Image via Marvel
For my Paradigm shift I will be talking about the representation of African Americans in film. For quite some time there has been few roles for African Americans in the film industry. When casting black actors for films they would be subjected to the same stereotypical and degrading roles. Recently there has been a few changes in the industry but it still isn’t enough. Even though there is a small shift happening, there should be more.
In early films African American actors would usually casted as servants or maids. To get proper representation the had to make and produce their own films instead of relying on big companies in Hollywood. In my essay I will discussing several centuries up until present day. I want to show how films went from not using black people at all to using stereotypical roles, to now some films having positive representation of black actors. I also want to discuss “Black Films” vs Hollywood films.
I think this shift should be explored because recently there has been a lot of discussions about it. Recently the Marvel movie, Black Panther was released and it was such a big topic because of its representation and celebration of black culture. There has also been movies like Hidden Figures which told the story of Katherine Goble, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan, who were mathematicians and engineers that worked with NASA. This is important because it is showing the shift of how movies are now allowing African Americans to be represented in mainstream films and allowing them to be able to tell their stories.
NICE this is such a good topic. There is so much to talk about with regard to how this has developed and the impact it has on culture and individuals.