Media - the representation of black men representation in film.

Slavery occurring influenced the negative image of black men potrayed in the earliest films which feature a black character is 'the birth of a nation'.  In the birth of nation (1915), the only black character is not played by a black male, instead a white male dressed up with make up to play the black character 'Gus'. This clearly highlights at the time black people were not seen as very good actors so they did not play a big part in movies. The black character in the birth of nation reflected the stereotype of the black buck by incorporating animalistic behaviors and sexual needs.

A political/social factor that influenced negative representation is the hays code. The media industry adopted the code in 1930, they began effectively enforcing it in 1934, and it was abandoned in 1968 after the success of the civil rights movement held by several protests and riots. The hays code restricted miscegenation (integration of black and white). This meant that in most films produced, the black casts  can not be giving one of the main roles as the hero or the prize so they were giving one of the weak roles as the uncle tom character. The uncle tom character was not a negative nor a positive representation.

Economically, black people have suffered before the civil rights movement. They lacked resources and funds so they were not able to produce top class hollywood movies that represents black men as positive and heroic. Most films that where produced did not manage to make it and be successful as not many black people had the money to go cinema and watch the film. At the start of the world war, the american government needed extra troops to fight alongside with them. But in order to do that they had to gain their trust by producing films and texts which portray black men as heroic, powerful and patriotic. 'the negro soldier' 1943 was made in order to support anti-racism parties in the US to influence black men to join the us army. This example highlights that media is so powerful it was used as a means of educating an entire race about social issues.

During the early 1960s civil rights movement where having an influence on representation of black men. The production code (hays code) began to weaken and interracial relationships began to be addressed in hollywood movies. Sidney poiter was recognised as the most inspirational and the most succesfull black actor to date. In most of the films he has been in, he received generally a positive representation. He was potrayed as a young educated and articulate black man. His role in 'lilies of the field 1963  earned him an oscar for best lead performance. He became the first black man to win an oscar. Most of the characters he played were marked different from past stereotypes, making it a success and a march of progress towards the black community in the United states.