Racial representation and Black satire in The Blackening

The primary reason I decided to see The Blackening was because it was billed as a comical parody of slasher horror comedy. Also, I love suspense thrillers, and since it was leaving Netflix soon, I thought it was a perfect opportunity. I assumed this media production would simply be a comedic interpretation of the stereotypical Black character dying first clich. I had no idea that this experience would compel me to reconsider my opinions about race and how people are represented in North American films/tv series, which is based upon nearly a century of the contributions made by African Americans in these fields. There was so much more to the movie than just the gag factor associated with it being classified as a slasher film. The presentation of the film forced me to reevaluate my own feelings on the use of black face and minstrel acts as well as the ways in which the African American community has traditionally appeared on film for centuries and has undergone societal pressure to comply with the stereotypes related to how they should behave in public based on their race. The storyline showed me that stereotyping has remained an ongoing source of defining and framing Black people through the media up to the present time. Initially, I noticed it goes beyond just being funny. There were all kinds of archetype characters in this performance. “Bougie” girl, for example, looked out of place because of how she styled her hair and make-up, but she’d put on the weight in her own head. Then there was an outspoken and witty individual who was willing to speak out when it came down to doing so. And there was also a truly what Id call egocentric man who generally came off that way when he was trying to make himself look good to everyone around him. At first, I found it alarming how much this motion picture was emphasizing the use of tropes, yet I remembered something by Alexis Clark where she talked about minstrelsy and blackface. Through Black Performance Theory, the exaggerated truism created in the spiel becomes a mode of ethnoracial identity. The use of artists and performers to highlight how the African American community can be seen, heard and felt creates this space where, through the amplification of the caricature, these performers are able to take back the power of depiction of their racial backgrounds. By taking an interactive (as opposed to an example of minstrelsy) approach to the creation of the interactive critiques of the visual anthropology process, this allows for a direct re-interpretation of where these stereotypes originated. When using visual anthropology as an analytical lens for the analysis of this mega-successful project, it is possible to interpret this as a cultural practice because it allows for exploration into how their identity is constructed, disputed and constructed through the lens of media. Furthermore, this piece has fully moved beyond being just entertainment; it serves as a place where historical representations of race is simultaneously enacted and contested through the medium. In her argument, she explains how “Brutes” (i.e., a character type) and “Zip Coons” were created to turn African Americans into non-humans and diminish the diversity of their culture. This made it easy for white people to view these people as a humorous joke and not as fellow humans (Clark, 2019). In one of the lectures in my class, we learned about the disturbing practice of blackface that originated as an expression of racially based minstrelsy from 19th century American society. It developed from the minstrel tradition that started in the early 1830s and peaked around 1850s through late 1870s. Minstrelsy was developed as a way for white performers to imitate their concept of how all enslaved Africans looked and acted. Performers applied a charcoal-colored substance to their faces, often called burnt cork. They used this to portray so-called buffoonish bigotry associated with Black Americans. These overgeneralizations included being unable to speak proper English, less intelligent than people of other races, and altogether humorous in the way in which they acted. The creation of a character called Jim Crow that was created by Thomas Dartmouth Rice, himself in 1876 was an example of how caricaturing an entire race of people can serve as a means of perpetuating segregated and discriminatory ideologies rather than just for entertainment value. The use of characterization such as those performed in the minstrel shows of this time ultimately led to legalized racial segregation. They show that theatrical expression can shape social policy and societal perceptions. The aspect of the enactments highlighted shown by viewers on Performativity Theory illustrates the reclaiming of traditional forms in contemporary race while also creating memory and lineage. Thus, The Blackening is part of a cycle of cultural shift. It uses oppressive historical motifs to create areas for self-expression, humor, and resistance. Minstrel shows often used a three-act structure, which was later adopted by vaudeville and early musical theatre. This demonstrates how deeply rooted blackface traditions are within the American popular culture that is racially based stage traditions. These leisurely acts normalized racial assumptions and reinforced systemic inequity. In contrast, the lecture on unethical ethnography particularly the ideas of Curators Exhibitionism and the Custodians Rip- Off gave me insight into how black individuality has often been misinterpreted or exploited in history. The release reclaims artistic expression as a critique of rather than a commodification of persona. In American cinematic programming, blackface is not just an act of imitation. It is a continuation of a much broader pattern and historical trend of racially charged stage traditions that normalized pigeonholing and created systemic inequity. The segments of the show that showed the characters in a trivia contest as well as one arguing about which character has “more cultural authenticity,” I first thought it was another Scary movie comedy. Therefore, it led me to think about the historical treatment of African descent, as Clark indicates, how it has been oversimplified and policed. Minstrel shows used to create rigid definitions of ethnic lineage based solely on theatrics. The characters directly confront the idea through discussion and humor. I found it amazing that a horror-comedy can be so effective in making strong statements about issues of character, authenticity and ridiculous biases regarding race while remaining humorous. Maya Phillips article on contemporary Black satire made me reflect on this topic as well. Phillips mentions that some of todays Black cinema has the potential to be entertaining and informative to white liberal audiences without breaking the power structures that exist in traditional footage. After watching The Blackening, I began to wonder whether that was happening with this narrative. There were a lot of jokes that anyone would find funny, like the who dies first joke, and then there were jokes that required a lot of Black cultural references to make sense of, like the trivia game during the screening and discussions regarding who is Black and who is not. Those scenes demonstrate how the film intentionally prioritizes African American audiences, making them the primary focus of the humor. The audiovisual work elements from the lecture related to call-and-response and percussive attack. These encourage a dialogic relationship between characters and the audience. Humor and other cultural references convey multiple meanings. The trivia game functions as a call-and-response historical reenactment, requiring cultural knowledge for comprehension and demonstrating both inclusion and critique. At the same time, I kept Phillips warning in mind; that audience members could miss the overall critique and think of it as only a caricature of Afro-descendant. Filmmakers face the challenge of balancing satire with accessibility while avoiding the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes. The photoplay uses historically based performative cultural elements rooted in cultural practices in adaption to a different time, to be more appropriate for contemporary audiences. This allows for an easy-to-understand critique of the modern world through depictions that still have the cultural sensibility of Black people. In reflecting upon this chapter, it is important that feature length presentation find an appropriate balance of their own intentionality and using their imaginations versus providing an accessible outcome for the audience (emphasizing ethical responsibility), while delivering a rendition that represents/presents the dignity of the person rather than distorting them in any way. According to ethnography, social drama is always involved in the creation of an “image” and the perception of a community’s worth. By viewing The Blackening as both a satirical screen work and a type of counter-performance, I began to see differently. It connects to almost one hundred years of ethnoracial display and the reclamation of exaggerated cultural legacy. Because of this, I see the screen writing as representing enormous resistance rather than simple comedic representation. In the end, I believe The Blackening has accomplished much because it called attention to the fact that institutional racism does exist and is widely understood, however, they used deconstructed by black influencers. This also made me think about the difference between past minstrelsy where performativity of race was controlled by white people and today where filmmakers and actors take the exaggeration in their cross-cultural communication to critique them. Also, as I watched the characters struggle through, argue with, and laugh at the situation they are in, I reflected on how typecasting can serve as a means of resistance rather than as a mechanism for entertainment or as a means for reducing a person’s selfhood. Overall, the feature took me by surprise by showing me how incredibly important representation is to today’s world. Classifying what “horror” means involves both our contemporary understanding of history and an understanding of what we consider to be humorous. Watching The Blackening prompted me to think about the way I judge people and how I feel uncomfortable by what others express publicly and whether I have any right to claim authority over any given expression. Therefore, I see The Blackening as a well-constructed, purposefully created, contemporary piece of Black satire, as well as further evidence that Black voices and stories are very important to all genres of literature (including horror).