The Death of Representation

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There is no doubt that racial stereotypes negatively affect how we perceive others. These types of negative stereotypes are usually depicted in film and television. It’s easy for audiences to pick up these racial perceptions of others and incorporate it into their everyday lives. Since this is normalized in Hollywood, us audience members need to understand just exactly what racial stereotypes are being depicted into such films and need to be acknowledge them. The one racial stereotype against black men is “the Magical Negro”. This character tends to be played by African American men with “special powers who make appearances solely to help white characters out of crises” (ThoughtCo). This reinforces the argument that these characters aren’t as valuable or important as the other characters depicted in these films. They are deemed as uninteresting. For example, the movie Evan Almighty, Morgan Freeman played the role of God. God, a supreme being, is played by a famous black male. This movie is consisted of a solely white cast that includes one black man as their “main character”. This character is portrayed as an important because he is signified throughout the entirety of the movie. In fact this movie wouldn't make sense without this specific character. However this “magical” black man who is worshipped throughout the film, only appears in 4-5 scenes with little to no lines. It doesn’t make sense that a popular movie that has a biblical story line wouldn’t portray God’s character more. Why is this? Such stereotypical roles are slowly normalizing that a black man can’t be a lead role in an all white cast film. Such acts of racial injustices need to be put to an end.

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