African Americans are underrepresented in film, while white characters are vastly overrepresented. The disparity in representation raises questions as to how these facts affect the audiences that are so demographically different from what is portrayed onscreen? This study serves to examine how presentations of black sex and gender in American cinema relate to the demographics of the audience viewing them, and how these portrayals have changed over a fifty-year span. Considering depictions of African Americans in the context of social and political movements of the last five decades will provide a deeper understanding of spectator and community attitudes toward black characters, as well as the factors that shape the themes and representations
