Pg 20,21 - Diversity & identity
Black people racial hybrid, Overly represented
Representations of the ghetto culture "Young men from ethnic minorities are the main social group represented in both films (La Haine/ City of God)
- Black representations - Negative
- Violent
- Psychotic
- Drug dealers
- Gang Leaders/members
- Luther - "Luther is a DCI who leads a private and professional life of its 'maverick protagonist' or his willingness to tear up the rule book."
- BBC spent $4 Million on the pilot episode - attracting 5.6 Million viewers
- Praised for its "long overdue casting of a black male"
- Usual in America, casts are usually multi-racial
- Luther offers a more diverse array of female characters than many crime dramas, tend to prevaricate narrow cultural stereotypes representing women as victims or career wheeled professionals.
- According to the producers, Luther was all about achieving the pace & intrigue of a grown-up sexy thriller on television budget.
- The narrative does not focus on Luther's ethnicity; it is not foreground as an issue or pursued on any dramatic level, unlike many dramas which feature ethnic minority characters. and this area offers a more pluralistic representation.
Media magazine - December 2003
- In their annual report for 2002/03, the BBC they were losing black viewers and listeners. Many are instead tuning into satellite channels with programming that includes Black sitcoms.
The following quotes are from different issues of the Media Magazine, these all talk about black characters where the December 2011 issue actually talks about Luther, they all talk about the certain representations to do with black characters, and how the BBC began to lose black viewers and listeners, which forced them to do something and change there shows and include black characters.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Belle maman | Grégoire | |
| 2000 | Sorted | Jam | |
| 2001 | Buffalo Soldiers | Kimborough | |
| 2003 | One Love | Aaron | |
| 2005 | The Gospel | Charles Frank | |
| 2007 | Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls | Monty James | |
| 2007 | The Reaping | Ben | |
| 2007 | 28 Weeks Later | General Stone | |
| 2007 | American Gangster | Tango | |
| 2007 | This Christmas | Quentin Whitfield | |
| 2008 | Prom Night | Detective Winn | |
| 2008 | RocknRolla | Mumbles | |
| 2008 | The Human Contract | Larry | |
| 2009 | The Unborn | Arthur Wyndham | |
| 2009 | Obsessed | Derek Charles | |
| 2010 | Takers | Gordon Cozier | |
| 2010 | Legacy | Malcolm Gray | Executive producer |
| 2010 | The Losers | Roque | |
| 2011 | Thor | Heimdall | |
| 2012 | Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance | Moreau | |
| 2012 | Prometheus | Captain Janek | |
| 2013 | Pacific Rim | Stacker Pentecost | |
| 2013 | Thor: The Dark World | Heimdall | |
| 2013 | Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom | Nelson Mandela | |
| 2014 | No Good Deed | ||
| 2014 | The Gunman | Dupont | |
| 2015 | Jurassic World |
The number of films Idris Elba has featured in, and the certain characters he has been.
The Luther actor says even though the boy looked nothing like him, it wasn’t immediately obvious that his girlfriend, who he met in Florida and dated for a few years, had cheated on him.
‘It wasn’t immediately obvious—well, it was, because he didn’t look like me,’ Elba says. ‘But it wasn’t immediately obvious what had gone down.’
‘The celebration of having a son—from a man’s perspective, it’s massive,’ he added.
After the suggestion came that his son was not biologically his, he decided to take a paternity test which proved his suspicion correct.
As Idris Elba prepares for the release of Thor, in which he plays the all-seeing Heimdall, he’s also gearing up for battle with the film’s “purist” fans who feel that a Black man shouldn’t play the character rooted in Norse mythology.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Elba said the reason behind such disapproval goes beyond fan appreciation. “Purist comic-book fans are one thing,” said the 38-year-old actor, “Out-and-out racism is another… Of course, the more I speak on this topic, the more I fuel it. But, look, if people have a problem with me playing the character, just don’t go see the movie, you know?”
There’s even a website calling for fans to boycott the Marvel film for inserting “left-wing social engineering into European mythology” with the casting of Elba. The back-and-forth between The Wire actor and the Thor fans has been going on since last year, much of it covered in the British press.
"Idris Elba is a very grand, masculine presence, a larger than life presence," Cage said, according to Flicks and Bits. "There aren't that many actors who can embody that level of size on camera, I always find that exciting, it was definitely exciting working with Idris.
Quote showing the masculinity of Idris Elba, and therefore linking with my critical investigation.
Thursday 31 October 2013
The Labour politician Chuka Umunna has called on Britain's film and television industries to end the ethnic stereotyping which has forced Britain's leading black actors to quit the UK for Hollywood to pursue their careers.
Delivering a speech on social mobility, the Shadow Business Secretary echoed complaints by David Harewood, the Birmingham-born actor who starred in the hit US series Homeland, who said there were no strong roles for black actors in Britain.
We saw how Idris Elba quit British film for Hollywood which links in quite well with his personal life and himself as a character.
We saw how Idris Elba quit British film for Hollywood which links in quite well with his personal life and himself as a character.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4151328
Many studies have focused on young African-American boys and their experience in school. Fromgender biases in teacher grading that start as early as elementary school to blaring disparities in disciplinary practices, black male youth seem to be at a perpetual disadvantage in academic environments.
However, two studies that examined programs aiming to increase diversity by bussing minority students to primarily white schools revealed an area where black boys reportedly engaged with relative ease. According to an article published last year by Megan H. Holland, a professor at the University of Buffalo, minority boys reportedly have an easier time fitting in with their white peers at suburban schools because of stereotypes about their athleticism or "coolness" that give them greater access to activities that increase positive interactions with white students, like sports and social clubs.
Talking about black students in school and how the black youth are at a disadvantage to other pupils in the school.
Talking about black students in school and how the black youth are at a disadvantage to other pupils in the school.
(ThyBlackMan.com) To all the naysayers and nonbelievers, yes- believe it or not, There ARE Black Men Making a Positive Difference Every Day. When turning on any television, radio, or any form of mass media outlet in the past— forever, the narrative of Black Men has been one of hopelessness, recklessness, and us, put simply, being a menace to society. As Huey P. Newton said “I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.” He felt that sentiment during the early days of the Black Panther Political Party and I feel the same sentiment during the days of “Post Racism” and a guy named Barack Obama being the President of the (somewhat) Free World .
Looking at this topic from a somewhat positive stereotype point of view, not all of us can or will be Barack Obama, Jay-Z, Will Smith or Lebron James. For the most part, they are anomalies. People like them are a rarity; hence the reason one can name them without having to do too much intricate research. Although these men are very powerful, influential, and doing as much good as they can to help their families and communities for the most part, they are not the standard. They are the exception when it comes to black male success in America. On the other hand and from a more negative stereotype point of view, not all of us should or will be dead beat dads, criminals, rappers or athletes (no diss to the Lebron’s and Sean Carter’s of the world). Although these stereotypes are some of the most pervasive and intrusive when it comes to the perception of black males in America; they too are not the standard. They are the exception. No matter how negative of an exception, they are still an exception of what black males can sometimes succumb to being.
How black people from different societies must be different because not everyone is a 'Lebron James' and black people have a disadvantage due to the negative stereotype already surrounding them.
How black people from different societies must be different because not everyone is a 'Lebron James' and black people have a disadvantage due to the negative stereotype already surrounding them.
"Representations of Black masculinity in popular culture remain a focal point of social science and cultural studies research. Yet, research shows that Black men are negatively portrayed in news stories. Therefore, when a series on Black men, conceived and carried out primarily by a Black journalistic team, was published in a national agenda-setting newspaper, The Washington Post, it was important to question if Black masculinity was represented in this same light or represented in other, more positive ways. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether the series succeeded in reshaping the image of Black men and to what extent it exhibited Jackson and Dangerfield’s five factors of Black masculine positionality. The study found that slightly more than 50 percent of the stories presented a counter-stereotype, showing complexity in Black men’s lives. However, some stories left Black men ‘voiceless on the sidelines’. The study illustrates the difficulties even a well-planned series can face when trying to break out of conventional reporting tendencies."
Studies talking about black masculinity in popular culture and how black men are potrayed negatively in news stories.
A look back at representations of black and white masculinity during and directly after the antebellum era clearly illustrates the importance of incorporating intersectionality into the study of hegemonic masculinity. Prior to the end of enslavement, the Sambo figure represented the dominant discourse relating to black masculinity. This archetype was perceived as dim-witted, lazy, and happy-go-lucky. These are all traits that were clearly not associated with the dominant discourse of white masculinity. White manhood was configured around enterprising thought, strong work ethic, and judiciousness.
Difference between representations of black and white masculinity.
Difference between representations of black and white masculinity.
Stereotypical representations
Akinti (2003) argues that television coverage of ethnic minorities over focuses oncrime, AIDS in Africa and Black children’s under-achievement in schools, whilst
ignoring the culture and interests of a huge Black audience and their rich
contribution to British society. Akinti claims that news about Black communities
always seems to be ‘bad news’. Van Dijk’s (1991) content analysis of tens of
thousands of news items across the world over several decades confirms that
news representations of Black people can be categorised into several types of
stereotypically negative news.
- Ethnic minorities as criminals – Black crime is the most frequent issue found in media news coverage of ethnic minorities. Van Dijk found that Black people, particularly African-Caribbeans, tend to be portrayed as criminals, especially in the tabloid press and more recently as members of organised gangs that push drugs and violently defend urban territories.
- Ethnic minorities and moral panics – Watson (2008) notes that moral panics often result from media stereotyping of Black people as potentially criminal. This effect was first brought to sociological attention by Hall’s classic study of a 1970s moral panic that was constructed around the folk devil of the ‘Black mugger’. Further moral panics have developed around rap music, e.g. in 2003, ‘gangsta rap’ lyrics came under attack for contributing to an increase in gun crime.
- Ethnic minorities as unimportant – Van Dijk notes that some sections of the media imply that the lives of White people are somehow more important than the lives of non-White people. News items about disasters in developing countries are often restricted to a few lines or words unless there are also White or British victims. Moreover, Sir Ian Blair, the former Metropolitan police commissioner, claimed that institutionalised racism was present in the British media in the way they reported death from violent crime. He noted that Black and Asian victims of violent death did not get the same attention as White victims. However, the murder of the Black teenager Stephen Lawrence by White racists in 1993 received high-profile coverage, both on television and in the press.
- Ethnic minorities as invisible – in 2005, a BBC News Online survey noted that Black and Asian people were represented as newscasters and television journalists, but the range of roles that ethnic minority actors play in television drama is very limited and often reflects low status, e.g. Africans may play cleaners or Asians may play shopkeepers. Ethnic minority audiences were also very hostile towards tokenism – the idea that programmes contain characters from ethnic minority groups purely because they ‘should’. Ethnic minority audiences complain that Black and Asian people are rarely shown as ordinary citizens who just happen to be Black or Asian.
The decline of black males being shown on TV, how black and asian people are have certain representations that is accounted with for all males.
Black Men & Masculinity: Love, Anger, Hate, Joy and Passion. Feelings.
Black men and masculinity. A topic of discussion that does not receive as much attention as it should, nonetheless, it needs to be discussed more frequently if we, as black people, and humanity in general, are to form progressive, balanced relationships with one another.
We live in a predominantly patriarchal world, and in contemporary western society, black men in the diaspora, have had a particular image projected about them. Black men, through literature, the arts, music, media etc, have continuously been shown as brutes, thugs, violent, vandals, etc. However, in cases, where the imagery is a positive representation, as professional, they are still shown as emotionless men, who are ruthless in thought. We have been bombarded with this image, of black men, and guns and gangs, interestingly, to the point where, just google the word "thug" and look at the images you get.
We live in a predominantly patriarchal world, and in contemporary western society, black men in the diaspora, have had a particular image projected about them. Black men, through literature, the arts, music, media etc, have continuously been shown as brutes, thugs, violent, vandals, etc. However, in cases, where the imagery is a positive representation, as professional, they are still shown as emotionless men, who are ruthless in thought. We have been bombarded with this image, of black men, and guns and gangs, interestingly, to the point where, just google the word "thug" and look at the images you get.
Idris Elba is 37 and has a tattoo on his forearm His father Winston was originally from Sierra Leone and he came to England where he had one son Idris who grew up in the West Ham area of London.
Like his father Idris worked on the assembly line of Ford at Dagenham.
He started professional acting with bit parts in Absolutely Fabulous, Bramwell and Dangerfield.
In 2002 he got the part of Stringer Bell the drug lord with a head for business in The Wire. He is an anti-knife crime ambassador for The Prince’s Trust. When he was younger Idris had a £1500 trust grant to get himself in to the National Youth Music Theatre which was a life changing experience for him.
Elba on Luther:
‘… if he wasn’t a policeman he’d be a criminal, no doubt, but he’s not criminally minded. He’s not mean or vindictive. He is tender and passionate but he has a lot of rage’ (Radio Times).
Luther is from the same mould as the Swedish detective Wallander. Both are totally committed to the job of bringing evil to justice but Luther is more edgy, more a maverick relishing the murky areas of challenging moral responsibilities.
His next job after Luther is a Hollywood film of the Marvel comic character THOR directed by Kenneth Branagh who plays Wallander in the English version of the Henning Mankellbooks.
Other film successes include the leading man in Obsessed alongside Beyoncé, and inThe Losers about a CIA black operations unit (2010). In 2008 Elba starred in the horror filmProm Night and Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla, and In 2009, he starred in the horror film The Unborn.
Idris Elba is divorced from his wife with whom he has an 8 year old daughter. Now he lives in Miami with his girlfriend and they have a baby son. He is passionate about music and has a recording studio at his home recording soul, hip-hop and R&B. Elba is also the DJ Big Driis the Londoner.
He was featured as one of the “Ten Hottest Men on the Planet” in the April 2004 issue ofEssence magazine and again in the November 2005 issue, and was chosen as one ofPeople Magazine’s annual 100 Most Beautiful People in the World, in May 2007.
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