White People Think Black People Are Magical

[Emily Lake]

Athena, I think you're forcing race into a plot device that is not dependent on race. The plot device of "super helpful transient character who gives the lead the insight necessary to fix the problem and finish the movie" is a well-established role. But it exists outside of race. What you seem to be asking for is that black people be excluded from that role. You're asking that black people be made superior to that role, and that only inferior races be relegated to such inferior roles as MacGuffins.

In fact, you appear to be asking that black people be cast in leading roles and major roles only, and never be relegated to such inferior places as supporting cast or extras, as those are beneath them.

This may not be your intention... but this is what I am inferring from both your position, your tenacity, and your tone. I very gladly invite you to set me straight

Race needs not be forced, it si already there.

Don't believe me.

There are hundreds if not thousands of interviews with black actors, writers, directors, cinematographers who speak to the lack of roles and the lack of choice in the roles offered in Hollywood.

Look 'em up.

Unless they too are forcing race into the issue.

Viola Davis Laments Hollywood Relegating Black Actresses To Marginalized Roles

Racial barriers still hold back Hollywood's black talent


Top Hollywood Movies Still Lack Hispanics In Leading Roles, Study Finds

Black star, white ceiling: Why can't Lupita Nyong'o find a role worthy of her?

you can start with these.

Athena, you've misunderstood me. I' am not disputing that there is racial disparity in hollywood. I believe I've said explicitly that.

What I have also said, however, is that you appear to be asking that black actors never be cast in "inferior" roles. That they only be cast in main roles. You appear to be taking a stance that "inferior" roles are only suitable for white people to play.

Do you follow what my concern is with this?

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Race needs not be forced, it si already there.

Don't believe me.

There are hundreds if not thousands of interviews with black actors, writers, directors, cinematographers who speak to the lack of roles and the lack of choice in the roles offered in Hollywood.

Look 'em up.

Unless they too are forcing race into the issue.

Viola Davis Laments Hollywood Relegating Black Actresses To Marginalized Roles

Racial barriers still hold back Hollywood's black talent


Top Hollywood Movies Still Lack Hispanics In Leading Roles, Study Finds

Black star, white ceiling: Why can't Lupita Nyong'o find a role worthy of her?

you can start with these.

Athena, you've misunderstood me. I' am not disputing that there is racial disparity in hollywood. I believe I've said explicitly that.

What I have also said, however, is that you appear to be asking that black actors never be cast in "inferior" roles.

Where did I say that?

That they only be cast in main roles.

Where did I say that?

You appear to be taking a stance that "inferior" roles are only suitable for white people to play.

Where did I or anyone say that?

Do you follow what my concern is with this?

Your concern seem to come from stuff I have not said, or come anywhere close to saying.

Just because I show concern for the a disparity, don't make the leap that I wish to flip the disparity upside down.

 

[Emily Lake]

Where did I say that?

Your concern seem to come from stuff I have not said, or come anywhere close to saying.

Just because I show concern for the a disparity, don't make the leap that I wish to flip the disparity upside down.

It has been pointed out to you several times that the exact same role that you are calling the "magical negro" exists for white people as well, and has existed as a plot device for ages. It is not unique to black people. Many movies employ this plot device, and use white people in that role, to allow the lead character to solve the problem with insight that they themselves lack, but without having to introduce a fully-fledged character into the story.

Your objection, however, is exclusive to having black people cast in that role. If a black person is cast in that role, it is offensive to you, and is Hollywood relegating black actors to secondary roles. You claim that Hollywood's love of casting black people in that role crowds out other legitimate roles that they could have have, despite the fact that the list of examples you provide includes a great many lead roles, and a great many that are significantly far from being representative of the one-dimensional "magical negro" that you described.

You've repeatedly used terminologies that reflect "relegating them to secondary roles" and have gone on to say that a black actor taking on that specific role leads audience to expect them to always play that role in the future, as if it somehow tarnishes them beyond repair. And you associated this tarnishing with so many supporting roles that don't seem to reflect the characterization that you've complained of.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Where did I say that?

Your concern seem to come from stuff I have not said, or come anywhere close to saying.

Just because I show concern for the a disparity, don't make the leap that I wish to flip the disparity upside down.

It has been pointed out to you several times that the exact same role that you are calling the "magical negro" exists for white people as well, and has existed as a plot device for ages. It is not unique to black people. Many movies employ this plot device, and use white people in that role, to allow the lead character to solve the problem with insight that they themselves lack, but without having to introduce a fully-fledged character into the story.

Your objection, however, is exclusive to having black people cast in that role. If a black person is cast in that role, it is offensive to you, and is Hollywood relegating black actors to secondary roles. You claim that Hollywood's love of casting black people in that role crowds out other legitimate roles that they could have have, despite the fact that the list of examples you provide includes a great many lead roles, and a great many that are significantly far from being representative of the one-dimensional "magical negro" that you described.

You've repeatedly used terminologies that reflect "relegating them to secondary roles" and have gone on to say that a black actor taking on that specific role leads audience to expect them to always play that role in the future, as if it somehow tarnishes them beyond repair. And you associated this tarnishing with so many supporting roles that don't seem to reflect the characterization that you've complained of.

Can you show me where I have said anything about tarnishing anyone beyond repair?

You won't find it.

The Magic Negro, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Loony Friends Improve Your Personality

All these are tropes built on the premise that typically white men need to grow and they need some exotic other to show them how.

These tropes do not show up in every movie, they to do not apply to every character, nor are the interchangeable although they can overlap.

Now saying that this white character over here did the same things as a magic negro character did over there, doesn't mean that the magic negro character doesn't exist or is an incorrect "diagnosis." there is a history to the MN that the white helper character. And certain emotion are evoked with regard to the MN character that the white character will not evoke, and there are certain implication to the story that the white character will not foretell.

Take for instance the Green Mile

it is set in a certain time (1935) and in a certain place (Louisiana). The character John Coffey is a black man convicted of raping and killing two white girls. He is guarded by the protagonist Paul Edgecomb. John Coffey is innocent, even holy, but he will pay for the sins of another. It is a sad history in this country that black men have been lynched for things they did not do. But it is a cultural memories that plays into the telling of the story.

Now could a white actor have played the role of john Coffey? Yes. Would that have changed the meaning of the story? Yes. Stephen King made john Coffey black for a reason. he wanted to say something that a white john Coffey could not say. he wanted to add a layer to the tragedy that a white actor, just as good, could not add.

The magic negro is NEGRO because however he is used, the author of the narrative needs to hit a certain nerve in the audience. The race narrative of the United States hits that nerve.

kinda like this discussion has.

If you are interested in learning more, may I suggest The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone.

 

[KeepTalking]

Take for instance the Green Mile

it is set in a certain time (1935) and in a certain place (Louisiana). The character John Coffey is a black man convicted of raping and killing two white girls. He is guarded by the protagonist Paul Edgecomb. John Coffey is innocent, even holy, but he will pay for the sins of another. It is a sad history in this country that black men have been lynched for things they did not do. But it is a cultural memories that plays into the telling of the story.

Now could a white actor have played the role of john Coffey? Yes. Would that have changed the meaning of the story? Yes. Stephen King made john Coffey black for a reason. he wanted to say something that a white john Coffey could not say. he wanted to add a layer to the tragedy that a white actor, just as good, could not add.

The magic negro is NEGRO because however he is used, the author of the narrative needs to hit a certain nerve in the audience. The race narrative of the United States hits that nerve.

The John Coffey character in The Green Mile is definitely a magical negro, he is a negro, and he has the magical ability to heal. You are right that King makes the character black for the specific reason of hitting a nerve with the history of blacks in the USA. The question becomes, is this a good thing or a bad thing for the narrative, the actors, and the audience? Your previous comments make it appear that you view the magical negro trope as a bad thing, but in this specific case I don't see that at all.

Coffey is a sympathetic character, he is far from one dimensional, and he is around far longer than is implied by the magical negro trope. He not only changes the main character to some degree, but has the potential to change the audience as well. Edgecomb is already a good person when we meet him, and before he meets Coffey. I think Coffey has more of an impact on the audience, and the story becomes one of a great injustice done to the man. It then allows the audience to relate this to the general injustice done to black people in the history of the USA. How can this be viewed as a bad thing?

 

[dx713]

Tropes aren't bad in themselves. They are a part of writing: you did show how the use of a black man in that movie was actually a good thing.
But they can have, as a famous time-wasting website puts it, unfortunate implications.

I think here, the problem is that there are leading roles for blacks in Hollywood are rare. Meaning that black people end pigeonholed in their secondary character tropes in the collective unconsicous. (angry black man, magical negro, funny black friend...)

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Tropes aren't bad in themselves. They are a part of writing: you did show how the use of a black man in that movie was actually a good thing.
But they can have, as a famous time-wasting website puts it, unfortunate implications.

I think here, the problem is that there are leading roles for blacks in Hollywood are rare. Meaning that black people end pigeonholed in their secondary character tropes in the collective unconsicous. (angry black man, magical negro, funny black friend...)

I agree and thank you

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Tropes aren't bad in themselves. They are a part of writing: you did show how the use of a black man in that movie was actually a good thing.
But they can have, as a famous time-wasting website puts it, unfortunate implications.

I think here, the problem is that there are leading roles for blacks in Hollywood are rare. Meaning that black people end pigeonholed in their secondary character tropes in the collective unconsicous. (angry black man, magical negro, funny black friend...)

I don't think the limit to black roles is just with leading roles. How many supporting roles are out there as well?

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Take for instance the Green Mile

it is set in a certain time (1935) and in a certain place (Louisiana). The character John Coffey is a black man convicted of raping and killing two white girls. He is guarded by the protagonist Paul Edgecomb. John Coffey is innocent, even holy, but he will pay for the sins of another. It is a sad history in this country that black men have been lynched for things they did not do. But it is a cultural memories that plays into the telling of the story.

Now could a white actor have played the role of john Coffey? Yes. Would that have changed the meaning of the story? Yes. Stephen King made john Coffey black for a reason. he wanted to say something that a white john Coffey could not say. he wanted to add a layer to the tragedy that a white actor, just as good, could not add.

The magic negro is NEGRO because however he is used, the author of the narrative needs to hit a certain nerve in the audience. The race narrative of the United States hits that nerve.

The John Coffey character in The Green Mile is definitely a magical negro, he is a negro, and he has the magical ability to heal. You are right that King makes the character black for the specific reason of hitting a nerve with the history of blacks in the USA. The question becomes, is this a good thing or a bad thing for the narrative, the actors, and the audience? Your previous comments make it appear that you view the magical negro trope as a bad thing, but in this specific case I don't see that at all.

Coffey is a sympathetic character, he is far from one dimensional, and he is around far longer than is implied by the magical negro trope. He not only changes the main character to some degree, but has the potential to change the audience as well. Edgecomb is already a good person when we meet him, and before he meets Coffey. I think Coffey has more of an impact on the audience, and the story becomes one of a great injustice done to the man. It then allows the audience to relate this to the general injustice done to black people in the history of the USA. How can this be viewed as a bad thing?

Where did I say that anything in the green mile was a bad thing.

I deliberately chose The Green Mile because it is a piece of good storytelling.

It also shows that the Magic Negro is a thing, a specific thing.

The problem isn't that tropes are bad but they are often used badly. That they have consequences, unintended they may be, that can lead to bad storytelling and a limitation of opportunities for minorities in the industry.

 

[funinspace]

I figured I would add some data to the discussion. Per Figure 3 of this PDF (it was only looking at 2006), 11.1% of lead roles went to African Americans, which is only 1-2 percentage points below their percentile in the US. The real outliers for lead roles seem to be women and Latinos.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/bccj/Casting_study.pdf

A much more detailed study, has these “Key Findings”, though obviously doesn’t speak to the quality of said roles. And again is showing the more significant deficit is for women and Hispanics/Latinos.
http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/~/media/MDSCI/Race Ethnicity in 500 Popular Films 2012.ashx

Prevalence. Across 100 top-grossing films of 2012, only 10.8% of speaking characters are Black, 4.2% are Hispanic, 5% are Asian, and 3.6% are from other (or mixed race) ethnicities. Just over three-quarters of all speaking characters are White (76.3%). These trends are relatively stable, as little deviation is observed across the 5-year sample.

We also look at the total percentage of Black speaking characters per film in 2012. Almost 40% of all 2012 movies portray Black characters as less than 5% of the speaking cast. Only 9% of films show Black characters as 12-14.9% of the cast, which dovetails the 2012 US Census percentage (13.1%). A full 70% of the 2012 films feature Black characters in a percentage below that of the US Census.

The percentages of female speaking characters who are Hispanic (33.9%), Black (34.6%), and Asian (34.8%) are greater than the percentages of White females (28.8%) and females from other ethnicities (16.1%). Although we see more women from certain racial/ethnic categories, compared to their male counterparts, females in every group are still under represented.

Portrayal. Hispanic females (41.1%, 39.3%) are more likely to be depicted in sexy attire and partially naked than Black (31.8%, 30.5%) or White females (32.8%, 32.3%). Asian females (15.7%, 15.7%) are far less likely to be sexualized. Domestic roles did not vary for females by race/ethnicity, but differences emerged for males. Hispanic males are more likely to be depicted as fathers and relational partners than males in all other racial/ethnic groups. Black males, on the other hand, are the least likely to be depicted in these roles.

 

[Derec]

The problem isn't that tropes are bad but they are often used badly.

Or they are counted too broadly. Compare Green Mile with Hitch, which is on your list. He is the main character and to my knowledge he has no magical powers in that movie. So what makes him a "magical negro"?

 

[KeepTalking]

Tropes aren't bad in themselves. They are a part of writing: you did show how the use of a black man in that movie was actually a good thing.
But they can have, as a famous time-wasting website puts it, unfortunate implications.

I think here, the problem is that there are leading roles for blacks in Hollywood are rare. Meaning that black people end pigeonholed in their secondary character tropes in the collective unconsicous. (angry black man, magical negro, funny black friend...)

While I think that this was the case in the past, I don't think it is nearly as prevalent a situation currently. When Denzel Washington gets leading roles year after year for more than two decades, and Morgan Freeman is consistently billed higher in supporting roles than other actors who have larger roles than he does in those same films, I think it becomes obvious that things have changed in that regard. Hollywood is motivated by money more than anything else, and given the above, it is obvious that these actors are huge box office draws.

Accusations were made in this thread about Star Trek Into Darkness not having enough black actors/actresses, this was refuted by showing that they were actually represented in higher numbers than demographics in the USA would suggest. These days super hero movies are all the rage, drawing the highest box office numbers in past years. For me, as a comic book geek, this is great news, but it should also be great news for those who lament the role of minorities and women in media, as this is starting to permeate through to the movies and TV.

In the comic books over the last year alone, we have seen a black Captain America taking over the franchise, which could eventually leak over onto the silver screen, as Chris Evans is indicating that he may not keep the role beyond his current contract to do the third Avengers and Captain America films. We have a female Thor taking over that franchise, and we saw a black president as Superman. Carol Danvers took over as Captain Marvel in 2012, and Ms. Marvel is now a Muslim. Netflix is slated to start a TV series around Luke Cage, the black superhero also known as Powerman, in the next few years. As noted Zoe Saldana was cast as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy, since the character is green, and not black, having a black actress play the part was not a foregone conclusion. Spider-Man is a hispanic, Miles Morales, in the Ultimate Spider-Man franchise.

Things are changing for minorities and women in media. Looking to the past, decades old depictions of them in the media, and declaring that things have not changed is simply willful ignorance.

 

[dx713]

That's good to know.

As I have other hobbies than TV and cinema, I tend to only see a small subset of what is going on there. I'll trust you USians about what is going on there.

 

[KeepTalking]

The John Coffey character in The Green Mile is definitely a magical negro, he is a negro, and he has the magical ability to heal. You are right that King makes the character black for the specific reason of hitting a nerve with the history of blacks in the USA. The question becomes, is this a good thing or a bad thing for the narrative, the actors, and the audience? Your previous comments make it appear that you view the magical negro trope as a bad thing, but in this specific case I don't see that at all.

Coffey is a sympathetic character, he is far from one dimensional, and he is around far longer than is implied by the magical negro trope. He not only changes the main character to some degree, but has the potential to change the audience as well. Edgecomb is already a good person when we meet him, and before he meets Coffey. I think Coffey has more of an impact on the audience, and the story becomes one of a great injustice done to the man. It then allows the audience to relate this to the general injustice done to black people in the history of the USA. How can this be viewed as a bad thing?

Where did I say that anything in the green mile was a bad thing.

I asked the question because it was not clear. Given your response, it seems that you do not see this portrayal as a bad thing, while still holding with the theme you presented in this thread that the magical negro is a prevalent and negative trope in cinema today.

I deliberately chose The Green Mile because it is a piece of good storytelling.

It also shows that the Magic Negro is a thing, a specific thing.

While John Coffey is a black character with magical abilities, he does not fit into the shoebox of the magical negro trope, and neither do many of the black characters listed in the wikipedia article on the magical negro trope.

The problem isn't that tropes are bad but they are often used badly. That they have consequences, unintended they may be, that can lead to bad storytelling and a limitation of opportunities for minorities in the industry.

Sure, tropes can be used badly, but it does not help your case by referring to characters as magical negroes when they don't fit the trope. There was certainly a time in American media when black actors/actresses were very limited in their roles and opportunities, and while there may still be some lingering consequences in that regard, things are changing rapidly, and have been for several decades. There will always be shitty producers/directors/writiers making shitty movies using tired tropes, but the magical negro is certainly not the only, or even prevalent, role for black entertainers that it once was.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

I figured I would add some data to the discussion. Per Figure 3 of this PDF (it was only looking at 2006), 11.1% of lead roles went to African Americans, which is only 1-2 percentage points below their percentile in the US. The real outliers for lead roles seem to be women and Latinos.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/bccj/Casting_study.pdf

A much more detailed study, has these “Key Findings”, though obviously doesn’t speak to the quality of said roles. And again is showing the more significant deficit is for women and Hispanics/Latinos.
http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/~/media/MDSCI/Race Ethnicity in 500 Popular Films%2 02012.ashx

Prevalence. Across 100 top-grossing films of 2012, only 10.8% of speaking characters are Black, 4.2% are Hispanic, 5% are Asian, and 3.6% are from other (or mixed race) ethnicities. Just over three-quarters of all speaking characters are White (76.3%). These trends are relatively stable, as little deviation is observed across the 5-year sample.

We also look at the total percentage of Black speaking characters per film in 2012. Almost 40% of all 2012 movies portray Black characters as less than 5% of the speaking cast. Only 9% of films show Black characters as 12-14.9% of the cast, which dovetails the 2012 US Census percentage (13.1%). A full 70% of the 2012 films feature Black characters in a percentage below that of the US Census.

The percentages of female speaking characters who are Hispanic (33.9%), Black (34.6%), and Asian (34.8%) are greater than the percentages of White females (28.8%) and females from other ethnicities (16.1%). Although we see more women from certain racial/ethnic categories, compared to their male counterparts, females in every group are still under represented.

Portrayal. Hispanic females (41.1%, 39.3%) are more likely to be depicted in sexy attire and partially naked than Black (31.8%, 30.5%) or White females (32.8%, 32.3%). Asian females (15.7%, 15.7%) are far less likely to be sexualized. Domestic roles did not vary for females by race/ethnicity, but differences emerged for males. Hispanic males are more likely to be depicted as fathers and relational partners than males in all other racial/ethnic groups. Black males, on the other hand, are the least likely to be depicted in these roles.

Oh there is no doubt that mainstream Hollywood (in California no less) has little to no place for latinos or Asians. Which is a travesty.

Here is a trailer for a great documentary THE BRONZE SCREEN



As for women, the party line coming out of LA for the past decade has been that there just isn't an audience for women in leading roles in film. This would mean that the audiences of the 1930s and 1940s were more women friendly than audiences today and I find that highly unlikely.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Where did I say that anything in the green mile was a bad thing.

I asked the question because it was not clear. Given your response, it seems that you do not see this portrayal as a bad thing, while still holding with the theme you presented in this thread that the magical negro is a prevalent and negative trope in cinema today.

I deliberately chose The Green Mile because it is a piece of good storytelling.

It also shows that the Magic Negro is a thing, a specific thing.

While John Coffey is a black character with magical abilities, he does not fit into the shoebox of the magical negro trope, and neither do many of the black characters listed in the wikipedia article on the magical negro trope.

How so? Specifically with John Coffey.

The problem isn't that tropes are bad but they are often used badly. That they have consequences, unintended they may be, that can lead to bad storytelling and a limitation of opportunities for minorities in the industry.

Sure, tropes can be used badly, but it does not help your case by referring to characters as magical negroes when they don't fit the trope. There was certainly a time in American media when black actors/actresses were very limited in their roles and opportunities, and while there may still be some lingering consequences in that regard, things are changing rapidly, and have been for several decades. There will always be shitty producers/directors/writiers making shitty movies using tired tropes, but the magical negro is certainly not the only, or even prevalent, role for black entertainers that it once was.

Define the trope and then show how the characters don't fit it.

 

[dx713]

From the (in)famous tvtropes page, quotes I find relevant:

In order to show the world that minority characters are not bad people, one will step forward to help a "normal" person, with their pure heart and folksy wisdom. They are usually black and/or poor, but may come from another oppressed minority. They step into the life of the much more privileged central character and, in some way, enrich that central character's life.

the Magical Negro really seems to have no goal in life other than helping white people achieve their fullest potential; he may even be ditched or killed outright once he's served that purpose.

This can work somewhat as An Aesop about tolerance and not dismissing individuals from underprivileged groups, and it's certainly an improvement on earlier tendencies to either never depict minority characters at all or make them all villains. However, ultimately it's usually a moral and artistic shortcut, replacing a genuine moral message with a well-intentioned but patronizing homage to the special gifts of the meek. Minority characters still all too often aren't portrayed as the heroes of their own stories, but as helpers of standard white, able-bodied, middle-class heroes, and they aren't depicted as, you know, actual people with their own desires, flaws and character arcs, but as mystical, Closer to Earth plot devices.

I don't remember enough of The Green Mile to see if John Coffey was enough of a hero on his own to fall within this trope, (the tropers seem to think he fitted but hey, it's just a wiki).

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The problem isn't that tropes are bad but they are often used badly. That they have consequences, unintended they may be, that can lead to bad storytelling and a limitation of opportunities for minorities in the industry.

Sure, tropes can be used badly, but it does not help your case by referring to characters as magical negroes when they don't fit the trope. There was certainly a time in American media when black actors/actresses were very limited in their roles and opportunities, and while there may still be some lingering consequences in that regard, things are changing rapidly, and have been for several decades. There will always be shitty producers/directors/writiers making shitty movies using tired tropes, but the magical negro is certainly not the only, or even prevalent, role for black entertainers that it once was.

Define the trope and then show how the characters don't fit it.

I did so for a handful of the characters.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Some definitions and/or significant characteristics of the Magic Negro.

In order to show the world that minority characters are not bad people, one will step forward to help a "normal" person, with their pure heart and folksy wisdom. They are usually black and/or poor, but may come from another oppressed minority. They step (often clad in a clean, white suit) into the life of the much more privileged (and, in particular, almost always white) central character and, in some way, enrich that central character's life. If the Magical Negro (also known as Magic Negro or Mystical Negro) is from a society of Noble Savages, expect an Anvilicious Aesop about the failings of the protagonist's society — which usually leads to the protagonist "Going Native".

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNegro

Well he or she is the ultimate plot device used by mostly White filmmakers to help their White protagonists out of a jam or even to find themselves. He or she is usually happy, extraordinary helpful and self-sacrificial. And as the name suggests, the Magic Negro usually has some sort of powers, or direct connection with the afterlife (i.e. ghosts), however mere Black mortals are not excluded from this popular trope too. - See more at: http://madamenoire.com/489882/bye-f...d-loves-a-magical-negro/#sthash.JqdYCgYV.dpuf

The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia [].

He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest.

As might be expected, this figure is chiefly cinematic -- embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic."

http://mediamatters.org/video/2007/03/20/latching-onto-la-times-op-ed-limbaugh-sings-bar/138345

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Taking a step back to the OP for a moment

Here is the take on the study posted over at Mother Jones

Study: White People Think Black People Are Magical Unicorns