Diploma Thesis

132 Pages·2006·0.65 MB·English

by  Pezlarová Lucie

MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO
FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE
AMERICAN FILM INDUSTRY

Diploma Thesis

Brno 2006

Supervisor: Written by:
Michael George, M.A. Lucie Pezlarová
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Poděkování
Děkuji všem učitelům Katedry Anglického jazyka a Literatury na Pedagogické
fakultě, kteří ovlivnili mé názory na výuku cizích jazyků svými přednáškami a
semináři.
Zvláště bych chtěla poděkovat vedoucímu mé diplomové práce Michealu
Georgovi, M.A. za cenné rady a konstruktivní připomínky, které přispěly ke konečné
podobě této práce.

Acknowledgements
I would like hereby to take this opportunity to thank all the teachers of the
Department of English Language and Literature at the Faculty of Education who have
influenced opinions by their lectures and seminars about foreign language.
My grateful thanks belong to the supervisor of my diploma thesis Michael
George, M.A. for his valuable advice and constructive comments which contributed to
the final form of this work.

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Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci zpracovala samostatně a použila jen
prameny uvedené v seznamu literatury.
Souhlasím, aby práce byla uložena na Masarykově univerzitě v Brně v knihovně
Pedagogické fakulty a zpřístupněna ke studijním účelům.

I proclaim that my diploma thesis is a piece of individual writing and that only
the sources cited in the Bibliography list were used to compile it.
I agree with this diploma thesis being deposited in the Library of the Faculty of
Education at the Masaryk University and with its being made available for academic
purposes.
Brno 18 April 2006 …………………………
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction………………………………………………………………………6
Chapter 1: The Influence of History on the Development of the Stereotypes. 8
Native Americans………………………………………………………….8
Latinos……………………………………………………………………..9
African Americans………………………………………………………... 10
Asians…………………………………………………………………....... 11
Chapter 2: Before the Massmedia – The Live Stage………………………….. 13
Minstrels………………………………………………………………….. 13
Vaudeville……………………………………………………………........ 14
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West……………………………….………….……... 15
Chapter 3: The Silen Era (1889 – 1927)………………………………………... 16
The Birth of a Nation……………………………………………………... 17
The Lincoln Motion Picture Company…………………………………... 19
Sessue Hayakawa…………………………………………………………. 23
Anna May Wong………………………………………………….………. 24
Oscar Micheaux………………………………………………….…….…. 24
Chapter 4: From 1927 Until World War II…………………………………….26
Race Movies ………………………………………………….…………...28
Dr. Fu Manchu …………………………………………………..…..….... 29
Charlie Chan ………………………………………………….………….. 30
Chapter 5: Transition Period (1946 – 1965) …………………………………... 35
Sidney Poitier ………………………………………………….………..... 39
Chapter 6: Hollywood Renaissance (1964 – 1976) ………………………….… 45
Blaxploitation ………………………………………………….……….… 46
Bruce Lee ………………………………………………….………….….. 48
Chapter 7: The Return of the Myths (late 1970s and 1980s) ………………… 53
The Vietnam War and Hollywood ……………………………………..…58
Chapter 8: The New Wave (the 1990s) …………………………………..……. 61
Strange Orient ……………………………………………………………. 69
Legacy of Blaxploitation ………………………………………..……..… 72
Dorothy Dandridge ……………………………………….……....……… 73
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Chapter 9: The New Millennium ……………………………………………….74
Appearance of Ethnic Minorities in the Media …………………………... 74
The “Magic Negro” Stereotype ………………………………………….. 76
Lucy Liu ………………………………………………….………………. 80
Suggestions on Methodology ……………………………………………….…... 81
1 Minority Stereotypes and Where to Find Them…………………...…… 81
2 Getting to Understand the Terminology ……………………..………… 82
3 Video in the Classroom …………………………………………….…... 83
4 Consequences of Stereotyping …………………………………………. 84
5 Projects………………………………………………….……….……… 84
Conclusion ………………………………………………….……………...……. 86
Bibliography………………………………………………….…….……………. 87
Attachments ………………………………………………….…………….……. 103
Attachment I: Stereotypes……………………………………………..….. 103
Attachment II: Ethnic Film Festivals in the United States………...……... 107
Attachment III: Film Index...……………………………………………... 110
Resume (Czech) …………………………………………………………………..131
Resume (English) ………………………………………………………………... 132

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INTRODUCTION

Nowadays we live in a post-modern society1 and one of the characteristic
features of post-modern societies is the influence of media. They also add to the feeling
that the world is getting smaller. However, the perspective of the world is sometimes
distorted and biased, especially the perspectives proffered by the mass media. The
power of mass media and its influence are well known and the image they impose is
often considered true to reality. Often people are not aware of the stereotypes used and
members of certain minorities are perceived through a scrim of images created by the
media.
American culture is spread all over the world and is the most influential. Taking
into account that there are only a few ethnic minorities in the Czech Republic (the Roma
people, Vietnamese, Ukrainian and a growing Arab population), other groups are
perceived through media. Moreover, the majority of films in Czech cinemas are of
American production. Having an understanding of the stereotypes in English-speaking
countries can help students to better comprehend minorities and minority stereotypes in
the Czech Republic, which could have the eventual effect of the stereotypes changing or
disappearing altogether.
This issue is part of multicultural education, which should be an integral part of
all educational plans. When teaching a language, the teacher also teaches cultural
background. Culture is an inseparable part of the educational process. It has become
necessary to devote some time to discussing cultural awareness. One of the components
of cultural education should also be an awareness of racism and xenophobia, because a
foreign language is an attribute of something foreign and cannot be separated from the
culture that uses it.
I would like to attempt to organise and chronologise the relationship between
ethnic minorities and the American film industry, including a brief overview of changes
in the society and politics that influenced the development of stereotypical role in films.
Of many minorities, only four of the major ones are dealt with, i.e. Latinos, African
Americans, Native Americans and Asians. Other minorities (ethnic or not), e.g. Arabs
or homosexuals, are not be taken into account in this diploma thesis. Also I

1 Some sociologists call the society after the attacks on the World Trade Center in September 2001 post-
post-modern. Nevertheless, the role of mass media is the same.
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concentrated more or less on mainstream films that have reached Europe (in cinemas,
on video or DVD) or are generally known here.
The first two chapters provide a short insight into the historical background by
drawing attention to certain historical facts under which minority stereotypes originated.
Following development is divided into seven chapters; periods described are separated
according to historical events or, especially after the Second World War, according to
changes in the American film industry (as suggested by Mast). For a better orientation
Attachment I contains a list of stereotypes and Attachment III a film index. In order to
help students and teachers include the issue in their lessons, there are Suggestions on
Methodology at the end of this thesis.

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Chapter 1
THE INFLUENCE OF HISTORY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF
STEREOTYPES

Native Americans
The European settlers had to learn to coexist with people they viewed as
primitive, but who had many admirable qualities as well. This dilemma was mirrored in
the concept of the “noble savage”.2 Native Americans were “noble” because of their
innocence, their willingness to share and their dark, handsome appearance. At the same
time they were “savage”: they were not Christian, they showed a blatant disregard for
proper dress and there were even possible cannibalistic incidents described by the early
settlers (Wilson II and Gutiérrez 62).3 In order to create a European society, there were
attempts to convert Native Americans to Christianity. After the Civil War, authors of
Western developed a concept of a single Indian culture, i.e. no distinction was made
among the hundreds of Native American cultures.4 Moreover, history has often been
presented from only one point of view: “From contact with the first European settlers,
the people writing the books were the Europeans”, says Duane Hall, the American
Indian Institute at the University of Oklahoma. “There were very few Indian writers
giving an Indian account of the story. Down through the pages of history, Indians
became people without names and faces, people who are very stoic, and have no
feelings” (Hill).5 Rennard Strickland, an expert on Indian Law at the University of
Oregon, says “It goes between what I call the ‘savage sinner’ and the ‘red- skinned

2 The phrase “noble savage” appeared for the first time in Dryden’s The Conquest of Granada in 1672 as
nomenclature for the ideal “nature’s gentleman” (30). The concept is a hypothesis that man is essentially
good when not bound by civilization. Shaftesbury, in his Advice to an Author, tells future writers “to
search for that simplicity of manners, and innocence of behaviour, which has been often known among
mere savages; ere they were corrupted by our commerce” (Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Vol. 3 599-
600). The concept of a noble savage is usually associated with Romanticism, Rousseau and his romantic
philosophy. In the first chapter of his Emile: or On Education (1762) he expounds that “Everything is
good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man”
(Rousseau 37).
3 By the late eighteenth century the concept of the “noble savage” had become so widespread and
accepted that Benjamin Franklin was impelled to mock the discrepancies in the diffuse notion in his
“Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” (Franklin). Even as late as the twentieth century
the theme appeared from time to time, e.g. Aldous Huxley proffered examples in his novel Brave New
World (1932).
4 Authors using this myth were Mark Twain, Bret Harte and others.
5 There has been a certain duality in the portrayal of Native Americans, who were seen as savages and
saviours at the same time. Such duality is traceable also in early references: A noble saviour and friend
joining the settlers for the first Thanksgiving, a simple man selling Manhattan for $24, but also the enemy
kidnapping white women (Hill).
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redeemer’. We tend to use the Indian as a mirror on which we reflect a lot of our own
particular neuroses” (Hill). On one hand there is the desire to remove or kill them, on
the other to romanticize them.6
The legend of Pocahontas was a source of another stereotype, the “Indian
Princess”, a chief’s daughter sympathising with the white man, who is enticed away
from her people in order to marry him and become part of his culture, presumably better
and enlightened one. Therefore, she helps him to civilize other Natives. “The Indian
princess is strictly a European concept”, says Native American Joseph Riverwind. “The
nations of this country never had a concept of royalty. We do not have kings, queens or
princesses” (Riverwind).7
Hill assumes that the later removal of the Native Americans to reservations was
seen as a way how to obtain their land, but it was also perceived as a protection until
they were educated and reached the standard of Western civilization. In time the
reservations became places where their culture was preserved in spite of the poverty
there. The romantizing period came after the Battle of Wounded Knee and Geronimo’s
capture in Mexico. The romantic image of the “wild and free” Native American, a
member of a disappearing culture, had one discrepancy: that culture has never died
(Hill).

Latinos
In the United States there are two large Latino minorities: the Puerto Ricans and
the Mexicans.8 Mexico was ruled by Spain for about 300 years. Then in 1803 the
Louisiana Purchase broke the barriers between Mexico and the United States. The
movement of American settlers to the West and Southwest eventually led to a war with
Mexico in 1846 (Wilson II and Gutiérrez 65). Even before the war, Mexican men were
viewed as sub-human, portrayed as cruel, lazy and ridiculous, while women were
simplified into the category of charming and feminine forming a sharp contrast in
comparison to the puritanical habits of U.S. women (Bluemich and Cedeño). One

6 Akim Reinhardt, a historian at Towson University, describes the role of Native American in the life of
the early colonists: “Indians, from the initial settlements in the colonial period up through the 1700s and
the beginning of the nation, represented something scary to the colonists. It now seems preordained that
those 13 Colonies would persist, but it was not clear at the time. The Iroquois confederacy in the North,
the Cherokee and Creek confederacy in the North were, in fact, much stronger than the early European
colonies. So they had a very different perception of Indians than we do now” (Hill).
7 In Central and South America the royalty existed in the great civilisations.
8 Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines Latino as a man of Latin-American or
Spanish-speaking descent and Latina as its female counterpart (1087).
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possible reason for the hostility of white North Americans towards Mexicans might
have been steeped in ethnic differences. Inhabitants of Mexico were of Native American
(Indian) origin or mestizo9 (Wilson II and Gutiérrez 67).10
Sowell mentions that the Mexicans arrived to the U.S. during three great waves
of immigration separated by two deportation periods. The first immigrants lived in
closed communities, their children grew up in a Spanish-speaking environment
receiving hardly any education creating thus an “invisible” minority. After the Great
Depression mass unemployment, diseases and high crime rates eventually led to a
systematic campaign for deportation (249-253). However, after the Second World War
the U.S. government introduced the bracero programme in order to bring contract farm
labourers from Mexico (Hazarika and Otero).11 Nevertheless, later only citizens were
allowed to stay and the rest were expelled (Sowell 256). The third wave still continues
to the present day.
Sowell deals with Puerto Ricans separately. Puerto Rico became part of the
United States for the first time in 1898 as a result of the Spanish-American War. The
Puerto Ricans became American citizens at birth in 1917. Although the island had been
part of the USA, it continued to develop separately. The culture at the island was closer
to that of Latin America, as the result Spanish prevailed (227). He also indicates that the
immigration to the U.S. in substantial numbers started quite late compared to other
minorities, in the 1930s (Sowell 233).

African-Americans
The position of African-American actors has reflected their real position in the
American society. Wilson II and Gutiérrez note that the first slaves arrived in America
in 1619, when twenty Africans were brought to America on a Dutch pirate ship.12 They
had Spanish names since they had been originally on board a Spanish ship heading for
the West Indies. Those young people were exchanged for supplies in Jamestown (64).
They became indentured servants released only after many years of service, after the
indenture period. Their situation was the same as that of white indentured servants
(Sowell 192). However, the situation changed and, by the 1640s, slaves brought to
Virginia did not have indenture contracts (Sowell 192).

9 Mestizo means of Spanish and Native American origin.
10 In literature they were sometimes referred to as “these mixed races” (Wilson II and Gutiérrez 67).
11 The programme started in 1942 and finished in 1964.
12 Mayflower arrived one year later, in 1620.
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