A Cinema Of Racism: Reel Representation Of African–american Women Before And After The Civil Rights Movement Era

Résumé: ABSTRACT How black women are depicted in pre and post-civil rights movement films? The significance of this study is that it sheds new light on the ways in which black women are depicted in Hollywood films, and exemplifies some means to deconstruct dehumanizing representations of ourselves. This work advances the goal of exposing the inaccuracies of the dominant gaze. It is, then, essentially a critique of black women's marginalization in American cinema. It also contributes to the sociology of race and media studies by critically analysing what messages are conveyed to the masses regarding the place of black womanhood in American society. Moreover, it explores some specific ways that these cinematic representations of Black womanhood are socially and politically damaging. This study took a place during the academic year 2021-2022. Conceptual content analysis is used in order to better understand the content and better explain the messages contained in the two movies: Within Our Gates 1920, and The help 2011. In addition, data was collected from online journals, books, e-books, websites and motion pictures for the sake of supporting this study. Conclusively, the findings of this study showed that despite the repercussions of the CRM, somehow African American actresses in particular are still marginalized and struggling because of racism in cinema, and African American women in general are still portrayed in a negative way in Hollywood.

Publié dans la revue: