The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1937-04-16
MOVIE STEREOTYPE
CORED By N. Y. POST WRITER
AS FOSTERING WRONG IDEAS

cized THE Negro Stereotype in
American Pictures in a signed
article in NV York's most liberal
and vigorous afternoon daily. Mr..
Winston, who Is frequently seen in
Harlem, and has numerous colored
friends. wrote at length on the
subject, inspired in part by recent
critical articles In the Negro press
which he says did not escape his
notice.
Beginning with The Birth of a
Nations burnt-cork and Ieering
rapist. Walter Long" he writes,
and extending to the current
March of Time. which shows a
Harlem leaping in frenzied voodoo
rites. American moving pictures
have been strikingly singleminded
in their choice of Negro types and
subjects. With the coming of CEN
sorship and motion picture produc-
ers' codes of ethics in comparative
ly recent years, there have been
no more scenes of attempted rape.
The producers sense Of gentility
and how much the censors can
bear has benefited the Negro. He
has risen from brutehood to the
high estates of clowr dulIard and
mental.
1Parenthet ically, I should like
to point out that when Fury a
picture of mob violence. was made,
it was not a Negro who was the
victim, though Negroes usually are
the victims in America.
They have been proved innocent
after death often enough to make
a plot based on innocence logical.
eff anyone fails to remember
easily the movie parts reserved for
Negroes, a few examples win suf-
flee. Type actors like Louise Bea-
vers, Stepin Fetchit. Clarence Mus
and Hattie Mcdonald repeat thc.
same role ndlesslyzdevoted dog
like servant, lazy collaborating,
meek and happy. In the current
Breezing Home a lackadaisical
stable-boy is assigned to straw
bedding with the other animals,
though his accommodation is nat
urally not as important as that of
the horse. He also does a bit in
dicative of a chicken-steaIing past.
In Pennies From Heaven Fletcher
Henderson touches chicken steal
ing. In Rainbow on the River
Louise Beavers indicated she never
wanted to be free. In sSpeaky Nc
Farland' the colored boy wanted
) act as the white boys slave.
THE Movietone News once found
itself with a newsreel sequence
showing two Negro football teams
playing. This was judged worthy
of Lew Lehr's dialectic treatment,
which is ordinarily reserved for
animals and freaks-heaven help
them.
Among the hundreds of times
Negroes have appeared in moving
pictures, to my knowledge there
has been but one instance of devia-
ton from the cast-iron mold of
tipping. That was the Negro doc
tor in Arrowsmith.' But it is sig
nificant that he was Haitian, not
American.
In limiting the exception to one
/ am not overlooking a picture
like The Green Pastures, which.
d sspite its beauty. novelty and re-
ligious fervor, could still be regard
ed as a superior working of ancient
themes, portraying a childlike,
simple, naive folk.
"Hollywood's defense may be
that it is only repeating in its pic
lures the stereotyped thought of a
great number of Americans con-
corning Negroes. To do otherwise
would presumably raise he'll in the
Southern box offices. Thus, be-
cause Of profit-wise cowardice, the
stereotype is being broadcast by
the most powerful educational ag-
ency in America.
1T is a lie, not because such
types do not exist. They do, in
good numbers. But the other peo-
pie are never shown.
Last week l heard Marian An
derson, the great Negro ~contralto,
sing to an enthusiastic white aud
fence at Carnegie Hall. She sang
a full concert repertoire in several
languages, demonstrating fine tech
rical proficiency as well as a mag
nificent voice. Her rendition of
the more dramatic numbers and
her beauty seemed to invite a Hol-
lywood trip.
But if Hollywood runs true to