On a quote we would do well to collectively think about, and a film that
would help us do so.
As I’ve
written about elsewhere, one of the difficulties of teaching courses
in Ethnic American Literature is the tendency to reduce authors to
representatives of overly broad ethnic categories: African American, Native
American, Asian American, and so on. That tendency is of course in no way
specific to classrooms or academia—most of our collective conversations about
race and ethnicity depend quite precisely on our use of such categories, on the
idea that everyone within them shares certain fundamental similarities. But even
leaving aside the many distinct nations/heritages included in those categories,
such use ignores the fact that, as scholars David Goldstein
and Aubrey Thacker note in the introduction to their wonderful edited collection
Complicating
Constructions: Race, Ethnicity, and Hybridity in American Texts (2007),
sociologists have long argued that “diversity within categories far exceeds
diversity between categories.”
Unfortunately, I can think of few works of mainstream popular culture that
work to present such intra-category diversity—if anything, those works that are
centrally interested in complicating our narratives of race and ethnicity tend
to do so by challenging our sense of the relationships between, not those within, the different categories (I’m thinking
of films like Crash and Do the Right Thing,
for example). Ironically, it seems to me that Tyler Perry’s films, made by an African
American filmmaker and featuring largely African American casts, are more
interested in presenting the diversity of identities and experiences within
that one community—but the irony is that Perry’s films attract a predominantly
African American audience, which means that such messages might not get to
other audiences that could benefit from them as well. All of which is to say
that I believe there’s a significant opening for broadly accessible films, or
other pop culture texts, that focus on diversity and identity within different
American communities—and I’d like to nominate one here: John Sayles’ The Brother from Another
Planet (1984).
In Sayles’ film, an alien (Joe Morton) who happens to look African American
crashes his spaceship in New York City; as he wanders through Harlem trying to
get his bearings and survive (all while chased by a couple of special agents
out to capture and investigate him), he interacts with many different members
of the African American community (as well as other ethnicities and
communities). Because the alien cannot speak, those encounters are largely
driven by the assumptions and attitudes of the other people, which certainly
allows the film to depict the role that such attitudes (and the stereotypes and
definitions that come with them) play in society. But Sayles’ cross-section of
Harlem and African American life is just as noteworthy for its complex and
multi-faceted humanity; it shouldn’t be worth pointing out when a non-African
American filmmaker or artist creates such a representation of the diversity
within that community, but, well, I believe it is. There would be lots of ways
to think more collectively and successfully about all the diversity within each
American category, but Sayles’ film is certainly one unique, funny, and
effective means through which to start doing so.
Next film tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Other films you’d especially AmericanStudy?
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