Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture (Jazz & American Culture) [Paperback]

Krin Gabbard (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jazz & American Culture | Publication Date: March 30, 2004

Why do so many African American film characters seem to have magical powers? And why do they use them only to help white people? When the actors are white, why is the sound track so commonly performed by African Americans? And why do so many white actors imitate black people when they wish to express strong emotion?

As Krin Gabbard brilliantly reveals in Black Magic, we duly recognize the cultural heritage of African Americans in literature, music, and art, but there is a disturbing pattern in the roles that blacks are asked to play-particularly in the movies. Many recent films, including The Matrix, Fargo, The Green Mile, Ghost, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Pleasantville, The Bridges of Madison County, and Crumb, reveal a fascination with black music and sexuality even as they preserve the old racial hierarchies. Quite often the dependence on African American culture remains hidden-although it is almost perversely pervasive. In the final chapters of Black Magic, Gabbard looks at films by Robert Altman and Spike Lee that attempt to reverse many of these widespread trends.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The cultural tendency of whites to simultaneously give a central role to black contributions to American culture and to marginalize black people is particularly evident in movies. Gabbard, a professor of comparative literature and collector of jazz music, explores "black magic" in films, the use of those traits whites have long admired in black culture, such as passion and spontaneity, without acknowledging the connection to black culture or even featuring black characters. Part 1 focuses on racial appropriations from black musical and cultural sensibilities in a range of movies to the hypermasculine performances of male stars, for example, the young Marlon Brando. He also examines movies with black angels coming to help white characters, such as The Green Mile, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and The Family Man, seeing them as an expression of the desire for racial healing without giving up white privilege. In a later section, Gabbard explores film documentaries where blacks are more prominent throughout and films by Spike Lee and Robert Altman that attempt to reverse the trend of racial appropriation. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Gabbard's book is a joy to read, a really fine, original piece of work -- Michael Jarrett, author of Sound Tracks: A Musical ABC

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (March 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813533848
• ISBN-13: 978-0813533841
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,587,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lightning doesn't strike twice, October 5, 2006

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This review is from: Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture (Jazz & American Culture) (Hardcover)

Jamming at the Margins was a masterpiece, the first book I've ever read that used the tools of postmodern, post-canonical criticism to address issues pertaining to Jazz and Jazz history. What happened? Was Gabbard afraid that he had offended members of his target groups that need everything spelled out for them? In any case,Black Magic is, by comparison, a disappointingly weak intellectual performance. The topic - the way Black representation is treated in Hollywood, and the fact that black characters still have a tendancy to function as some sort of enablers for White characters to achieve something or to come together, and then to disappear - is an important one. I will admit it is a topic about which I am passionate, and I was jealous that one of my favorite critics had decided to write a book about it (I was scooped!). But I was also very excited to read it, and with every page I grew more and more depressed. The approach is scattershot: textbook psychology is followed by a plethora of biographical details which is followed by a kind of ironic, impotent outrage. The book feels like it was written in a big rush, poorly edited, barely unpacked. And the praise for Spike Lee and Robert Altman feels barely sincere, toothless. The best chapter should have been the chapter where Gabbard outs himself as a Jazz nerd. It should have been a proud companion to such essays as Walter Benjamin's Unpacking My Library or certain moments out of Roland Barthes. But it isn't. It's a kind of cute, bland, snickeringly charming half-backed self-portrait. What a missed opportunity!