s wife even though this wasn’t true at all. Blacks were always compared to the standard of beauty but through the distortions and unrealistic photos, it signified ugliness. Thirdly, all black servants were happy servants. Does that make any sense at all? From prevalent Hollywood films like Gone with the Wind, African Americans were shown in some sort of neat uniform-like costume with a big smile on their faces when they serve and entertain. Regardless of how bad their masters would disrespect them and treat them, their duties were done happily. They seemed happy to be confined and bossed around. This gave society the assumption that African Americans love to be slaves when this is so far from the truth. With my claims and others that I haven’t declared, are all to argue the fact that film is a passive media. To explain this topic more vividly, passive media is traditional and visual mediums (movies, TV shows, radio, newspaper, etc.) that consist of no user or viewer participation. It usually has a direct influence to the audience due to the fact that the producers express whatever content and message they want to exhibit without any interruptions or an option to be open-minded or skip the concepts. The problem with passive media is, its filled with questionable and fallacious content. There is violence, sex, and clearly all the racism I just dissected, which all it does is reinforce the stereotype or trope. A way to look at it is passive media being a one-sided ignorant conversation due to not receiving any feedback as it seems unchallengeable. From many years of research, we all know that the influence of mass media is what shapes our reality which ultimately shapes our culture. The media affects us all by controlling, mitigating, enhancing, and negatively/positively impacting individuals lives every day. The passive viewers believe what they hear and see which is why racism and discrimination has been around for 200 years. Speaking in terms of history, in the 1920’s when films were the main entertainment for people to escape the tragedies that they were going through, 26 million Americans were going to the movies each week! The young Americans would try to copy what they saw and dreamed of a better life whether rich or poor, black or white. Passive media is still a source of information for us whether the content is true or not, it’s what we rely on. So imagine how it was for society back then when there was a huge lack of education compared to now. In conclusion, the moral of this essay is that film and popular culture is observably intertwined with one another. Our culture develops from what we see, hear, and experience in our environment and our environment comes with art, traditions, beliefs, laws, and values. Through the documentary Ethnic Notions, it shows how dangerous passive media can be. As the

Saenz 3 1800’s and 1900’s were horrendous times, the stereotypes from the media are still shown today. For example, the “black mambo.” There are many Hollywood films that show African Americans as detectives yet they capitalize them as still being violent which demonstrates the monstrosities of the past. Even though popular culture adopted to new politics, racism is significantly relevant. In order to fix this mass issue of oppression, it must start with the psychological aspect by defusing these old habits to move forward to a world of equality....