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Out of all the cinematic staples, the so-called “magical negro” is the worst to define and discuss due to it being the mother of all loaded terms. A catch-all phrase used to describe how African-Americans in film tend to be superhuman physically, spiritually or both, it’s currently in the midst of the pop cultural zeitgeist thanks to a crappy song and New Year’s faux-pas.
Anytime someone sees a black character used as a story tool in a film — in the case of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) originally didn’t exist in Fitzgerald’s story — there is a mild cry of “There! There! I see a magical negro in the distance! Yes! There!” One should wonder why Eric Roth deemed it necessary to suddenly introduce the character as a framing device for guiding the CGI Man-Child about, but that’s up to anyone who can be assed to sit through that three hour bore.
So, we’ve taken it upon ourselves—and in full expectation of the eventual backlash that will come from one friend of ours, Odienator at Big Media Vandalism—to deconstruct the favorite crutch of Stephen King, the Wachowski Brothers and whoever else has a problem understanding just what makes the worst stereotype the worst stereotype.
The “Morgan Freeman”
As Seen In: Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty, The Shawshank Redemption
A controversial choice, sure, and quite possibly a lazy choice. But Morgan Freeman has so deeply inserted himself in our culture as the wise, old teacher that him playing a seductively raging pimp in Street Smart seems impossible. Yet his gravely, nurturing voice seems to soothe us into believing whatever he says. And for some reason, he’s now playing into the comfortable role that he’s been typecast as since Driving Miss Daisy–the wiry, coy helper who can do fine on his own, but decides to help the Lead instead. In a way, Freeman became unintentionally responsible for confusing any black actor in any role as falling under the “magic negro” cliché.
The Angel
As Seen In: The Family Man, The Legend of Bagger Vance, What Dreams May Come, The Preacher’s Wife
Every so often, a Successful White Guy finds himself with an overwhelming problem: his girlfriend left him, he’s too rich and successful, he realizes he’s Robin Williams. And lo, a loosely defined but altruistic Black Man will appear with unknown powers to set the S.W.G. straight. Sometimes, he’ll appear as Don Cheadle. Other times, he’ll be Will Smith, emerging from the woods and help you get your (golf) game back. And rarely, he’ll be Cuba Gooding, Jr. (and later Max von Sydow) or Denzel Washington, who’ll help you re-connect with your loved ones.
Best shown through the utter ridiculousness from Bagger Vance, The Angel provides a fresh start to our troubled lead character, who must pretend to have his angst quickly fixed by the folksy and whimsical lessons given by their winged friends. Ultimately, there’s a generic life lesson learned (”keep family close, don’t let work get in the way, learn golf”) that benefits both the Angel and the S.W.G. (and in case of Preacher’s Wife, Courtney Vance.)
The Innocent
As Seen In: The Green Mile, Radio
We’re pushing it with Radio here, but hold on. The Innocent is normally portrayed by a large, intimidating figure (Michael Clarke Duncan) or, if you’re Cuba Gooding Jr., a “full retard.” Everything is child-like to them and they’re incapable of controlling their own strength–or knowingly acting as if they have mental problems for critical acclaim. And they posses a great inner spirit that seems almost magical. Not to mention their sympathetic white friends (Tom Hanks, Ed Harris) feel pity for them based on their short-comings, but are won over by their child-like sympathy–and curing their tract infections.
The Teacher
As Seen In: The Matrix Trilogy, The Secret Life of Bees, The Shining
Whether they’re telling Keanu to free his mind, teaching Dakota Fanning about the blues and selling her precious honey, or demonstrating how to talk with your index finger–The Teacher is there. While the role could be played by anyone, here we’re given figures that seem to have all the knowledge in the world, yet all they can be is a foil to pass that onto another character–normally the dopey white guy or gal. As Spike Lee once asked, “How is it that black people have these powers but they use them for the benefit of white people?”
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We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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Bagger Vance is even worse as the metaphorical “swing” Matt Damon’s character must get back is an obvious stand-in for erectile disfunction.
i think we should take the example from the mumblecore crowd and just cast imaginary black actors as the role of the imaginary black friend of the open-minded, white liberal protagonist. the imaginary black friend might not be *seen,* but his presence will be felt, with references to barack obama, tv on the radio, kanye, etc.
Pretentious as always god forbid our friends at spoutblog enjoy anything the mainstream pumps out.
You’ve forgotten about the hard (or impossible) to kill immortal black super hero, who because of his blackness is special and set apart from white super heroes. He will almost always have a white antagonist, or at a minimum a white sidekick. Examples are Will Smith as Hancock, Wesley Snipes as Blade, the super charred and burnt negro guy from Spawn. I suppose blockbuster franchises like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are probably stories crafted by biggots because they have no black folks in them at all. When’s the last time you heard a brother arguing with Hermoine Granger about how they pronounce Wingad Leviosa to make shit fly off the table in the hood?
At the risk of being attacked as racist, I have to say that there is a basis in Jungian psychology for the magic negro as the shadow archetype.
I think the Magic Negro is more related to the Black Judge than people realize, too. (At one point in the late 80s and 90s, all judges on film were black, and in fact were often Morgan Freeman.) In both cases you have a kind of disinterested higher-than-human figure whose job it is not to play a personal role in the proceedings, but to dispense wisdom and guide lesser mortals to do the right thing.
My least favorite example would be Djimon Hounsou as the AIDS-stricken next-door neighbor in Jim Sheridan’s inexplicably acclaimed In America.
[...] · Speaking of magical negros, here’s everything you always wanted to know about them but were afraid to ask. · Apple unveils the new Macbook Wheel. Ooh, shiny new toys! We want! We want! · Sad [...]
you lost me when you chided Button.
What’s truly stunning about “Benjamin Button” is that it features not one, not two, but THREE Magic Negroes for the price of one! There’s Henson’s Mammy-redux, her on-again-off-again-always-kindly-and-wise boyfriend (but not her husband, because poor black people in the 20s were never married, silly!), and the little pygmy man who opens young/old Benji’s eyes to all sorts of pleasures, just because he’s small too! And all this in a major-studio Oscar contender released in 2008? The mind boggles.
I understand the ‘magic negro’ concept in the Bagger Vance sense, but this article broadens the concept so wide that any movie showing blacks and whites on screen together could be accused of some form of prejudice. Is it patronizing to give a white character a black teacher? Does Spike Lee prefer movies like “Finding Forrester” and “Dangerous minds” where Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer play magic whiteys? What about all those white coach/cop/crusading-lawyer movies , where the disadvantaged African American kid turns his life around thanks to the interest of an angelic white mentor? Would movies be better if their stories were strictly segregated?
A nice antidote to Freeman’s type casting was his role in the movie Gone Baby Gone. It was the wise man/grandfather, but turned on its head a bit.
brilliant list — you nailed it, ha. and I agree with the comment about the Black Judge for sure!
What makes The Shawshank Redemption so interesting is that Morgan Freeman isn’t a magical negro. You think he is, but actually he’s not.
What does Freeman teach Robbins in the movie? How to survive in prison, but that’s not what the movie is about. The movie is about hope, and Freeman is able to survive because he doesn’t have any hope. Robbins still does, which is what makes his time there so difficult, but he teaches Freeman that he can’t give up. “Get busy living or get busy dying.”
SPOILERS:
When Brooks is released from prison, he has been so beaten into the ground by the system that he can’t survive in the real world, so he kills himself. When Freeman’s character is in the same position, he almost does the same thing. But Robbins taught him to embrace life, so instead of killing himself he reinvents himself. Robbins enters Freeman’s world, teaches him about hope, and then leaves. Who’s the magical character in this story?
Dear John “Lynch”man,
First of all, I’m sure the confederate flag on your wall is just splendid!
Second of all, I feel really sorry for you. Instead of sticking to your anime, maybe you enjoy watching 200 episodes of the same kick-and-tears story of Bleach, but as the box office shows, most people actually enjoyed watching these movies with your so called “magical negros”. I won’t even get into why you had to use the word ‘negro’, because that would make way for me to say that you look like a second generation asian-american, thus frustrated because you’re caught between 2 different cultures.
I partially agree that Morgan Freeman has become a bit of a typecast, but that still doesn’t change how much I enjoyed him in Bruce Almighty. In a comedy about faith (unlike you confederates, I’m neutral to the subject), they chose a different take on ‘God’. Why not a funny take on things and why not a black God ? The colour of his skin had nothing to do with the message and if I had a choice between Morgan Freeman - God and Charlton Heston - Moses, I prefer Morgan. This could also be because Freeman doesn’t have NRA blood in him. So if you wanna talk about typecast ‘magical negros’ - how about that Charlton Heston? or this hippy looking, always bearded Jesus ? If your anime brain enjoys watching the same thing over and over, then that’s just the way you are, but please don’t confuse that with your racism.
Did you want to talk about typecasting, or your own personal problem with the fact that some stories have a black actor playing a strong character? Typecasting is a big problem these days, but not the examples you gave, and it’s not limited to ‘magical negros’. What about all the ‘magical crackers’ like Adam Sandler, Jack Black, Bruce Willis, Steven Seagal ? Also, in the field of typecasting - in Meet Joe Black, would you have preferred some dude in a black cape playing death? In Dogma, would you have preferred the same old bearded and wise God ?
It just so happens that these filmmakers chose a different take on things and color has nothing to do with it.
Chris Rock’s character in Dogma best sums up your issue:
Rufus: ‘White folks only want to hear the good shit: life eternal, a place in God’s Heaven. But as soon as they hear they’re getting this good shit from a black Jesus, they freak. And that, my friends, is called hypocrisy. A black man can steal your stereo, but he can’t be your Savior.’
[...] · Speaking of magical negros, here’s everything you always wanted to know about them but were afraid to ask. · Apple unveils the new Macbook Wheel. Ooh, shiny new toys! We want! We want! · Sad [...]
Best example of all… Ernie Hudson in “The Hand that Rocks the Cradle”
Magic Negro!