Representations of Racism, Policing, or Immigration in Film PEER EDITING DRAFT

TEACHING RESISTANCE

THE RACIAL POLITICS OF MASS MEDIA

When I began the process of education for critical

consciousness to radicalize my thinking and action,

I relied on the writings and life practices of Malcolm X, Paulo

Freire, Albert Memmi, Frantz Fanon, Amical Cabral, Walter

Rodney, and a host of other thinkers. The work of these

teachers and political mentors led me to think about the

absence of a discourse on colonialism in the United States.

When thinking about the kind of language commonly evoked

to talk about black experience in white supremacist capitalist

patriarchal North America, I was often struck by the perva-

sive use of euphemisms, words like "Jim Crow," "Uncle

Tom," "Miss Ann," etc. These colorful terms obscured the

underlying structures of domination that kept white suprem-

acy in place. By socializing white and black citizens in the

United States to think of racism in personal terms, individu-

als could think of it as having more to do with inherent

prejudicial feelings than with a consciously mapped-out strat-

egy of domination that was systematically maintained. Even

though African Americans in the United States had no coun-

108

bell hooks From Killing Rage: Ending Racism (1995)

TEACHING RESISTANCE | 109

try, whites took over and colonized; as a structure of domina-

tion that is defined as the conquest and ownership of a

people by another, colonialism aptly describes the process

by which blacks were and continue to be subordinated by

white supremacy.

In the beginning black folks were most effectively colo-

nized via a structure of ownership. Once slavery ended, white

supremacy could be effectively maintained by the institution-

alization of social apartheid and by creating a philosophy of

racial inferiority that would be taught to everyone. This strat-

egy of colonialism needed no country, for the space it sought

to own and conquer was the minds of whites and blacks. As

long as a harsh brutal system of racial apartheid was in place,

separating blacks from whites by laws, coercive structures of

punishment, and economic disenfranchisement, many black

people seemed to intuitively understand that our ability to

resist racist domination was nurtured by a refusal of the colo-

nizing mindset. Segregation enabled black folks to maintain

oppositional worldviews and standpoints to counter the ef-

fects of racism and to nurture resistance. The effectiveness

of those survival strategies was made evident by both civil

rights movements and the militant resistance that followed

in their wake. This resistance to colonialism was so fierce, a

new strategy was required to maintain and perpetuate white

supremacy. Racial integration was that strategy. It was the

setting for the emergence of neo-colonial white supremacy.

Placed in positions of authority in educational structures

and on the job, white people could oversee and eradicate

organized resistance. The new neo-colonial environment gave

white folks even greater access and control over the African-

American mind. Integrated educational structures were the

locations where whites could best colonize the minds and

imaginations of black folks. Television and mass media were

110 I KILLING RAGE

the other great neo-colonial weapons. Contemporary African

Americans often ponder how it is possible for the spirit of

resistance to be so diminished today even though the struc-

tures of our lives continue to be shaped and informed by

the dictates of white supremacy. The spirit of resistance that

remained strong from slavery to the militant sixties was dis-

placed when whites made it seem as though they were truly

ready to grant black folks social equality, that there were

indeed enough resources to go around, that the imperialist

wealth of this country could be equitably shared. These as-

sumptions were easy to believe given the success of sixties

black militant struggle. By the time the bubble burst, collec-

tively black folks had let our guard down and a more insidi-

ous colonization of our minds began to take place. While the

Eurocentric biases taught to blacks in the educational system

were meant to socialize us to believe in our inherent inferior-

ity, it was ultimately the longing to have access to material

rewards granted whites (the luxury and comfort represented

in advertising and television) that was the greatest seduction.

Aping whites, assimilating their values (i.e., white suprema-

cist attitudes and assumptions) was clearly the way to achieve

material success. And white supremacist values were pro-

jected into our living rooms, into the most intimate spaces

of our lives by mass media. Gone was any separate space

apart from whites where organized militant resistance could

emerge. Even though most black communities were and re-

main segregated, mass media bring white supremacy into our

lives, constantly reminding us of our marginalized status.

With the television on, whites were and are always with

us, their voices, values, and beliefs echoing in our brains. It

is this constant presence of the colonizing mindset passively

consumed that undermines our capacity to resist white su-

premacy by cultivating oppositional worldviews. Even though

TEACHING RESISTANCE | 111

most African Americans do not identify with the experiences

of whites in real life or have intimate relationships with them,

these boundaries are crossed when we sit facing the televi-

sion. When television was first invented and many black folks

could not afford TVs or did not have the luxury of time to

consume representations of whiteness all day long, a barrier

still existed between the value system of the dominant white

culture and the values of most black folks. That barrier was

torn down when televisions entered every living room. Mov-

ies function in a similar way. Not surprising, when black

Americans were denied easy access to white movies, black

cinema thrived. Once the images of whiteness were available

to everyone there was no black movie-going audience starv-

ing for black images. The hunger to see black folks on the

screen had been replaced by the desire to be close to the

Hollywood image, to whiteness. No studies have been done

that I know of which look at the role mass media have played

since 1960 in perpetuating and maintaining the values of

white supremacy. Constantly and passively consuming white

supremacist values both in educational systems and via pro-

longed engagement with mass media, contemporary black

folks, and everyone else in this society, are vulnerable to a

process of overt colonization that goes easily undetected. Acts

of blatant racism are rarely represented in mass-media im-

ages. Most television shows suggest via the liberal dialogues

that occur between white characters, or racially integrated

casts, that racism no longer serves as a barrier. Even though

there are very few black judges in the United States, televi-

sion courtroom dramas cast black characters in these roles

in ways so disproportionate to the reality that it is almost

ludicrous. Yet the message sent to the American public and

folks all over the world watching American TV is that our

legal system has triumphed over racial discrimination, that

112 | KILLING RAGE

not only is there social equality but that black folks are often

the ones in power. I know of no studies that have examined

the role television has played in teaching white viewers that

racism no longer exists. Many white folks who never have

intimate contact with black folks now feel that they know

what we are like because television has brought us into their

homes. Whites may well believe that our presence on the

screen and in their intimate living spaces means that the

racial apartheid that keeps neighborhoods and schools segre-

gated is the false reflection and that what we see on televi-

sion represents the real.

Currently black folks are often depicted on television in

situations where they charge racist victimization and then the

viewer is bombarded with evidence that shows this to be a

trumped-up charge, that whites are indeed far more caring

and able to be social equals than "misguided" blacks realize.

The message that television sends then is that the problem

of racism lies with black people—that it exists in our minds

and imaginations. On a recent episode of Law and Order a

white lawyer directs anger at a black woman and tells her,

"If you want to see the cause of racism, look in the mirror."

Television does not hold white people responsible for white

supremacy; it socializes them to believe that subjugation and

subordination of black people by any means necessary is es-

sential for the maintenance of law and order. Such thinking

informed the vision of white folks who looked at the tape

showing the brutal beating of Rodney King by a group of

white men and saw a scenario where he was threatening

white lives and they were merely keeping the peace.

Movies also offer us the vision of a world where white

folks are liberal, eager to be social equals with blacks. The

message of films like Grand Canyon, Lethal Weapon, The

Bodyguard, and a host of other Hollywood films is that

TEACHING RESISTANCE | 113

whites and blacks live together in harmony. Contemporary

Hollywood films that show strife between races situate the

tension around criminal behavior where black characters may exist as good or bad guys in the traditional racist cowboy

scenario but where most whites, particularly heroic ones, are

presented as capable of transcending the limitations of race.

For the most part television and movies depict a world

where blacks and whites coexist in harmony although the

subtext is clear; this harmony is maintained because no one

really moves from the location white supremacy allocates to

them on the race-sex hierarchy. Denzel Washington and Julia

Roberts may play opposite one another in The Pelican Brief

but there will not be a romance. True love in television and

movies is almost always an occurrence between those who share the same race. When love happens across boundaries

as in The Bodyguard, Zehrahead, or A Bronx Tale, it is

doomed for no apparent reason and/or has tragic conse-

quences. White and black people learning lessons from mass

media about racial bonding are taught that curiosity about

those who are racially different can be expressed as long as

boundaries are not actually crossed and no genuine intimacy

emerges. Many television viewers of all races and ethnicities

were enchanted by a series called I'll Fly Away which high-

lighted a liberal white family's struggle in the South and the

perspective of the black woman who works as a servant in

their home. Even though the series is often centered on the

maid, her status is never changed or challenged. Indeed she

is one of the "stars" of the show. It does not disturb most

viewers that at this moment in history black women continue

to be represented in movies and on television as the servants

of whites. The fact that a black woman can be cast in a

dramatically compelling leading role as a servant does not

intervene on racist/sexist stereotypes, it reinscribes them.

114 | KILLING RAGE

Hollywood awarded its first Oscar to a black person in 1939

when Hattie McDaniel won as Best Supporting Actress in

Gone With the Wind. She played the maid. Contemporary

films like Fried Green Tomatoes and Passion Fish, which

offer viewers progressive visions of white females, still image

black women in the same way—as servants. Even though the

black female "servant" in Passion Fish comes from a middle-

class background, drug addiction has led to her drop in status.

And the film suggests that working secluded as the caretaker

of a sick white woman redeems the black woman. It was

twenty-four years after McDaniel won her Oscar that the

only black man to ever receive this award won Best Actor.

Sidney Poitier won for his role in the 1960s film Lilies of

the Field. In this film he is also symbolically a "mammy" figure, playing an itinerant worker who caretakes a group of

white nuns. Mass media consistently depict black folks either

as servants or in subordinate roles, a placement which still

suggests that we exist to bolster and caretake the needs of

whites. Two examples that come to mind are the role of the

black female FBI agent in The Silence of the Lambs, whose

sole purpose is to bolster the ego of the white female lead

played by Jodie Foster. And certainly in all the Lethal

Weapon movies Danny Glover's character is there to be the

buddy who because he is black and therefore subordinate

can never eclipse the white male star. Black folks confront

media that include us and subordinate our representation to

that of whites, thereby reinscribing white supremacy.

While superficially appearing to present a portrait of racial

social equality, mass media actually work to reinforce as-

sumptions that black folks should always be cast in support-

ing roles in relation to white characters. That subordination

is made to appear "natural" because most black characters are

consistendy portrayed as always a little less ethical and moral

TEACHING RESISTANCE | 115

than whites, not given to rational reasonable action. It is not

surprising that it is those black characters represented as didac-

tic figures upholding the status quo who are portrayed as pos-

sessing positive characteristics. They are rational, ethical, moral

peacemakers who help maintain law and order.

Significantly, the neo-colonial messages about the nature

of race that are brought to us by mass media do not just

shape whites' minds and imaginations. Thev socialize black

and other non-white minds as well. Understanding the power

of representations, black people have in both the past and

present challenged how we are presented in mass media,

especially if the images are perceived to be "negative," but

we have not sufficiently challenged representations of black-

ness that are not obviously negative even though they act to

reinforce white supremacy. Concurrently, we do not chal-

lenge the representations of whites. We were not outside

movie theaters protesting when the white male lead charac-

ter in Paris Trout brutally slaughters a little black girl (even

though I can think of no other image of a child being brutally

slaughtered in a mainstream film) or when the lead character

in A Perfect World played by Kevin Costner terrorizes a

black family who gives him shelter. Even though he is a

murderer and an escaped convict, his character is portrayed

sympathetically whereas the black male father is brutally tor-

tured presumably because he is an unloving, abusive parent.

In A Perfect World both the adult white male lead and the

little white boy who stops him from killing the black man are

shown to be ethically and morally superior to black people.

Films that present cinematic narratives that seek to inter-

vene in and challenge white supremacist assumption, whether

they are made by black or white folks, tend to receive nega-

tive attention or none at all. John Sayles's film The Brother

from Another Planet successfully presented a black male

116 | KILLI>G RAGE

character in a lead role whose representation was opposi-

tional. Rather than portraying a black male as a sidekick of

a more powerful white male, or as a brute and sex fiend, he

offered us the image of a gentle, healing, angelic black male

spirit. John Waters's film Hairspray was able to reach a larger

audience. In this movie, white people choose to be anti-

racist, to critique white privilege. Jim Jarmusch's film Mys-

tery Train is incredibly deconstructive of racist assumptions.

When the movie begins we witness a young Japanese couple

arriving at the bus station in Memphis who begin to speak

Japanese with a black man who superficially appears to be

indigent. Racist stereotypes and class assumptions are chal-

lenged at this moment and throughout the film. White privi-

lege and lack of understanding of the politics of racial

difference are exposed. Yet most viewers did not like this

film and it did not receive much attention. Julie Dash's film

Daughters of the Dust portrayed black folks in ways that

were radically different from Hollywood conventions,. Many

white viewers and even some black viewers had difficulty

relating to these images. Radical representations of race in

television and movies demand that we be resisting viewers

and break our attachment to conventional representations.

These films, and others like them, demonstrate that film and

mass media in general can challenge neo-colonial representa-

tions that reinscribe racist stereotypes and perpetuate white su-

premacy. If more attention were given these films, it would

show that aware viewers long for mass media that act to chal-

lenge and change racist domination and white supremacy.

Until all Americans demand that mass media no longer

serve as the biggest propaganda machine for white suprem-

acy, the socialization of everyone to subliminally absorb white

supremacist attitudes and values will continue. Even though

many white Americans do not overtly express racist thinking,

TEACHING RESISTANCE | 117

it does not mean that their underlying belief structures have

not been saturated with an ideology of difference that says

white is always, in every way, superior to that which is black.

Yet so far no complex public discourse exists that explains

the difference between that racism which led whites to enjov

lynching and murdering black people and that wherein a

white person may have a black friend or lover yet still believe

black folks are intellectually and morally inferior to whites.

Mainstream media's endorsement of The Bell Curve by

Richard J.

Herrnstein and Charles Murray reflects the Amer-

ican public's willingness to support racist doctrine that repre-

sents black people as genetically inferior. Anti-racist white

male thinker and activist Edward Herman reminds us of the

danger of such acceptance in his essay "The New Racist

Onslaught":

Built on black slavery, with segregation and poverty

helping reinforce stereotypes after 1865, racism has deep

and persistent roots in this country. Today, racist Bob

Grant has a radio audience of 680,000 in New York City,

and racist Rush Limbaugh has a supportive audience of

millions (extending to Supreme Court Justice Clarence

Thomas). Reagan with his repeated imagers' of black wel-

fare mothers exploiting the taxpayer, Bush with Willie Hor-

ton and the menace of "quotas," and a slew of code words

bandied about by politicians, show that polarizing racist

language and political strategies are acceptable and even

integral parts of mainstream culture today.

When black psyches are daily bombarded by mass media

representations that encourage us to see white people as

more caring, intelligent, liberal, etc., it makes sense that

many of us begin to internalize racist thinking.

118 | KILLING RAGE

Without an organized resistance movement that focuses

on the role of mass media in the perpetuation and mainte-

nance of white supremacy, nothing will change. Boycotts re-

main one of the most effective ways to call attention to this

issue. Picketing outside theaters, turning off the television

set, writing letters of protest are all low-risk small acts that

can become major interventions. Mass media are neither

neutral nor innocent when it comes to spreading the message

of white supremacy. It is not far-fetched for us to assume

that many more white Americans would be anti-racist if they

were not socialized daily to embrace racist assumptions.

Challenging mass media to divest of white supremacy should

be the starting point of a renewed movement for racial

justice.