A number of things have had my mind on what I call the “Performance of Blackness” this week- The SNL video 28 reasons, the African American Theater class I am in, a post by Generation Me, Me, Me called “Institutional Racism: Racism in the 21st Century”, and of course the fact that it is currently Black History Month.
In my African American Theater class we have been discussing the lack of “black love” in film and television as well as the lack of a “nuclear black family unit”. It is surprisingly few and far between that we could come up with examples of two African Americans in a loving relationship in film or television in the last fifty years. Especially for television shows we could only come up with “The Cosby Show” and “That’s So Raven”. The fact that my entire class had to sit and rack their brains for examples of “black love” or “black family” is proof enough that it is disgustingly uneven to the amount of white family or white couples in film or television. Almost every romantic comedy released in the past year has been between a white couple or a mixed race couple. Only in the case of Tyler Perry movies or the new movie coming out soon called “About Last Night” do we see African American couples. But somehow, even in these cases there is still an unsettling amount of segregation. When we see these kinds of functional black couples it is almost always in a movie where the cast in all African American. The cast of “About Last Night” is completely African American. Does the success of the movie and the actors in the couples, depend on the fact that white people are not included. Since black couples are not included in other movies along side white couples, do they then need an entire movie exclusively? This is just perpetuating the divide.
Furthermore, to make matters worse, if a black person does make it onto a show and is featured amongst an ensemble, it is usually to portray the stereotypical “performance of blackness” that the audience expects. For example, on Saturday Night Live, there are two “token black guys” who always get stuck portraying Obama, gangsters, rappers, or any other black stereotype that makes it into a sketch. In particular, this is seen in the video “28 Reasons” which discusses Black History Month. The video ironically starts with the only three black students in an all white classroom stand up and begin rapping names of famous black people that helped to end slavery. Meanwhile, all the white students and the white teacher look on with expectations of being thoroughly entertained by these witty black rappers. Their smiles continue when the lead rapper explains reasons to “hug a black guy”, until he elaborates that reasons “22-28 are SLAVERY” and all the smiles are wiped off their faces. While this video admittedly made me crack up, it did make me think about what “performance of blackness” the three actors in the video were actually giving. Despite the hilarious punch lines, they were essentially just portraying three more African American rappers.
It is definitely true that “life can be rough if you aren’t a white dude” as said by Generation Me, Me, Me. This sentiment has been echoed by many of my African American friends that are trying to become successful actors. They are sick and tired of being cast as slaves or ghetto gangsters. Because I work on the acting management side of the industry as well, I do understand “type casting” to some degree. But at some point it becomes ridiculous to see roles calling for caucasian lead roles with supporting stereotypical black roles. Why can’t an African American be the lead “girl next door” character that falls in love. Why does it have to be the cookie cutter caucasian girl that gets the part.
While there are and will continue to be many injustices in the entertainment industry for African Americans, it seems the one silver lining to this situation is that the problem is getting more and more attention lately. By realizing there is an injustice in the first place and continuing to talk about examples, society is headed in the right direction. Being that it is Black History Month, we should all take this as an opportunity to work on becoming more color blind when watching tv or movies or anything for that matter.
As further evidence and for a giggle check out the 28 Reasons video below:
Katie's Take 