Racial Representation In Marvel Superheroes Cinema

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Racial representation in Marvel Superheroes cinema

The racial representation has varied throughout history both in quantity, that is, the number of films produced that include black characters, as in form, that is, how they have been represented: stereotypes.

The birth of a nation (Griffith, 1915) would be a clear example of those first feature films, in which the black race was offensively represented, since the "black" characters that appear were, in reality, performed by white actorsPainted with black makeup. This was called Blackface: a theatrical makeup used to represent African black people. It was a method used to hide the true slave trafficking, since they were shown as sophisticated and happy people. It had its origin in 1441 in Portugal where slaves were exposed to entertain the white public. But it was not until 1769 when the BlackFace fashion was taken to the United States by Lewis Hallam. This mockery was perceived by the public instantly. Griffith, among others, supported racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, and in this case, made them the heroes that saved the people of the "blacks".

"The singer of Jazz" (Alan Crosland, 1927) is especially known for being the first film with synchronized sound of cinema. During the nineteenth and part of the 20th century, the white people enjoyed jazz and other styles of black origin. However, the concept that a really black person was on stage was not yet tolerated, hence white singers arose who painted the black face so as not to "offend the sensitivity" of the white public.

In the 30s the so -called Race Films began to take more visibility. Several titles premiered as adaptations of other films that had already been starred by White. Ralph Cooper, nicknamed "Dark Gable", was one of the stars of this movement with films such as Underworld and Dark Manhattan.

At the beginning of the 40s, the term exploitation was not considered derogatory. It was not until the next decade when he began to take that appearance. He was used to call those sensationalist theme films and who appealed to the most disturbed and foolish side. In this decade of the 50, the films made by blacks and destined for a black audience were belittled, considered a kind of film ghetto and called, as we have already seen, Race Movies. Sidney Paitier was one of the most important actors of this moment, participating in the film industry, which had begun to include black actors in their films, yes, always in secondary roles.

In the 60s, the tendency to relegate black actors to secondary papers in films considered “for whites”, where they were presented in an adverse and risky environment, as opposed to the way of life of white people. Some examples are: The Cool World (1964) or Putney Swope (1969), two independent productions. Most of the feature films that were carried out were police or action. The aforementioned actor, Sidney Poitier, played the first African -American cinema detective, Virgil Tibbs, in the film in the heat of the night (Norman Jewison, 1968). In it, it looks like the detective addresses cases referring to discrimination and racial inequalities. The film was made during the years in which the civil rights struggles that raised about racial representation were developed.

During the 70s, Blaxploitation emerged, a film movement that became a social phenomenon in the United States. They were films made by African Americans for black and urban audiences.

It could be said then that, according to Josiah Howard, “the Blaxploitation Films are films produced in the 70s with black cast or black theme, as well as Hollywood mainstream movies that include a black interpreter in a prominent paper and that reflect an ideology influenced byThe black pride movement. They are films created, developed and, above all, very publicized for young, urban and black audiences ”.

The Blaxploitation Films of the 1970s studio: Blackness and Genre (Studies in African American History and Culture) defined the term from the point of view of the film’s argument as: “Protoism of a social hero or heroine socially and politically committed and sexually released, secondary characters also black, urban atmosphere in black neighborhoods, villains (if it can be, whites) that are defeated and suppressed by the black hero/heroin after exercising violence, inclusion of typical problems of the black community as it canBeing police brutality, disturbances, drugs, fights, pimperism accompanied by soul and funky music ”.

This movement meant to introduce all those characters and environments of the previous decades in the most commercial cinema. Blaxploitation covered a new format, with a different vision, new photographic, costume atmospheres, etc. Therefore, films of all kinds of genres were made: terror, comedies, westerns, tragedies, melodramas, etc.

The movement ended in that same decade due to the exhaustion of commercial overexploitation. The works remained as a necessary representation, which arose at the time of maximum splendor of a fight against racism and inequality. The genre had especially impact on music, which had more fame and recognition in the later decade than at the time of premiere. In addition, its aesthetics also remained in the cinema. Spike Lee, in his film do what you owe (do the right thing, 1989), deals the racial conflicts and the repression of the black population resuming the essence of black pride, which, thanks to the flowering of hip hop, remained aliveIn the 80s. Together with Spike Lee, there were directors such as John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) and Allen and Albert Hughes (Menace II Society) who focused on showing the urban life of these communities in their films. These directors made use of Blaxploitation elements while incorporated, in implicit way, criticism of the tendency that the genre had to glorify that stereotyped "criminal" behavior.

Years later, the well -known director appeared: Quentin Tarantino, a fan of the genre, decided to continue the theme and the original political values of the Blaxploitation in his film Jackie Brown (1997) resurfaceing Pam Grier. His films, Pulp Fiction (1994) or Django triggered (Django Unchained, 2012), would be more recent examples that also include elements of the genre.

Like any movement, Blaxploitation obtained criticism and its films were accused of perpetuating the stereotypes that whites had on the black race, which was another of the reasons why the genre ended. Films such as Superfly (Gordon Parks JR, 1972) or The Mack (Michael Campus, 1973) received great criticisms, both for the protagonist’s stereotype, a "cool" or "Alcahuete", generalizing this vision to all African -American men;as for the portrait of all black communities as the focus of drug trafficking and crime.

It should be noted that the Blaxploitation Movement was limited to an adult audience. However, racism was not something that arose spontaneously once it reached adulthood, but forged from childhood. And unfortunately, this continues to happen today. The animation programs and films that were created for the children’s audience at that time, also reflected stereotypes such as those we have mentioned in previous paragraphs.

Disney currently has opted for more inclusive content, because he is aware that representation matters. But before all this Disney was racist and reinforced stereotypes through its audiovisual contents. Disney was and remains the main producer and distributor of child content, so its consumption perpetuated that vision of inequality. Fantasy (1940), before she was censored, showed in one of her scenes "sunflower", a small black leather centaur drawn in a similar way to how the actors were made up with the Blackface, which was a servant of the white cent.Nice. In the film Dumbo (1941) we can see how the southern African -American community is represented as a flock of crows (in Spain: gypsies), insultingly. They are portrayed as livestock, exploited and rude, using a vulgar jargon. Then there is the film Peter Pan (1953) in which American natives are represented with an intense red skin color, a persistent stereotype in offensive representations of Native Americans, in addition to the typical ones as "wild" and "fools". As for Asian stereotypes we can find one in the movie The Lady and the Vagabund. These stereotypes were reinforced after World War II and the Korean War since they were called "the yellow threat", a threat that disturbed the quiet life of the Americans, similar to what happens in the film when cats enter theHouse.

Finally, a more recent movie but still contains certain breaks of Disney’s past would be Mulán. While it is true that the film is claiming for the theme of feminism, it was not very well received since it was reinforced the color stereotype: the villains had a darker skin color than that of the heroes.

Perhaps productions such as Coco and Vaiana mean a change of route for the company. However, the shadow of its previous errors has already spread over multiple generations.

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