Assignment One: Manray's Death as Racial Injustice

One scene that stands out in my mind, a scene that in fact was very difficult for me to watch, was the scene in Bamboozled (Lee, 2000) in which Manray is executed by the Mau Maus. I found that I couldn't bring myself to keep my eyes on the screen as they shot him.

Manray's cringeworthy death made me feel angry, grief-stricken, and guilty. The timing of his execution, after he finally realizes the toxicity of the show's influence, certainly lends to his death feeling unjust. Manray is like a lost child, emphasized by his relationship with Womack, and his genuine intentions and general lack of real understanding of the show. He really just wants to be rich and famous, but doesn't understand the cost. Seeing Manray as this character with pure intentions makes his execution all the more difficult to swallow.

Another factor that angered me about his death, is the fact that the Mau Maus had every reason to be angry and want justice. But the fact that this group, rooted in their blackness, so to speak, sees justice as killing another black man, made me angry. They couldn't see that Manray was a puppet from which the white man was really profiting. Manray was the face of the show and therefore he seemed responsible for the atrocious representations of African Americans, when in reality, the white people in charge of the network were the ones profiting from and encouraging the show. I wanted justice too, but Manray's death did not fulfill that by any means.

I think the message here is that with the institutionalized racism that exists in our country, the white man always wins, because racism is an institution. Regardless of the steps we've taken historically in attempting to abolish these prejudices, they still exist de facto in very real ways. This is evident in When the Levees Broke (Lee, 2009) by which I was absolutely appalled seeing how our country responded to a national disaster. I can't help but believe that the response would have been much different had Katrina hit privileged white people. But I digress.

With Manray's execution, Lee expresses the incredible injustice that accompanies racism. Instead of the racist white man receiving a well-deserved punishment, another black man is killed instead. What does this say about our country? About our society? It honestly disappoints and depresses me, especially since this movie was made 15 years ago and this shit is still happening today.