Hollywood’s dramatizations of black history have gained significant steam and acclaim over the past three decades, starting with Edward Zwick’s 1989 Civil War piece Glory. Before and after the turn of the millennium, films exploring slavery, segregation, and racism have abounded: Amistad (1997), Ray (2004), Red Tails (2012), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Selma (2015), and Birth of a Nation (2016) come to mind.
When presented in an historically accurate form, such cinema can promote a well-rounded view of America as a great, but imperfect, nation in the process of repentance for its incomplete application of liberty and justice for all people at the time of its founding and through its centuries of maturation. Unfortunately, there is often a subtext in these films which undermines the fact that black history in America is, when taken in a long view, a story of triumph over adversity. The quiet undertone therein is that in America blacks are perpetually victims and whites are inherently biased against them.......... More
When presented in an historically accurate form, such cinema can promote a well-rounded view of America as a great, but imperfect, nation in the process of repentance for its incomplete application of liberty and justice for all people at the time of its founding and through its centuries of maturation. Unfortunately, there is often a subtext in these films which undermines the fact that black history in America is, when taken in a long view, a story of triumph over adversity. The quiet undertone therein is that in America blacks are perpetually victims and whites are inherently biased against them.......... More
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