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Author Erigha, Maryann, author.

Title The Hollywood Jim Crow : the racial politics of the movie industry / Maryann Erigha.

Publication Info. New York : New York University Press, [2019]

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Avon Free Public Library - Adult Department  791.436 ERIGHA    Check Shelf
 New Britain, Main Library - Non Fiction  791.4365 ERI    Check Shelf
 Newington, Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Adult Department  791.4365 ERIGHA    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Noah Webster Library - Non Fiction  791.4365 ERIGHA    Check Shelf
 Wethersfield Public Library - Non Fiction  791.43 ERIGHA    Check Shelf
 Windsor, Main Library - Adult Department  791.43652996 ER    Check Shelf
Description vii, 225 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-214) and index.
Contents Introduction: race matters in Hollywood -- Representation and racial hierarchy -- Labeling Black unbankable -- Directing on the margins -- Making genre ghettos -- Manufacturing racial stigma -- Remaking cinema -- Conclusion: Hollywood's racial politics.
Summary The story of racial hierarchy in the American film industry. The #OscarsSoWhite campaign, and the content of the leaked Sony emails which revealed, among many other things, that a powerful Hollywood insider didn't believe that Denzel Washington could "open" a western genre film, provide glaring evidence that the opportunities for people of color in Hollywood are limited. In The Hollywood Jim Crow, Maryann Erigha tells the story of inequality, looking at the practices and biases that limit the production and circulation of movies directed by racial minorities. She examines over 1,300 contemporary films, specifically focusing on directors, to show the key elements at work in maintaining "the Hollywood Jim Crow." Unlike the Jim Crow era where ideas about innate racial inferiority and superiority were the grounds for segregation, Hollywood's version tries to use economic and cultural explanations to justify the underrepresentation and stigmatization of Black filmmakers. Erigha exposes the key elements at work in maintaining Hollywood's racial hierarchy, namely the relationship between genre and race, the ghettoization of Black directors to black films, and how Blackness is perceived by the Hollywood producers and studios who decide what gets made and who gets to make it. Erigha questions the notion that increased representation of African Americans behind the camera is the sole answer to the racial inequality gap. Instead, she suggests focusing on the obstacles to integration for African American film directors. Hollywood movies have an expansive reach and exert tremendous power in the national and global production, distribution, and exhibition of popular culture. The Hollywood Jim Crow fully dissects the racial inequality embedded in this industry, looking at alternative ways for African Americans to find success in Hollywood and suggesting how they can band together to forge their own career paths.
Subject African American motion picture producers and directors.
African Americans in the motion picture industry.
Motion pictures -- United States -- Socal aspects -- History.
African American motion picture producers and directors. (OCoLC)fst00799269
African Americans in the motion picture industry. (OCoLC)fst00799738
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Direction & Production.
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination & Race Relations.
Genre/Form History.
ISBN 9781479886647 (hardcover alkaline paper)
1479886645 (hardcover alkaline paper)
9781479847877 (paperback alkaline paper)
1479847879 (paperback alkaline paper)
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