THE MAGIC NEGRO
Washington Post
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This is a very interesting article I saw in the Washington post. Like many Black people I have been long annoyed by the way non white people are used in a movie industry dominated by White supremacy. One of the main pathologies is commonly referred to as "the magic Negro syndrome". That's where Black characters are brought in to serve as noble, wise, many times suffering, "guides" to specifically help the main White character understand or transcend some deep metaphysical concept, trauma or life challenge.

Think The Green Mile or even The Matrix. The reverse of this genre is the Black male who is leading and making decisions without serving/helping some White person; he is often portrayed as a monster like Denzel Washington in Training day. Or Dr Richard Daystrom in the Star Trek episode M5.

The article does a pretty good job of identifying the phenomenon. But that's not why I'm doing this analysis on it. What I found most interesting about this article is not the content, but who wrote it. Usually the White supremacist assign Black writers to report on these Black pathologies, since they lack critical information regarding the mechanics of how White supremacy works. But this article appears to have been written by a White female; Rita Kempley.

Why is this significant?

Because this is a classic case of two common White supremacy tactics often seen when discussing mistreatment based on color:

1. Keep the focus on non white people.

2. "Drunken clown" strategy.

Here you have an article written by a White person concerning how Black people are mistreated in the area of activity known as entertainment and she spends most of the time quoting Black people. This keeps the focus off the perpetrators (White supremacists).

Also, as a White person, Rita Kempley has access to more information about the way White people think than any Black person, yet most of her quotes are from Black people. I call this the "drunken clown syndrome"; I've got over sized shoes, a big red nose, a painted on smile and a polka dot jump suit...but I'm here asking you HOW TO BE FUNNY.

You often see this routine on TV when a White person will ask a Black person questions about racism, with full knowledge that victims of racism don't know enough about White supremacy to stop the mistreatment.

Once again, this tactic keeps the focus of the investigation to stop racism White supremacy off White people and on to anything else including "truck drivers", "tulips" "ham sandwiches...; and I suspect this is why White people use it.

As James Baldwin once said: If a White person knows they don't wanna be Black, they know everything there is to know about you.