Representation & Early Black Spectatorship

One of the main goals in life is to find out who you are. Growing up, you look to your own little world to help guide you to find your identity. You know who you are to your family, you understand where your place is as the child of your parents, and as the sibling to your brothers and sisters. When you go to school, you find yourself either constantly adapting to the norm or rushing head first against it. There are many factors that contribute to finding one’s identity, which begins with your family, teachers and friends.

From then on, it is a constant search for the meaning of who you are, but sometimes who you are conflicts with how society sees you.

Another major factor in the way of finding one’s identity is how media can affect one’s perspective of themselves. In particular, we will be looking at how films can be both an escape for people, specifically African Americans, yet can negatively portray them.

Representation in film is important in understanding one’s identity, if not personally but publically, as much of the stereotypes and negative connotations stem from how groups of people are represented in films. For early black spectators, representation consisted mostly of stereotypes and were racially biased, therefore leading the audience to remodel and justify themselves against the perspective that early cinema has given them.

In Jacquline Stewart’s essay, “Negroes Laughing at Themselves”, which focuses on early black spectatorship, she talks about “reconstructive spectatorship”.

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This is how black viewers attempted to remodel and justify themselves in relation to the cinema’s social and textual operations. Since there was no biographical writings from the perspective of black audiences during the early era of cinema, Stewart supplements her essay with Toni Morrison’s 1970 novel, The Bluest Eyes, as well as Richard Wright’s 1940 novel, Native Son. Both novels shine a light on moviegoing as a reflection of a larger external and psychological problem for their black characters.

In Richard Wright’s, Native Son, he focuses on how the character Bigger goes to the movies with his friend in order to calm his nerves. While watching the movie, which was about wealthy white families, both Bigger and his friend admire and sexualize the white woman in the movie. Being able to watch movies with public but being in your own little area at the same time creates a space for Bigger and his friend to feel comfortable enough to masturbate to the white woman. Bigger’s fantasy of being with a wealthy white woman, which was completely unacceptable at this time, and being accepted into her society, shows how subconsciously spectators may feel about themselves. Like Bigger, they crave to be apart of what they see is attractive and if they cannot be apart of it, they can fantasize about it.

In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eyes, she focuses on the character Pauline Breedlove, who goes to the movies to escape the mundanity and unhappiness in her life. She obsesses over the way the white women in films look, and like Bigger in Native Son, craves the romance in the films they watch. Her perspective of beauty consists of eurocentric features because that is all she sees represented in the movies she loves to watch. She even tries to imitate the hair, makeup, and overall style of a famous white actress in order to make herself feel more beautiful. Being able to identify with someone that looks like you can affect how you see yourself. With the standard of beauty being represented as white can make spectators who are colored feel inferior as represented in Pauline from The Bluest Eyes.

One of the most famous and most controversial films in relation to African American representation during this era is D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, The Birth of a Nation. This film villainized African American men and made the Ku Klux Klan the heroes of the story. African American characters in The Birth of a Nation are portrayed as liars and cheaters as the lot of them stuff ballots and take votes away from the white characters. Silas, who is mulatto, meaning he is half black and white, becomes in charge of the town. He is portrayed as very stereotypically black, eating fried chicken and behaving repulsively and irresponsibly. Another African American character that is grossly stereotypical and racist in The Birth of a Nation is the freed man named Gus played by a white man in black face. Whilst walking through the woods he sees a white woman and decides to chase her down in order to “marry her”. This eventually leads to the woman throwing herself off a cliff in order to save herself from him. The way he is shown in the film is beast-like and it is the Ku Klux Klan that brings justice on this character.

In response to D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, came the 1920 film, Within Our Gates directed by African American film director and writer, Oscar Micheaux. Within Our Gates portrayed African Americans as complex and kind, very much unlike the way Griffith portrayed his African American character. The main protagonist is Sylvia, a young African American woman who is trying to save her impoverished school from closing down by asking for donations. Through her, as well as the other African American characters, we see representation of more realistic, three dimensional characters, whose purpose and motive in the film are just to survive in their circumstances.

Similarly to The Birth of a Nation, Micheaux uses parallel editing to intercut between scenes of Black characters being lynched by a mob and Sylvia getting assaulted by a white man who turns out to be her father. Although he does not rape her because he realizes that she is daughter, ultimately it is her whiteness that saves her. This continues to add to the notion that being white and white people are superior than everyone else. The film also shows the understanding that not all African American characters are innocent, as shown by Efrem, a servant who starts the lynching frenzy. The film also points out the understanding of having to act differently with whites, showing that they are capable of understanding when something is absurd but they must pretend to be ignorant as shown by the Preacher who says whatever to please the two white men who ask him about his opinion on African Americans getting the right to vote. Micheaux’s Within Our Gates is a direct response to the grossly racist representation in Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation.

Much of the representation for black spectators during the silent film era taught them that being white meant you were superior. For black men, many fantasized about being with a white woman but for black women; they felt inferior and less beautiful than white women. Many silent films made sure to put emphasis on where your place was according to gender and race, as they continued to portray African American characters as unintelligent, brutish and irresponsible. Being able to realize that these stereotypes were a blatant, two dimensional imitation of you, and to reconstruct and justify themselves against those stereotypes is what early black spectators had to do.

Black spectators still struggle with finding their identity through representation in film today. Although it has improved immensely from the racist black face in “The Birth of a Nation”, it has been a journey finding a voice for the black spectator. This is why films like Moonlight (2016) and Black Panther (2018) resonate with people so much. It’s because they are stories that have not been explored before in perspectives that need to be heard along with allowing discussions for issues that have laid dormant in the subconscious of black audiences. Black Panther may be a superhero movie but it has so much cultural importance as it is the first superhero movie with an all black cast celebrating African culture and roots.

In the final scene of Black Panther, a boy from Oakland looks up to the protagonist, T’Challa, and is in awe, he asks the hero who he is but T’Challa says nothing, he only looks to the boy and smiles. This scene is a nod to how far we have come in terms of representation for African American spectators. Representation in films matter in the path to self-realization and finding your identity both privately and publicly. For early black spectators, they had to find a way to logically understand and maneuver their way through the racist portrayals that were so frequent in early cinema without losing their minds. With the use of reconstructive spectatorship, they were able to see these portrayals and move forward from it, striving to become better than the stereotypes placed on them.

Work Cited

1. Coogler, Ryan, director. Black Panther. 2018.
2. Griffith, D.W., director. Birth of a Nation (Motion Picture). Griffith Feature Films, 1915.
3. Jenkins, Barry, director. Moonlight. 2016.
4. Micheaux, Oscar, and Oscar Micheaux. Within Our Gates. Micheaux Film Co., Quality Amusement Corp., 1920.
5. Stewart, Jacqueline. “Negroes Laughing at Themselves? Black Spectatorship and the Performance of Urban Modernity.” 2003.