Scan barcode
colin_cox's review against another edition
4.0
Pivoting from Michelle Alexander's stunning book on racial inequality in the United States prison system, The New Jim Crow, Maryanne Erigha's The Hollywood Jim Crow explores racial inequality in the American filmmaking industry. Erigha claims that the film industry produces, in part, cultural narratives about not only race but citizenship. Therefore, the limitations predominately white power structures place on African American workers in the filmmaking industry means "African Americans achieve only an incomplete cultural citizenship and belonging in the United States" (40). Erigha argues that this "incomplete cultural citizenship" manifests in everything from the sorts of films African Americans can direct (limited almost exclusively to the horror and comedy genres) to the fallacious logic that black films (i.e., films directed by black directors and predominately staring black actors) are financially dubious endeavors (i.e., "unbankable"). Erigha suggests that "Blackness is devalued and linked to cultural and economic inferiority, and whiteness is valued and linked to cultural and economic superiority" (81). This is precisely the crux of Erigha's argument; the American filmmaking industry is yet another site where blackness is, like W. E. B. Du Bois would argue, "a problem."
However, this crafting of blackness as a problem in the American filmmaking industry is precisely that, a crafting. As Barbara J. Fields and Karen Fields suggest in Racecraft, the unequal narratives regarding race in the American filmmaking industry "originates not in nature but in human action and imagination...The action and imagining are collective yet individual, day-to-day yet historical, and consequential even though nested in mundane routine." This suggests that we can challenge these narratives, and Erigha has two potential solutions: installing more minorities in positions of power and building a Black cinema collective. These are not mutually exclusive solutions. Instead, they can work in tandem to enable "racial minorities to gain lucrative work opportunities and shape popular cinema from positions of influence" (192). Thinking of this opportunity as something that produces material (work opportunities) and immaterial benefits (shaping aesthetics sensibilities), positions Erigha between two significant black figures: Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois.
While the opening chapters of The Hollywood Jim Crow are a little repetitive, the final three are well worth reading. While it is certainly not a flawless book, what The Hollywood Jim Crow offers is a timely and necessary supplement to Alexander's The New Jim Crow. By "using the Jim Crow framework in order to make sense of and challenge the film industry's status quo of perpetuating racial myths and disparities," Erigha demonstrates the importance and use-value of the Jim Crow paradigm in academic pursuits (14).
However, this crafting of blackness as a problem in the American filmmaking industry is precisely that, a crafting. As Barbara J. Fields and Karen Fields suggest in Racecraft, the unequal narratives regarding race in the American filmmaking industry "originates not in nature but in human action and imagination...The action and imagining are collective yet individual, day-to-day yet historical, and consequential even though nested in mundane routine." This suggests that we can challenge these narratives, and Erigha has two potential solutions: installing more minorities in positions of power and building a Black cinema collective. These are not mutually exclusive solutions. Instead, they can work in tandem to enable "racial minorities to gain lucrative work opportunities and shape popular cinema from positions of influence" (192). Thinking of this opportunity as something that produces material (work opportunities) and immaterial benefits (shaping aesthetics sensibilities), positions Erigha between two significant black figures: Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois.
While the opening chapters of The Hollywood Jim Crow are a little repetitive, the final three are well worth reading. While it is certainly not a flawless book, what The Hollywood Jim Crow offers is a timely and necessary supplement to Alexander's The New Jim Crow. By "using the Jim Crow framework in order to make sense of and challenge the film industry's status quo of perpetuating racial myths and disparities," Erigha demonstrates the importance and use-value of the Jim Crow paradigm in academic pursuits (14).
oliviak07's review against another edition
4.0
Stimulating, empowering, and incredible (even in the frustration of the deliberate racism and double standards that have existed far too long in the entertainment and film industries), Maryann Erigha's, "The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry" is one of the best cinema related texts I have had the pleasure of experiencing inside or outside of film school.
As Erigha points out, and we the audience must take notice to be truly literate of our society and the arts, "Movies and images are symbolic vehicles that shape audience perceptions and exert influence beyond the screen," (29). We must ask ourselves, what authenticity and passion is there in the mainstream cinema for anyone who is not a white, heterosexual, male of means? What if this was not the film the director wanted to make, but HAD to make in order to create anything at all? Once we ask those questions, and discuss them, we must then open ourselves to a filmography and cannon that has been under the radar for too long, and challenge the current powers that be to demolish the systems that keep viewers from genuine gems of life and culture.
We must see past what Christopher Winship calls the "veneer of consensus, a mere surface appearance that differs from the true reflection that lies beneath the surface." when it comes to who green lights, produces, and distributes in the film industry and their motives (49). As Erigha clarifies, "Despite the growing presence of Black Americans in film directing, systemic racial inequality remains embedded within the organizational practices of the film industry." (51). This means above all we must demand representation beyond the numbers, and that it apply to who signs off on a production.
By doing this we will see the essential diversifying of the American cultural cannon, with the film industry truly representing the nation's multicultural citizens (185). No longer will anyone of color or gender have to prove their appeal to mass audiences, and essentially, be called to prove their humanity (147).
This book, and more of the work of Erigha and of scholars and critics like her, must be part of the readings of any and all film students and buffs. If you love cinema, you must read and discuss this book and others that shine a light on the marginalized groups that the industry disposes of so freely.
Now that the spotlight is on these insiders, with persistence and collaboration we will make sure that they cannot turn it off again and return to their systematic biases against anyone who is deemed not "bankable" due to their demographic.
As Erigha points out, and we the audience must take notice to be truly literate of our society and the arts, "Movies and images are symbolic vehicles that shape audience perceptions and exert influence beyond the screen," (29). We must ask ourselves, what authenticity and passion is there in the mainstream cinema for anyone who is not a white, heterosexual, male of means? What if this was not the film the director wanted to make, but HAD to make in order to create anything at all? Once we ask those questions, and discuss them, we must then open ourselves to a filmography and cannon that has been under the radar for too long, and challenge the current powers that be to demolish the systems that keep viewers from genuine gems of life and culture.
We must see past what Christopher Winship calls the "veneer of consensus, a mere surface appearance that differs from the true reflection that lies beneath the surface." when it comes to who green lights, produces, and distributes in the film industry and their motives (49). As Erigha clarifies, "Despite the growing presence of Black Americans in film directing, systemic racial inequality remains embedded within the organizational practices of the film industry." (51). This means above all we must demand representation beyond the numbers, and that it apply to who signs off on a production.
By doing this we will see the essential diversifying of the American cultural cannon, with the film industry truly representing the nation's multicultural citizens (185). No longer will anyone of color or gender have to prove their appeal to mass audiences, and essentially, be called to prove their humanity (147).
This book, and more of the work of Erigha and of scholars and critics like her, must be part of the readings of any and all film students and buffs. If you love cinema, you must read and discuss this book and others that shine a light on the marginalized groups that the industry disposes of so freely.
Now that the spotlight is on these insiders, with persistence and collaboration we will make sure that they cannot turn it off again and return to their systematic biases against anyone who is deemed not "bankable" due to their demographic.
rhonasword's review against another edition
Only needed to read Chapter 2 ' Labelling Black Unbankable' for class
mematilda's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
This book was incredibly well researched and insightful. The author explains so many of the aspects you notice consciously or unconsciously in the American movie industry that truly opened my eyes. I found this even more intriguing because of how recent the events discussed were and overall the discussions about an industry I find fascinating. The author's analysis focuses mainly on African American directors in Hollywood and how that industry ghettoizes, limits, and undervalues Black creatives and Black stories. The reason it's not a full five star is only because there were a few points where the writing became repetitive. If you have even a passing interest in the movie industry, I highly recommend you pick this up.
More...