Racism Still Divides Black and White America:
Black American filmmaking: Oscar Micheaux
A Discussion with Tom Skinner
- Source: www.cpjustice.org, Chart: Black Enterprise Magazine Wealth Intiative
"African Americans made the mistake of buying the message of "the American melting pot under God." African Americans did not realize that America did not intend to include them in that idea. So while the civil rights laws of the 1980s were passed, they never passed in the hearts and intent of the American people."
African Americans let the white majority into their political and economic lives without whites letting African Americans into their lives. Until African Americans build their own economic base by doing at least 35 percent of their business with one another, and saving and investing their money in their own community, the discrimination will never end, Until African Americans elect to public office people who are accountable to the African American community, the discrimination will never end.
White America always follows the money. If African Americans want justice, they must spend the majority of their 300 billion dollars with themselves. African Americans eat 52 percent of the peanuts eaten in America, but they own no peanut farms or factories. African Americans eat 55 percent of all potato chips eaten in America, but they have no potato chip factories. African Americans eat six hundred million dollars worth of candy, but they own no candy factories. This must change, and white people who love Christ and are of good will must help.
African Americans must pool their resources, take control of their own educational institutions, take responsibility for their children, and do business with one another. The impact of this effort will be so positive and so great that it will attract the majority just so they can do business with such a prosperous community.
White society only understands power. When you have power, the system will always talk to you.
In white America things are decided informally--in the country clubs, in conversations that take place behind the scenes. That's the way America is, and we are locked out of it, so we have to figure out how to take care of ourselves and not depend on the myth of integration into a white American dream.
More Knowledge
- Source: www.brightlightfilm.com
"With integration came the disappearance of the black film industry. There was no longer a need for a separate film industry."
Black American filmmaking began to take shape in the beginning of the twentieth century. The films of this period are referred to as race movies, and the practice of black filmmaking was established as a result of the great black migrations.1 As a black urban population developed, so did a market for black films. Black filmmakers exploited segregation by creating movies that catered to African-Americans. From this era, the most notable filmmaker to emerge was Oscar Micheaux.
Micheaux started making movies during the silent era, and was the first African-American to produce and direct a feature-length sound movie. Micheaux's film budgets came from his entrepreneurial efforts as a book publisher and novelist. He would transport prints from town to town, and edit his movies on the road. To raise capital, Micheaux would charge a fee to theater owners when his actors gave private performances of scenes from upcoming productions at their facilities.
At the height of Micheaux’s success, he opened branch offices of his film company in New York and Chicago. But with integration came the disappearance of the black film industry. There was no longer a need for a separate film industry. S. Craig Watkins, in Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema, assesses the end of the race movie era: And while the production of race movies took place completely outside of the parameters of Hollywood, it also involved black and white cooperation.
Ironically, the demise of this era in black filmmaking was accelerated by the burgeoning civil rights movement: a philosophical shift that emphasized integration and assimilation rather than economic development as the way to achieve racial equality.
More Knowledge
