Tommy Davidson and Savion Glover star in Spike Lee's Bamboozled.

Bamboozled Again, and Again

by Harry Amana
SeeingBlack.com Media Critic

Filmmaker Spike Lee's film "Bamboozled" may not have been a huge financial but it put the issue of the African-American film image on the front burner. The film promises to be a permanent part of future discussions about blacks in film, and minstrel imagery in contemporary television and film.

This biting satire about a 21st-century black minstrel TV show stirred controversy everywhere with its over-the-top depiction of blackface memorabilia and blackened-up, coon actors. So outlandish were the ads for the film that some N.Y. newspapers reportedly refused to run them.

Meanwhile, critics couldn't agree on whether the film was "the most important" film of the year [New York Post] or "his worst film to date" [Seattle Stranger]. For a summary of the film's reviews see: http://movies.go.com/movies/B/bamboozled_2000/index.html.

Now, six months after the film's debut, writers and scholars have already begun to critique it as a significant part of U.S. popular culture. Viewings and discussions on the film have occurred at major universities across the country. In an April 6-7 film symposium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at least three researchers were scheduled to present scholarly treatises on the film.

Bamboozled is due out on DVD/ VHS April 17.

The film's premise is simple: TV writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), in an effort to break with his white bosses, creates an outrageous blackface comedy—"ManTan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show"—that, surprisingly, becomes a network hit, as its stars (Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson) debase themselves by performing in blackface.

I'm one of those who are thoroughly intrigued with the concept, the reactions to it, and the Web-site images associated with the film. That's because I agree with Spike: These images—most of which were created in the early 19th century—are still with us as we move into the third millennium. And we have to stop acting like we don't know they're there, or what they mean, or how they make some of us feel.

Just as the film was debuting, for example, I saw "Charlie Chan in the Secret Service" on TV, starring Sidney Toler in yellowface and Mantan Moreland (in his natural black face) as Birmingham Brown, Chan's sidekick valet. Birmingham, you might remember, is the popeyed black actor who made famous that old coon line: "Who dat say, 'Who dat?' when I say, 'Who dat?'"

And although the UPN network dropped (amidst loud community complaints) "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer"—a sitcom about Abraham Lincoln's butler—the WB network picked up "The PJs" from Fox. That's Eddie Murphy's claymation comedy that's situated in the PJs (the projects—public housing). It usually tacks on some simplistic moral at the end of each episode, but you have to endure the terrible stereotypes of public housing residents in order to get to it.

But not all of our outdated racial images are relegated to film. We can't forget those nostalgic reminders of the antebellum days that we come across at craft fairs and interstate souvenir shops. You know, the blackface mammies that resemble Aunt Jemima, before she got her perm and became a couple of shades lighter. Or the pickaninny kids eating watermelon. Or the black jockey who stands guard on selected lawns as you drive through the Southern countryside. Like the poor, these images are ever with us, especially once you cross the Mason-Dixon Line.

"Bamboozled" put them front and center on the public agenda for us, forcing us to talk about them. To help us in our dialogue, Spike also set up at least two Web sites that take us further into the issue.

The "Bamboozled" movie site is at http://www.bamboozledmovie.com. It features a wide-eyed, red-lipped, smiling pickaninny with (of course) watermelon in hand. Links take us to the film and its cast, soundtrack, etc.; to a brief history of blackface, blacks on TV, and the minstrel show; and to nine clips from the film and from old animated movies.

The animations remind us of images our children can still pick up from time to time on the "Toon" Channel. Remember, for example, the countless scenes where a character such as, say, Bugs Bunny, has a bomb explode in his hand? The blast occurs, black smoke settles and Bugs emerges, blackened up, shuffling to some quaint darky tune.

The second Web site at http://www.stepnfetchitpictures.com is a send up of bogus television shows, with plot summaries that you might find hard to distinguish from contemporary network lineups. "Vixens," for example, features three women — one white, one Asian, one black — who "pose as employees of a temp agency to take down evil corporate America from the inside."

The site's lead show, of course, is the "ManTan Minstrel Show," featuring ManTan and Sleep 'N Eat, one of whom, with his taxi-driver's hat, bears an eerie resemblance to Amos of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" TV show. "Join ManTan and his cousins," the site says, for "a gut-splittin' good time."

Implicit in all of these images, of course, are thinly veiled, direct references to the aforementioned Mantan Moreland, as well as to Steppin Fetchit, the screen name of Lincoln Perry who, sadly, set the movie standard (if you will) for the shiftless coon character. When we compare these images to the buffoonery that we are offered nightly on television, Spike's scenarios might not seem so far-out after all.

For those interested in the black image in film, television and U.S. popular culture, "Bamboozled" promises to serve as the feature-length dramatic companion to documentaries such as Marlon Riggs' 1986 "Ethnic Notions," and Deborah Hoffman's 1991 "Color Adjustments."

To be sure, it is a surreal trip we take with Spike Lee. Even more, it is a grim reminder of our cultural heritage in America, and the cultural baggage that we still blindly carry with us, and perpetuate.

-- April 9, 2001

A version of this essay appeared in The Chapel Hill News.

Harry Amana is an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His Web site with more than 300 links to media and minorities is: http://www.unc.edu/~haman. He may be reached at harryamana@unc.edu.

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