Imaging Blackness is the complex concept of expressing, recognizing, or assigning specific sets of ideas or values used in the depiction of Black people. This depiction can be shown through various forms of media: film, television, literature. More specifically in film, the portrayal of Black people has been imaged and captured since the dawn of the medium.
Origin of term "Imaging Blackness" is a term first used by Audrey T. McCluskey in her 2007 book Imaging Blackness: Race and Racial Representation in Film Poster Art.
Historical overview
From the beginning of modern cinema, images of African Americans have played a primary role in the cinematic imagination of the West. These negative images have promoted a demeaning and undignified image of African Americans as a general group. However, simultaneously film has enabled African Americans to covey their creativity and originality, despite some intentions of White people to confine Black humanity or use the African American race as a scapegoat.
The beginning of Black presence in American film, started with the concept of "blackface". Instead of hiring Black actors to play Black characters, White actors would paint their faces black and accentuate their lips by covering them with bright red lipstick. Their outer appearance reflected White society's curiosity around Blackness. The concept of Blackness was initially used to ridicule African Americans, showing an imagined White superiority to Black people, but over time society became attracted to the controversial concept. Consequently, blackface became a popular fad in American culture.
Poster art In the 1890s a new form of visual representation was introduced to American and international audiences. The high literacy rate at the beginning of the twentieth century caused the creation of advertising for newly animated films. The first forms of advertising were vividly colored crates or switchboards used to promote an upcoming film. Seen as a way to preview a story with visual highlights, these advertisements enticed viewers and attracted audiences to movie theatres. This concept created the modern day movie poster. The invention of the movie poster itself is attributed to a Frenchman named Jules Chéret. He applied a printing process called stone lithography for the creation of his poster. As film technology progressed, there became a need for more movie posters, and it became a standardized process used to promote every new movie. The General Film Company standardized the size of a film poster at 27 x 41, allowing the poster to fit within the glass casing outside theatres. This was called the "one sheet" poster. These posters included texts and images supplied by the movie production company. A constant dispute among associates in the production company was whether to showcase star actors on their movie posters. The producer's objective was to sell their product, the movie, through advertising. On the other hand, the stars demanded that these posters should be a reflection of them and their talents. Movie studios hired illustrators to produce posters that were artistic and inventive, constantly trying to find ways to appeal to the biggest audience. During the pre-television era of the 1950s, poster art became the typical medium for movie advertising, consisting of the desirable image of a movie star alongside text or other images explaining a part of the movie's story.
The portrayal of Black Americans on these movie posters was very different from that of White Americans. American posters tended to marginalize Black presence and limit romantic images between African Americans. However, foreign posters showcased African Americans more and highlighted their romantic roles.
Early American films were concerned with racial imagery. Some films made for Black audiences by White producers exhibited extreme racial stereotypes and caricatures. The "hero" of these films was often a White male of upper-class status. For instance, a poster for the Norman Studio-produced film Regeneration (1923) displayed a poster that was a preview for the movie but also reflected a societal stereotype. It showed a light-skinned White woman fearing the advanced of an intimidating dark-skinned man. This implied the threat of rape, which negatively portrayed the African-American man as an inherently malicious and predatory individual. These posters spoke to and perpetuated a social fear of Black people among White communities, and specifically a fear of Black male sexuality encroaching on the imagined purity of White women, and this dynamic and stereotype (sometimes referred to as "Mandingo") would continue on in various forms into the 21st century.
Yet, some studios created posters to rebut the negative images of African Americans. Some showed Black men as hardworking, which was atypical of Hollywood's defined image of the African-American male.
In later decades, poster images reflected social issues presented by "message films". "These included 'passing' in Lost Boundaries (1949), interracial romance in Island in the Sun (1957), and Jungle Fever (1991), and the youthful experience of racial prejudice in The Learning Tree (1969)."McCluskey, Audrey T., Imaging Blackness: Race and Racial Representation in Film Poster Art (2007), p. 5. These images differed from the earlier images of the negative portrayals of African Americans. The new representation of African Americans on film posters showed social, controversial figures, which created an inquisitive, yet uncomfortable society. By the 1960s, during the Civil Rights Movement, the first African-American Hollywood movie star, Sidney Poitier, emerged. The inoffensive posters of his movies, such as Lilies of the Field (1963), depicted him as harmless, and further as a protector over others. Thereafter, White society became more accepting to non-violent, optimistic images of African Americans.
During Spike Lee's filmmaking career, topics such as race and sex were presented provocatively in poster art. He wanted the posters to be as "racy" as his films. He hired graphic artists such as Art Sims, who specialized in specifically marketing Black films. Among controversial posters he created was the film poster of Jungle Fever, a 1991 movie about an interracial love affair. The first version of the poster had the actors Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra sucking each other's fingers. This image was rejected because it was seen as too sexual and was replaced by the image of the couple interlocking fingers while holding hands. Another Lee film, Bamboozled, was promoted with a poster of a graphical satire. When the film was released in 2000, the advertising was thought of as too offensive and was turned away by many newspapers including The New York Times. Ironically, the film itself exposes and retells the history of African-American treatment and portrayal in American entertainment.
"Film posters illustrate the artistic and thematic range of racial representation in the American film industry. They present a history that is preserved and partially documented by a clash of art and commerce. As such, these posters are imbued with a broad array of social meanings that continue to engage us."
Action/crime The 1970s began with a revolutionary representation of African Americans. Beginning with Melvin Van Peebles's film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), where a Black man fights back against racial injustice, Hollywood began showing powerful Black men as heroes in action films. The Flying Ace (1926) claimed the title as the "greatest airline thriller ever filmed". It inspired many African-American aviators to fly and form aviation clubs. Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) is noted as one of the last film noirs and was directed by Robert Wise. It is one of the first films to address White racism towards African Americans.
Regardless, some Black action films also created controversy because they were based on negative stereotypical representations of African Americans. African American actors were primarily directed by Whites, so their characters usually appeared and acted in the stereotypical ways in which Whites viewed African Americans.
Comedy Comedy has been helpful in advancing the careers of individual African Americans, while also often mocking their demeanor or appearance. In the American tradition of minstrelsy, White men painted their faces and falsely portrayed African-American culture. "Black people and black life was the joke."McCluskey, Imaging Blackness (2007), p. 21. The White stage performers suggested their superiority over African Americans by using minstrel shows as a daily mockery to their former position in society. Even the representation of African-American children as pickaninnies became the humor for White audiences. Because of the subjugation of African Americans through comic films, comedy became an extremely sensitive topic, especially for independent race films intended for Black audiences. There was much confusion on how to provide a comic performance for the audience while not ridiculing the African-American race. In the 1930s, African-American film directors produced comedy films of the same context; however. They mocked African Americans and because of this their black audiences diminished. Frustrated, race filmmakers sought to create a more complex character for African Americans and wanted to positively portray African-American culture. Comedy films became the way African Americans entered into the movie industry, even though their beginning performances were degrading. Yet, some African Americans overshadowed and outperformed white actors, showing new talent on stage. The early independent Black comedy films that were popular amongst African Americans told stories about black life and culture, revealing the aptitude of Black comedians. In the late 1900s, Black comedies thrived and became especially popular. Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier became a comic duo in Uptown Saturday Night (1974), attracting black audiences from various areas. Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979) starring Richard Pryor, who became the most popular African American comedian in Hollywood, changed the industry. He set the path for other African-American comedians such as modern-day Eddie Murphy, The Wayans Brothers, Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock, Chris Tucker, and Bernie Mac.
Documentary Only in the late 1900s did the topic of African-American life in the United States become a topic of interest to White society. Documentary films gave African Americans a chance to voice their opinions about the injustices they felt. These films also showed detailed insight to African American lives that were not known to society. William Greaves became a famous filmmaker after his television documentary on the lives of African Americans in the United States, called Black Journal. His other documentaries on prominent figures like Booker T. Washington and Malcolm X show how documentaries serve as a historical source. Greaves' intention was to capture the struggles and triumphs of African Americans in a realistic technique. His view filled a void that was missing in Hollywood's representation of African Americans. He concentrated on issues specific to African-American communities, such as gender differences, racial hierarchies, and family relationships. Documentaries were used as a powerful method to portray African Americans as complex individuals, explaining significant events in their lives.
Drama