BATTLE AGAINST THE "“BURNT-CORK" STEREOTYPE
By Evelyn Sell
he economic and political oppression of the American Negro has received wide publicity in the world press. Even more vicious, however, is the psychological oppression of black people which reaches back hundreds of years. Such psychological oppression has taken many subtle as well as obvious forms within American culture. The end result of white supremacist rationalizations and distortions is deeply rooted anti-Negro prejudices among most white Americans and, also, self-hatred among Negroes themselves.
As Malcolm X said, "The worst crime the white man has committed has been to teach us to hate ourselves. . . our hair, our noses, our skins, our African origins, African identity, African characteristics
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In a New York Times Magazine article, "Africans in Darkest New York," [February 28, 1965] a West African delegate to the United Nations was quoted as saying, "When I came here six years ago I liked a certain Negro girl who lived in Harlem, But she wouldn't go out with me because I came from Africa. She said I looked too bushy and her friends would laugh at her for dating a cannibal. But now «= why, the Negro girls love to go out with us. They come up to us on the street and tell us they are proud of us because we are Africans."
A Negro businessman was quoted in the same article: "Half a dozen years ago tho Negroes were still ashamed of their African heritage; they wanted nothing to do with people who, they felt, had just come out of the trees. But practically all Africa won its freedom while American Negroes were still fighting for the right to sit at lunch counters. Africans are big men in Harlem now."
What caused white and black Americans alike to regard Africans as "cannibals" and people who "had just come out of the trees?" Why are Africans regarded differently today? How has the whole myth of African savagery been tied in with American Negro characteristics? A partial answer to these big questions can be found by a brief examina~ tion of the history of the motion-picture industry's treatment of the Negro as a performer and as subject matter for films. (Hollywood films do not bear the total responsibility, of course, for anti-Negro prejudices but they have played a significant role in creating the stereotyped image of Negroes which most Americans accepted for at least the first half of this century.)
Hollywood Perpetuates the Stereotype
During the early years of silent films (about 1900-1920) all Negroes in movies were played by whites who darkened their skin with burnt cork, The roles played by these pseudo~Negroes were either
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stupid, comical characters or Uncle Toms, the devoted slave who loved his master and "knew his place." In 1914, for the first time, a movie about Negroes actually contained real Negro actors. From then on, with the notable exceptions of "Birth of a Nation" and a few others, the practice of burnt-cork whites was gradually dropped.
This pattern will be repeated many times during the subsequent years, Along with progressive innovations, the old distortions still appear. Bad habits die hard in Hollywood -- as elsewhere,
After World War I, D.W.Griffiths, who had already marked the Negro as an.arch villain in "Birth of a Nation," started the portrayal of comic Negroes as frightened, cowardly ignoramuses, Another series of films during the 1920's used Negroes as savage cannibals and. headhunters. This helped spread the belief that colored persons belonged in the jungles with wild animals. Generally speaking, the 1920's featured Negroes as servants, savages and, occasionally, as scoundrels.
In 1926 the development of sound, synchronized with the film strip, created a revolution in Hollywood. Sound brought the Negro a new role and provided more jobs. Unfortunately, the new era did not have a very auspicious beginning: the first feature-length talkie, the "Jazz Singer," featured Al Jolson singing Southern-style songs: with his face blackened in the traditional burnt-cork manner. But Hollywood, eager to exploit its new technique to the fullest, was quick to see the commercial possibilities of Negro entertainers, In many of the all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing epics, Negro sing ers, dancers and jazz musicians were imported from Broadway and featured prominently. This forward step had its backward connotations -- it reinforced the American myth that the Negro was a happy~go~lucky, laughing, singing child of nature who spent his life rolling his eyes comically and grinning stupidly at the-world.
During the 1930's Hollywood films, reflecting the radical social moods in the United States, produced some admirable departures from the standard stereotypes. Again, these few fine films, incorpor- ‘ating realistic and sympathetic treatments of the Negro, were swamped by a mass of movies depicting the Negro as a half-witted animal,
The themes employed during the 1940's were influenced by the needs of World War II and the desire to promote and depict national unity. During this period Negroes were pushing the "Double V Campaign" -- victory abroad against fascism and victory at home against racism. A number of good films about Negroes were made but they were balanced by the usual tripe. (A good example of the old stereotype was "Gone With the Wind.")
New Developments
Since the end of World War II there have been some shifts in Hollywood's treatment of Negroes as performers and as subject matter. The changes have come about for a number of reasons: intense rivalry
with the new television industry, the importance of the foreign market, policy needs of the U.S.State Department, increased purchasing power of the Negro market and the pressures of the Negro struggle in this country.
For many years Negro performers fought for equal opportunity in the film industry and also for recognition of Negroes as human beings with full dignity. Many outstanding performers turned down roles or turned their backs on Hollywood completely rather than portray stupid servants, scary savages or sly scoundrels. (I interviewed Lena Horne for my high-school newspaper and was very impressed by her impassioned remarks about Hollywood's treatment of Negroes, She had fought for years to play the role of a mulatto in the film "Show Boat" ~~ but with its usual logic, Hollywood cast a fair-skinned white woman in that role.)
The struggle of individual Negro performers was magnified a. thousandfold by the civil-rights revolt that surged up during the last years of the 1950's. With the merging of film and television production, the Freedom Now struggle has affected TV as well as the motion picture, For example, the December 31, 1963, Detroit Free Press reported: "Negro performers have found more and more jobs open to them in television and movies since last summer's racial clashes, The film, 'The New Interns,! will boast some 20 Negro performers.
The December 29, 1963, New York Times reported on a campaign. of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] to gain more jobs within the film industry and gain a fairer treatment of Negroes as subjects of films. "Almost every year for a quarter of a century there had been meetings between representatives of the studios and local Negro organizations. These sessions invariably ended with glib promises -- followed by a few more jobs as extras or as bit players for Negroes,"
But in 1963 there was a change. "The N.A.A.C.P. made it clear that the time for stalling was over. It vowed to stage mass demon-=
cutives. . . Soon producers and-directors were trying frantically to use Negroes in sequences, No longer were there scenes of large cities or major league baseball parks that did not have a single Negro in sight,"
Read that last sentence again.
Incredible as it may seem to people who know that it is virtually impossible to photograph an urban street without showing at ‘least a few Negroes, motion pictures and television for years perpetuated a “whites only" myth, By distortions, by omissions, by outright lies the movie and television screens presented a picture of American life that dehumanized, degraded or excluded the Negro,
Two early TV programs that featured Negroes picked up the old
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Hollywood stereotypes: "Amos and Andy" featured two white men with blackened faces and "Beulah" was about a maid who loved her masters dearly.
During 1963 a number of breakthroughs were made in TV dramatic programs and commercials as noted above. Michael H. Dann, vice-president and programming director for the Columbia Broadcasting System, predicted at that time "there will be no role in television that will not be occupied by Negroes in the years to come." Many Negroes were skeptical; the game of token integration had been played too often, Their skepticism was warranted.
During the 1964 season there was no TV program which included a Negro as a regular member of the cast although the previous year "Kast Side, West Side" featured a Negro actress in a continuing role. By the end of 1964 a report from the New York Society for Ethical Culture praised the networks for their civil-rights documentaries (which reflected the Freedom Now struggles going on) and for their increased use of Negroes in commercials but criticized other aspects of TV programming. Daytime serials focussed on white, middle class, Protestant families, Children's shows presented either "stereotyped. images of Negroes or no Negroes at all." Entertainment shows were “lily-white."
The study concluded that "the industry will make changes according to the amount and kind of pressure generated by groups fighting for..civil rights. .- Should the pressure diminish, the industry will decrease the appearance of Negroes,"
THE ETHIOPIAN