‘Emancipation’

Improper portrayal

Is another slave movie what the community needs or is the genre tired and worn through?

Kindell Readus readukin000@hsestudents.org

‘Emancipation’ is the latest addition to the problematic genre of slave lms, these movies focusing on the dramatized version of history have progressed stereotypes that rst found a home in lms such as ‘Birth of a Nation’ in 1915, and ‘Gone With the Wind’ in 1935. Films like these produced not only harmful archetypes like the caretaker, the criminal and the jezebel but also in uenced the ever-growing list of slave lms as a whole. Now that this genre has built roots in Hollywood, it carries with it the cost of change. If movies like this continue to depict the history of slavery as simply an overly exaggerated hero verse villain story or a story of love prevailing over hardship, people will misunderstand the terror that it truly was. e issue being taken with movies focusing on slavery is not just that they have risen to popularity, but that a topic as dark and deeply ingrained into America’s foundation is being treated as trivially, as a sort of superhero lm. ese topics are being depicted with a sense of a good versus evil plotline, as opposed to taking a more documentary approach and telling the history of Black people’s mistreatment, can very easily begin to create a false narrative. It is a poorly balanced scale when it comes to weighing just how horrible slavery was and the entertainment of the lm industry. Producers become more focused 1

‘Gone With the Wind‘ romanticized the antebellum south and white washed the horrors of slavery.

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The creators of ‘Gone With the Wind’ depict house slaves as devoted and loving servents who are treated like family.

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‘Birth of a Nation’ is widly regarded as the most racist movie ever made, painting black people as nothing more than criminals and brutes.

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Director DW Gri th and his lm helped revive the Ku Klux Klan, which would then go on another righteous killing spree on black men.

Information from History.com. Photos used with permission of 1. Flicker. 2.NPR. 3. NDLA. 4.GetArchive on the money that the lm can heartstrings and furthermore, bring and lose sight of the fact the purse strings of white that they are starting to exploit people as they once again see the not-so-distant past and its themselves as the hero, once traumas. Instead of shedding again see white people at the light on the terrors of the past, forefront of a lm in which they glorify and almost fetishize they are meant to be the Black su ering for white villain. audiences looking to ush out ese movies more o en their white guilt in the form of than not have a white savior self-pitying tears. element, something that ‘Framing Blackness’, a book continuously feeds into the by Ed Guerrero, dives into how idea that Black people are not Blackness has been portrayed strong enough to stand on in lms since the rise of its their own two feet, that white popularity. Artfully illustrating people are the how movies and media can shape the perception of the only ones that can succeed,

popularity. Artfully illustrating people are the only ones that can succeed, how movies and media can shape the perception of the Information from Ferris State University. Graphics by Kindell Readus

Archetypes -The Caretaker: O en visualized as a larger-sized, darkskinned woman with a motherly personality -The Criminal: Usually a Black man who has been given no other characteristic then being involved in crime -The Jezebelle: A young Black woman who has been sexualized for both the male characters and audiences

people on which it is focused, Guerrero forces viewers to wonder why and how the poor depictions of slavery in lms like ‘Emancipation’ a ect the way Black people are being seen and treated by those whose only education on slavery has been through movies claiming to show its truths. Movies like this are birthed by the lms with the purpose of forcing audiences to see Black people as less than, as criminals or objects. Despite this, producers of these new-age lms expect Black audiences to jump at the chance to see themselves exploited on screen again and again. is begs the follow-up question as to whether or not these lms are truly being made to represent the history of slavery or if they are just there to pull at the and sometimes they just so happen to bring Black people with them. e irony of this is that when it comes to the production of these lms they are almost always marketed as Black empowerment lms. Films about the darkest part of history are marketed as empowerment, not stories of love, wonder or success but pain, sorrow and vile mistreatment. is idea has persisted due to movies like these, they give their naive audiences the impression that life as a Black person is no longer one of struggle, mistreatment or depersonalization. Just because there has been a shi in what the acceptable treatment of Black people looks like does not mean that all are equal.