Media representation rarely challenge the dominant value of society nor do they give a voice to those with little power. To what extent is this true for the group or place you have studied? why?
Black people were challenged in the society in the 1900s. Black hollywood is stereotyped negatively in the society. They are usually not given a voice to those with little power, however this is changing. e.g Will Smith, he is known well in the US. Hegemony favor those with power at the expense of those without. The first black character seen on screen were white actor in ‘blackface’. Negative black representation in film reached its height in 1915. It could be said that black hollywood challenged the dominant value of society and they did not give a voice to those with little power.
There are many stereotypes attached to Black hollywood, such as ‘The Tom- the good negro, ‘The coon’, ‘The Tragic Mulatto’, ‘The Mammy’, ‘The Brutal Black Buck’. The film Crash (2004) directed by Paul Haggis shows a scene where two black men Chris (Ludacris also known as a black rapper and songwriter) and Peter (Larenza) discuss the stereotypical view of black people within the American society. They comment on not getting a coffee when they didn’t want one in the first place. The audience may start to emphasis with the two character and think they are the good negro, they start to feel sorry for them , however this changes in the next scene when a white couple come walking from their car, peter say “she gets cold as soon as she sees us do we look threatening?, no if anyone should be scared it should be us” he ask a rhetorical question and answer his own question showing that he is sure that they are not threatening. This also connotes that the situation is flipped all because the area that they are in is dominated by white people and they are the only two black people around. “coz we got a gun” they may suggest that they are not intellectual and that they are carrying a gun for safety, however they conform to the stereotypes which they are tying to justify. They threaten the white couple and ‘carjack’ and this then prove they woman point when she got close to her husband and that she was scared, her thought confirm the two black men’s action. Cohen suggested that the term moral panic in the film were often imitated, and this could cause a decline in society.
Black hollywood film has many ways of expressing their emotion and feeling, they are represented in different ways and seen to be different, this is because of society expectation and the individuals values and beliefs, film may suggest that that they are dominant.
