The Threat of the Mulatto in the Birth of a Nation

The Threat of the Mulatto in The Birth of a Nation

In D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation the interactions between black and white characters represent Griffith’s view of an appropriate racial construct in America. His ideological construction is white dominance and black subordination. Characters, such as the southern Cameron’s and their house maid, who interact within these boundaries, are portrayed as decent people. Whereas characters who cross the line of racial oppression; such as Austin Stoneman, Gus and Silas Lynch, are portrayed as bad. Both Lynch and Lydia Brown, the mulatto characters, are cast in a very negative light because they confuse the ideological construct the most. The mixing of races puts blacks and whites on a common ground, which, in Griffith’s view, is a big step in the wrong direction. Griffith portrays how the relationship between blacks and whites can be good only if the color line and positions of dominance and subordination are maintained. Through the mulatto characters he illustrates the danger that blurring the color line poses to American society.

Griffith’s black characters that know their place in the social hierarchy are portrayed as very nice people. An opening scene of the movie depicts the proper way for blacks to act when the Cameron’s escort their northern guests, the Stoneman’s, through their (((Institution))). The black slaves are dancing gaily and bow and tip their hats to the white visitors, even as they ignore their black entertainers. Griffith would deem this social interaction appropriate. Aside from the blacks being portrayed as slaves who will do anything to see that their white masters enjoy their time, the whites assert their

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dominance by not acknowledging the blacks. In his essay, “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position,” Herbert Blumer asserts “race prejudice is a protective device. It functions, however short-sightedly, to preserve the integrity and the position of the dominant group” (172). For the whites to protect their social status they must place the blacks into a subordinate position and revolve their interactions with them around that group disposition. The disposition, or prejudice includes “a fear or apprehension that the subordinate racial group is threatening, or will threaten, the position of the dominant group” (Blumer 171).

Griffith harbors Blumer’s ideas on the dominant groups fear with his mulatto characters. Mulattos do threaten the position of white dominance. They cannot be totally defined as either black or white, and this moves them further from subordination and closer to white privilege. Griffith, knowing the potential threat the mulatto poses on his ideological social construct, portrays mulatto characters as deceptive, manipulative, and overly passionate. Austin Stoneman’s mulatto housekeeper, Lydia Brown, does little work and acts very promiscuous towards Stoneman. She is shown in a scene tearing her clothes in rage and throwing a tissue at a man who she does not care for. Her male counterpart Silas Lynch is a mulatto who rises to power. He is deceptive when he tells Stoneman he wants to marry a white woman, but omits the fact that it is Stoneman’s daughter Elsie. At the climax of the film he locks Elsie in a room with plans to force marry her and strikes Stoneman in an attempt to restrain him from his own daughter. By linking these negative behaviors to the mulatto’s character, Griffith attempts to protect white dominance by showing the threat mulattos pose to the institution

To help preserve this institution of white dominance Griffith displays certain black characters as nice and decent, in contrast to the mulattos. These decent blacks are completely content with their subservient position, and that is what renders them decent. The Cameron’s house maid is shown in multiple scenes as caring more for the family she is enslaved by than for herself, which is a very noble characteristic. The housemaid is more ecstatic, flailing her arms in the air with praise, than the whole Cameron family combined when the news arrives home that President Lincoln pardoned their last surviving son from a death sentence. When she is finished putting out the house fire in another scene, the family huddles together ignoring her courageous act. Griffith’s portrayal of the southern house maid is an exaggerated model of appropriate black behavior. In their book America on Film, Harry M. Benshoff and Sean Griffin put a name to her stereotyped character, calling her “the Mammy, an overweight woman who [takes] care of the white master’s children, without concern for her own” (76). Using the Cameron’s Mammy as a role model for black behavior can certainly be considered a “protective device”