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The
difference between African Americans and nearly every
other ethnic group in America is that we have done a
poor job of controlling our own image. We can take control
of our own image by taking control of the image that
is bought and sold in modern film.
It
is weak to claim that demeaning roles are all that is
available, and it is particularly weak when the option
of making our own films has been available for a long
time.
For
all the ranting and raving I do about Black-owned businesses
and how integration hurt us in many ways, I always get
confused looks and questions from the people who have
no idea that we were making things happen in a real
way when we had real Black communities with real Black
commerce.
One
such shining example was a Black man from Metropolis,
Illinois named Oscar Micheaux, who in 1919, made his
own full-length feature film from his novel called “The
Homesteader.” He was the first African-American
to do so, and served as inspiration for Townsend, as
well as Spike Lee, Tim Reid and Carl Franklin, among
other filmmakers.
The
son of former slaves, Micheaux worked in Chicago as
a shoe shine boy while pursuing his dream of being a
writer, moving to South Dakota, where he penned several
novels, formed his own publishing company and sold copies
of his books door to door.
Please
read carefully, because while this story is nearly obscure,
it should serve as inspiration for every Black person
in America today with a dream.
During
Micheaux's era, most of the films made were silent,
and for the most part, Blacks were silent as well as
invisible, save for the buck-dancing, shuffling, demeaning
images of self-effacing actors such as Hattie McDaniel
and Lincoln Perry, also known as Stepin’ Fetchit.
Our
very relationship with film was initiated with the early
“classic,” Birth Of A Nation. The “talkies”
ushered in the era of Blacks as weak buffoons and idiots
or manly mammies when most of the actors were dark-skinned
Negroes who continuously bucked their eyes for outlandish
comedic and demeaning effect.
Actor
Ving Rhames, Keenan Ivory Wayans and other confused
Negroes have been outspoken about calling Stepin’
Fetchit a hero, claiming that the shuffling, foolish
actor from the early days of film opened doors for today’s
Black actors. What doors were opened by an embarrassment
who claimed his fame by bucking his eyes out of his
head in childlike fear, or by speaking in a slow, dull-witted
cartoonish voice, designed to provide comedy relief
to racists?
There
were real doors opened for Blacks, but they came in
the form of high quality films with Blacks as protagonists
in respectable roles, written by a Black man named Oscar
Micheaux.
Micheaux
understood the film game and as an entrepreneur, knew
that he would have to start his own film company in
order to get his stories to the silver screen. He did
just that and launched a successful film business with
more than forty-three movies to his credit.
Micheaux's
film business was just that--a business. He hired all
of the actors, made the movies and even handled his
own distribution to the seven hundred-plus Black theatres
in existence in the nation at that time. Do I have to
repeat that there were more than seven hundred Black
theatres in existence before integration?
Currently,
Earvin “Magic” Johnson is a revolutionary
for attempting to rebuild what once was, taking theatres
into parts of Black America which haven’t held
first-run theatres in decades. His revolution is to
build the future by revisiting the past.
In
the late Eighties, Spike Lee set off a new Black Renaissance
in film by regenerating interest in Black-themed films
with Black actors that weren’t pandering to America’s
beloved Negro stereotypes.
There
are a number of actors and actresses who are doing very
good work on television and in film, holding the line
and refusing to denigrate our image for a paycheck and
fifteen minutes of fame.
Today,
generations after Oscar Micheaux’s revolution
in film making, it makes no sense for anyone to say
that they are taking a demeaning role because there
is nothing else, or that they have to avoid their dream
because it is simply unavailable. Micheaux was not a
rich man, but he was able to accomplish his dreams by
relying on resources found within his own community.
In
order to generate funding for his films, Micheaux began
shopping the concept of an all-Black film to the Black
theatres and asking for payment in advance, which he
would use to make the film.
Micheaux
wanted to make Black films with positive roles for Black
actors. Think about that the next time you are in front
of the television when the new House Niggers make everyone
laugh on television or when the latest film featuring
Blacks over-exaggerating their own behavior for a punchline
rolls through Hollywood for a bellylaugh at us.
If we were controlling our own images, we would not
have to worry about what anyone thinks about us. We
would be the heroes as well as the villains, the lovers
as well as the thieves and defining those roles ourselves.
Further, the good roles wouldn’t be relegated
to a handful of shining Black princes and princesses
who refuse to clown their race for a punchline and a
paycheck.
If we wish to move beyond our present, we have only
to revisit our past. Let’s make Black history
a part of the Black future.
Darryl
James is an award-winning author and is now a filmmaker.
His first mini-movie, “Crack,” will be released
in March of this year. James’ latest book, “Bridging
The Black Gender Gap,” is the basis of his lectures
and seminars. Previous installments of this column can
now be viewed at www.bridgecolumn.com.
James can be reached at djames@theblackgendergap.com
PRESS CONTACT:
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
323-296-6331
hutchinsonreport@aol.com
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