Introduction
The modern American society is consumption-oriented, a case that is essentially fostered by the Media. Therefore, “much of what comes to pass as important is based often on the stories produced and disseminated by media institutions” (Brooks and Lisa ‘Gender, Race and media representation’ 297).
This implies that many of the things that people construct within their minds are articulated to symbols, images, and narratives that are filmed, televised, or even broadcasted in other forms of media. The mediated symbols, images, and even texts create awareness among people of what it infers by being black, Latino, Native American, female, male, white, or even a resident of the urban or rural area.
Media has also the capacity to segment many of these societal differences across gender and race. In simplistic terms, as evidenced by media genres, some movies like Bamboozled that is written and directed by Spike Lee present media as critical in the determination of what shapes social realities of people. In the context of the movie Bamboozled, the paper argues that African-American identity, race, gender, and class are enormously stereotyped.
Stereotype Presentation of African-American Identity, Race, Gender, and Class
Stereotyping of African Americans in the movie Bamboozled is evident even on the casing of the DVD containing it. Right from the beginning, Bamboozled is a satirical movie depicting the modern minstrel show. It features characters that are black. They also wear black faces.
The highlights create and construct the meaning of being black both internally and externally in the mindset of the audience. Though educated at the Harvard University, Delacroix has to undergo myriads of torments acerbated by his white boss (Thomas Dunwitty). As if endeavoring to satirically criticize and make fun out of Delacroix‘s identity as an African- American, Dunwitty talks similarly to the male blacks living in the urban areas.
He also consistently makes use of the word ‘nigger’ in his conversations coupled with proclaiming that he is essentially more black than Delacroix by virtue of the fact that he has married a black American woman and that they both have two children who are of mixed races. While Delacroix creates a TV script portraying black Americans positively, he demises it as “cosby clones” (Lee Bamboozled min.32).
Hence, he rejects it. Angered by this decision and with the aid of Sloane Hopkins, Delacroix decides to create a minstrel show in which he portrays the blacks in the extreme way. The picture shown below is an extract of the scanned promotional posters on the Bamboozled DVD.
Source (Brooks and Lisa ‘Lessons learned or bamboozled?’ 289).
From the promotional poster, African Americans are presented as cannibals as evidenced by the red color. Therefore, the poster implies that African-Americans are merely half human beings and half-animals. In the film, cannibalism motif is implied by the depiction of blacks as having abnormally big teeth that have abnormal gaps in between (Piehowski 14).
When black characters wear black faces, an impression is created to reinforce the stereotypical association of Africa with awful things because black is superimposed with additional blackness. The question that arises here is whether the identity of black people is housed by their pigmentation, or it is expressed through particular mannerisms.
Arguably, if the identity of being black is contained in the skin color, “those who perform the minstrel exaggeration of stereotypical traits become part of black life” (Black 19). Lee may have intended to provide a tool for addressing the abuse and misuse of the African American skin color ‘black’, which is also the identity of this human race particularly through TV depictions.
However, the movie may be argued as having not delivered the satires intended because people would tend to interpret the film as a true depiction of the identity of the African-Americans. Delacroix himself perhaps evidences this fact. He had created the film originally as a means of inciting his boss to fire him over extreme expression of racism.
Unfortunately, he ended up changing his mind to embrace the film as a source of fame and recognition while claiming that it was a satirical piece of work while fully aware of its capacity to profile the identity of the African-Americans in a negative way. Consequently, as Black argues, the film turned out as a reflection of the intense contempt that Delacroix had inside himself pertaining to the black identity (19).
Moreover, Bamboozled characterization raises questions on the African-Americans’ understanding of their race and gender issues. Arguably, although the movie opens by warning the audience to shun from taking things the manner they appear at facial value through Delacroix’s explanation of the meaning of satire, Womack raises questions of the blacks’ capacity to recognize their racial identity. Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show is full of black actors who wear black faces.
They also make incredibly funny and racist jokes about the African Americans. With regard to Piehowski, Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show also deploys “offensively stereotyped CGI-animated cartoons that caricature the leading stars of the new show” (13). In the making of the show, the main aim of Delacroix was to make his boss fire him on grounds of extreme racism.
This would make him get an opportunity to look out for employment in another company. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Even the black street performer seems also satisfied with the profiling. Manray exemplifies this case. Precisely, while Womack becomes horrified immediately when Dealcroix opens the reality about the film’s contents, Manray considers it as an opportunity for gaining fame and wealth through his dancing skills.
To Delacroix‘s surprise, instead of being fired as he had anticipated, Dunwitty endorses the show. It also becomes incredibly successful. When the show gains popularity in the TV, Womack and Manray become mega stars. On the other hand, Delacroix alters his mind and defends the show claiming that it is only a satire. While Delacroix is proud of the awards and fame that he receives, Hopkins is on the other hand intensively worried about her contributions in the development of a racism-oriented show.
Later in the Bamboozled, the Mau Maus engineer plans for bringing the show down by deploying violence due to the anger he has about the show’s content. Womack gets tired of the show and quits. This creates a room for Hopkins and Manray to come close to one another. Delacroix attempts to break this relationship by claiming that Hopkins had slept with Manray to earn her position. However, this plan fails to yield fruits.
For instance, Womack says, “I don’t know who I am” (Lee Bamboozled min. 52). Interpreted beyond the facials value, Womack is a characterization name reflecting destabilized racial and gender identities that are captured in the movie. It “probes issues of sexuality, what it means by a woman, race, or what it means to be black” (Brooks and Lisa ‘Lessons learned or bamboozled’ 291).
The paradox and confusion are further amplified through the characters’ actions of rejecting, realigning, relinquishing, and confirming the racial stereotypes associated with the African-Americans. For instance, the movie reminds the audience “to keep it real” (Lee Bamboozled min. 71).
However, Dunwitty claims that he is blacker in relation to some of the blacks including Delacroix since he is married to a black woman. This exemplifies the hatred that Dunwitty has by being associated with blacks. His association with the black people creates more hatred for himself in relation to the way blacks hate themselves.
The presentation of African-Americans’ gender, class, and how the two relate cannot escape criticism. The movie, presents a sexualized anxiety of coming into terms with physical prowess of the African-American people. In this context, Bowdre argues, “nodding to history, Lee shows how the public fascination with other black males’ bodies continues today” (128).
In the context of class, the film highlights the top dancer’s (Manray) original status before he was empowered by a show that only helps to highlight how his racial backgrounds denied him an opportunity to rise up economically. The film portrays Hanray as a poor street dancer who embraces the dancing role in the show as a tool for getting wealthy tantamount to the white community.
Through the songs in which Hanray and Womack take proactive roles, the stereotypic association of African American with low social class life often involving slavery is brought into the lime light. To evidence this argument in the film, the sonorous voices of both Manray and Womack bring up lively tones that are characteristic of historical slave songs. In the film, the audience is made by hilarious presentation to become blackface performers (Lee Bamboozled min. 87).
This way, the audience acquires sexual license. For instance, a Sicilian member of the audience posits that he has become “blacker than a nigger” (Lee Bamboozled min. 101) by showing his penis to the rest of the audience. Arguably, this implies that blacks are defined by nakedness, a trait attributed to the stereotype that they belong to a low class society, which was often tagged as poor in the racist historic America.
On a different perspective, Tondeur and Tyrone argue, “Bamboozled emphasizes performing black masculinity in an effort to recreate white femininity” (10). This implies that race and gender are vastly interrelated in films that stereotype African-Americans like Bamboozled.
Through the stereotyped African-American identity, race, gender, and class, Bamboozled sends a clear message to the audiences’ minds that black entertainment is principally designed to ensure that curiosities of the majority white Americans are fulfilled. To fulfill this curiosity, African-Americans are depicted as lesser human beings as evidenced in the movie in the movie when Dunwitty accepts the show created by Delacroix reflecting the African-American people in an incredibly negative way.
In fact, Hopkins becomes cognizant of the fact that she is being exploited in the show to make fantasy out of her identity. This prompts her to seek mechanisms of defending her identity as an African-American. For this reason, she compiles racism footages from various TV shows, cartoons, and even movies with the intent of making Delacroix realize the harm the show had. Unfortunately, Delacroix turns back from viewing them.
However, learning from this case amid the recognition of the exploitative nature of the show, Manray declares that he will no longer put on black faces. The executives in charge of production of the show are angered by this move. Arguably, this shows that the executives take advantage of the ignorance of the African-American on their identity to help acerbate their negative stereotyping.
In Bamboozled, coming into terms with the negative presentation of the African- American racial identity attracts serious consequences. For instance, Dunwitty fires Manray right on stage besides ordering him to get out of the production studio. This act clearly shows and confirms the stereotype perception spread by the Bamboozled by portraying African-Americans as having lesser human rights since it is evident that Manray was given neither a warning nor a notice for his firing.
Unfortunately, the Mau Maus who are predominantly composed African- Americans fail to embrace the fight that was staged by Manray aimed at seeking appreciation of the identities of the African-Americans. This presents them as ignorant. In fact, Mau Maus who make a public statement that they would murder Manray live on webcast kidnap him.
The authorities are unable to trace the internet’s feed source while Manray is assassinated. Later, the police track down Mau Maus whom they spray with bullets leaving only one person (Mc Serch) who also declares his willingness to die rather than facing an arrest. Arguably, these senseless killings of Mau Maus confirm that human rights are less significant when acts of extra judicial killings involve African- Americans.
This argument is significant because people are not told in the movie that the Mau Maus were armed or whether they actually threatened the lives of the police so that a decision would be reached to shoot them senselessly. Worse of all, the person who survived the spray of bullets (Mc Serch) had an originality of the white race. Does Bamboozled then clearly show that the applicability of human rights is dependent on the race of the people engaged in criminal activities such as murder?
The struggle to fight for negative stereotyping of the African-American is eminent in Bamboozled. Hopkins is immensely enraged by the ignorance that Delacroix has towards people of his race: the African-Americans. Therefore, she confronts Delacroix demanding him to watch under a gunpoint the movie she had previously prepared.
On watching the movie, Delacroix attempts to seize the gun from her. This results to his shooting. Hopkins flees from the scene leaving him watching the movie wounded and lying down. As Tondeur and Tyrone assert, “the film concludes with long racially insensitive and demeaning clips of black characters from Hollywood films of the first half of the 20th century” (11).
Cameras are then tilted towards the lifeless body of Delacroix with the last images shown depicting Manray performing his last Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show episode live on stage. The situation in which Delacroix comes into terms with his identity makes it clear that, no matter how ignorant one may be towards his/her race, gender, and class, the fact remains that such identities do not cease to exist simply because they are ignored.
Consequently, Delacroix evidences how accepting negative profiling for individualistic reasons such as gaining fame and wealth only leads to further acerbating of the associated stereotyping. Bowdre contends with this argument by further asserting, “the movie directly implies that the White executives who control the entertainment channels support black entertainment mostly in a condescending manner, one that is not that much different from slave-era treatment of blacks” (127).
The preciseness of Bamboozled to possess this motif is arguably contained in the vivid intermingling of class, race, gender, and economic perceptions held by the traditional white community against the African-Americans. The reinforcement of the stereotypic perception encounters an immense support in the film.
In fact, instead of black characters aiming to disapprove these perceptions, they give them deeper roots to be anchored in the minds of the audience. For instance, with regard to Black, “Lee shows how Delacroix satirically uses the images and mannerisms of blacks from blackface minstrel showing how he seeks to escape his blackness, symbolized by being trapped in his job’”(19).
Therefore, instead of depicting satire through the film’s themes, Delacroix appears to be the object of the satire. Since he is black, being the object of the satire makes the interpretation of his mannerism better comprehended at facial value. The case is in contrast with his earlier warning at the beginning of the movie.
Conclusion
Through the movie Bamboozled, the African-American identity, race, gender, and class are presented as inferior in relation to those of the white people. The paper has argued that, through the presentation, the traditional stereotypes associated with African Americans are confirmed. This implies that, through Bamboozled, Lee succeeds in creating the impression that the modern black entertainment is designed such that it satisfies the white people’s curiosity about the blacks’ identity, class, gender differences, and racial stereotyping.
Works Cited
Black, Ray. “Satire’s Cruelest Cut: Exorcising Blackness in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled.” The Black Scholar 33.1(2003): 19-24. Print.
Bowdre, Karen. “A Black Camera Book Review: The Spike Lee Reader.” Black Camera 22.2(2008):127-128. Print.
Brooks, Dwight, and Hebert Lisa. “Lessons learned or bamboozled? Gender in a Spike Lee film.” Communication Studies 47.5(2004): 289–302. Print.
Brooks, Dwight, and Hebert Lisa. “Gender, Race and media representation.” Gender and communication in mediated contexts 3.2(2003): 297-318. Print.
Lee, Spike, dir. Bamboozled. Twentieth Century, 2000. Film.
Piehowski, Victoria. “Business as Usual: Sex, Race, and Work in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 33.1 (2012):1-23. Print.
Tondeur, Cristy, and Simpson Tyrone. “Bamboozled by Blackness: Movie Review: Bamboozled.” Black Camera 16.1(2001): 4-11. Print.