Sunday, November 11, 2007
Shange's For Colored Girls Wolfe's The Colored Musuem
Both Shange and Wolfe present issues that have shaped African American experiences in the United States such as slavery,racism, feminism,sexism,homosexuality, spousal abuse and quests for racial "authenticity." Both authors ask why and how African Americans and white mainstream theater audiences buy into various stereotypes of blackness as repesentative of the larger black American collective. Can you find current critiques of African American life presented in popular culture today?
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A particular critique of African American life that sticks out to me is the modern 'Black Stage Plays'. Many of their playwrights such as Tyler Perry have done no more than reintroduce black stereotypes into this modern age. With the role of Madea Perry has incorporated the Mammie figure, the 'angry' black woman, and added an acceptable form of cross dressing into his productions. These elements alone represent the ideals that African Americans have about themselves in this age.
Last weekend I watched an NBA basketball game on Fox Sports West. During the commercial break there was a KFC commercial advertised with three African American children and their mother sitting at a kitchen table eating dinner. At first I wanted to be sure that when I viewed this commercial again that there would be an extra chair at the table for the father that wasn't present. After seeing the commercial twice during this ball game I made sure I counted the chairs at the table. There was only four chairs and the mother sat at the head of the table. Watching this commercial I instantly assumed that there was no father in this household. The dialogue in the commercial did not state that the father was at work or out in the yard working. It only addressed the fact that the mother had came home from a hard days work and they were all sitting down to eat as a family. I thought the commercial was advertising black families being without black fathers. It was disturbing because of the stereotypical statements that mainstream America continues to believe and perpetuate. For years there has been the stereotypical belief that African American males are not present and African American women are head of the household.
Aaron McGruder's "Boondocks" series is a current critique of African-American life in pop culture today. Through the show's various characters McGruder explores racism in America and examines and critiques the intra-racial hatred and self-loathing mentality that many within the black comunity harbor. An example of this is the character of Uncle Rukus. He is the epitome of the self-loathing black man that has bought into the prevailing prejudice views of racist white America and not only believes them whole heartedly but walks around spewing them to anyone who is willing to listen. When he sees The Freemans, the new black family that has moved into the upper-class white neighborhood of Woodcrest, show up at his white boss’s garden party he gets on stage and sings a song titled, “Don’t Trust Them Darkies Over There.” Furthermore, he regards the new black family as filthy black people who are trying to pollute the precious white neighborhood, and are not good enough to be socializing with and accepted by their white neighbors as equals. To Uncle Rukus blacks are still and forever will be inferior to whites and are a plague on American society.
The opinions of Uncle Rukus directly reflect the racist views of blacks that are in circulation among white America, and therefore his character is being used as a vehicle by Aaron McGruder to show the prejudice and racist way the larger American society regards and views African Americans. McGruder uses Uncle Rukus’ character to express the racist views of American society because having them come from a self-loathing black character, rather than simply a prejudice white one further emphasizes the ignorance of them along with effectively showing the harm that racism has done and is continuing to do. In Uncle Rukus we see the effects of racism in America firsthand. It is like a toxic poison that when spewed seeps into the minds of those around, infecting and contaminating the many individuals that buy into it and accept it as truth; after such an ideology is preached and exercised for so long, it is inevitable that it is going to affect a sizeable portion of the population hearing it.
There’s an NFL commercial today that everyone finds so amusing. A black football player drinks some Dr.Pepper and it infuses something in him that makes him dance. He does all the popular black dances of the day or previous years—booty dances, the butterfly, the Harlem shake, etc.—while a white referee looks on in disgust, but the crowd roars. He jumps on the goal post doing the Harlem shake, falls to the ground flat on his face. The camera is positioned in his face; he lifts his head up with a big, coonish grin, the music resumes and his dancing resumes. First off, he’s a football player. Second off, he’s doing all the dances attributed to blacks because of a drink he’s had. He humiliates himself by falling, but looks up very Topsy-like and resumes. This reaffirms the belief that all blacks can dance and that all are athletes. The interesting part about this commercial is that, if the football player had been any other ethnicity, a series of stereotypes would have prevailed. If he had been of another race and able to dance, he’d be “acting black.” If he had been of another race and a bad dancer, he’d have been “true to history” and the belief that no race can dance but blacks. Interestingly, the black-white binary theory persists even in the presence or lack thereof of either race.
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