Examples of "Black Buck" in Media
D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation is perhaps one of the most well-known examples of the use of the "Black Buck" stereotype in the media. In the film, a former slave named Gus (described by the filmmaker as "a renegade, a product of the vicious doctrines spread by the carpetbaggers") attempts to chase down (and, apparently, rape) a white woman named Flora.
Rather than allow herself to be assaulted by Gus, she throws herself to her death. A spiral of events occurs which then culminates with a state militia (led by the mulatto protégé of a local Congressman) clashes with the Ku Klux Klan (portrayed by the film as heroic figures), with the Klan being ultimately victorious.
The film sparked a national uproar, from whites who feared the film's events to be prophetic truth, and from blacks who were horrified by the portrayal of their race. The film was largely responsible for the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan during the early 20th century.
Read more about this topic: Black Buck
Famous quotes containing the words examples of, examples, black, buck and/or media:
“It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold peoples attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“There are many examples of women that have excelled in learning, and even in war, but this is no reason we should bring em all up to Latin and Greek or else military discipline, instead of needle-work and housewifry.”
—Bernard Mandeville (16701733)
“We black women must forgive black men for not protecting us against slavery, racism, white men, our confusion, their doubts. And black men must forgive black women for our own sometimes dubious choices, divided loyalties, and lack of belief in their possibilities. Only when our sons and our daughters know that forgiveness is real, existent, and that those who love them practice it, can they form bonds as men and women that really can save and change our community.”
—Marita Golden, educator, author. Saving Our Sons, p. 188, Doubleday (1995)
“How strange a thing is death, bringing to his knees, bringing to his antlers/The buck in the snow.”
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (18921950)
“The media no longer ask those who know something ... to share that knowledge with the public. Instead they ask those who know nothing to represent the ignorance of the public and, in so doing, to legitimate it.”
—Serge Daney (19441992)