Spike Lee’s Bamboozled

The film Bamboozled integrates several types of racial roles and stereotypes throughout its narrative. One of the primary racial messages communicated by the film is the �conventional’ stereotype that whiteness is superior to blackness. Today we live in a society where racial identity is very important. Almost everyone identifies himself or herself with a race or background, whether is black, white ,Asian or any number of other identities.

The motion picture Bamboozled, focuses on how the media stereotype black people. In the 20th century African Americans were misused and abused by the media because they were interpreted as poor, stupid, and ignorant. Also, white actors painted their faces black to make front of black people. In the film Spike Lee shows how two poor black men, Man Ray and Womack, make a fool of themselves by acting in black faces.

Throughout American history the media always showed negative images about blacks instead of positive ones. Although, today there are still stereotypes the black race have become successful black performers just like whites. In Bamboozled, the main character, Pierre Delacroix, is portrayed to be a black man who wants to be white. Because he talks proper and has a whitish accent, this is to show that he is not like the other blacks. He is trying to break away from his own racial identity because he sees it as a hindrance to his own success in life. In television history black people had to be a certain way in order to make it in the business, which is why Delacroix acts the way he does in the movie. His boss, Dunwitty, who is white, thought he was blacker than him because of his black wife and Ebonics dialogue.

Delacroix’s intention when we are introduced to him is to get himself fired by making a racist show in response to his bosses rejection of previous shows about minorities. When �Man tan’ becomes a success Delacroix seems to lose sight of his original intentions and goals. The show clearly plays on the lingering racism still deep seeded in American culture and how attitudes towards it have merely adapted. White people in the show’s crowds engage in the chanting of “I’m