American Deceptions and Reflections: An Analysis of the
Sociopolitical Stakes of Oscar Micheaux 's “Within Our Gates”
“If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves.” ― Junot Díaz
For many Americans, ideas of what constitutes Blackness are heavily influenced by media portrayals of African Americans; yet, these popular representations of Black Americans and their culture often highlight dated stereotypical images. As a result, white Americans who have limited contact with Black people often project racist ideologies onto the bodies of African Americans upon finally making contact. Moreover, the normative -- white authored -- representations of Black people serve to reinforce …show more content…
These two scenes chronologically merge into one another as a larger flashback of Sylvia Landry’s youth -- titled “Sylvia 's Story” -- and portray whiteness on screen as deviant. The later scene depicts an attempted rape -- what violence typically manifested as for Black women around the time of release for this film. As most of the Landry family is being murdered by an angry white mob, Sylvia engages in physical struggle from another main character 's brother who intends to rape her. But, noticing a scar on her breast, the main assailant realizes that Sylvia was his lost mixed-race daughter from an earlier marriage to a local African American woman (Green). This scene closely imitates the infamous climax of “The Birth of a Nation” in which an African American soldier tries to court a affluent white woman who eventually jumps to her death rather than consider the possibility of being romantically engaged with a Black man. Here Micheaux flips the script around discourses of violence and race by cinematically demonstrating that all men are capable of sexual violence; moreover, that sexual menacing behavior is not exclusive to a certain race
Sociopolitical Stakes of Oscar Micheaux 's “Within Our Gates”
“If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves.” ― Junot Díaz
For many Americans, ideas of what constitutes Blackness are heavily influenced by media portrayals of African Americans; yet, these popular representations of Black Americans and their culture often highlight dated stereotypical images. As a result, white Americans who have limited contact with Black people often project racist ideologies onto the bodies of African Americans upon finally making contact. Moreover, the normative -- white authored -- representations of Black people serve to reinforce …show more content…
These two scenes chronologically merge into one another as a larger flashback of Sylvia Landry’s youth -- titled “Sylvia 's Story” -- and portray whiteness on screen as deviant. The later scene depicts an attempted rape -- what violence typically manifested as for Black women around the time of release for this film. As most of the Landry family is being murdered by an angry white mob, Sylvia engages in physical struggle from another main character 's brother who intends to rape her. But, noticing a scar on her breast, the main assailant realizes that Sylvia was his lost mixed-race daughter from an earlier marriage to a local African American woman (Green). This scene closely imitates the infamous climax of “The Birth of a Nation” in which an African American soldier tries to court a affluent white woman who eventually jumps to her death rather than consider the possibility of being romantically engaged with a Black man. Here Micheaux flips the script around discourses of violence and race by cinematically demonstrating that all men are capable of sexual violence; moreover, that sexual menacing behavior is not exclusive to a certain race