I want to talk about Black Panther, to try and explain its significance to the uninitiated in relation to films history of portraying African Americans throughout the medium, starting with what is considered the first portrayal of African Americans in a film from 1915 called
The Birth of a Nation which is known as one of the most important motion pictures of all time. If you want to know where the foundations of modern narrative filmmaking lie, for better or worse it's in that long silent film. It improved and used to significant dramatic effect filming techniques that would become staples for every film since it's release. While the techniques weren't created in Birth of the Nation, J.W. Griffith and his Cameraman utilized mainstays of filmmaking such as the use of
tracking and
panning shots,
crosscutting and at the time a use of close ups that had been early unheard of giving intimate profiles for viewers to capture emotions on a "characters" face. While the film by present day standards quite boring (It's 3 hours long, and silent) at the time no one had seen anything like it before because prior to that point films tended to look
like this.
The Birth of a Nation is also known as
the Clansmen and is called by many the most racist film ever made. It led to resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan (who were inactive at that point since the
South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials of 1872) as it was used as a recruiting tool and is actually credited for giving them the inspiration to use something that would become the second most recognizable aspect of that organization, the Burning Cross. (The Burning cross actually predates the clan going back even to Medieval times but according to sources it wasn't typically used by the KKK till after it's revival)
"It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." President Wilson reportedly said after the viewing.
The Clansmen was first film to have been screened in the White House, way back when Woodrow Wilson was in the office. It was the first movie he had seen, and Wilson himself being not to fond of the negros and having similar ideas of the Reconstruction ate it like candy.
The film portrayed blacks (no actual African Americans were featured in the film only caucasians in black face) during the reconstruction as cunning and sexually exploitative, raping caucasian women, and trying to dominate the south through force during the reconstruction period, only to be stopped by the heroically portrayed clansmen clad in white and brandishing burning crosses, bring justice to the wicked negros in the south. As absurd and transparent as that sounds now, only a century ago this was viable means to convince millions, (no exaggeration) of people into joining. Only five years later, the clan would hold the south, with some sources stating
4 million members in 1920.
"African-American audiences openly wept at the film's malicious portrayal of blacks, while Northern white audiences cheered."
One of the earliest films, a triumph which built the foundations for what would become Hollywood, was by a critics assessment “an elaborate justification for mass murder.†-
The Devil Finds Work,
James Baldwin
It's important to bring this up because this was the beginnings of colored portrayals in the United States in films, even before hollywood existed as we would come to know it only a few years after that and to this day. These were the first portrayals of African Americans for better of worse in films, and while it would never be this bad again, in 1929 African Americans would be given roles in films and even allowed to carry films. The first of which was Hearts in Dixie which I haven't seen or heard much about, but immediately following that was Hallelujah! of which my favorite review summarizes the film as such "
Hallelujah is a collection of racist stereotypes. There's the simple-minded poor folk with their bad grammar, which could be excused as being somewhat realistic for people who were denied an education. The What An Idiot portrayal of protagonist Zeke is harder to excuse, and the portrayal of Zeke as thinking with his penis and being completely unable to control his urges is even worse. Then there's Zeke's younger sister who thinks a ticking watch has a heartbeat, or the time-honored racist stereotype of blacks gambling with dice. The lack of white people in the movie also rather insidiously suggests that black people are causing their own problems, instead of being oppressed by racism." the trend would continue, Willie Best AKA Sleep n' Eat and Stepin Fetchit would make their livings playing the types of roles that were considered decent by many of the time (far more caucasians than African Americans) decent.
Clarence Muse stated in his self published pamphlet,
The Dilemma of the Negro Actor that "There are two audiences in America to confront, the white audience with a definite desire for buffoonery and song, and the Negro audience with a desire to see the real elements of Negro life portrayed."
In 1961 during the civil rights movement admits talks on integration and and voting rights, headway was made in many areas, Sidney Poitier starred in Raisin in the Sun a film based on the play of the same name starring the same cast, it was well received and a damn good film honestly. I'd recommend anyone watch it. This is the turning point, where things slowly start becoming better in film at least. Thankfully it was filmed in black and white.
Film wasn't created nor did it adapt to darker colors for a near century. There's also particular ways you must light darker skin. This was most brilliantly exemplified in 2016's
Moonlight. The skin doesn't disappear into the darkness, it's shown with the same amount of visibility as any other pigmentation.
I'm gonna skip ahead because there's enough to touch on in this topic to fill an entire PBS or BBC mini series. In the 70s there were a series of Afrocentric movies we'd come to know as Blaxploitation films.
Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song (Yes, the five s's are a part of the title) despite only receiving limited releases in Atlanta and New York City was a breakout hit, grossing 4.1 million which for a movie that was filmed in 20 days, on budget of $50,000 (a loan from Bill Cosby) and was required viewing for the Black Panther Party (which despite both Black Panther the character and the the party both coming into existence the same year there is no relation between the two. Yes, it's a hell of a coincidence). On a personal level I hate that movie. It's an ugly movie painting an ugly picture of a group of people from
an extremely ugly time. Much like
The Birth of The Nation galvanized the KKK, and breathed life into hollywood,
Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song gave new life to black led escapist films we'd come to know as Blaxploitaiton, though Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song wasn't a part of it according to Roger Ebert, but it did inspire new wave of that stuff usually airing as B-movies for another feature. The films always featured a shady man of color operating outside of the law to further his own goals usually getting one over one
The Man. Hollywood saw profit to be gained in the "Militant black Man fighting injustice" and pounced as hollywood does.
Badasssss and Blaxploitation was divisive between the
black community of the 1970s.
The 80s are close enough to where I don't need to explain much. Beverly Hill Cop series was recent enough that you can find a bevy of information on it. The Lethal Weapon Series, and Die Hard which features a black cop who isn't a hot head or a intended as joke. I mean I never cared for how Winston was treated in the Ghostbusters series, or in merchandising for the movie, but he wasn't anymore of a punchline then Ray, Egon and Peter were. It was a lot better for representation in movies then what had been, but no one wants to be the supporting character forever.
The 90s rolled around, and it is once again recent enough to where I have to assume most of you were present for, it's a period of time I can account for without outside resources in brief because I think most of you were alive, so I'm going to actually forgo all that, and finally,
finally,
finally get to the point(s) of all of this.
In over a century of escapism through the movie screen, there hasn't been any fantastical film world that African American audiences could see themselves in without making severe self image alterations in their minds to compensate for racial identity. I remember the iconic Red Letter Media Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace making a solid point about the Urban Market.
All of the films noted are dramas, crime thrillers, and comedies.
There has never been a point in history where Superhero films were as big as they are now, superheroes themselves were quite big in the 60s and during WWII, but they've never translated into film well till the turn of the century with the advent of 20th century Fox's X-men franchise, since the beginning of that wild climb even when Superheroes did feature a black main character, it never was addressed or even mentioned in fact Al Simmons from Spawn, Eric Brooks from Blade, and even Hancock (who has no comic book counterpart) were all characters who were a part of a group of characters I'll call, black by happenstance. Their color neither informed their characters and while yes it's not a bad thing they were black, there was nothing gained or lost from them being so. In fact Blade wasn't even a fucking person. I don't mean that they weren't real, none of these are, I mean in story he didn't act like a human being and even less so then the vampires he faced. Both he and Spawn suffered from this lack of human emotion and any kind of relatability. They were cool to look at, but they were more concepts then actual characters. I remember someone who was actually offended when Cyborg was transplanted from the Teen Titans book to Justice League in 2011, and that he was included in the Justice League film, it's not like there weren't other options for that spot as well.
Ryan Coogler got handed a shit ton of money to make a movie about a character, and that character wasn't even Black Panther, or Killmonger, it was fictional country of Wakanda. Black Panther himself had already been established in Civil War, so his arc while essential to the film was there to flesh out the country of Wakanda. When people are wearing Dashikis and speaking with a faux wakandian accent, for fun, it's because they don't get to do that under any other circumstance without catching some side eye or comment from someone else regarding race.
There are no black people in Lord of the Rings, (Or in fact even derivatives of the tolkien fantasies) And even dressing in a Red Starfleet Uniform will catch glares at a con if you don't indicate you're cosplaying Sisko.