The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry

Erigha, Maryann. The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry. New York University Press, 2019.
Historically, African American life has often been unrepresented or misrepresented in Hollywood films. Maryann Erigha’s Hollywood Jim Crow updates the problem through the first two decades of the twenty-first century. While giving Hollywood some credit for some improvement in its hiring practices, she notes that racial exclusion and inequality is still more prevalent in Hollywood than in the television and music industries. She points out that the growing importance of the global audience has been used as an excuse not to feature black actors and directors, unfairly labeling them as unbankable in non-domestic markets. show more One unprofitable film, she argues, is much more likely to stall the career of a black star or director than of whites in comparable positions. It is especially difficult, she says, for a black director to move up from low-budget, independent films to large-budget Hollywood productions, especially the tentpole science fiction blockbusters that studios depend on. Black Panther (2018) stands out, she says, as a notable exception.
She concludes that like the “Jim Crow order of the past, the logic of the Hollywood Jim Crow assumes racial difference, acts on that difference to stratify groups, and produces a result of unequal outcomes.” She advocates the creation of a “Black cinema collective” to form a “structured system of production, distributions, and exhibition that is owned, organized, and operated by African Americans.” Such a collective is a worthwhile endeavor, but I wish Erigha said more about where such an organization would obtain its startup funding. 4 stars. show less