Friday, March 2, 2007
James Baldwin's The Amen Corner and Ossie Davis' Purlie Victorious
This week, we discussed how both The Amen Corner and Purlie Victorious as "civil rights" plays of the give us important information about the significance of the Black Church and the performance of a Black subjectivity. We also discussed various themes and ideas that reference theBlack Church which can help us understand how the relationship between the religious and the secular becomes a recurring theme in African American Theater. Keeping this in mind, how can you see alternative performances of Blackness, in our current moment, that disrupt the heteronormative behaviors of Blacks and Whites that we have read? Can you think of ways that you can challenge how Black men and women are written for the stage? Can you make any links to television, film or music that perpetuate a heteronormative performance of Blackness? What suggestions would you make to playwrights, actors and/or directors when creating seemingly "authentic" representations of Black Americans that exclusively address heterosexuality? You can answer any variation of these questions or respond to one another.
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My understanding of heteronormativity is that is distinctly separates into two categories which are usually opposite. So in saying this I think that a question of whether whites performing blackness or blacks performing whiteness should be addressed. I think that in televesion its easy to see images of people of all ethnic backgroundas "acting" black because of the universality of hip hop culture. At the same time you have many people who see a black person acting in certain white behaviors and view them as "acting " white. The easiest examples of both of these would be "The White Rapper Show", Vanilla Ice, Eminem. On the flip side black people that usually grow up away from the ghetto have a tendency to absorb the culture around them.
Beyond juust entertainment we often tend to assign certain heteronormative behavior patterns to specific races. Blacks are louder, more aggressive, can often be physically intimidating and confrontational. Whites on the other hand have much more self-control, being quieter, more passive, less confrontational, and tending to use intellectual prowess rather than physical intimidations. All of these of course are based upon stereotypes. I mean I've been to parties on the row that are ten times louder than any other predominantly black party I've been to. However, we tend to perpetuate these stereotypes to help us create our racial identities. The above characteristics we tend to associate with blackness or whiteness. I mean the predominate message of many hip hop songs focuses on one's ability to physically conquer another be it sexually, violently, financially or otherwise. Rarely is it about who is more intellectual than another, although lyrical prowess is highly praised. And despite the fact that this perpetuates a stereotype it is what sells. This is what the audiences (be it black urbanites or white suburbanites) want to hear. And ultimately who can you blame, the audiences for buying into it or the artist who is really just making what people buy into and want. And this heteronormativity can become even more specific to ethnic lines. An italian in the movies has to be a mobster. A jamaican has weed on him and probably has a shotgun in his trunk. An irishman is drunk. And although all stereotypes do have some basis in truth the conflict comes when we begin to believe that this is the ONLY way of accurate and sellable representation.
I think we so often see people playing stereotypes on TV and in movies because studios aren't concerned with challenging viewers pre-conceived notions of racial identity, but rather presenting something that is immediately recognizable as "the way things are." Therefore we so often see Black characters as loud, obnoxious and disrespectful (ala Fox's Method and Red). Many people who don't come into contact with African Americans on a regular basis believe such representations to be accurate, because that's what mainstream media has been selling for so long. At the same time, it seems like African Americans themselves sometimes buy into these stereotypes. Thinking specifically about homosexuality, I have yet to see a homosexual in any "Black" show or movie who is not a ridiculously flaming caricature. More often than not, they simply aren't represented at all. And I can't tell you how many Black comedians I've seen do reeeeally homophobic bits, provoking riotous laughter from the crowds. I defy you to find one gay comic on Def Comedy Jam or the Bad Boys of comedy. It's almost as if Blacks themselves are buying into the stereotype (originally perpetuated by whites) of Black hyper-masculinity. Basically I think mainstream media and ingrained racist or stereotypical attitudes have resulted in an acceptance by way too many people-- regardless of race--of representations that are really harmful and limiting.
Hmm, I think if I had to give advice to any artist concerning how to authentically create a black subjectivity I would say start in your mind assembling all the images you have attached to blackness, ignore them, and place blackness in a limitless creative space where this character can explore their vastness. I think our representations have been so boxed in and reproduced we can hardly even conceptualize blackness outside of its normative representation. This reminds me a conversation I had with my roommate about the folk singer Amos Lee. My roommate is a American born Vietnamese guy and when I asked him if Amos was black, he said, "No, well, I don't think so, I don't know. He doesn't look black." we found pictures and I could tell, despite his fair skin and flowing hair, he was of African descent. My roommate was perplexed by the reading of blackness as encompassing lightness.
unfortunatly, ithe only things i watch on tv probably arent ccurate representations of what blackness is tupposed to be. i do find the white rapper show to be troubling in this respect, though, because the white rappers are competing to be "legit" in the rapping world, so i imagine the competition is in fact a black competition. sterotyping blackness into games which contestants compete in is certainly not black, or enything else for that matter.
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