However, many southern states found ways around the laws to disenfranchise the black populations. They did this by introducing a ‘Grandfather Clause’, which is that only people whose grandfather voted, gave them the ability to vote. Also literacy test was another method used, which in most ways wasn’t made fairly and even well educated people were disenfranchised and not allowed to vote. However, in 1946 President Truman established The President’s Committee on ‘Civil rights’, producing a report examining the experiences of racial minorities in America. The report was called ‘To Secure These Rights’, this report highlighted the problems facing African Americans and proposed radical changes to make American society better.
The characters we critiqued in film criticism class portrayed such different and unique styles of acting to their singing, dancing, race, and all of the above. However, before my process and journey through the exploration of the films, I believed that African Americans were depicted in a negative way but never to the extreme of which I learned in Film Criticism class. Before I took this course, I do feel as if African Americans were portrayed as positivity in past and current films. My reason for this opinion is because even though we may not have as much freedom and opportunities in today’s film industry, I feel as if a lot of the characters and roles that blacks played in the past were conveyed to the audience with passion, control, inspiration,
So, even though they took a step forward in equality outside of the south, it didn’t really help that much as they couldn’t do much with the vote because of the attitudes shown towards blacks from whites. This also links to segregation shown outside the south, even though it was no longer the law. The Second World War was not a turning point for African Americans because even though segregation was not a law in the states outside the south, they still suffered with De Facto segregation. This happened in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia and Detroit. The black population of such cities was concentrated in ghetto areas, where homes and schools for blacks were inferior to those for whites.
Zook stressed that just like the Jacksons, other African American had great hopes for starting broadcasting and cable ventures; but very few have been succeeded. Zook expresses that African American programmers have troubled perceptions of what black audiences really want. Zook says some programmers think black people like to watch their lifestyles. Zook wrote an essay for The New York Times Sunday magazine, describing her account of no African American owned television and radio. Zook later said those that thought black people preferred gum-smacking, jive-talking sitcoms were proven wrong once again.
Thus, there are very few representations of African Americans which is why the black community is sensitive to the images that are being portrayed through the media. There are constant efforts to create television shows and movies that convey the black family in a more positive light. However, many of the shows that are supposed to counteract the stereotypes only assist in further perpetuating them. The first representations of African Americans as inferior in pop culture were the Jim Crow characters of the 1850’s. The irony was that the Jim Crow characters were not actually black actors, instead they were white actors that were covered in black paint that portrayed African Americans
Flory suggests, that because racial (and other) minorities have often been denied the recognition and rights due them as full-fledged human beings, reflecting on their situation through engaging with black film characters can prompt a deeper, more philosophical sort of reflection. These films "may provoke us to think deeply about fundamental human questions, such as what it is to be a human being or what acknowledgement of another as a full-fledged person might involve" (Flory, 2008). It is in this respect that the two films can find commonalities worthy of discussion. Spike Lee presents the characters in Do the Right Thing as real people, in a neighborhood that could be one of many communities in New York and as such is relatable to urban viewers. Mookie, for example could resemble a typical person known by many.
These laws denied black Americans the equal rights of white citizens which re-imposed white supremacy and meant they remained as second-class citizens. It wasn’t only the Jim Crow laws but under the Fifteenth Amendment, black people had the legal right to vote throughout America. Nonetheless, the southern states found devious ways to disenfranchise the local black population. For example, some states introduced a grandfather clause, which meant that people could only vote if their grandfathers had been able to vote. Other states introduced literacy tests as criteria for voting.
Ceyde Santiago Essay Option 3 Cultures and Diversities The “American Skinheads” film sort of discussed me. I feel the American race is based on German, English, Polish and many other nationalities; to say the white is right, there is now exact nationality for white. “Inside the New Black Panthers” film I was disturbing as well. For African American people to march around saying “black power” and making people aware of them and how they feel about white people is wrong. The first people on American soil were not white people and they were not black people.
After the war, there was still no liberty for blacks; in fact, the colonists disliked the idea of granting freedom to Blacks that they refused their offer to fight on the side of the patriots. George Washington had turned down the requests of blacks, seeking freedom, to fight in the Revolutionary army. Furthermore, many other rights, such as the right of, "no taxation without representation” was violated even after the war. Actually, after the war, the majority of the population still lacked representation, because voting was restricted to land owning, white males, which only made up a fraction of the population. "The Continental Congress, which governed the colonies through the war, was dominated by rich men.
Throughout the course of this reflection paper, I will attempt to analyze many aspects of the film from how these stereotypes and other channels of racist pop culture affected the general perception of African-Americans to how it actually affects African-Americans now in their everyday lives. Firstly, let us discuss the significance of the stereotypes and racial characterizations that were involved with the aforementioned African- American characters involved with the film. A very important character, Sambo, was introduced early in the film. Subsequently, Sambo was portrayed as a docile black man who avoided work, disregarded regarded responsibility and appeared to be