http://www.hulu.com/watch/10356/saturday-night-live-white-like-me
This video is a skit from Saturday Night Live in 1984. In the skit "White Like Me," Eddie Murphy attempts to "experience America as a white man." He transforms himself into a white person with white makeup, a porn star mustache, and an awkward walk. In this skit, being white means suffering through the indignity of being completely uncool, but also being able to reap the benefits of a society that favors you because of your race. Eddie Murphy's race transformation immediately reminded me of Omi and Winant's explanation of racism as well as our readings about blackface minstrelsy.
Omi and Winant define racism as a racial project that "creates or reproduces structures of domination based on essentialist categories of race." Even though the imitation of other races is a sticky subject, this skit is clever precisely because it goes against our standards of racial hegemony. Eddie Murphy examines whiteness as a category rather than the standard. The skit is able to make successful racial commentary because he parodies a group of people that has traditionally exploited stereotypes of other races in pop culture.
Eddie Murphy’s disguise involves many of the same elements that blackface minstrels used in their performances. He changes his skin tone with makeup, dons a wig, adopts a new way of speaking, and makes unnatural bodily movements. But, whereas performing minstrels were really getting loose, Eddie Murphy takes on a self-consciously calculated persona. He does not lose himself in the role. This skit successfully parodies what it means to be white, but I’m wondering if it goes beyond being funny to actually being progressive. Is the message really that we can’t tell anything about a person by their race? Is the exclusivity and offensiveness of blackface is undermined by the fact that now everyone has the agency to imitate another race? Do we then live in a society where blackface could once again become acceptable?
9 comments:
Is the movie a racial commentary because of what he discovers as a 'white man'? or because it stands our tradition of white cultural tourism/voyeurism on it's head?...
I also like your point about what this movie means for race boundaries, and the possibility for all people to 'take off' and 'on' races not their own.
I am in agreement that this skit goes further than to act solely as a piece of comedy. I found it very funny, but in addition, I thought that Eddie Murphy used his position in the enterntainment industry to address serious social issues. Speaking from a point of relative power, Murphy is able to reach a large audience and undermine the social norm of whiteness, that may not have been tolerated in other circumstances.
Despite the effectiveness of this skit, I don't think that it goes so far as to undermine the offensivness of blackface. Rather, I think Murphy employs "racist" elements of traditional blackface in an attemot to turn the tables.
I also agree with Liz's post, but I was surprised by how late in history such a commentary was being made. 1984 might have been before we were all born but in the grand scheme of things it really was not too long ago.
I was also very disturbed by the end of the skit. Eddie Murphy did not seem optimistic about the progress being made for racial equality and it showed his 'friends' also donning white make-up. This was upsetting because it seemed to say that this was their only option for gaining fair treatment in a white world.
Overall I think this skit was very helpful in the discussion of minstrelsy and its place in current history and it was nice to see the role reversal.
I saw the end of the skit in a very different light than Emilee. When Eddie Murphy jokingly threatens the White American community with African Americans in 'white face', I found it was a positive rather than a negative aspect to the message. I don't think Eddie Murphy is saying this is the only way for African Americans to get the treatment they deserve, it's saying it shouldn't be this ridiculous. I thought it insinuated that white people should be ashamed to make other races go to such extremes (in real terms in cases of language, attire, general mannerisms, etc) to act and look just like the white community to make it in America.
This post caught my eye because there is a book by John Howard Griffin called 'Black Like Me', which i'm wondering if it may have been the inspiration for Murphy's skit. The author spennt 6 weeks studying undercover as an African- American man in the southern states in 1961 during segregation. He used the anti-vitiligo drug Methoxsalen and spent large amounts of time under an ultra violet lamp to darkern his skin, going beyond the traditional form of blackface using makeup.
I agree with what people have mentioned about the fact that it seems there are many evidences in which people have taken the chance to take off and on different races other than their own in the years since minstresly.
I also agree with Emilee that it is nice to see the role reversal in this skit, to show that at least in the years since minstrelsy fell out of fashion putting on performances is not just for white society to reaffirm their place in society.
This is a great example! I think that the skit was extremely enlightening (especially for 1984 socio-cultural racial politics), drawing upon comedy to make a comment on a larger social issue. However I struggle to see how the skit can work as more than just comedic commentary to a progressive statement. I think it actually reveals a sort of disconnect between the way that white Americans experience everyday activities, and the way that black Americans think that white Americans experience everyday life...in 1984. Today I think that disconnect is diminishing but there are still different ideas within each racial group of how other races experience life due to their relative position of privilege.
I would also like to direct your attention to a 30 Rock episode where two main characters, Jenna a white woman, and Tracy, a black man, get into a fight over who has it worse in America - women or black people? Jenna puts on blackface and Tracy puts on whiteface and both cross-dress. In this two minute clip there is already so much to discuss that could not even fit here, but one point I would like to make is that it shows a difference in approach to whiteface/blackface in the 14 years between the SNL skit and this episode. The ensuing debate (in which one character actually does bring up the issue of the history of race relations in America) shows where we are now and begs the question - have we progressed, or just become more confused with our racial identity as a nation?
http://www.hulu.com/watch/43177/30-rock-believe-in-the-stars#s-p9-st-i1
This is funny for so many reasons over a quarter of a century after its initial airing. Eddie Murphy was about as popular then as he was ever going to be, as pointed out in class, and the idea that he could even disguise himself and walk around is funny enough. Even the idea that Eddie Murphy was deadpan looking into the camera and selling this serious mission is funny enough. But the whole thing revolving around the joke of his comedic interpretation of how white people act (and learning through things like Dynasty) and the fictional world where white people just shower gifts on each-other when people of color aren't around. It's great social commentary, still relevant and still hilarious.
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