Hollywood Jim Crow, The

Maryann Erigha

Published by New York University Press 2019

Hollywood Jim Crow, The

The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry

Maryann Erigha

https://doi.org/10.18574/9781479816644

Overview
Contents

About this book

The story of racial hierarchy in the American film industry

The #OscarsSoWhite campaign, and the content of the leaked Sony emails which revealed, among many other things, that a powerful Hollywood insider didn’t believe that Denzel Washington could “open” a western genre film, provide glaring evidence that the opportunities for people of color in Hollywood are limited.

In The Hollywood Jim Crow, Maryann Erigha tells the story of inequality, looking at the practices and biases that limit the production and circulation of movies directed by racial minorities. She examines over 1,300 contemporary films, specifically focusing on directors, to show the key elements at work in maintaining “the Hollywood Jim Crow.” Unlike the Jim Crow era where ideas about innate racial inferiority and superiority were the grounds for segregation, Hollywood’s version tries to use economic and cultural explanations to justify the underrepresentation and stigmatization of Black filmmakers.

Erigha exposes the key elements at work in maintaining Hollywood’s racial hierarchy, namely the relationship between genre and race, the ghettoization of Black directors to black films, and how Blackness is perceived by the Hollywood producers and studios who decide what gets made and who gets to make it. Erigha questions the notion that increased representation of African Americans behind the camera is the sole answer to the racial inequality gap. Instead, she suggests focusing on the obstacles to integration for African American film directors.

Hollywood movies have an expansive reach and exert tremendous power in the national and global production, distribution, and exhibition of popular culture. The Hollywood Jim Crow fully dissects the racial inequality embedded in this industry, looking at alternative ways for African Americans to find success in Hollywood and suggesting how they can band together to forge their own career paths.

Author information

ErighaMaryann:

Maryann Erigha is Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at the University of Georgia.

Reviews

Darnell Hunt,Co-editor of Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities:
The superhero blockbuster Black Panther is the most recent exception to Hollywoods golden rule: the only color that matters is green, and in the name of green, one should downplay Black. Maryann Erigha confronts the implications of this rule in The Hollywood Jim Crow, which traces how the conflation of race and economics works, in the minds of the white men who dominate the industry, to marginalize Black stories and Black talent at the movies. Through a careful analysis of more than a decade of box office data, film budgets, and incriminating insider statements about the role race plays in shaping industry decision-making, Erigha exposes the centrality of ghettoization processes in a key American cultural forum.

Erigha analyzes the barriers that black filmmakers face in Hollywood . . . this well-written work demonstrates a cogent understanding of institutional racism . . . Anyone seeking to study, and dismantle, structures of oppression will appreciate this clarifying read.

Aconvincing analysis of structural barriers and attitudes that obstruct black filmmakers in today's culture. .. .A meaningful tribute to the achievements of pioneer directors and a sharp call for studios to keep trying harder to acknowledge structural racism.

Film Comment:
#OscarsSoWhite was a spotlight on the obvious. The Hollywood Jim Crow is an important and eloquent extension of that conversation.

Offers a provocative lens for understanding how entrenched the industrys racial imbalances areand how the lack of people of color in top studio roles only perpetuates this inequality.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Figures and tables Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. Race matters in Hollywood Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Representation and racial hierarchy Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	23
2. Labeling black unbankable Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	52
3. Directing on the margins Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	82
4. Making genre ghettos Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	115
5. Manufacturing racial stigma Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	141
6. Remaking cinema Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	162
Conclusion. Hollywood’s racial politics Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	181
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	193
Appendix Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	195
Notes Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	199
References Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	207
Index Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	215
About the author Requires Authentication Licensed Download PDF	225

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Illustrations
- Other: 17 black and white illustrations
Keywords: African Americans; audience; Black; cinema; collective; culture; directors; distribution; economic; film; foreign market; franchise; genre; ghetto; Hollywood; inequality; liberal; media; Oscars; production budgets; race; racial bias; racial hierarchy; racial minorities; racialization; representation; science fiction; stigma; studios; unbankable; underrepresented; universal; W. E. B. Du Bois

eBook

Published: February 5, 2019
ISBN: 9781479816644