Let's talk about "Bamboozled"

I first came across this Spike Lee film in my Film as Communications class. With the recent views on black representation in the media this movie came to mind. Spike Lee really packs decades of black stereotypes into just 2hrs 15mins and it is indeed an eyeopener into what we have for years been fed through mainstream media. 

Are we being Bamboozled?

American film director Spike Lee's Bamboozled (2000), takes on the issue of race relations and the portrayal of African Americans in the media. Delivered as a satire within a satire, Lee addresses head- on any misconceptions which may arise due to the film's heavy content. During the opening sequence the main character Pierre Delacroix, played by Damon Wayans, explains satire as: 

"A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully.... The branch of literature that composes such work.... Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity."

In this way Lee intends to direct the public’s interpretation of his piece. Through his revival of the 19th century Minstrel show, Spike Lee unmasks racial subtexts within current media. In Bamboozled’s live audience production, “Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show”, Spike Lee emphasizes the treatment by the American media of black America. He reuses racial images which have circulated American programming over the years. Lee packs a full assortment of historically prejudicial figures on the Minstrel stage.  The staging of the Minstrel show on a watermelon plantation is significant to racial stereotypes predating the abolition of slavery. 

The cultural association of the watermelon patch and the African American has long had a derogatory interpretation but there is a little known historical report which thoroughly opposes this offensive ideal. The real story of the watermelon in black history became perverted with damaging assignments of  uncleanliness, laziness, childishness, and unwanted public presence, by Southern whites who were not in favour of the abolition of slavery. 

 Lee also mimics those subtle racial interjections in the current media where, like the watermelon fixture; other foods are used as an indicator to black culture. This is displayed in the scene where Womack (Tommy Davidson) and Manray (Savion Glover) feast on among other fast food offerings, the fried chicken, while Delacroix discusses his concept for the Minstrel show.

 Other stereotypical re-creations are demonstrated by the performers of the Minstrel show. The painted blackfaces of the main actors Mantan and Sleep ‘n Eat are displayed  alongside a supporting cast of almost every racial caricature which has stained the African community, such as the “Tom”, “Coon”, “Pickaninny”, “Rastus”, “Aunt Jemima” and the “Alabama Porch Monkeys”. With these and other statements, such as the antique figures which progressively line Delacroix’s office, the audience never forgets the misrepresentation of black people in US mainstream media and which seem to now be perpetuated by the black community. 

Accordingly, the film also suggests that there are modern day representations of these typecasts. Singling out gangster rap as the contemporary form of transmission of racial imagery to the masses, Spike Lee’s film makes the implicit comparison between the current genre and the preceding performance tradition. In the same fashion blackface entertainment was backed by white America over 100 years ago, Lee imitates the appeal of gangsta rap, a brand of music known for its sexually explicit content and which boasts its evolution within the black community. 

The main objective of the movie was to communicate how Black Americans are perceived by their counterparts. The director shows that throughout history blacks have been appropriated subjugated roles which are meant to demean and propagate black inferiority. Lee's film also acknowledges that the American public is uncomfortable with the projection of "the middle class black family"; as reasoned by Dunwitty who explains to Delacroix why his previous pilots were failures; he says "wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody- and I mean NOBODY- niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk."

In addition to examining how the black community is regarded by white America, Bamboozled observes how African Americans see themselves. The director probes the idea that most blacks operate with a double consciousness where in order to be accepted they assimilate an identity closer to that of those who assume superiority, only to reclaim a sense of culture when among others of their group. He satirizes this with the Mau Maus and Delacroix as both groups excessively exalt their side of the dichotomy. The Mau Maus’ Afrocentric philosophy is in direct contrast to Delacroix’s Harvard educated disposition and which least fits the image of a person of his race.

Along with highlighting that white America has for years gained power and controlled the perception of the black community, Bamboozled explores the view that the powerful seem to believe that they have the authority to determine what is offensive. The flagrant use of the word “nigger” in television for instance is their way of trying to placate its offensive origin and is being justified by the idea “Nigger is just a word.” Spike Lee in turn gives reasons for the roles given to African Americans in television as the movie demonstrates that even 100 years later, white America power structure, as represented by Dunwitty and CNS executives, still have controlling power over the entertainment industry and therefore, determine its content.

The movie ends with a montage of the racial stereotypes used in film to represent African American. Take a look and tell us what you think by leaving a comment below.