White People Think Black People Are Magical

[Nice Squirrel]

And here we see a bunch of people just saying whatever pops into their heads that happens to be generally related to the phrase "white people think black people are magical". Free association as discussion.

That's how many great ideas get started. Like extended warranties for toilet paper. We are going to be so rich!

 

[Emily Lake]

I am curious... How should black people be portrayed by media?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

This isn't exactly a new concept:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro

What's new is that we finally have sociologists trying to explain why writers keep making these characters.

I don't get the "magical negro" thing. For some reason, when an "unqualified" black guy helps out, it is magical. But if a Doorman "Bob Newhart" helps Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde II or if a homeless Joe Pesci helps out a Harvard Grad student in With Honors, that isn't a "magical white guy".

 

[Unbeatable]

This isn't exactly a new concept:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro

What's new is that we finally have sociologists trying to explain why writers keep making these characters.

I don't get the "magical negro" thing. For some reason, when an "unqualified" black guy helps out, it is magical. But if a Doorman "Bob Newhart" helps Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde II or if a homeless Joe Pesci helps out a Harvard Grad student in With Honors, that isn't a "magical white guy".

Reese Witherspoon and Brendan Fraser are white. Most of the main characters in these movies are white. When a white person helps out a white person in a mostly white movie, it might, depending on other factors, be some sort of cliche, but it's not one that needs to have the word "white" in the title, because whiteness isn't a feature which distinguishes the unqualified helper character from the rest of the cast.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

This isn't exactly a new concept:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro

What's new is that we finally have sociologists trying to explain why writers keep making these characters.

I don't get the "magical negro" thing. For some reason, when an "unqualified" black guy helps out, it is magical. But if a Doorman "Bob Newhart" helps Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde II or if a homeless Joe Pesci helps out a Harvard Grad student in With Honors, that isn't a "magical white guy".

The Almighty Janitor?
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlmightyJanitor

 

[Derec]

Reese Witherspoon and Brendan Fraser are white. Most of the main characters in these movies are white. When a white person helps out a white person in a mostly white movie, it might, depending on other factors, be some sort of cliche, but it's not one that needs to have the word "white" in the title, because whiteness isn't a feature which distinguishes the unqualified helper character from the rest of the cast.

That's the point. Because they are white, nobody is claiming that they are being seen as "magical".

 

[Derec]

And here we see a bunch of people just saying whatever pops into their heads that happens to be generally related to the phrase "white people think black people are magical". Free association as discussion.

Because that claim is too stupid to sustain a serious discussion.

 

[Angry Floof]

Don't fear the magical Negro, Derec. They are here to help!

 

[Derec]

Don't fear the magical Negro, Derec. They are here to help!

I wonder - if a black character helps out a black main character, is the first one still magical?
What if a white character helps out a black main character?

 

[Metaphor]

The PDF is available here (from one of the authors)

Only Whites were tested for their attitudes. It's probably less click-baity if the study were 'Blacks and Whites show no difference in superhumanisation of Black targets'.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I don't get the "magical negro" thing. For some reason, when an "unqualified" black guy helps out, it is magical. But if a Doorman "Bob Newhart" helps Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde II or if a homeless Joe Pesci helps out a Harvard Grad student in With Honors, that isn't a "magical white guy".

Reese Witherspoon and Brendan Fraser are white. Most of the main characters in these movies are white. When a white person helps out a white person in a mostly white movie, it might, depending on other factors, be some sort of cliche, but it's not one that needs to have the word "white" in the title, because whiteness isn't a feature which distinguishes the unqualified helper character from the rest of the cast.

I can't tell if you are agreeing with me or not.

Like I noted, for some reason race enters into this equation. I don't understand why. The role is a seemingly unqualified character that becomes a massive inspiration or workload carrier. For some reason, if this character is black, they become a "magical negro" to some people, because the idea of a black helping out is magical, where as a Hotel Doorman writing hundreds of pages of legislation or a homeless guy who worked around asbestos offering a thesis on Constitutional Law is completely non-magical and expected?

This implies people are only noticing the race of this particular plot device character when they are not white. That's problematic.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Don't fear the magical Negro, Derec. They are here to help!

I wonder - if a black character helps out a black main character, is the first one still magical?
What if a white character helps out a black main character?

You haven't watched The Help?

Why is there a specific term for Will Smith's character helping Matt Damon's character hit a golf ball, but not Bob Newhart's character helping Reese Witherspoon's character write legislation or Joe Pesci's character helping Brandon Fraser's character graduate law school or grad school or whatever?

 

[TV and credit cards]

I think entertainment media is taking advantage of the Housebound Average White Person. They know little beyond their own culture so the portrayal is not a great leap. I could relate this to meeting people of different cultures in my early days of the navy. After a time though, you learn they are the same bunch of drunks, idiots and crackpots you've got back home, just a little tougher to understand.

But Pedro Cerrano's voodoo doll, Jobu, that's the real deal.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Why is there a specific term for Will Smith's character helping Matt Damon's character hit a golf ball, but not Bob Newhart's character helping Reese Witherspoon's character write legislation

Maybe because there wasn't a time when people of Bob Newhart's ethnicity were either never portrayed on screen, or were all villains?

And Bob Newhart's character, while having the skills or knowledge to advance the plot, is the same ethnicity as the protagonist.

They didn't create single-purpose Newhart characters that never develop, never have their own story arc, never do anything BUT help the protagonist as an attempt to give Newhart's people better roles in movies but still consider them not to be appropriate as movie protagonists?

 

[Mageth]

Don't fear the magical Negro, Derec. They are here to help!

I wonder - if a black character helps out a black main character, is the first one still magical?
What if a white character helps out a black main character?

That would be inverting the "Magical Negro" trope. See, e.g., The Shawshank Redemption.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Why is there a specific term for Will Smith's character helping Matt Damon's character hit a golf ball, but not Bob Newhart's character helping Reese Witherspoon's character write legislation

Maybe because there wasn't a time when people of Bob Newhart's ethnicity were either never portrayed on screen, or were all villains?

And Bob Newhart's character, while having the skills or knowledge to advance the plot, is the same ethnicity as the protagonist.

They didn't create single-purpose Newhart characters that never develop, never have their own story arc, never do anything BUT help the protagonist as an attempt to give Newhart's people better roles in movies but still consider them not to be appropriate as movie protagonists?

OK, I'm entirely lost. Can you give me a few examples of this in recent time, where a black guy was given this role because they didn't want to make him the starring character?

And when were blacks villains in film? The problem with old cinema was that blacks were rarely ever portrayed as people, rather as servants. I can't recall too many old films where blacks were villains (I honestly can't think of one). Either a servant and/or dumb idiot. You'd have the rare case of The Petrified Forest or In This Our Lives where you have black characters portrayed as human beings or even as people with goals in life, heaven forbid.

In the old days, someone who was gay typically had to be a criminal. Also bad people usually had to get it in the end because of the stupid Code that was enforced by the crusaders of fake morality.

 

[funinspace]

Maybe because there wasn't a time when people of Bob Newhart's ethnicity were either never portrayed on screen, or were all villains?

And Bob Newhart's character, while having the skills or knowledge to advance the plot, is the same ethnicity as the protagonist.

They didn't create single-purpose Newhart characters that never develop, never have their own story arc, never do anything BUT help the protagonist as an attempt to give Newhart's people better roles in movies but still consider them not to be appropriate as movie protagonists?

OK, I'm entirely lost. Can you give me a few examples of this in recent time, where a black guy was given this role because they didn't want to make him the starring character?

And when were blacks villains in film? The problem with old cinema was that blacks were rarely ever portrayed as people, rather as servants. I can't recall too many old films where blacks were villains (I honestly can't think of one). Either a servant and/or dumb idiot. You'd have the rare case of The Petrified Forest or In This Our Lives where you have black characters portrayed as human beings or even as people with goals in life, heaven forbid.

“Say ‘what’ again! Say ‘what’ again! I dare you, I double dare you motherfucker, say what one more Goddamn time!”

 

[Angry Floof]

Why is no one talking about magical Jews?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

OK, I'm entirely lost. Can you give me a few examples of this in recent time, where a black guy was given this role because they didn't want to make him the starring character?

And when were blacks villains in film? The problem with old cinema was that blacks were rarely ever portrayed as people, rather as servants. I can't recall too many old films where blacks were villains (I honestly can't think of one). Either a servant and/or dumb idiot. You'd have the rare case of The Petrified Forest or In This Our Lives where you have black characters portrayed as human beings or even as people with goals in life, heaven forbid.

“Say ‘what’ again! Say ‘what’ again! I dare you, I double dare you motherfucker, say what one more Goddamn time!”

But he isn't playing a black man... he is playing Samuel L. Jackson.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

I am curious... How should black people be portrayed by media?

As people, not props