Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Reel Blacks: The Good Old Days, Patricia A. Turner

Trotter Review

Like most of my colleagues engaged in film studies rather than film practice, I occasionally allow myself to fantasize about the kind of films I would produce if I were a film maker. Several commercial films popular in the last fifteen years have inspired in me a bare bones scenario. My movie would have an all black “ensemble” cast. The plot would contain flashbacks tracing the events in the characters’ adolescence that solidified their friendship. These flashbacks would be punctuated by rhythmless music performed by white artists, Although no hint of “soul” would be tolerated on my movie’s soundtrack, my …

Commentary: Trotter Review, Vol. 1, Issue 2, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

This issue of the Trotter Institute Review is devoted to the portrayal of blacks in the media. The mass media can be a positive or negative force in the struggle for racial progress. Unfortunately, the black community faces media that provide many negative influences. Consequently, there is a continuing need to address this issue.

The mass media is a major instrument of socialization in the American society. As such, it helps to determine how an individual sees the world. The prevailing definitions of social reality and social problems, as well as the characterization of groups of individuals, are learned through …

Media Images And Racial Stereotyping, Kirk A. Johnson

Trotter Review

To better understand how the local media portray Boston's black community, I monitored news reports from a sample of newspapers and radio and television stations for one month during the summer of 1986. I noted the roles blacks played, the activities blacks were shown to be engaged in, and the events that brought blacks into the news. By comparing the portrayal of blacks in Boston's major media with portrayals in the black media, I sought to understand the criteria that reporters and editors use to judge the newsworthiness of items relating to the black community, and to determine whether (and …

Reel Blacks: Blacks In Disguise, Patricia A. Turner

Trotter Review

Gremlins and Little Shop of Horrors are very likeable films. The former is rather charming, and the latter is one of the most originally-rendered musicals ever produced. Indeed, it is the positive surface of the films that makes their underlying message so insidious. Fortunately, the final twist common to both films can give solace to the viewer who would like to see the disguised blacks triumph. At the end of Gremlins the original Mogwi is still alive, albeit back in the capable hands of the mysterious Chinese man, and Little Shop closes as the camera follows Seymour and Audrey into …

Editor's Note: Trotter Review, Vol. 1, Issue 1, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

This edition of The Trotter Institute Review addresses issues in economics and the entertainment media. Topics include employment, affirmative action, income, and the black experience as presented in movies. The articles address these concerns at what may be a critical point in race relations in the United States. At a time when the national mood suggests that civil rights and economic opportunities have been provided sufficiently to blacks and that nothing further needs to be done, these articles suggest how far we have to go before that is a reality.

Reel Blacks: Everything Is Not Satisfactual, Patricia A. Turner

Trotter Review

An unaccompanied black adult female at a matinee performance of Song of the South is about as out of place as Big Bird at a cockfight. However, having encouraged the students in my course on black media images to see the film during its fortieth anniversary run, I felt obligated to reexamine it myself. So there I sat, surrounded by exuberant white pre-schoolers and their parents, watching as animation and live action seamlessly interchanged on the screen in Walt Disney’s adaptation for Joel Chandler Harris’ classic collection of Afro-American folktales.