im writing an essay on this film and i just want to know what other film lovers think about the attempeted rape scene between Sylvia and her 'father'. in regards to Griffiths Gus chase in The birth of a Nation.
shareI know I'm posting 2 years later to this post, but we were looking over both theses scenes in my film history course and I wanted to comment.
refer to article by Jacqueline Stewart "We Were Never Immigrants"
http://www.amazon.com/Migrating-Movies-Cinema-Black-Modernity/dp/0520233492
I believe that this rape scene was more than a response to DW's supposed chase scene in Birth of a nation. Within Our Gates aims beyond just pointing the exaggeration of the racism in birth.
Birth shows a young innocent childlike girl being pursed by a blackfaced man. The man approaches her and states that he wants to marry her and the girl flees. The man, Gus continues to follow her through the woods until they eventually make it to a cliff where the poor little girl rather jump to her death then be captured by this supposedly scary black man. To credit DW I am surprised he did make Gus violent, but maybe in those days just suggesting that a black man wanted a white woman was enough to scare people. And to justify a motive the main plot of the story.
Within Our Gates
has a wide variety of characters both white and black (not blackfaced) that are portrayed as good a bad.
The interesting aspect of Within our Gates' rape scene is in the juxtaposition of the rape and the lynching of Sylvia's family due to false accusations.
black men were accused of raping white women to justify there lynchings.
Micheaux "Set the record straight for who was raping who."
Within our Gates brought truth to the reality that DW portrayed.
Depth of a Character
The preacher is a great example of the reality of what blacks had to deal with. The mask of emotions for fellow people, the mask infront of white people (degrading ones self) and the inner self which was a feeling showed behind closed doors (literally).
Just the mere fact that Within Our Gates went beyond just counteracting with Birth, by developing a larger and stronger statement, proves that it is more than a responds to birth.
The character that one may find to be the most shocking was of a minor character, Ned the black preacher. Ned is a character that is the best example of a range of self temperaments. His shape shifting qualities allow the audiences to categories him as a shallow ignorant character and then be astounded when it is revealed that he actually has immense depth to his character that he keeps hidden. He was the most visually amusing and evident depiction of a complex characterization. Ned is presented as the Uncle Tom; he is clearly a representation of the tragic figure. He wears several masks that reflect what the observer wants to see of him. He can be described as three basic personas.
ONE the black preacher that speaks of how blacks can get into heaven if they know there place, this is the sermon of which he often converses. It is a rationalization of the present racial status as God's ordained plan. Being poor and uneducated are attributes which will lead Blacks into heaven. This role is the first you see of the character which leads you to believe that he has diluted his thoughts and finds his social standings acceptable. The tragic aspect of this is that he is a preacher who is lecturing this to others, who in turn believe it to be true.
The SECOND time we see Ned he is chatting with fellow white acquaintances. They question him about the right for Negroes to vote and he stresses to them that he knows his place and that this land is for the white man. The Audience at this point sees this character as nothing more than an ignorant shell of a man. The white acquaintances only support his religious beliefs because it does not challenge the current social race structure. The character is then further belittled as one of the white acquaintances kicks Ned in the behind. He chuckles as Ned says "Yess'm. White folks is mighty fine." This resembles the saying, kick him while he’s down. Micheaux is clever in this by taking this character to its lowest point, beyond self reticule and renders him almost powerless. It sets the next statement up as a giant leap in the opposite direction as Ned seems to become whole again.
This LAST characterization of Ned which warrants being the only true persona is the one that he has behind closed doors, literally. Ned leaves his white acquaintance and pauses as he shuts the door. His wide grin from his self mockery fades into an appalled facade. Ned then says to the camera, "Again, I've sold my birthright. All for a miserable mess of pottage." This is a heading from the book of Genesis. (wiki) It is basically revealing that Ned knows that he is selling his self short for something of little value. This poignant scene stands out as a true indication of what blacks often had to endure in a time where they could never reveal their true identities.
Nothing unusual about it...another white man raping a colored woman. But the white propaganda machine didn't want these little "tales" to be told so it created the "black brute whom it appeared just couldn't control his carnal lust for some irresistible little precious white girl." REAL HISTORIANS know "who' was doing all of the interracial rapes- and it wasn't blacks. Just ask the civil rights era participants what happened to many of the black female marchers at the hands of those inbred white tobacco spittin cracker cops and white savage lynch mobs.....the kind of truth that this country wouldn't dare expose.....
share[deleted]
Somebody lost the point.
Or I just did.
Nothing unusual about it...another white man raping a colored woman. But the white propaganda machine didn't want these little "tales" to be told so it created the "black brute whom it appeared just couldn't control his carnal lust for some irresistible little precious white girl." REAL HISTORIANS know "who' was doing all of the interracial rapes- and it wasn't blacks. Just ask the civil rights era participants what happened to many of the black female marchers at the hands of those inbred white tobacco spittin cracker cops and white savage lynch mobs.....the kind of truth that this country wouldn't dare expose.....
The rape scene was more graphic in this movie, than in 'Birth.' The scene also contradicted the stereotype used in society and in 'Birth' that white womenhood need to be protected from black men. Like others have said, it was the black women who needed to watch out for white men, and Micheaux showed that angle in the film.
"Walk and live, talk and bumbaclaat dead."
filmfreak82, logcabnnut and MariMcCabe,
While I don't disagree with anything you have written, what is left out is significant-- the theory we hear all the time that rape is not a sexual crime, it's a crime of violence by those who feel weak against one who has power or is perceived to be a symbol of those who have the power. White men were afraid they were losing the power they'd held for centuries to black people now that they could vote, esp if the unknown quantity of black women were able to vote. The white wan could never control them.
Raping slave women can be explained as just exercising what they believed were property rights. Men who owned slaved believed they owned property. They bought them. Paid money and had to account for them. They thought women (of any color) were merely property back then as well, though those ideas were changing, as were the slave ones (Apparently certain founding fathers did not want to own slaves but inherited them, or faced the economic reality of not being able to run these huge plantations without them. They put provisions in wills freeing slaves upon their deaths, as did George Washington, and freeing their wife's slaves on her death--which caused her family to fear someone might hasten her death to obtain an early freedom. So she quickly freed them all--showing that the Washingtons, at least, knew their slaves were human beings. There are stories that including freedom for slaves was suggested for the new country, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution but that they were afaid Southerners would then side with the British in the war--as many did, and after victory would refuse to ratify the new Constitution.) I wish we could ask Jefferson an d not let him excape a good answer!
Back to the slavery business in general, they had to show the slaves they had nothing, to totally subjugate them, in order to hold control (it had been done by mankind for a millennia and is still being done today around the globe.) Take away their humanity so they never thought of revolting. They also tore up families and couples that formed to remove that humanity.
To me, living in 2016, it seems impossible to deny the humanity of anyone. Because we have seen that people are just like us. We've seen the science and the humanity. Lived with them, looked up to them as President, as stars of sports and entertainment, and science, they were and are our neighbors, co-workers, friends. But society esp Southern society of slave a Reconstruction Days, did not willingly let white people see slaves as people. And same continued until they were forced to change by desegregation laws. They tried to keep them away from the white people with segregation and dehumanization. If white kids did not ever see a black person at school or in the neighborhood or park playing, they'd never see they were people too.
And without the same cash flowing into those Separate accomodations, the were anything but Equal, and became worse. Eventually, the KKK arose to try to scare people beck into the limitations and roles of history, as tho violence would restore a time when even the dumbest white guy could operate a farm by forcing slaves to do the work, where the densest idiot who was white could at least have his skin going for him. They thought violence would bring back the past because they were not operationg on all cylinders. And enough idiots and scared people followed them they hurt lots of people before they were stopped. But they never accomplished anything but the violence.
I realize that this is six years old. But, I don't believe that whites raping blacks were such a conspiracy theories. They actually happened, in slavery more often, I believe it was more of an assault or attack rather than a consensual one. My great-great grandmother was a product of white male on black rape. Her mother was a young girl housemaid and he was the homeowner.
shareShe fought valiantly. The twist at the end was unexpected for me, I'm glad he realized and didn't rape his daughter, awful.
"MALLL NOOO, JESUS CHRIST!" - Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception