Bamboozled: Black People and White Man Essay

In 2000, Spike lee wrote and directed the film Bamboozled. When discussing his satirical film, Spike Lee claimed, I want people to think round the power of hu mankind bodys, not just in terms of race, but how imagery is used and what sort of social impingement it has how it influences how we talk, how we think, how we view one an opposite. . . how film and television have historically. . . produced and perpetuated distorted images. Spike Lee certainly conveyed this message in Bamboozled. Images are powerful and carry large social impact. They should never be misrepresented.Are all African Americans either lazy or dim-witted or happy servants, always ready and free to please the White Man? The short answer is, no. However, throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, many people bankd this. The ultimate question is, why? As explained in the film Ethnic Notions, this false perception grew and grew, even past the time of slavery, due to images. Derogatory images of African Americans a s happy servants or savages, were everywhere they were produce in childrens books and slapped on cans of food to be used as a marketing tool.People bought into this perception of African Americans, as they became acclimatized to it. Today, our society sames to believe that times have changed and there is no longer an issue of race or false perception of African Americans in the media. However, Spike Lee argues, A new phenomenon has emerged in film in recent years, in which an African-American character is imbued with special powers, filmmaker Spike Lee told a student listening ? This new image is just a reincarnation of the same old stereotype or caricature of African Americans ?Lee cited four recent films in which there is a magical, mystical Negro character ? in The Legend of Bagger Vance, a mordant man with all these powers, teaches a young sportsmanlike male ? how to golf like a champion ? How is it that black people have these powers but they use them for the benefit of wh ite people? Spike Lee seems to be under the impression that African Americans are still misrepresented in the media. They have only improved their ability to mask the fact. False image is still there, but it is subtle. His film Bamboozled ripped viewers eyes wide open.The film explored and demonstrated two images of African Americans. The first image, is the Black Man who is just like the White Man or the Asian Man or the Middle-Eastern Man a man who can be rich and successful like capital of South Dakota Delacroix in Bamboozled a man who can be poor and when without money will do almost anything for it like Manray and Womack. However, when Pierre Delacroix pitched television immortalises about a Black Man living in an upper-middle-class white, suburban neighborhood, his superior, Thomas Dunwitty turned them down, they definitely dont want to see honor black people on television. However, the network would allow Pierre Delacroix to create a show which blatantly degrades African A mericans a show which goes back to the 1900s, to the time of black face and minstrel shows a time when black people were considered subhuman. This is where Spike Lee demonstrates the other image of the African American an image that the media has gently squeeze down viewers throats. Spike Lee, however, did not do so gently. The fictional television show in Bamboozled, Mantans New Millennium sing Show, starred African Americans in black face acting like buffoons.It might as well have been an authentic minstrel show in the 1900s. There was dancing and singing. The two main characters hid from the White Man in a chicken coup, saying aint nobody in here but us chickens 4 The creator, Pierre Delacroixs initial intention with this show was not to degrade his own race. It was to break the stereotypes. 5 He figured the nation would be shocked and outraged instead they ate it up. The studio audience dressed in black face.Children trick-or-treated in black face. It was the in style(p) cra ze of the nation. Black face is an act which digs back to a time of slavery, a time where African Americans were considered inferior. It was now socially acceptable to publicly highlight a moment in history that pained African Americans. People figured its on TV, its OK The black man was degraded, as he has always been, but in Bamboozled no mercy was spared. Spike Lee used the film in a variety of ways.He attacked todays media and the way in which it portrays African Americans. He explored the wide scope of African Americans lives, which is no different than the lives of any other race. He demonstrated the consequences of greed and sacrificing ones dignity. Furthermore, he exposed society for what it really is mindless. The majority of a population does not question the media. Instead it swallows images whole, even if those images are as false and misleading as a painted black face.