Yesterday marked the 70th anniversary of the film Gone With the Wind (GWTW). This is one of my all-time favorite movies, and my sister and I can not only quote, but act out a good chunk of the movie for you, if you asked.
In an effort to kill time until my baby is born, I have been reading quite a few recent articles on GWTW, and have been particularly interested in the ones regarding Hattie McDaniel's role and subsequent Oscar win as Mammy.
How Hattie made history with a racist role
McDaniel's Mammy role helped birth modern black Hollywood
The reason that I find those articles interesting is because of the author's thoughts on the issue of race and racism in the movie and the portrayal of the slaves and other black characters. I have to admit, I hadn't given this much thought. Being white, I don't know if the characters are a racist portrayal or a somewhat realistic reflection of the 1860's.
Articles like this cause me to examine my own prejudices and thoughts on race. While my family is entirely from the South, specifically the racially-charged areas around Birmingham, I was raised near Nashville, where the racial dynamic seemed more balanced to me. My father worked in the area of discrimination investigation, and I think he was my biggest influence on seeing everyone as the same. Growing up in the suburbs I knew factually that we had less black families than white families in the neighborhood, but that wasn't something that I thought about. The first time it occurred to me that there was something different about that were my grandmother’s negative comments about me wanting to marry Michael Jackson (back when he was alive, popular and sane). My grandmother also would not allow me to ask my best friend LaTrece to visit her with me because "they would come and burn crosses in her front yard." Not knowing anything about race relations in Birmingham, I had to ask why in the world someone would want to burn crosses because my friend was there.
Sadly, I have come to realize how much of an issue race still is in some places. And how much of a hot button issue it still is with regards to things like GWTW. The statement of "black women and men in the film are loyal, simple folk who wish little more from life than to take care of nuanced, needy white people" really struck a chord with me. The only character (besides Prissy, who I took to be an idiot just because she was an idiot) that seemed "simple" to me was Gerald O'Hara's butler, Pork. But Mammy, she was not simple at all. She seemed to be the wisest of all the characters. Yes, she was very loyal to Scarlett, but I saw that loyalty as noble. Scarlett needed Mammy because Scarlett was selfish and unwise. She may have been a good businesswoman, but she knew nothing of people and relationships. Mammy did.
I also found fault with the article saying "The depictions of African-Americans presented here are ludicrously narrow." I thought about that statement for a while, and honestly, I don't agree. I see the author's point, there really isn't a huge range for any of the black characters, but I also think that narrow doesn't necessarily mean lacking in depth. If you are looking for depth in a character, you will really only find it in Rhett, and maybe Scarlett. EVERYONE is a shallow character. Take Melanie, for example: she was sweet, kind to everyone and loved most everyone. That was it. We don't know why... she just was. Talk about no depth. We don't know anything about her family (other than Ashley and Charles) and we don't know what she really thinks of those surrounding her, other than she loves them. So I would say that Mammy was a deeper character than Melanie, and she wasn't even one of the four major stars of the movie
I could go on and on, but this would end up as the longest blog. Suffice it to say that I think the two biggest points to be made are that it would be fair to compare the portrayal of characters in the movie with each other, not with our standards of today; and that I believe that Hattie McDaniel made great strides for her race in her portrayal of Mammy and in winning the Oscar. I remember her quote "I'd rather play a maid than be one." and I have a lot of respect for that.
I am curious as to what others, especially black people, think of Hattie McDaniel, her role in GWTW and if the movie does come across as racist. If you think so, why?
In an effort to kill time until my baby is born, I have been reading quite a few recent articles on GWTW, and have been particularly interested in the ones regarding Hattie McDaniel's role and subsequent Oscar win as Mammy.
How Hattie made history with a racist role
McDaniel's Mammy role helped birth modern black Hollywood
The reason that I find those articles interesting is because of the author's thoughts on the issue of race and racism in the movie and the portrayal of the slaves and other black characters. I have to admit, I hadn't given this much thought. Being white, I don't know if the characters are a racist portrayal or a somewhat realistic reflection of the 1860's.
Articles like this cause me to examine my own prejudices and thoughts on race. While my family is entirely from the South, specifically the racially-charged areas around Birmingham, I was raised near Nashville, where the racial dynamic seemed more balanced to me. My father worked in the area of discrimination investigation, and I think he was my biggest influence on seeing everyone as the same. Growing up in the suburbs I knew factually that we had less black families than white families in the neighborhood, but that wasn't something that I thought about. The first time it occurred to me that there was something different about that were my grandmother’s negative comments about me wanting to marry Michael Jackson (back when he was alive, popular and sane). My grandmother also would not allow me to ask my best friend LaTrece to visit her with me because "they would come and burn crosses in her front yard." Not knowing anything about race relations in Birmingham, I had to ask why in the world someone would want to burn crosses because my friend was there.
Sadly, I have come to realize how much of an issue race still is in some places. And how much of a hot button issue it still is with regards to things like GWTW. The statement of "black women and men in the film are loyal, simple folk who wish little more from life than to take care of nuanced, needy white people" really struck a chord with me. The only character (besides Prissy, who I took to be an idiot just because she was an idiot) that seemed "simple" to me was Gerald O'Hara's butler, Pork. But Mammy, she was not simple at all. She seemed to be the wisest of all the characters. Yes, she was very loyal to Scarlett, but I saw that loyalty as noble. Scarlett needed Mammy because Scarlett was selfish and unwise. She may have been a good businesswoman, but she knew nothing of people and relationships. Mammy did.
I also found fault with the article saying "The depictions of African-Americans presented here are ludicrously narrow." I thought about that statement for a while, and honestly, I don't agree. I see the author's point, there really isn't a huge range for any of the black characters, but I also think that narrow doesn't necessarily mean lacking in depth. If you are looking for depth in a character, you will really only find it in Rhett, and maybe Scarlett. EVERYONE is a shallow character. Take Melanie, for example: she was sweet, kind to everyone and loved most everyone. That was it. We don't know why... she just was. Talk about no depth. We don't know anything about her family (other than Ashley and Charles) and we don't know what she really thinks of those surrounding her, other than she loves them. So I would say that Mammy was a deeper character than Melanie, and she wasn't even one of the four major stars of the movie
I could go on and on, but this would end up as the longest blog. Suffice it to say that I think the two biggest points to be made are that it would be fair to compare the portrayal of characters in the movie with each other, not with our standards of today; and that I believe that Hattie McDaniel made great strides for her race in her portrayal of Mammy and in winning the Oscar. I remember her quote "I'd rather play a maid than be one." and I have a lot of respect for that.
I am curious as to what others, especially black people, think of Hattie McDaniel, her role in GWTW and if the movie does come across as racist. If you think so, why?
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