The Birth of a Nation, originally called The Clansman, is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play The Clansman. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by American author Mark Twain that was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885.
Blackface is the practice of performers using burnt cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a global perspective that includes European culture and Western colonialism. Scholars with this wider view may date the practice of blackface to as early as Medieval Europe's mystery plays when bitumen and coal were used to darken the skin of white performers portraying demons, devils, and damned souls. Still others date the practice to English Renaissance theatre, in works such as William Shakespeare's Othello.
Tobias Vincent Maguire is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for starring as Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), and later reprised the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
Christopher Thomas Howell, also known professionally as C. Thomas Howell, is an American actor and director. He has starred in the films Soul Man, The Hitcher, Grandview U.S.A., Red Dawn, Secret Admirer, and The Outsiders. He has also appeared in Gettysburg and Gods and Generals as Thomas Chamberlain; E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; The Amazing Spider-Man; Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox; and Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay.
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs is a 1943 Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The short was released on January 16, 1943.
Rae Dawn Chong is a Canadian-American actress. She made her big screen debut appearing in the 1978 musical drama film Stony Island, and in 1981 starred in the fantasy film Quest for Fire, for which she received the Genie Award for Best Actress.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a 1977 Newbery Medal awarded novel by Mildred D. Taylor. It is a part of her Logan family series, a sequel to her 1975 novella Song of the Trees.
White Man's Burden is a 1995 American drama film about racism, set in an alternative America where the social and economic positions of black people and white people are reversed. The film was written and directed by Desmond Nakano. The film revolves around Louis Pinnock, a white factory worker, who kidnaps Thaddeus Thomas, a black factory owner, for firing Pinnock over a perceived slight.
Rosewood is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by John Singleton, inspired by the 1923 Rosewood massacre in Florida, when a white mob killed black people and destroyed their town. In a major change, it stars Ving Rhames as an outsider who comes into Rosewood and inspires residents to self-defense, wielding his pistols in a fight. The supporting cast includes Don Cheadle as Sylvester Carrier, a resident who was a witness, defender of his family and victim of the riot; and Jon Voight as John Wright, a sympathetic white store owner who lives in Rosewood. The three characters become entangled in an attempt to save people from racist White people attacking the Black residents of Rosewood.
Nelson George is an American author, columnist, music and culture critic, journalist, and filmmaker. He has been nominated twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Steven Elliot Tisch is an American film producer and businessman. He is the chairman, co-owner and executive vice president of the New York Giants, the NFL team co-owned by his family, as well as a film and television producer. He is the son of former Giants co-owner Preston Robert Tisch.
Tropic Thunder is a 2008 satirical action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller, who wrote the screenplay with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen. The film stars Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel, and Brandon T. Jackson as a group of prima donna actors making a Vietnam War film. When their frustrated director drops them in the middle of a jungle and dies in an accident, they are forced to rely on their acting skills to survive the real action and danger. Tropic Thunder parodies many prestigious war films, the Hollywood studio system, and method acting. The ensemble cast includes Nick Nolte, Danny McBride, Matthew McConaughey, Bill Hader, and Tom Cruise.
The presence of African Americans in major motion picture roles has stirred controversy and been limited dating back decades due to lingering racism following slavery and segregation. "Through most of the 20th century, images of African-Americans in advertising were mainly limited to servants like the pancake-mammy Aunt Jemima and Rastus, the chef on the Cream of Wheat box." While African American representation in the film industry has improved over the years, it has not been a linear process; "Race in American cinema has rarely been a matter of simple step-by-step progress. It has more often proceeded in fits and starts, with backlashes coming on the heels of breakthroughs, and periods of intense argument followed by uncomfortable silence."
Nkechi Amare Diallo is an American former college instructor and activist known for presenting herself as a black woman despite being born to white parents. She is also a former National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter president.
The Jim Crow persona is a theater character developed by entertainer Thomas D. Rice (1808–1860) and popularized through his minstrel shows. The character is a stereotypical depiction of African-Americans and of their culture. Rice based the character on a folk trickster named Jim Crow that had long been popular among enslaved black people. Rice also adapted and popularized a traditional slave song called "Jump Jim Crow" (1828).
Blackface in contemporary art covers issues from stage make-up used to make non-black performers appear black, to non-black creators using black personas. Blackface is generally considered an anachronistically racist performance practice, despite or because of which it has been widely used in contemporary art. Contemporary art in this context is understood as art produced from the second half of the 20th century until today. In recent years some black artists and artists of color have engaged in blackface as a form of deconstruction and critique.
African American cinema is loosely classified as films made by, for, or about Black Americans. Historically, African American films have been made with African-American casts and marketed to African-American audiences. The production team and director were sometimes also African American. More recently, Black films featuring multicultural casts aimed at multicultural audiences have also included American Blackness as an essential aspect of the storyline.
American reality television franchise The Bachelor has long been criticized for how it handles race. Industry journalists, academics, and critics have condemned the franchise for its lack of racial diversity, its portrayal of people of color, and its contestants' racist behaviors.
