01/28

    Chapter One of the book America on Film introduces concepts critical to an understanding of both film and institutionalized discrimination in the US, and provides a vocabulary for discussing the intersection of the two. The chapter talks about the five main aspects of film form and how they work together to create meaning. After laying this foundation, the authors take a departure from the discussion of film, give a brief history racial disparities in the United States, framed by founding documents like the constitution and by a dominant ideology of white patriarchal capitalism.

     One of the key terms they define is the notion of hegemony: a state of dominance by a group of oppressors that is an ongoing historical battle to maintain superiority and control. They emphasize that hegemony is constantly evolving, and apply the concept to American civil rights groups fighting to challenge the dominant ideology of white supremacy via hegemonic negotiation. 

    The chapter provides an extensive vocabulary to use in decoding films and other cultural artifacts, and concludes with an example of this process using the movie The Lion King, pointing out racial stereotypes, patriarchal norms, and homophobic portrayals that can all be supported through a oppositional reading of the film. In discussions in class about this aspect of the reading, I realized that the oppositional reading of the Lion King really resonated with me, as it did with many others. By taking an artifact from our collective childhoods and forcing us to rethink the representations depicted in it, the authors changed my relationship with media as a whole. As they point out, any film can be viewed with this lens, and once I was given the toolkit with which to discuss representation in media, it feels like a switch has been flipped, and I can’t help but rethink all of the movies from my childhood in this way. While this lens is often defined as a form of ‘cancel culture’ online, I believe it represents the opposite; by taking care to understand the underlying stereotypes and how they reflect the dominant ideologies of our culture, audiences can begin to rethink our relationship with media and gain a deeper understanding of the cultural artifacts we consume daily.

    The Prologue of the book The Legacy of the First Reconstruction draws important parallels between two major movements towards a multicultural democracy in the US. The first is defined as the civil war and subsequent Reconstruction period. The second is defined as the “Second Reconstruction”, starting in the 1940s. The authors emphasize very clear parallels between the two reconstructions; both had similar historical context and successful legislature that led to better racial equality and the end to a rigid structure that had been used to oppress Black people for decades, before eventually losing traction and succumbing to the US tradition of white supremacy. The authors show that while these events are not identical, the historical patterns are clear and these events can and should be analyzed together. They give a history of the first Reconstruction, emphasizing that the neglect to fix continuing economic disparities was a major failure from this Reconstruction, but many advances were made in non-economic matters. The later mass movement of Black Southerners to Northern cities in the 1900s brought about major reforms of its own, and major improvements in Black healthcare, education and socioeconomic status were made. However these advances were made in the shadow of Jim Crow, which continually maintained the oppression of Black people, who were still subject to major acts of violence and segregation. 

    A key term to define from this reading is the Freedmen’s Bureau, a federal program launched during the first Reconstruction that made major advancements in healthcare, education and social services. As the authors explain, this program made significant steps in changing the social standing of Black Americans, but it becomes evident that programs like the Freedmen’s Bureau, while important, were not nearly enough, as the program continued segregation in the wake of the doctrine of “separate but equal”.

    The patterns demonstrated by the two reconstruction periods support the concept of hegemony raised in the America on Film reading: these oppressive social structures that repeat throughout history provide clear evidence that the American hegemonic system of white supremacy is ongoing and cyclical. That context becomes all the more pertinent today, as we can study the histories of Reconstruction and work to break down the systematic barriers that have stubbornly defined racial hierarchies in America since its beginning. These hierarchies manifest themselves differently at different points in history, from slavery to Jim Crow, but they still remain stubbornly omnipresent. It becomes clear that only by acknowledging these systems and how they manifest in daily life, can we begin to finally break free from them.