Patrick Livingston

3/17/15
Brendan Kredell

Cineaste and Bamboozeled

Spike Lee appears to rebel against the very system hes been a part of. Hes made himself
a part of the mainstream white corporate forum while rebelling against the notion that his
product is for sale. That his view and vantage of black culture is an unsullied thing that can be
brought to enlighten the masses and be profitable and marketable seems antithetical.
Hypocritical, maybe, but not in any way incompatible. The writers at Cineaste wrote on their
opinions on the film Bamboozled, which aimed to satirize the commoditization of the black
community in the form of minstrelry and blackface. The film ended up being funny, highly
uncomfortable, and surprisingly deep and intriguing throughout with many layers and meanings
being shoved down your throat, you need a moment and a possible rewatching to process the
information being given. Leaving the class that day, I was left uncomfortable and unsettled by
the experience, awash in white guilt and a better understanding of humor itself.

The first article of the selection talks about Lees narrow scope of vision when satirizing
the black entertainment industry. A short detour into Lees neglect of a more positive AfricanAmerican entertainment role model, mainly activists, writers and comedians, shows the writer
was thinking about the image that Lee was trying to send. Tate hones in on the white supremacist
angle of the film, focusing on the symbolism of the minstrel act and its spotlight on black
commoditization. He speaks in particular of the relatively weak ending, of how Lee just suddenly

decides to have the movie end in bloodshed and violence. However, he ignored the importance of
the Mau Maus kidnapping Manray instead of the producer Dunwitty or the writer Delacroix. The
scene is a demonstration of the symbol overshadowing the people who made it. The Mau Maus
specifically target Mantan instead of the ones who put him on the air. This demonstrates a
blindness on the audiences part to conflagrate the entertainment and the star without a separation
of the two.

The next article, by black filmwriter Zeinabu Irene Davis, talks about the creative
directions Lee takes to show the unease and tension. The constrictions of technology making a
dissonance in the audience, breaking the connection between the story and the audience with
outdated, handheld technology only to bring it right back in near the latter half during the
minstrel performance scenes. The cold, cool colors of the film representing contention or
disassociation, only becoming bright when we needed some feeling or emotion. The orange suit
of Delacroixs father Junebug and the bright, fun colors of the minstrel show off put the
relatively bleak frames, both the drawing room scenes with Manray and Womack and the dark,
dingy black comedy attic Junebug performs in. Even the costume designers dress Delacroix in
almost exclusively blue tones.

Glossing over Cineastes editorial, which introduces its series on Afro-American cinema,
we move on to Michael Rogans article. The article talks about Bamboozled in terms of
minstrelry as a whole, using the film to talk about the history of black entertainment and the state
of modern minstrelry. Speaking to Spike Lees use of blackface, the film shows Rogan love
from Lees part to make the stereotypes presented in the films even more palpable and
pronounced, specifically the white negro, the white people who attempt to integrate and

appropriate black culture in some of the most sterile and machined way possible. Even the
commercial break sequence in the TV show saturates the audience in uncomfortable and
laughable stereotypes, the tits an ass marketing of Da Bomb malt liquor and the out-of touch
expensive marketing of Tommy Hilnigger. Throughout the film, Lee satirizes the stereotypes
to show not how they can be hurtful, but accepted by people who barely know any better.

As for Armond White, he seems to believe that Lee is not as important as he lets himself
become, obscuring more important messages from more competent and less-paid directors. he
lambasts and criticises Lees hypocrisy in making a blackface film lampooning it and
simultaneously reveling in it. White continues to tear apart Lees satire by talking about how he
ignores the discussion of the honor and nobility of the starving black and latino street performer
to make shallow jabs at the corporate system that he rebels against. White calls Lee out on his
austerity and audacity of his treatment of black stereotypes. from my perspective, White cannot
seem to get the joke. His displeasure oozes from the page, choosing to focus on his unease and
possible personal grudges against Lee for his pandering and his insincerity when, in my
perspective, he is as sincere as he can be in the hollywood scene as it lays.

Cynthia Lucia continues on to talk about the films narrative and the critical views about
the narrative which, in her mind, is about self-deception and self-awareness. Half of the films
cast is lying to itself in some way, whether it is Dunwittys white-black hip and with-it schtick,
Sloan standing back as the shows deprecation swells into a cultural phenomenon, or the Mau
Maus and their verbal slander against black stereotypes and slander while following said
stereotypes. But the most prominent one is Delacroix who is almost repulsed by black culture in
an attempt to gain favor in a white-dominated corporate industry. He regresses into himself,

writing clean and tried formulas of the middle-class black sitcom almost reflexively. He tries to
use the Mantan show as a way to get himself fired and a way to prove that pandering to the
lowest demographic possible isnt worth it, eventually giving in to the blackface craze like the
rest of the world. He builds himself a castle of burnt cork and wattamelln only to become
saturated and drown in it. Delacroix becomes so detached from his fathers native culture that he
feels appalled to even be associated with it, smothered in guilt and greed at the end for his
troubles.

The articles presented in the selection capture peoples opinion on the film as well as
Lees own in an interview with the magazine. Lee curses the sterile middle class black sitcom
and the played-for-laughs stereotypical black comedy film. He uses this same comedy to fight
back against the corporate house that raised him and made him popular, using Hollywood against
itself. Not to mention, he finds the film funny, both in the story and the scenes as well as in the
meta-textual way. White people watching the film will see the stereotypical jokes and gags and
think its funny, but only when the black crowd around them laughs alongside them will thy join
in. The film presents the black entertainment industry as a massive minstrel show, and Lee
unapologetically fires on all sixes.