Assignment One

"Bamboozled", the latest cri de coeur directed by Spike Lee, depicts experiences of a black television writer Pierre DelaCroix, through the use of satire, who works for a major television company, CNS. Pierre ends up with creating a new program, Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show, attempting to get fired by featuring extremely racist jokes and puns with all black actors. Pierre believes that with these extremely offensive and racist stereotypes, people will wake up and the country will move on to a better place, which turns out not to work out. While there are many important scenes throughout the movie, I argue that the most important scene for Pierre is the interaction he has with his father, Junebug.

In turning to Pierre's interaction with his father, the movie transitions to the comedy club, "sub Shack", where Pierre goes to visit with his father who performs as a stand-up comedian. The scene is shown through the panning of the predominately black audience and focusing on Pierre who is among the audience watching Junebug's comedy routine. Throughout the scene, Junebug's performance brings about laughter from within the crowd one after another through the use of articulate racist and offensive jokes challenging white hypocrisy, one os which is as follows:

"Have you noticed that everybody white want to be black? White folks want to be black folks... Everybody want to be black, but nobody want to be black. It confuses me. They all act black, sound black. I hope they start hanging niggers again. I'm going to find out who's black."

Through an examination of the commentary by Junebug it is clear that he represents a more generalized anger towards white ideology within society. June bug as a character is attempting to convey how racial categories within popular culture have become so blurred that it leads to the developing of a "double consciousness," the idea that black individuals see society and themselves through the eyes of white society. This is placed into contrast with the racial categories of old where at least there was a clear sense of self within each race. This is why Junebug claims they "start hanging niggers again," because at least there would be a clear sense of self by knowing who you actually are in society. This further highlights how Junebug sees a crisis of identity as being more dangerous than the lynching practices of old, which is very telling about his priorities.

Another important aspect of Pierre's interaction with his father occurs after the comedy routine when Pierre goes backstage to meet with his father in the dressing room. He asked his father, "How did you end up here?" In response to this question, his father looked at him and told him that he had "too much pride, too much dignity... Integrity. I can't do that Hollywood stuff man. I can't say that stuff they want me to say." This highlights the struggle that black Americans face in the racially divided society and reinforces my aforementioned understanding that Junebug's character is conveying disgust for the commodification of black Americans in popular culture. This further highlights how Junebug found something within himself to hold on to his principles as in order to find something within oneself, one needs to have a countering set of principles to compare their own against. In this case it is clear that Junebug rejected white ideology avoiding developing a sense of "double consciousness" within society. 

Junebug's awareness of the existence of "double consciousness" within society is further reinforced in his interactions with Pierre. This is made clear when Junebug asks his son, "What are you going to be Peerless? And one more thing. Nigger, where the fuck did you get that accent?" This quote is supposed to represent the fact that Junebug can see through Pierre's facade and is aware of Pierre's taking on a false identity through the rejection of his birth name, and the taking on of a false accent. We learn that Pierre an actor in ideological structure, was forced to be a subject within white social practices through his interactions in education at Harvard, and working within the media. He developed preconceived notions of what it means to achieve a good life and sees the world around him through the eyes of white society. Pierre as a result, developed a "double consciousness" and sees the world around him including his black self through the eyes of white society. 

The movie further reinforces the idea that Pierre developed a "double consciousness" through the film's switching from the dressing room to a montage interception shots of Junebug being carried out by Pierre and another woman accompanied with shots of jokes from Junebug's routine. During this montage there is a voice over by Pierre explaining, "Junebug was the reason {he} had gotten into the [entertainment] business in the first place." The next scene shows that Pierre drives at night with a voiceover stating, "Father was a broken man... He had been a strong man with conviction, integrity, principles... and look where it had gotten him. I had to ask myself, did I want to end up where he was? Hell, emphatically, no." This scene further depicts the mask that Pierre is wearing further denying his true self whom only his father recognizes. The movie implies that Pierre, Harvard-educationed with a phony, pseudo-cultured accent, is in fact out of touch with his own sense of blackness. Yet he remains angry enough to stick it to his white boss in the beginning of the movie. 

All of the aforementioned examples really invoked a negative emotional response within myself. I felt extremely uncomfortable, disgusted, angry, frustrated, and annoyed with many of the commentary presented by Junebug and Pierre. As a white man watching this movie, I could not believe that it would be seen as ok to have Junebug claim that he hopes "they start hanging niggers again." I found it greatly unacceptable and found justification for my feelings within the history of black Americans of the United States. Understanding everything their race has gone through at the hands of white men including lynching by the Ku Klux Klan, I found this commentary by Junebug to be inappropriate. 

However, after analyzing my initial emotional reaction to the commentary presented by Junebug, I realized that my reaction was the result of white ideology within society. My own sense of self, is the result of my white ideological base which has come to define me throughout the years. The aforementioned commentary by Junebug during his routine is in fact extremely enlightening when broken down. June bug's main point was simply that black Americans now instead of facing direct racism and discrimination from society now face indirect racism and discrimination from society. Essentially the racial divide in the United States has simply transformed resulting in many white Americans' commodification of black Americans. 

In further analyzing the interactions between Pierre and his father Junebug, and placing them in comparison to my reactions to the aforementioned scenes it became clear to me that racial division and identity actively plagues' American society. Both the characters and myself analyzed each other, based their sense of self on the color of their skin, and put all of that in contrast to the existing racial ideologies within American society. So long as racial ideologies actively exists and define individuals, there will continue to be a reinforcing of the racial divide whether it is direct or indirect through hegemonic practices. We as a society must find a way to break free of this racial ideology, as it has extremely damaging effects including the prevention of Pierre from being able to have a relationship with his father, and a loss of one's true self. 

In sum, the interactions between Pierre and his father Junebug identifies the complexity of one's sense of self within black identity. The characters are forced to negotiate their identity within themselves leading to a self-realization of "twoness". Black Americans develop a conflict with the various different identities they need to embody in order to find acceptance within the mainstream of white society. It seems that Junbug is one of the only characters in "Bamboozled" who is immune to the "double consciousness" within society as a result of his constant criticizing of white hypocrisy reinforcing his sense of self. Comparatively, Pierre is shown in direct opposition to his father's expectations, as well as the expectations of popular culture, and his boss of what it means to be a black American, illuminating his struggle with his sense of self. Ultimately, we as a society need to explore removing the racial divide within both ideological structure and hegemonic practices so as to prevent the damaging development of "double consciousness" which compromises one's true self.