Playing in the Dark and Popular Culture

In Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles, there is almost a role reversal. Luciusa Best, the only African American character also known as Frozone goes out with Bob Parr, a.k.a. Mr. Incredible to stop crime. Bob sneaks out of the house to reminisce of the days when he used to be superhero. When he sneaks out Luciusa joins him even though he is reluctant. He also saves the day in the end of the big battle scene. This is a counter example for some of Toni Morrison’s points. Luciusa is the voice of good and conscious opposite to the ideas of his white friend. In this example the African American does not have a major roll; he is in the beginning and end, but he is given an identity and voice.


The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is about “Will” a street smart African American teenager from West Philadelphia, who moves to live with his upper class relatives, the Banks, because he had some problems in the neighborhood in which he lived. In this TV series the viewer sees two types of African Americans; the stereotypical one played as Will and the Banks family who are an unconventional image of African Americans. The banks family in similar to that of the characters in Passing, they have a butler who is of darker skin than themselves and their mannerisms are those of a stereotypical upper class white family.


In the film Men in Black, there are two agents, Agent K, a white character, who has over forty years of experience and his new partner Agent J, an African American who is the comedic relief in this movie. There is a contrast between the serious and knowledgeable white character and the sarcastic wittiness of the black character. Agent J acts in a stereotypical way of an African American. Here is a link to the trailer of the movie.
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1643381529/

Throughout popular culture and media, black and white have become synonymous with good and evil. In many scary movies when there is darkness something bad or frightening going to happen or it is at least given the sense of being unsafe and dangerous. Also with the clothing they wear, in Star Wars, Luke Skywalker, the hero, wears white and his arch nemesis, Darth Vader, is dressed all in black. These connections are made and formed instantaneously and subliminally. These common formalities in culture have migrated into common ideas and views that are associated with these colors.


Playing in the Dark

Playing in the Dark, written by Nobel-prize-winner Toni Morrison, consists of an introduction and three essays on the role of race, specifically with Africans and blacks, in American literature. The subtitle for the book, Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, is exactly what the three essays are about: whiteness, not blackness. Morrison looks at what is placed at the center of the American Literary stage: the white hero and the construction of their world. She comes at the topic from a different angle; instead of looking at what it means to be black she looks at what it means to be white.

Morrison looks at the classic virtues of the hero in American literature — self-reliance, power over their surroundings, control over their life, confidence, and independence. She shows the degree to which those virtues are built, within the story, on the ubiquitous and unremarked presence of servants, slaves, racial inferiors, and people over whom the heroes can have, gain, or exercise power. It's surprising, once pointed out, how unsubtle this undercurrent is and how much the construction of the classic virtues of the American hero require a subservient other.

It is remarkable at how much of the mythology of the American hero is explained by adding the hidden or assumed Other to the picture. In order to be powerful, one must have power over something. In order to be in control, one must have something over which to exert control. One demonstrates independence by one's ability to ignore or disregard others; one gains confidence from having power and control over one's life. It's not always that simple, of course, but in the simplification of life into stories, the hero's triumph or control over the Other is a simple way of establishing those virtues.

The idea Morrison explores is that the concept of inequity and power of white over black heavily influenced the way that whites imagined their roles in the world, and that imagination is reflected in literature. Slavery didn't only affect the enslaved. It also distorted the self-image of the slave holders, intensified the focus of being on top and in control of social hierarchies, and created a need to exert power in order to be seen as powerful. That emphasis on personal power, which so characterizes American literature, may be due in part by the effect of the culture of slavery and racial dominance.

by:
Caroline Betancourt,
David Odenwelder and
Clayton Mandly