The Token Black Guy In Teen Movies
“Throughout history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness.”
- W.E.B. Du Bois (1903), The Souls Of Black Folk (p. 4)
The film industry is no stranger to racism; from the days of blackface to the exploitation and appropriation of Black culture, Hollywood executives, producers, writers, and actors have all sought to suppress and oppress Black culture for the mainstream viewing audience, as well as Black audiences themselves. These days, however, to reach a perpetually changing demographic of teenagers, film companies have had success stories with films like American Pie, Cruel Intentions, and Can't Hardly Wait - all movies geared towards teens armed with their parents' money. However, in an effort to appear diverse while making movies that appeal mainly to suburban, White teenagers, Hollywood has decided to place in the 'token black guy;' the one person of color in the entire movie, but stand in the back and doesn't really do anything.
Teen movies follow a formula for success: a love story, beautiful people, California high school - these are usual staples in the teen flick market. However, the race aspects of the token also follow the same aspects: the 'token black guy' never appears by himself, only when he is around his Caucasian friends; he never speaks unless spoken to by others; and he never stars in any scenes that feature him as the object of attention, making him forever stuck in the supporting actor role.
This tokenism featured in movies is not only damaging to the Black actors and actresses in the industry who accept those jobs because of lack of parts and ...
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... huge change in pace from achingly slow to a medium flow. When people can work together in the film industry and understand each other culturally, that is when the progress people speak so much of is in effect. When tokenism is done with – that is when the change has occurred.
References
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903). The Souls of Black Folks. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.
Dunbar, Paul Laurence (1926). The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York:
Dodd, Mead, & Company
Ringer, Benjamin B. (1983). “We the People” and Others: Duality and America’s Treatment of its Racial Minorities. New York: Tavistock Publications
Waxman, Sharon. (2003, March 23). For Black Actors, A New Story Line. The Washington
Post. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wpdyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A6169-2003Mar21¬Found=true
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James Baldwin, author of Sonny’s Blues, was born in Harlem, NY in 1924. During his career as an essayist, he published many novels and short stories. Growing up as an African American, and being “the grandson of a slave” (82) was difficult. On a day to day basis, it was a constant battle with racial discrimination, drugs, and family relationships. One of Baldwin’s literature pieces was Sonny’s Blues in which he describes a specific event that had a great impact on his relationship with his brother, Sonny. Having to deal with the life-style of poverty, his relationship with his brother becomes affected and rivalry develops. Conclusively, brotherly love is the theme of the story. Despite the narrator’s and his brother’s differences, this theme is revealed throughout the characters’ thoughts, feelings, actions, and dialogue. Therefore, the change in the narrator throughout the text is significant in understanding the theme of the story. It is prevalent to withhold the single most important aspect of the narrator’s life: protecting his brother.
... model for how the entertainment and media industries depict black people must change. Despite the progress that blacks have worked toward since the days of slavery, society continues to give in to the monetary benefits of producing self-disparaging entertainment and media. It is not only up to the directors, editors, producers and writers to establish this change, but it should also be the demand of the people, or the consumer. If the images of black people in the media are improved the outlook within the community will improve as well. Not only will positive goals and achievements become more realistic for black people if the media outlets discontinue their practice of equating blacks with aggression, lawlessness and violence, but a greater good will also result for whites, which would be represented by a true autonomy and equality in American society.
Wu, F. H. (2002). Yellow: race in america beyond black and white. New York: Basic
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“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
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