Black Filmmaker, Black Audience, Black Politics: “Passing” Lessons[1]
Thesis:
“Passing” literature and films, from the end of the 19th century until the 1930s, were primarily the product of race and identity politics in the black community during that period. Some white writers and filmmakers used mulatto characters. However, for the most part (in about 15 out of 20 texts), “passing” was an issue addressed by blacks. The motives for and consequences of “passing” in literature and film reflect the politics of race and identity during the period in which the texts or films were made.
When Oscar Micheaux created the films, God’s Stepchildren and Veiled Aristocrats, he entered into a well-known debate within the black community about the affects of racism on identity. Through these films, Micheaux argues for resistance through race pride. His characters express their desires for the opportunities enjoyed by whites. However, when they try to pass for white, they are rejected by their community, forced to reexamine themselves, and either return to the black community (Veiled Aristocrats) or kill themselves (God’s Stepchildren).
Black Americans and white Americans interpreted and responded to “passing” characters in different ways. In Neither White Nor Black: The Mulatto Character in American Fiction, Berzon argues that most black writers were sympathetic to their “passing characters” because they understood that “passing” was a response to the limitations placed on blacks. In texts by whites, the “passing” characters are usually severely punished or humiliated. The motives for “passing” are usually greed or selfishness instead of equal opportunity. The 1934 film, Imitation of Life, which influenced God’s Stepchildren (Micheaux even thanks the film in the trailer), will serve as a comparison for the ways that whites portrayed and interpreted “passing”.
During each decade of the 20th century, “passing” has been reinterpreted in literature and film. Following are other films about “passing”[2]: The Debt (1912), In Humanities Cause (1913), In Slavery Days (1913), The Octoroon (1913), The House Behind the Cedars (1924 – Micheaux’s lost film that was based on the novel by Charles Chestnut and was remade by Micheaux, with sound, as Veiled Aristocrats), Pinkie (1949 – directed by Elia Kazan and the highest grossing film for Twentieth Century Fox that year), Lost Boundaries (1949 --highest grossing film for Film Artists that year), Imitation of Life (remade in 1959), I Passed for White (1960), Black Like Me (1964 – white passing as black), Watermelon Man (1970 – white man becomes black and loses everything), Soul Man (1985 -- white passing as black to gain admittance into Harvard), Illusions (1983), Living Large (2001), and a Saturday Night Live skit (1980s).
Website features:
- Explanation of the tragic mulatto figure;
- Early 20th century black American history;
- Film Clips from Veiled Aristocrats, Imitation of Life, and God’s Stepchildren;
- Newspaper reviews for all of the aforementioned films;
- Photographs of black actors in the aforementioned films;
- Micheaux’s advertisements for his films;
- Biographical information on Micheaux, including photographs;
- Images (and possibly articles) about Micheaux from recent publications; and
- Quotes from early 20th century texts about “passing”.
Bibliography:
Bennett, Juda. The Passing Figure: Racial Confusion in Modern American Literature. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1996.Berzon, Judith R., Neither White Nor Black: The Mulatto Character in American Fiction. New York: NYU Press, 1978.
Bloom, Harold. Black American Prose Writers Before the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1994.
Boeckmann, Cathy. Scientific Racism and Genres of American Fiction 1892-1912. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2000.
Bogle, Donald. Blacks in American Film and Television: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1998.
Bogle, Donald. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001.
Bowser, Pearl and Spence, Louise. Writing Himself Into History: Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films, and His Audiences. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2000.
Bowser, Pearl, Gaines, Jane, and Musser Charles, eds. Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.
Diawara, Manthia, ed. Black American Cinema. New York: Routledge, 1993.
Franklin, John Hope, and Moss, Jr., Alfred A. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1994.
Gates, Jr., Henry Louis. and McKay, Nellie, eds. Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: Norton, 1997.
Green, Ronald J. Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
Richards, Larry. African American Films Through 1959. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 1998.
Sollors, Werner. Neither Black Nor White Yet Both: Thematic Explorations of Interracial Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Young, Joseph A. Black Novelist As White Racist: The Myth of Black Inferiority in the Novels of Oscar Micheaux. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989.
Notes:
(I haven’t figured a lot of this stuff out yet but I thought it would help you understand what I’m doing if you knew some of the things that I am thinking about… this section is a little incoherent…)
Why does any of this matter?
This topic will (hopefully) force those who visit my site to think about the following:
- How race is constructed, how this construction differs depending on who produces it and the target audience?
- Why the color hierarchy exists in black culture (think of Spike Lee’s films and his use of skin color to differentiate blacks from each other… this seems to have a long history, starting with field slaves versus house slaves)?
- Why the enemy from within (for blacks) – is this something that could unify other blacks, is it a real threat, is it jealousy, is it creating a scapegoat?
- What is resistance and what is (true) power … each of these films offer advice about what it means to be black (and therefore also what it means to be white), how to become successful (and therefore how to overcome racism), and what we should value most in life;
- Why films for black audiences were created … why they still exist and what they reflect about contemporary society;
- What does the ways in which “passing” has changed over time reveal about each generation? (e.g. Some filmmakers used passing as a way for their characters to “discover” the truth about what it means to be white or black – are we really that curious – do we really believe that it is such a different experience? Other filmmakers use passing as a way for blacks to learn how whites keep power – passing characters function like spies. Some filmmakers used passing to convey the frustration of being black…);
- How do characters that pass behave? (Doesn’t their behavior define blackness/whiteness?);
- At the heart of this, is it really still a question of loyalty – whether to be an assimilationist or black nationalist? Don’t many black (and other people of color) still deal with this (think of terms like oreo, banana – colored on the outside but white on the inside);
- If it is a question of loyalty, what is the threat (who or what is being protected)?
- Why the films about whites assimilating as blacks? Or in the case of Trading Places (1980s --Eddie Murphy) the poor become wealthy… have audiences started sympathizing with characters based more on class than race?
- Is there power in imitation (I’m thinking about Eric Lott’s Love and Theft a little here) … what about films where women pass as men (Streisand (I can’t remember the name), Shakespear in Love, etc.)
Thanks for your help!!!
[1] This title needs work… any thoughts?
[2] This is a list that I compiled from the books that I’ve read on this topic. I have not found a definitive list of “passing” films.