Will Smith at the Oscars: Why Stereotypes are the Root of the Problem
Created by Montse Magallon on Mon, 04/25/2022 - 10:36
Part of Group:
The Will Smith Oscars slap has been a hot topic since it happened. While it is entertaining and somewhat striking to watch, it is important to know the significance of the racial history behind the reactions that this event has garnered. While some would argue that Will Smith's reaction does nothing for the Black community and feeds into the racial stereotypes that have been placed upon him as a Black man, this calls into question why these stereotypes are still around in modern times today. Additionally, this brings to the surface the idea of fake news and how much harm it causes. Throughout history, there has been plenty of racial factors that have added on to the reaction that Will Smith has gotten. There is no telling when these racial stereotypes became normalized, however, this event is making people face the reality of these stereotypes. It also calls into question just how misleading fake news are and why it is important to be properly informed of these events and situations. From slavery to war, to activism to the Oscars, this timeline will showcase a variety of events and how these racial stereotypes are the root of the problem. By the end of this timeline, you should be able to answer "Why is it that Will Smith got this reaction out of the public while others have gotten away with worse?"
Timeline
Chronological table
| Date | Event | Created by | Associated Places | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1789 |
Literary Event: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, written in 1789, is an autobiography written by an African man who had been kidnapped, sold into slavery, and later gained his freedom. In the book, after describing his homeland of Essaka, Equiano goes on to explain the terror of being kidnapped into slavery and eventually loaded onto a ship bound first for Barbados, then the United States. He describes the nightmare that was the Middle Passage in all its horror: Africans jumping overboard to escape a life of slavery, whippings, being chained together, and the stench of the hold. He discusses what it was like to be taken to a place where nobody even speaks your language. One of the worst parts, in Equiano’s estimation, was the practice of separating family and friends from one another. Of this, he says: “Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, or husbands their wives? Surely this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery” (Equiano). Eventually, Equiano ends up in London, where he learns to read, write, and speak English. From there, he goes on a series of naval adventures and passes through the hands of multiple masters until he is finally able to buy his freedom in 1766. This book was one of the first accounts of slavery to be written by a formerly enslaved person, and Equiano faced a lot of criticism for it. According to Sabino and Hall, “Equiano has been characterized variously as a fraud, a plagiarist, an apologist, a hero, a capitalist, and a guerilla fighter” (Sabino). He also dealt with “the elitist assumption that an Igbo could not acquire sufficient competency in English language and culture to author such an acceptably English text” (Sabino). The idea that he must be a fraud or could not have actually written his autobiography himself is rooted in racism and stigma. His critics refuse to believe that an African man would be capable of learning English to such an advanced degree. Additionally, these critics claim that Equiano isn’t a reliable narrator of his own life. Because of this, Equiano was later forced to include letters at the beginning of his book attesting to his good character as proof of his history. Equiano’s Interesting Narrative is a direct challenge to the racist stigma of his time, and this is precisely why it faced so much backlash. The stigma of black Africans as being unintellectual, uncivilized, and generally incapable of speaking for themselves is challenged by this well-written, articulate firsthand experience. Additionally, this book does more than simply challenge stigma: “Equiano succeeds in creating a narrative voice and a fictional self that emerge…to form a prototypical Black hero and introduce themes and styles that continue to dominate the Black literary tradition” (Samuels). The criticism Equiano faced for writing his Narrative is different from the criticism Will and Jada Smith have faced, but both are rooted in the same old stigmas and racism. Where a white actor may have been given a pass for his actions, Will Smith has been vilified across the media (and for that matter, so has Jada, even though all she did was sit there). Despite his teary apology, he is now banned from the Academy Awards for a decade. The standards and stakes are always higher for black folks, both in 1789 and today. Works Cited: Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vasso, the African. London, 1789. Sabino, Robin, and Jennifer Hall. “The Path Not Taken: Cultural Identity in the Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano.” MELUS, vol. 24, no. 1, 1999, pp. 5–19, https://doi.org/10.2307/467904. Accessed 27 Apr. 2022. Samuels, Wilfred D. “Retrospective Glance: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Reconsidered.” Negro History Bulletin, vol. 46, no. 4, 1983, pp. 99–100, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44246884. Accessed 27 Apr. 2022. Related Links: |
Megan Moss | ||
| 25 Mar 1807 |
Historical Event: The Slave Trade Act of 1807 The Slave Trade Act passed in Britain in 1807 did not abolish slavery in Britain or the United States. However, the Act represented a shift in the attitude of the British Parliament. After nearly two centuries of laws supporting and upholding the slave trade, Parliament was now taking a firmer abolitionist stance. The road to changing Parliament’s mind on the issue of slavery was a long one, and it did not end with this Act. Two months before the Act finally passed, Willian Wilberforce, a well-known British abolitionist, penned a lengthy letter refuting arguments for the slave trade and amassing all of his evidence against it. One of the biggest things Wilberforce and the other abolitionists were fighting against was stigma. Slavery had been upheld on the back of racist ideas about black people being subhuman and inferior. Wilberforce quotes much of the derogatory, racist vitriol spewed against Africans at the time, and then goes to great lengths to refute those ideas. Speaking of the horrific practice of whipping slaves for any small infraction, he says, “Let me but ask, what must be the effect necessarily produced on the mind from having been habituated to such scenes as these from early infancy?” (Wilberforce). The ideas of generational trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder may not have yet been in the lexicon, but that is exactly what Wilberforce is recognizing and pointing out within slave populations. Today, research has shown that “trauma spans multiple generations, such that contemporary members of the affected group may experience trauma-related symptoms without having been present for the past traumatic event” (Fairfax). This “trauma and anti-Blackness are rooted in institutional economic, political, and social institutions that have had indelible generational impact” (Fairfax). While slavery now feels distant to many people, its effects continue to ripple throughout the entire world in the form of continued systemic racism and generational trauma. One industry still seeing those rippling racist effects is the film industry, and the Academy Awards are no exception. One has only to look at the different responses to harm done by actors of different races, as other exhibits in this timeline have pointed out, to see this is true. Donna Murch, talking about the film industry, notes that, “Issues of stereotype and racial myth reside in this domain” (Murch). The stereotypes played out on screen reinforce old racist “stereotypical perceptions linking race and crime,” and because of this, “Mass media has played a crucial role in the maintenance and perpetuation of racial myth” (Murch). The media’s circus-like coverage of the Will Smith/Chris Rock slap makes a spectacle out of black pain and serves to reinforce those old notions about race and violence. Just like the passing of the Slave Trade Act did not immediately lead to abolition throughout the British Empire, change in the film industry and media at large is slow to come. Like Wilberforce, we must still strive to dismantle the old prejudices from our society and work towards a collective healing of the ongoing trauma and stigma. Works Cited: Fairfax, Colita Nichols. “The Need To Be: Since 1619, Trauma and Anti-Blackness.” Phylon (1960-), vol. 57, no. 1, 2020, pp. 56–75, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26924987. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022. Murch, Donna. “The Prison of Popular Culture: Rethinking the Seventy-Fourth Annual Academy Awards.” The Black Scholar, vol. 33, no. 1, 2003, pp. 25–32, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41069010. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022. Wilberforce, William. A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade. London, 1807. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/63974/63974-h/63974-h.htm. Accessed 28 Apr. 2022. Related Links: |
Megan Moss | ||
| 1834 to 1913 |
Historical Event: Mary Seacole During the Crimean War During the Crimean War, there were many wounded soldiers in need of aid and Mary Seacole was more than willing to attend to them, but this did not come easy for her. “On the outbreak of the Crimean War Mary set sail for England where she hoped to join the company who would soon depart under the guidance of Miss Nightingale. Her application was turned down despite her education, her nursing skills, her herbal remedies—she dressed flamboyantly, was too old, too brash, and dare one say it, too black!” (Dublin History Record). Mary Seacole had just as much knowledge as Florence Nightingale and had all the motivation to good intentions to help during the Crimean War but was unfairly denied. Her skills were questioned, and she wasn’t given the chance to prove how good she was at what she did because of her skin color. In the end, Mary Seacole did make her way into helping soldiers during the war but it wasn’t easy and neither was her gaining recognition. “In the intervening years, however, Mary Seacole’s heroic contributions during that ‘dawn of modern nursing’ have been conspicuously forgotten by all but the most scrupulous medical historians” (Indianapolis Star). There have been some changes since then but overall, Mary Seacole didn’t get the recognition that she deserved. She did just as much work as Nightingale and was appreciated by many of the soldiers for being a sort of mother figure to them and yet she continued to live in Nightingale’s shadow. Additionally, Mary Seacole wrote her book a certain way in order to get recognized. “While Wonderful Adventures was marketed as a travel book, a genre enjoying high popularity at the time, it was in fact, a kind of autobiography in which Seacole conscious of audience expectations, employed sophisticated rhetorical strategies to establish herself as a perfect Victorian heroine” (Journal of Narrative Theory). Mary Seacole knew that in order for her book to sell, she would have to market it a certain way to appeal to the audience. Mary Seacole was more than capable of helping those around her and working as a nurse. In fact, a lot of the time soldiers preferred her treatment over the medication because she was a mother figure to them and was always caring. Despite all of this, she had to fight her way into helping those people and eventually take matters into her own hands. This all leads back to the events with Will Smith at the Oscar. It begs the question of whether the public’s reaction would have been different if it was a white man who did it. This also leads to the fact that most of the time, people of color have to work harder than white people to get what they want no matter what it is. Will Smith was completely oved by the public before the incident at the Oscars occurred. If this had been a white man, chances are that an apology would’ve been enough for others to forget about it. Additionally, although a white man might not get as severe of a punishment for his actions. References: "May 23, 1970 (Page 21 of 52)." Indianapolis Star (1923-2004), May 23, 1970, pp. 21. ProQuest, http://ulib.iupui.edu/cgi-bin/proxy.pl?url=http://search.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/may-23-1970-page-21-52/docview/1893152572/se-2?accountid=7398.
Mercer, Lorraine. “I Shall Make No Excuse: The Narrative Odyssey of Mary Seacole.” Journal of Narrative Theory, vol. 35, no. 1, 2005, pp. 1–24, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30224618. Accessed 1 May 2022.
Related links: The Crimean War (1853 - 1856)The Charge of the Light Brigade Poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson |
Montse Magallon | ||
| circa. 1857 |
Literary Event: Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole Mary Seacole Mary Seacole, a battlefield nurse during the Crimean war saw much bloodshed wounded soldiers during her service under the British monarchy. As she began to venture to strange lands after she volunteered to be a nurse for the war, she began to write about her story. During the war she worked under Florence Nightingale. “He was often at Spring Hill, with the most smiling of faces and in the most gorgeous of irregular uniforms, and never failed to praise my soups and dainties. I always flattered myself that I was his match, and with our West Indian dishes could of course beat him hollow, and more than once I challenged him to a trial of skill; but the gallant Frenchman only shrugged his shoulders, and disclaimed my challenge with many flourishes of his jewelled hands, declaring that Madame proposed a contest where victory would cost him his reputation for gallantry, and be more disastrous than defeat. And all because I was a woman, forsooth. What nonsense to talk like that, when I was doing the work of half a dozen men. Then he would laugh and declare that, when our campaigns were over, we would render rivalry impossible, by combining to open the first restaurant in Europe” (Seacole). At this point in the passage we see Seacole comment on one of the French soldiers who she was around while stationed in Sebastopol. In reference to her cooking based on her origin she challenged the officer jokegly to try and match her cooking and her skills. However, as a woman challenging a man that was considered not appropriate for the 18th century. She was ahead of her time. She doesn’t fight in the war she fights to save lives, which made her position controversial. This theme of controversy is important because of how it affected Seacole. Instead of negatively causing her distress she took the comments made on her shoulder and continued her work despite the stereotypes. As Seacole experienced racism for her origin and her work as a woman, it can connect to Will Smith’s matter. His wife Jada Pickett, has alopecia areata so she shaves her head. During her roles as GI Jane, her head was also shaved. Chris Rock, a comedian, makes a joke about her head and its correlation to her previous role. Will Smith stood up, took the joke to heart and felt a need to stand up for his wife out of respect for her. Seacole stood up to the comments by continuing her work. We the spectators of Will Smith’s actions at the Oscars have yet to see if he will continue his career as an actor. Seacole wrote about the nonsense and war she experienced and commented upon it with honesty and truth. Will Smith had the same fervor as Seacole in that matter. Will Smith faces the perpetuated stereotypes created from the slap. Details of these perpetuated stereotypes can also be found in propaganda. Seacole, Mary.COVE. “Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands.” Cove Studio, James Blackwood, 1857, studio.covecollective.org/anthologies/sp22-eng-l302-anthology/documents/wonderful-adventures-of-mrs-seacole-in-many-lands. |
Camryn Walls | ||
| circa. 1903 |
Black Man's Burden Literary Event: The Black Man’s Burden The poem “The Black man’s Burden” was written and published in 1903 by Lulu Baxter Guy. This poem was written and published in order to change the narrative of Kiplings “White Man’s Burden”. This poem explains what the burdens of being a Black man inAmerica is like. While in Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden”, he expresses that he believes that the white man’s burden is basically taking it on themselves, as a race entirely, to go out into the world and conquer and teach countries and people that are “uncivilized” and bring them to up to par with the rest of the “white world”. In Kipling’s poem he makes it seem that the best, and also the worst, thing about being a white man is having to take it upon themselves and explore and find these underdeveloped worlds and teach them the way of the rest of the white world, and reach out and grab hold of them. It is because of this that Guy wrote his poem, in order to take this narrative and showcase the actual consequences of this thought process. In his poem “The Black Man’s Burden” Guy confronts this colonizing idea in his own poem, while also expanding upon the consequences he says that Black men suffer from because of people with Kiplings ideology. I do believe that Guy wrote this poem with the main audience being white people. However, I believe that this is a poem that anyone could take advantage of reading. I definitely think that in some way Black people, especially of that time period, would benefit from reading this as a sort of eye opener, or to inspire them to realize they deserve better. While I couldn’t find much on how the poem itself was received by the general public, I can imagine that it was not as favorably responded to by the public as “The White Man’s Burden”. In Guy's poem he says, “ Have we not served ye long enough? Been long enough your slave? Cut loose the bands that bind us, Bid us like men be strong”. The meaning behind these couple of lines is Guy saying, hasn’t the Black race given enough to the white men of the world. Not only does he say that Black people have been slaves to white people long enough, but that white people should release them from the control they still have over the Black race. That the white race should allow Black people to live life freely the same way that they are able to. In the article about Balck soldiers it states that “nothing has terrified the mind of white america throughout history more than a black man holding a loaded gun”. While this does not completely relate to the Will Smith Oscar slap, since no guns were involved, I do believe that this quote directly encompasses the reason why Will Smith has gotten the response he has from the world. “ Think of the brave deeds we have done; Look not for all the wrong.” This is a quote from “The Black Man’s Burden” that completely speaks to the Will Smith Oscars situation. This is because, everyone is now only recognizing Will Smith for the physical altercation with Chris Rock, and not for everything else he has done that he has done that is better for not only himself but the rest of the world too. They have now only looked at the wrong he has done this one time, instead of all of the better things he has done throughout his career. Works Cited: Marable, M. (1981). The Military, Black People, And The Racist State: A History Of Coercion. The Black Scholar, 12(1), 6–17. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41067961 SCOTT, D. (2011). Kipling, the Orient, and Orientals: “Orientalism” Reoriented? Journal of World History, 22(2), 299–328. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23011713 Guy, L. B. (n.d.). The Black Man's Burden. Cove studio :: Sign in. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://studio.covecollective.org/anthologies/sp22-eng-l302-anthology/do... Related Links: The Black Man's Burden(H.T. Johnson): https://studio.covecollective.org/anthologies/sp22-eng-l302-anthology/documents/the-black-mans-burden Toxic Patriotism Entry: https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/white-mans-burden-rubyard-kipling |
Alaina Davison | ||
| circa. 1942 |
WW2 Propaganda: Influence of Racism This Is The Enemy In WW2 propaganda was everywhere. It was meant to arouse emotion and in the public eye spread awareness for whichever country’s cause. Propaganda is also a form of manipulation and can cause misconceptions. Misconceptions can lead to stereotypes and during WW2 many stereotypes were formed about Americans, Germans, and Japanese. “This 1942 poster, titled This is the Enemy, circulated in the United States following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Its purpose was to embody the entire Japanese nation as a ruthless and animalistic enemy that needed to be defeated. This image represents a clash between two nations at war and illustrates the biased perceptions that developed as a result” (Miles). The 1942 poster of the Japanese man dehumanized the people of Japan. As this poster was seen throughout America due to the world war two bombing of Peral Harbor, Americans began to speculate that Japanese were ruthless human beings, which lead to racial hatred; a racial stereotype was formed. This poster was made to strike fear in the hearts of Americans. Paying attention to the art itself, the lines are dark and bold. The lighting accompanied with the outline shows anger from the Japanese man while the other face from the woman shows fear. The poster served its purpose well as it rallied Americans to support the war effort and to bring justice for what happened at Pearl Harbor. It should also be noted that, “The American audience, young and old alike, could relate to her familiar facial features and human-like appearance. On the other hand, the subhuman depiction of the Japanese detached any human relation between the two races. These racial distinctions were purposefully included in order to further alienate the Japanese as the other people” (Miles). The poster depicted the Japanese man to have a monkey-like or animalistic features while the woman looks perfect. This damaged whatever relations Japan had with the United States further. As propaganda racial defiled the Japanese for the war effort, we can see similar examples today. After Will Smith assaulted Chris Rock the media went crazy. The Oscars showed the footage which gave everyone at home a front row seat to the action. A few days after the incident, a social media giant, Tik Tok began to release the audio and video from the Oscars onto its platform. Users would use the sound of Will SMith’s voice with images and videos to make jokes. The media today can greatly influence us and as we see from Tik Tok many people reacted differently. However, it leaves a racial stereotype behind. From only showing snippets of the video from the Oscars instead of the full, we see the assault rather than what led up to it. It paints a bad picture for the Black community as some may believe that Will Smith is violent therefore the public opinion will start to fill in the gaps; that Black people can be violent. This is not the case, as the media leaves out information to get certain messages across. Miles, H. (2012, March). WWII Propaganda: The Influence of Racism. Artifacts Journal // University of Missouri; Artifacts. https://artifactsjournal.missouri.edu/2012/03/wwii-propaganda-the-influe... |
Camryn Walls | ||
| circa. The middle of the month Jul 1944 |
Historical Event: 1914-1945 Park Street Riot 1944 The Park Street Riot In 1944, The Park Street Riot took place in Bristol, England where local US authorities met representatives in England to introduce segregation beyond the borders of military camps. This meant that they were trying to segregate blacks in the social atmosphere in Bristol as the civil rights movement was underway. African American GI’s would socialize with the white girls in the wartime cities nightlife and would introduce new dances and music. However, tension began to rise with the Bristol GI’s from the socializations with the white girls. This event was responding to the American tensions of the civil rights movement. The same thing was seen in England during the war period. The newspapers even downplayed the event during the WW2 censorship. “However, racial tensions rose when it came to local women socializing with the Black GIs, with attempts from Whitehall to encourage the distribution of unofficial warnings to the Women’s Voluntary Service. The main cause of the Park Street riot, on the other hand, was the social barring of black GIs from Bristol’s pubs, culminating in a brawl between over 400 black soldiers and 120 military police officers on 15 July 1944. Residents reportedly cheered on the American soldiers, but the riot had fatal consequences as one black GI died, and several were injured. Although the US Army reacted by trying to impose further restrictions on the black soldiers, the impact was profound: the numbers of US servicemen in Bristol rapidly decreased” (Saint). The riot changed a lot of perceptions during this time period. Back in America the Jim Crow period was brutal as segregation was still a thing and interactions between blacks and whites were frowned upon. This event known as ‘Uncle Sam Coming To Bristol’, changed the way the city ran. “The six point plan to deal with the intake of African-Americans, including instructions to “cross the street if you saw one approach; move away if one sits next to you in the cinema; shops should serve them as quickly as possible and make it clear they should not return. And ‘on no account must coloured troops be invited into the homes of white women” (Evans). The residents of Bristol thought they were doing the right thing by barring the American Black GI’s as they were stationed in the city a few days after D-Day. This perception of the event painted the city of Bristol as a victim of racism. This event strongly correlated with the Jim Crow law period in the Americas. However, it has some correlation to the recent event of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. How so? Well, Will Smith was dealt with by the Oscars after the award ceremony by barring him from the Oscars for ten years because of disdain for his actions. Also the event painted Chris Rock as the victim rather than looking at Will’s side of the story. The media's perception has downplayed the event by creating memes to joke about the Oscars rather than addressing the disclosure by the Oscars for censorship as the Oscars tried to hide the event to preserve their reputation. Evans, D. (2021, November 12). When Uncle Sam came to Bristol: the American military’s attempts to segregate a city of slavery. Berkeley Squares. https://www.berkeleysquares.co.uk/2021/11/when-uncle-sam-came-to-bristol...
Saint, M. (2020, November 11). Remembering WW2 in Bristol: Blitz, Segregation, and Rioting. Epigram. https://epigram.org.uk/2020/11/11/remembering-ww2-the-bristol-blitz-and-...
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Camryn Walls | ||
| circa. The start of the month Autumn 1966 to circa. 2000 |
The Black Panthers Historical Event: The Black Panthers The Black Panther party was a group of people that took the world by storm during 1966, when they were first founded by the leaders Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale. The party was founded on the grounds of fighting against police brutality, and protecting the rest of the black citizens from the police. However, this is not the only thing they made their mission to do with their party resources, they also provided the black communities with health, educational, and financial support. They did this by creating what they would call survival programs for the black community, in these programs they not only helps the black community with the things listed above, but also with transportation (to work, school, or any other places), but they also really spent a lot of time helping the mothers of the community by providing them with formula, diapers and other things for children. Another really important thing the Black Panthers did was to help uplift and inspire the black communities, by really empowering them to take pride in their race and not give in and give up on themselves. In addition to this they also encouraged financial empowerment and development of the black community, while they were at their most active they not only helped many other black business start up, they started and made other spaces for black people to feel safe. However, many non- black communities and people in power saw them as a threat to their way of life. To be frank many of the higher up white people of society saw them as a problem for trying to change and challenge the system they had set up around the oppression of black people for so long. It is because of this that these same people, especially the white government officials, tried their hardest to paint them as a “violent, black supremacist” group of “thugs” that did nothing but cause trouble. The government actually saw them as such a threat that they allowed the FBI to put false articles and other things in the media to help spread their false narrative of the Black Panthers. In this article by The New York Times, they were able to obtain documents that showed this. As quoted from the article, “New York is authorized to discreetly furnish data as outlined in retel to..in an effort to obtain news media publicly highlighting friction between east and west coast BPP leadership personnel”. This quote shows that the FBI not only spread false information and stories about the Black Panthers, but they also tried to instigate false fights between two chapters of the Black Panthers, which could have had dangerous effects on everyone had they not have known. While in another reading on JSTOR the then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover said the Black Panthers were “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country”, simply because they fought for the police and government to treat them like human beings and not punching bags. While this event may seem to be completely disconnected to the Will Smith Oscar event, it is not that far off because people and organizers of events are now treating Will Smith like he is a national security risk in the same way. Works cited: Abron, J. M. (1986). The Legacy of the Black Panther Party. The Black Scholar, 17(6), 33–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41067327 The New York Times. (2016, October 15). F.B.I. memos on the Black Panther Party. The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/14/us/document-NYTimes101320... STREET, J. (2010). The Historiography of the Black Panther Party. Journal of American Studies, 44(2), 351–375. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40648818 Related Links: The Black Man's Burden(Lulu Guy): https://studio.covecollective.org/anthologies/sp22-eng-l302-anthology/documents/the-black-mans-burden-7927b89c-f734-483f-a172-46eb5b0ab39a https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/slavery-abolition-act-1833-2 |
Alaina Davison | ||
| 27 Mar 1973 |
Oscars 1973: John Wayne and Sacheen Littlefeather When Will Smith recently slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, there was a large outcry on social media about the violence of the act. Celebrities took to Twitter to document their reactions: Mia Farrow dubbed it the “Oscar’s ugliest moment,” while Judd Apatow took it even further by saying, “He could have killed him. That’s pure out of control rage and violence” (Hibberd). Some even compared it to the ongoing war in Ukraine: “Unfortunately intolerance continues to be on the rise no matter where we look. We see it vividly on display whether it be far off on the battlefields of Ukraine or right here in Hollywood on the stage of the Dolby Theatre,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is the founder of Dreamworks Studios and former head of Walt Disney Studios (Graham). This comparison—an imperial war being compared with one man’s reaction to the very public insult of his wife—is insidious. Individual actions can be a reflection of societal norms, but they do not in and of themselves create these larger systems of oppression and violence. The depiction of Smith’s slap as “out of control rage and violence” is a particularly problematic one from a racial standpoint. Black men (and women) are often characterized as more aggressive than their white counterparts, and their actions are routinely viewed through that lens. Because of this, black men tend to suffer harsher consequences for their actions than white men who do similar things. For an example, we can look back at another of the Oscar’s ugliest moments, when Sacheen Littlefeather appeared at the Oscars in 1973. At the 1973 Academy Awards, Marlon Brando won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in “The Godfather.” In his place he sent Sacheen Littlefeather, an Apache woman, to give a short speech explaining that he was refusing to accept the award and why. Littlefeather said that he was refusing due to “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry…And on television and movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee.” At that time, Native American protestors were involved in a bloody standoff against federal agents at Wounded Knee (Kotlowski). Her speech was met with a mixture of boos and applause from the audience. Littlefeather later recalled, “I was given 60 seconds by the producer to make that speech or I would be arrested. John Wayne was waiting backstage to take me off. He had to be restrained by six security men” (Taylor). John Wayne suffered no consequences for attempting to assault a woman who simply gave a quick speech asking for her people to be represented and their sovereignty respected, but Will Smith is now banned from the Academy for ten years. Smith did not need to be physically restrained or pulled away from Chris Rock, but Wayne required six security men to hold him back. So the obvious question is this: Why is one slap considered by some to be unspeakably violent, while the attempted assault of an indigenous woman goes unpunished? The answer at least partially lies in the races of the people involved in each incident. Works Cited: Graham, Caroline. “Hollywood bigwig Jeffrey Katzenberg compares Will Smith's Oscar slap to violence of Ukraine war in clearest sign yet that actor's career may be over.” Daily Mail, 28 April 2022. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10764605/Hollywood-bigwig-Jeffrey-Katzenberg-compares-Smiths-Oscar-slap-violence-Ukraine-war.html Hibberd, James. “Celebrities Condemn Will Smith for Chris Rock Slap at Oscars: ‘Pure Rage and Violence.’” The Hollywood Reporter, 28 March 2022. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/2022-oscars-will-smith-chris-rock-slap-celebrities-reactions-1235120687/ Kotlowski, Dean J. “Alcatraz, Wounded Knee, and Beyond: The Nixon and Ford Administrations Respond to Native American Protest.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 72, no. 2, 2003, pp. 201–27, https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2003.72.2.201. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022. “Marlon Brando’s Oscar win for ‘The Godfather.’” Youtube, uploaded by Oscars. https://youtu.be/2QUacU0I4yU. Accessed 28 Apr. 2022. Taylor, Kate. “Sacheen Littlefeather, Marlon Brando’s one-time Oscars accomplice, on how Hollywood has changed.” The Glove and Mail. 25 February 2016. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/awards-and-festivals/film-awards/sa... Related Links: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine |
Megan Moss | ||
| 2004 |
Literary Event/Work: The Looks of Loss Arthur William David Roberts was a Black soldier who served in WWI. In 2004, his war diaries were discovered, uncovering the truth about his experiences during the war. In one of his diary entries, he talks about coming across a dead soldier. Arthur Roberts wrote, “At that sight, it was as if my ruminations had been cast from their exalted altitude of self-contentedness to an abyss of nauseating realities…the poor corpse lay like a rag doll with all the stuffing knocked out of it, and just flung down as if in anger or haste” (English Heritage). Now image witnessing this and so much more, only for your service to be completely erased and forgotten. That is exactly what happened to Arthur Roberts. “There were no black troops included in the Peace March of July 1919, a victory parade held in London to mark the end of the war” (The Guardian). Additionally, Jackie Kay wrote “The Looks of Loss” about Arthur’s loss and feelings upon returning from WWI. In one of the lines she writes, “Loss like the loss when you’re wiped out of the picture” which is exactly what happened to Arthur Roberts after returning from WWI. Furthermore, Arthur wasn’t the only black soldier during WWI to experience racial injustices, in fact, he was one of many. Melissa N. Shaw writes that “The hardships they faced when trying to enlist in World War I marked a decisive turning point for Black Canadian activism in Ontario” (Shaw). Even trying to enlist in the war was difficult for many as they were facing racial discrimination and were told they could not serve. Shaw also writes that, “Even though Black Canadians adamantly demanded their right to fight in the war, their ambitions for racial equality were thwarted.” Black soldiers were discriminated from the moment they tried to enlist, to the moment that they returned from the war. Whether this meant that they couldn’t serve in the war or their service wasn’t acknowledged, black soldiers were treated very unfairly. In thinking about recent events, like Will Smith at the Oscars, one must remember the history and what lead to this point. For the longest time, black people have been discriminated against. Even when they aren’t, from the moment that they make a mistake, they are completely hated and/or forgotten by others. Their mistakes are used against them to reinforce stereotypes and justify racism. People of color basically have to walk on eggshells because any small mistake that they make could be used against them, whereas a white person is forgiven for the unforgiveable. On the other hand, many black people are not given the recognition that they deserve for all of their hard work. They are often times more forgotten than a white person. They both could have accomplished the same thing and yet the white person will likely get more praise for it, which is what happened with Arthur Roberts when he returned from the war.
“Arthur Roberts.” English Heritage, https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/black-history/arthur-roberts/. “Jackie Kay on Arthur Roberts: The Black Scottish First World War Soldier Who Felt Forgotten.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 11 Nov. 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/11/jackie-kay-makar-poem-black-scottish-first-world-war-soldier-arthur-roberts. Shaw, Melissa N. "“Most Anxious to Serve their King and Country”: Black Canadians’ Fight to Enlist in WWI and Emerging Race Consciousness in Ontario, 1914-1919." Histoire sociale / Social History, vol. 49 no. 100, 2016, p. 543-580. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/his.2016.0040.
Related Links: The Soldier, Rupert Brooke |
Montse Magallon | ||
| circa. 2017 |
Blackface: The start of American Stereotype Blackface: The beginning of a stereotype Blackface is something that started years ago and like many other things in history, especially when it has to do with black people, it was ignored and is still around to this very day. This is something that because it was so normalized in history, it was not seen as harmful to black people, or even white people for that matter, so it expanded to a lot of different people doing this one thing that has so much negative history behind it. What comes from blackface and the people who do it, is a terrible misrepresentation of black people, a stereotype that they have placed upon the black race to show what they think they look like and act like. As quoted by The New York Times, “blackface is an unambiguous form of racist mockery with clear origins in the virulent white supremacist history of the United States.” (Bouie, 2019)This quote really encompasses the reason why blackface is such a serious and disrespectful thing to do. While this may seem like it does not have much to do with the Will Smith Oscars situation, it really shows how Black people are not able to function and move the way white people do, unless it is for the entertainment of the non-black populus. This is because, while what he did was not right, the general public and the entertainment industry are now making it seem as Will Smith is an unhinged beast, who attacks anyone he sees. Not taking into account what led up to the slap, nor are they acknowledging how worse things have happened at such award shows have garnered a much less hostile response from people, albeit they are from mostly non- black people which does nothing but furthers the argued point. Blackface is so important to the history of the United States because it shows just how little regard was given to black people, and how the misery of black people was used as entertainment and consumed with enjoyment from the white populus. Blackface as a whole began to spread much further than just cultural appropriation as quoted, “it arose from white obsession with black (male) bodies that underlies white racial dread to our own day, it ruthlessly disavowed its fleshly investments through ridicule and racist lampoon.” (Lott, 1992). This quote is explaining how not only did blackface first be made because of the need to find amusement and entertainment in the black population and their oppression, they particularly were obsessed with the idea of demeaning black males and being able to act like them. As quoted from The New York Times, “Beyond simple mockery, the pleasure of blackface for white performers and their audiences lay in the vicarious experience of an imagined blackness — a wild, preindustrial “savage” nature that whites attributed to black Americans.” (Bouie, 2019). This quote shows the ideas and stereotypes they made and used through the usage of blackface. This is the quote that speaks the most to the Will Smith event at the Oscars. While the physical assault is not okay, the action did nothing but strengthen these stereotypes that non-black people have of him, and give them something to use against him. While at the same time it is not right because, the same non-black people do not see it as “savage” or “unhinged” when a non-black person of importance or power does something like this. So, this calls into question, is the academy and other people in the public really upset about what happened to Mr.Tucker, or are they just feeding into the negative stereotypes that have been placed upon black people? Works Cited: Lott, E. (1992). Love and Theft: The Racial Unconscious of Blackface Minstrelsy. Representations, 39, 23–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928593 Bouie, J. (2019, February 4). Blackface is the tip of the iceberg. The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/opinion/northam-blackface-racism.html... Saxton, A. (1975). Blackface Minstrelsy and Jacksonian Ideology. American Quarterly, 27(1), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.2307/2711892 Related Links: On Louise Gluck, Minstrelsy, and Abolition https://studio.covecollective.org/anthologies/sp22-eng-l302-anthology/documents/on-louise-gl%C3%BCck-minstrelsy-and-abolition Carlyle's "Negro Question" Blacklives Matter Timeline:https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/carlyles-negro-question |
Alaina Davison | ||
| 27 Mar 2022 to 27 Mar 2022 |
Recent Event: Will Smith at the Oscars No one expected the events that occurred at the Oscars this year. One may even call it, the slap heard around the world. What happened between Will Smith and Chris Rock essentially disregarded all of Will Smith’s previous accomplishments and successes in the eyes of others. There have been mixed feelings about what went down, most of which has been backlash towards him. Jon Caramanica host of the Popcast podcast at the NY Times and guest star Soraya Nadia McDonald from Andscape discuss Will Smith before these events and his performances as an actor. “Mid 90s Will Smith like really up to, I wanna say, probably up til Ali, is Will Smith the superhero, unconquerable, no flaws in the armor. How unusual and how radical at that time was it to have a highly bankable Black superhero A-list star?” Jon Caramanica says. In his podcast, they discuss how successful Will Smith has been and how much of an impact on others he has had with his performances and in Hollywood. So, what happened at the Oscars? Chris Rock is known to make jokes that are not necessarily funny and instead are offensive and come at people’s health or appearance, something which they have no control over. When he made one about Jada Smith, Will Smith’s wife, Will did not like this. Will Smith’s reaction was to stand up for his wife but the way that he in which he did it has received a lot of backlash. Rather than communicating with words, Will Smith turned to violence, slapping Chris Rock at the Academy Awards. Many people have since spoken up about their feelings regarding the incident. Matthew Belloni, former editor of the Hollywood Reporter said that “I think it’s underplayed how embarrassing this is for many academy members. This is their identity. This is their business. This is their craft. And they care a lot about the Oscars” (The Washington Post). On the other hand, there are others like Tiffany Haddish who stand by Will Smith. “The slap was the most beautiful thing I ever seen because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and care about their women, their wives” (The Washington Post). In the end, Will Smith received punishment for his actions. “The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said on Friday that Will Smith would be barred from attending the Oscars for 10 years because of the ‘harmful behavior’ he displayed when he struck the comedian Chris Rock during last month’s ceremony” (The New York Times). Not only did Will Smith’s actions have an impact on his career, they also have an impact on what others choose to believe about him. These events are more than likely to be used by others as a way of justifying racism and claiming how “violent” Black people are. Additionally, Will Smith will no longer be known as a “Black superhero A-list star” as Jon Caramanica mentioned earlier. He will now he know for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. Andrews, Travis M. “The Industry - and the Academy - Are Torn on How to Handle Will Smith's Oscars Slap.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 29 Mar. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/03/29/will-smith-.... Sperling, Nicole. “Will Smith Barred from Attending Oscars for 10 Years after Slap.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Apr. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/08/movies/will-smith-slap-academy.html. “Will Smith, before the Slap.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/arts/music/popcast-will-smith.html.
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Montse Magallon |