I thought I was just being racist except my great-grandmother was black so that can’t be it. My parents and grandparents were still fighting Jim Crow Laws when I was a baby. Segregation was not legal in Iowa but some communities, ours for example, passed local ordinances designed to keep the races separate - not in schools, but there was discrimination in housing, in business, in restaurants - businesses and restaurants could refuse to serve blacks. My grandparents owned a restaurant in town and it was the only restaurant to serve blacks back in the Forties.
Anyway, I’ve noticed for years that in Hollywood films it’s often the African American character who saves the day in a semi-mystical magical miraculous way. And I’ve wondered about this.
I’ve asked myself- Am I imagining this? Is this some weird stereotype? An apology by white people to black people? I mean, what does it mean? It’s certainly not coincidence and to be honest I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I guess it’s better to be stereotyped as an angel than a demon, but it’s still a stereotype.
And then my son told me - “It’s well-known, Mom. It’s the concept of the Magical Negro.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” I exclaimed. “You mean this is an actual phenomenon?”
“Yup,” he said.
“Silly me…”
From Wikipedia:
The Magical Negro is a supporting stock character in American cinema who is portrayed as coming to the aid of a film’s white protagonists. These characters, who often possess special insight or mystical powers, have been a long tradition in American fiction.
Many within the African-American community in the United States now express unhappiness about the ongoing use of such magical characters. In 2001, Spike Lee, while discussing films with students at Washington State University and at Yale University, said he was dismayed at Hollywood’s decision to continue using the premise; he noted that the films The Green Mile and The Legend of Bagger Vance used the “super-duper magical Negro”.
Critics use the word “negro” because it is considered archaic, and usually offensive, in modern English. This underlines their message that a “magical black character” who goes around selflessly helping white people is a throwback to stereotypes such as the “Sambo” or “Noble Savage”.
Here are a few movies off the top of my head- I especially think of The Matrix because Lawrence Fishburne plays John the Baptist to Neo’s Jesus:
(I bet you can add a bunch more and I have to admit this - Morgan Freeman’s voice is so mesmerizing that I can hear my mom say… “If Morgan Freeman told you to jump off a bridge, would you?” And I’d answer… “Yes.”)
The Defiant Ones
Vanishing Point
Silver Streak
Ghost
Hudsucker Proxy
The Shawshank Redemption
Happy Gilmore
Dogma
The Pelican Brief
The Green Mile
The Matrix
Bedazzled
The Legend of Bagger Vance
Hitch
O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Million Dollar Baby
Constantine
The Book of Eli
Learn something new everyday!
