Bamboozled: Black People and White Man Essay

In 2000, Spike lee wrote and directed the film Bamboozled. When discussing his satirical film, Spike lee side claimed, I want people to think about the power of images, not just in terms of race, but how imagery is apply and what sort of social impact it has how it influences how we talk, how we think, how we view one another. . . how film and television feature historic every(prenominal)y. . . produced and perpetuated distorted images. Spike Lee cert ainly conveyed this message in Bamboozled. Images atomic number 18 powerful and carry massive social impact. They should never be misrepresented.Are all African Americans either lazy or dim-witted or smart servants, always ready and willing to please the White Man? The short answer is, no. However, throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, many people believed this. The ultimate indecision 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 as smart servants or savages, were everywhere they were published 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 likes 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 audience ? 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 shady man with all these powers, teaches a young ovalbumin male ? how to golf like a champion ? How is it that black people have these powers but they use them for the benefit of white people? Spike Lee seems to be under the impression that African Americans are still misrepresented in the media. They have only improved their energy 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 macabre Man who is just like the White Man or the Asian Man or the Middle-Eastern Man a man who can be bountiful 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 describes about a Black Man living in an upper-middle-class white, suburban neighborhood, his superior, Thomas Dunwitty turned them d induce, they definitely dont want to see dignified black people on television. However, the network would allow Pierre Delacroix to create a show which blatantly degrades African Americans 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 forced down viewers throats. Spike Lee, however, did not do so gently. The fictional television show in Bamboozled, Mantans New Millennium Minstrel 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 blac k face. It was the latest craze 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 right off 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 community does not question the media. Instead it swallows images whole, even if those images are as false and misleading as a painted black face.