Matt Jones
Post Eleven
“Voices of Misrepresentation: The Presence of Blackvoice
Minstrelsy in Animation”
While the
tradition of Blackface Minstrelsy is not prevalent in its original form,
Michael A. Chaney argues that the tradition continues through the appropriation
of “blackness” in three prominent American animated series.
A) While chapter 6, “Animation and Audiences”, in Understanding
Animation by Paul Wells was an informative read, I am going to focus this
blog post on Michael Chaney’s article “Coloring Whiteness and Blackvoice
Minstrelsy: Representations of Race and Place in Static Shock, King of the
Hill, and South Park”. The
history of Blackface Minstrelsy is a certainly a negative mark in American
history, having the dubious misfortune of being one of the few purely American
art forms. Fortunately, the presentation
of Steppin Fetchit and Amos and Andy have ceased in the modern era, however,
according to Chaney, the concept still lives in animation in the forms of
Blackvoice acting.
For Static
Shock, a children’s animated program focusing on a black superhero, it is
not the misrepresentation of African American culture that is the issue, but
rather, the race-swapping that occurs. Race-swapping,
or the switching of racial tropes from an African-American to a Caucasian in
order to appear as multicultural and non-racially divisive as possible. However, Chaney believes that this is merely
a condescending attempt to wash ones hands of still utilizing this
stereotypical tropes and beliefs.
Furthermore, even when the stereotypical tropes are attributed to white
characters, still some stereotypical, if not racist tropes still make their way
into the series. Virgil, the superhero’s
alter ego is given the opportunity to join a street gang and handle a firearm,
he refuses, however, after becoming the masked Static, he enlists the help of
this same gang to assist him in cleaning up the streets. This shows that in this animated series it is
impossible for a black youth, even masked crime-fighters, to avoid involvement
in a street gang.
King of the
Hill, Mike Judge’s follow-up to the successful Beavis and Butthead portrays life in the small Texas town of
Arlen. Chaney argues that it is the
deterministic nature of the characters that drives the Blackvoice activity in
the series. As described by Chaney, the
main character, Hank Hill, discovers that he was actually born in New York,
rather than in Texas as was previously thought.
This completely changes his self perception as well as the perception
that others have of him. Chaney equates
this with the view that fueled the pro-slavery movement in the United States:
The place of one’s origin can be the most important factor in the ultimate
worth of that person. By not being an “official”
Texan, Hank feels less than human and this opinion is shared by those around
him.
South Park,
the coarse, abrasive, offensive, and wildly popular animated series, contains a
different problem as laid forth by Chaney.
Here it is the matter of exclusion that is the concern of Chaney. A majority of the characters in South Park are voiced by the show’s
creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
And although a majority of characters on the show are white, there was a
notable exception. The school’s chef, named, Chef, was voiced by
musician Isaac Hayes. Hayes was not
given the opportunity to explore his vocal range in the manner that the
creators were, but instead played essentially a more pronounced version of
Hayes’ supposed identity. This identity
was even used as fodder for humor in one episode. When Chef was marrying a white woman he sang
a song with her. This in and of itself
was not unusual as Chef sang in virtually every episode in which he
appeared. What made this song unique was
that the song was not sung by Isaac Hayes, but instead by Trey Parker,
emphasizing Chef’s incorporation with whiteness. This, combined with the exclusion of Isaac
Hayes’ opportunity to voice another character is a major cause for concern for
Chaney.
B.) Given my
subject for the readings this week I typed “Static Shock Racism into the search
bar for YouTube. I was immediately drawn
to a video titled “Static Shock is Racist”.
This video is short in terms of time, but heavy in terms of
content to be explored. The clip is
short, so contextual information is lacking.
However, it is clear that Static is in Africa and he calls his friend to
alert him to the fact that he feels free, unburdened and normal. He states than in Africa he is no longer a
black kid, but just a kid. However, the
area in which Static is flying over contains no African people but rather wild
animals. The inference clearly being
that the only place in which an African American can be normal is in the wild
of Africa, like the stereotypical savages of old. This clip is an example of Orthodox animation
and fits the standards defined by Paul Wells as such.
C) I have a
rough draft of my final paper completed and have given it to a faculty member
to review and comment on.
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