Media Experiment 4

Rodney King’s videotaped beating in March of 1991 was an extremely controversial topic of that year, and still talked about today. In the reading “Televisual Politics: Negotiating Race in the L.A. Rebellion” King is heavily focus on throughout. In the readings it describes an event that was known as the L.A. Rebellion where riots broke out by mostly black individuals in uproar over the less-than-harsh court ruling in King’s attack. Unfortunately, these riots would increase the negative reflection of black individuals solely because of what the article calls, ‘white male information control.’There are two specific roles that black people are represented as in the media according to this article, the first one is explained on page 328 when it states that, “The L.A. rebellion provided drama’s essential fuel: dangerous antagonists (the people of color coming at “us” from out there) and innocent victims (the white, disoriented characters and audience at home)” (Caldwell, 328). So essentially, black people are being represented as the “other.” This has become a crucial part of media history as even in the last decade you can spot instances of blacks being portrayed as an antagonizing “other.” For instance, following the devastating Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans that left so many people helpless without proper shelter, clothing, or food, there still was ‘white man’s information control’ in the coverage of it. Take for instance these two photographs:

Both appear to be very similar, but the captions are strikingly different. The first image’s caption reads: Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery. The second caption reads: A young man walks through chest deep floodwater after looting a grocery store in New Orleans. Possibly at a first glance you wouldn’t pick up on this but these images harnessed a lot of controversy over its usage of certain words. The non-black couple are helpless residents who fought through the terrible climate and found food in order to survive. The second image doesn’t describe the black individual as a resident of the area, just a man, and he has looted instead of just finding it. While many immediately were outraged and attacked The Associated Press for this, I have a different opinion on the matter. I actually believe that whoever captioned these photos did not intentionally portray the black man as a thief but instead because of the media that we have been raised in (specifically during events like the L.A. rebellion riots), many of us have a pre-disposed notion that the black man is an antagonistic “other.” Therefore, it is hard to really put blame for this on one specific person as this goes back much further.

Earlier, I mentioned that were two specific roles for black people in the media. The first was an “antagonizing other” and the second is explained on page 331, “television slotted people of color into a very different, but much more spectacular, role. Rodney King emerged as the latest in Hollywood’s long line of tragic, suffering, and sacrificial victims of color (Caldwell 331). This made me think of two very specific media examples. The first is the film we watched in class ‘Bamboozled’ and the scene I am referring to is near the climax when Savion Glover’s Mantan is being videotaped and broadcasted on television as he is kidnapped, beaten, and eventually murdered. Another example I thought of was the similarly satirical ‘Scream 2’, which pokes fun at horror films (particularly sequels) even though it happens to be a horror sequel itself. The scene that I am referring to is the opening when a black couple, Maureen Evans and Phil Stevens (portrayed by Jada Pinket and Omar Epps respectively) go to a pre-screening of a horror film. While walking into the theatre, Maureen complains to Phil about the genre choice because the horror industry reflects a poor representation of the black community with few leading characters ever being black and any black characters almost always die first. Because the ‘Scream’ films are known for poking fun at these clichés, Maureen and Phil are killed first in this very opening scene. Later, another black character Joel explains, “Brothers don’t last long in situations like this!” and although Joel is a cliché in that he is comic relief, ‘Scream’ turns this on its toes in end when Joel surprisingly survives the murder spree to live another day. Unfortunately, the Scream series is known specifically for taking clichés and breaking them so this is actually more proof that in films, specifically violent ones, the black characters usually die first and will almost never make it to the end.

Omar Epps and Jada Pinkett in 'Scream 2'

Overall, both the reading “Televisual Politics: Negotiation Race in the L.A. Rebellion” as well as the screening of Spike Lee’s ‘Bamboozled’ I have definitely started to look more closely at the media and notice the structured representations. In the past black individuals used to only be provided as buffoons and comic relief, and while this is still true in certain media examples, the more recent staples for black characters are either the ‘antagonistic other’ like the man in the Hurricane Katrina image or the rioters in the L.A. Rebellion, or the ‘brutalized victim’ like the opening victims of ‘Scream 2’ or Rodney King himself.