Pop Culture Portrayal of African-Americans

Academic Paper #2

By Jonathan Aaron Clark 3/13/2013 COMM 2150 SEC 001

Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? This rhetorical question just about sums up the effect and confusion that popular culture has on our country and the way we think and interpret social trends. One only has to watch a few hours of television to get an idea of what is popular and hip today but it begs the question of whether or not it truly represents the attitudes and trends of society. Popular culture is best represented today through television and movies. The question is just how accurate and fair is that representation and does it negatively affect attitudes of those who consume this type of popular culture? Television has changed over the years in both the levels of choice and content due in part to the expansion of televisions reach through cable and satellite. Before the days of HBO and FX the public was limited in choice to whatever programming stations like NBC, CBS, and ABC would offer. The level of control and the type of culture that was being presented was evident in the many family type offerings that were being represented in television shows. From Leave it to Beaver to Full House, the public was subjected to decades of shows dedicated to showing the problems of white, middle class America. Though it could be argued that due to the high ratings of those type of shows that this is exactly what America wanted to see and associated the best with, it was likely simply due to a lack of choice. The lack of programming choices often left minorities that were not part of the white middle class feeling left out and at best misrepresented. In the textbook Communications in Contexts (1) it references how African American women were portrayed stereotypically on TV, specifically in the 1950s and 1960s, when the roles they held were secondary. Scholar Bishetta Merritt reminds us that African American female characters often appeared as people buying drugs, homeless and destitute, and as prostitutes. This of course was a misrepresentation of African American woman and white women were not shown in a similar light. Rather white women were generally portrayed as the happy, organized housewife, quite often the voice of reason in most shows. This was a dangerous trend that led to inaccurate and negative attitudes. In the textbook Communications in Contexts (2) Film studies scholar Richard Dyer tells us that

the effectiveness of stereotypes resides in the way the invoke a consensus...the stereotype is taken to express a general agreement about a social group This type of popular culture in the form of television was detrimental to cultural attitudes. However with the expansion of cable and satellite television we now have a much more diverse offering of channels and are no longer held hostage to whatever the major networks want to show. Cable channels like BET and Spike TV show a more diverse and accurate side of African American culture and offer a better representation of what African American roles in society really are. The major network channels have seen the popularity of minority infused shows and their programming options have dramatically changed from the days of Full House where a minority was a curious entity that was more than a sideshow. Today popular culture is more accurately reflected in television and gives credibility to those who would say that art imitates life. Hollywood has also had a negative effect with popular culture through movies with the same type of stereotypes and misconceptions being inserted in movies during the same era when television was limited in choice. What was most damning about the how long it took for the film industry to adapt to was the fact there has always been a wide choice of movies available to the public. Despite that the film industry continued to show films that portrayed blacks in demeaning roles for far longer that it should have. Ever since its inception, the cinema has influenced the way moviegoers view life. This was an especially powerful reality in early Hollywood films, which depicted their own interpretation of social mores and moral proclivities to mesmerized, largely naive audiences who accepted what they saw on the screen as truth. Hollywood began to become a force around or after 1910. During this era, racism and prejudicial concepts of African-Americans was the status quo in much of the United States. It was of no surprise, then, that these stilted viewpoints would be transferred over into the films produced by movie studios. Much like television the portrayal of African-Americans in the movies created a negative and inaccurate pop culture specifically

with Hollywood using white actors to play darker skinned characters as blackface. This was a contributing factor to the pop culture of the time that insinuated that African-Americans were nothing more than submissive servants. Eventually the use of blackface was discontinued due to calls of bigotry and racism but the damage was done. Even as African-American actors began to rise in stature the film industry refused to acknowledge the roles of black actors at the Academy Awards. Many within the industry speculate that it was because most of the Academy voters were older, white men. However the lack of acknowledgement to the many talents of the African-American actor helped to build a culture of thinking that white people were better actors. It seems as though unless the African American actors and actresses are willing to bend to Hollywood pressures they will not be acknowledged by the Academy, "Sidney Poitier originally turned down the role of Porgy in the 1959 film (calling it 'not material complimentary to black people')", but eventually succumbed to Hollywood pressure. Years later, Sidney Poitier received an honorary 2010 Academy Award for helping to "dismantle the color line in film (3) During that era it was definitely a case of life imitating art as those type of roles and lack of accolades for the African-American actor led to a false sense of what African-American were and what they are capable of in the eyes of the viewer both black and white. However times have started to slowly change in the film industry and we are finally starting to see examples of art imitating life thanks to such prominent African-American director such as Spike Lee and Tyler Perry. Both directors have found favor with Hollywood by showing the powers that be that making a film that is both true to the culture and targeted towards a black audience could be profitable and in Hollywood money talks.

Although it took almost a century even Disney caught up with the turning tide of a pop culture that was starting to accurately portray African-Americans. In 2009 Disney released the animated film The Princess and the Frog that for the first time in Disney history starred a black princess

named Taina. With that film many people began to believe that that the color barrier is breaking down in Hollywood. (4) For many African-Americans this represented a long awaited break through in black pop culture because it meant that prominent black characters didnt have to exist only in a Spike Lee or Tyler Perry movie targeted towards blacks. It showed that a black character could be targeted to a mainstream audience, the true test of pop culture and a sign that truly art was finally imitating life when it came to African-Americans. Although its a travesty that change has taken as long as it has in regards to how AfricanAmericans are portrayed through pop culture the times are changing and they are changing fast. A majority of people may still see the thin line between Hollywood's "new" attitude toward race and their "old" attitude toward race. The consolidation of a black presence in the movies and television did not signal the arrival of a post racial Hollywood any more than the election of Barack Obama in 2008 spelled the end of Americas 400-year-old racial drama. (5) However change occurs at a slower and often hypocritical pace when it comes to minority groups as the majority groups are slow to let go of their power. This trend of diverse pop culture will continue to flourish as Hollywood continues to see there is money to be made, and this is how society gets to art finally imitating life.

References

(1) Communications in Contexts by Judith N. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama (pg. 374)

(2) Communications in Contexts by Judith N. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama (pg. 373)

(3) Dargis, Manohla (11 February 2011). "Hollywood Whiteout". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2012.

(4) Barnes, Brooks (19 October 2008). "Race and the safe Hollywood Bet". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2012.

(5) Dargis, Manohla (11 February 2011). "Hollywood Whiteout". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2012.