A dominant representation is one which is repeated across the media over time and so are the

values that it carries. Discuss.

Adorno and Horkheimer posited their Cultural Industry theory in the 1940s as a direct attack on the
ways in which Hollywood had taken an art form and commodified it. They saw in the film products
of the west coast a factory which had developed a systematic approach to creating and delivering
entertainment to a diversion hungry US and arguably worldwide audience. It relied on the ability to
repeat the formula and satisfy the continuing urges of the populace. This factory system in
Hollywood existed then and exists today though now of course it has a far wider reach and
produces a larger range of products for an increasing number of distribution outlets. However,
many things remain the same and the representations the Hollywood presents is arguably one of
those areas.

Black representations in Hollywood have often relied on stereotypes, instantly recognised and
relied upon by the institutions because of their currency with a majority white audience. From the
‘Mammy’ played by Hattie McDaniels in Gone with the Wind (1939) to the tragic Mulato played by
Thandia Newton on Crash (2004), Hollywood has relied on these tried and tested representations
to classify African-Americans and they are so ingrained in American culture that both blacks and
white American’s accept them as true.

Contemporary black film makers may challenge and confront these stereotypes as Spike Lee does
in Bamboozled (2000) but the stereotypes survive. Daman Wayans character in Lee’s savage black
comedy is a TV producer tasks by his ‘wigger’ boss to come up with a top rating ‘black show’
because he is the only black producer in the network. Wayans under pressure contrives a show
which is audacious in its ability to offend the black minority through the deliberate exhibition of
those very black stereotypes which Lee and Wayans are fighting against. The film is a political
diatribe, an expose of Hollywood’s ingrained prejudice. However, as with many of Lee’s films the
end sees his central black characters pay the ultimate price in a violent demise. Hall might argue
that the dominant reading, one which Lee and the studio New Line want us to take from this is that
Hollywood is aware of its prejudice and there are voices seeking to change it, but maybe the violent
conclusion only goes to re-enforce the representations of black men tending towards violence and
finding themselves the victims of white police brutality. Certainly the news media both in the UK
and the US confirms this representation on a regular basis

Bamboozled shows us many stereotypes made family in cartoons, minstrel shows, films and TV
but seems unconscious of the tension it create with itself. Wayan’s character makes stars out of
two tap dancing street performers - young homeless black characters without stable jobs or family
lives, elevates them to stars through their ‘deal’ with the white ‘devil’ of the US media and then
sees them crushed by it - one resigning and escaping, the other executed by a violent gang of
black power rappers toting guns. The white boss who claims to be more black than Wayan’s
character because of his black wife and the black iconography adorning his office speaks in a
‘black’ way, emulating black street talk - whilst Wayan’s appears articulate, highly educated and in
the terms of the films references more ‘white’. Yet by the end he too is dead, while the white boss is
untouched.

Lee is always political in what he makes. As a black actor/director/producer who has found success
through the Hollywood system he is all too aware of its ‘mimetic political function’ Monaco 2000. He
knows that it mirrors the real world so closely that what we see becomes the reality. Like Hall
perhaps he understand too that the media creates reality rather than simply representing it.

In Crash (2004) Paul Haggis a white writer director explores the black stereotypes in an equally
provocative way. He shows us that life for black people may have changed socially and
economically. The central black character a senior and respected cop whose successful career is
undermined by his private life. The middle class black media couple whose world is unpicked by
the casual prejudices of a cop. Thandie Newton’s ‘Mulato’ accuses her husband Terence Howard
of being a Tom and this he proves to himself later when unable to confront his white boss in a
chilling scene in the TV studio. The confrontation marked by the sudden lighting change which
darkens the mise en scene and adds emphasis to his inability to overcome his stereotype. Is
Haggis saying therefore that black American’s may have found economic success and social status
but they are still labouring under the weight of the stereotypes which Hollywood has created for
them?

One of the most significant factors in the changing nature of representations of Black Hollywood
has been brought about by demographic changes with regard to the social status of black
Americans and black people worldwide. The growing black dollar has forced change and we now
see black actors in major roles and black films finding box office success and even crossing over
into the mainstream: the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise, Will Smith films including ‘I Legend’ and ‘The
Pursuit of Happyness’. However, this success doesn’t mean that the stereotypes have disappeared
or that the representations do not conform to those present 50 or 100 years ago. And the audience
has become more active in its involvement. The recent ‘black’ film Precious which tells the
emotional story of an abused black teenager found financial support from key black Media figures
including Oprah but failed to engage the black audience who found the depressing subject matter
and humiliating representations of black women offensive and retrogressive. The audience

In Precious (2009), a Newsweek article in Nov 2009 explored the issues which audience have with
the film. It’s depiction of the ghetto seems to perpetuate the reality. It maybe set in 1987 but the
world seems to be played as contemporary reality and many in the African American community
found that it simply re-enforced the stereotypes that it sought to address. As Hall would say, the
representations ‘created the reality’ and the audience rejects it because the audience prefers ‘My
Wife and Kids’ because the easy, light hearted stereotypes have a middle class gloss and the
hegemony clear works for a growing middle income and aspirant black community.

The real question that has yet to be answered is whether black Holywood can shake off the
stereotypes which have dogged it for so long and surely the answer to this lies in the developing
social standing of black Americans. With a black President in the White House and a black
Hollywood star earning $20m a picture, perhaps we are moving into an age when Hollywood
cannot rely of the old stereotypes any longer. Precious, offered us in the downtrodden, obese,
illiterate, abused black teenager, a modern day slave victim at the same time that America had
already voted in a Black President. The audience didn’t want this because it felt like looking back
not looking forward. In the 1960’s at the hight of the civil rights movement, Hollywood found itself
confronting issues of race head on - In The Heat of the Night showed a black man, slap a white
man across the face because of his racist views, in Sidney Poitier it had a star actor who won the
Oscar and it gave voice to the issues which confronted American society. Now in 2011, the issues
are different and the stereotypes from the past cannot remain. As Virgil Tibbs stepped outside the
debate and beyond the limitations of type so must the black stars of the future.