Magical Negro

The Magical Negro, or magical African-American friend, is a supporting stock character in American cinema, who, by use of special insight or powers, helps the white protagonist.^[1]

African-American filmmaker Spike Lee popularized the term, deriding the archetype of the "super-duper magical Negro" in 2001 while discussing films with students at Washington State University and at Yale University.^[2][3] The word "Negro", now considered by many as archaic and sometimes offensive, is used intentionally to suggest that the archetype is a racial throwback, an update of the "Sambo" and "Noble savage" stereotypes.^[4]

In fiction

Main article: List of Magical Negro occurrences in fiction

The Magical Negro is typically but not always "in some way outwardly or inwardly disabled, either by discrimination, disability or social constraint," often a janitor or prisoner.^[5] He has no past; he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist.^[6][7] He usually has some sort of magical power, "rather vaguely defined but not the sort of thing one typically encounters."^[6] He is patient and wise, often dispensing various words of wisdom, and is "closer to the earth."^[2]

The Magical Negro serves as a plot device to help the protagonist get out of trouble, typically through helping the white character recognize his own faults and overcome them.^[2] Although he has magical powers, his "magic is ostensibly directed toward helping and enlightening a white male character."^[5] "These powers are used to save and transform disheveled, uncultured, lost, or broken whites (almost exclusively white men) into competent, successful, and content people within the context of the American myth of redemption and salvation."^[8] It is this feature of the Magical Negro that some people find most troubling. Although from a certain perspective the character may seem to be showing blacks in a positive light, he is still ultimately subordinate to whites. He is also regarded as an exception, allowing white America to "like individual black people but not black culture."^[8][9]

To save the white protagonist, however, he would do anything, including sacrificing himself, as Sidney Poitier does in The Defiant Ones, the prototypical Magical Negro movie.^[2]

There have been numerous appearances of the Magical Negro archetype in film, television, and literature.

Non-fictional occurrences

Examples of the use of the term Magical Negro as published by commentators in non-fictional contexts include:

• Barack Obama, President of the United States.^[10]
  • Usage of the title "Obama the 'Magic Negro'" by David Ehrenstein for a Los Angeles Times piece later inspired the song "Barack the Magic Negro," written by parodist Paul Shanklin and broadcast on Rush Limbaugh's radio show.^[11] In 2008 it was included on a CD sent by Chip Saltsman, running for chair of the Republican National Committee, to members of the committee.^[12]
  • The term "magic Negro" was also applied to Barack Obama during a segment on the Daily Show; preceding a segment elaborating on Barack Obama's first year (or 364 days and 23 hours), senior black correspondent Larry Wilmore added that "If there's one thing we've learned it's this: Negroes aren't magic." Larry Wilmore also compares Obama's pre-election image to that of other notable magic Negro archetypes in fiction, such as Bagger Vance and John Coffey.^[13]

See also

• Noble savage
• Romantic racism
• Stereotypes of African Americans
• Xenocentrism

References

Notes

1. ^ Christopher John Farley (2000-05-27). "That Old Black Magic". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998604,00.html. Retrieved 2007-02-03. "In The Legend of Bagger Vance, one of the more embarrassing movies in recent history, Will Smith plays a magical black caddie who helps Matt Damon win a golf tournament and the heart of Charlize Theron. ... The first is the Magical African-American Friend. Along with Bagger Vance, MAAFs appear in such films as , the upcoming Family Man (co-starring Don Cheadle) and last year's prison drama The Green Mile." 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Okorafor-Mbachu, Nnedi (2004-10-25). "Stephen King's Super-Duper Magical Negroes". Strange Horizons. http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20041025/kinga.shtml. Retrieved 2006-12-03. 
3. ^ Gonzalez, Susan (2001-03-02). "Director Spike Lee slams 'same old' black stereotypes in today's films". Yale Bulletin & Calendar (Yale University). http://www.yale.edu/opa/arc-ybc/v29.n21/story3.html. Retrieved 2008-12-29. 
4. ^ Jones, D. Marvin (2005). Race, Sex, and Suspicion: The Myth of the Black Male. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers. pp. 35. ISBN 0275974626. OCLC 56095393. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Hicks, Heather J. (2003-09-01). "Hoodoo Economics: White Men's Work and Black Men's Magic in Contemporary American Film". Camera Obscura (Camera Obscura) 18 (2): 27–55. doi:10.1215/02705346-18-2_53-27. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-24435280_ITM. Retrieved 2007-02-03. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Colombe, Audrey (October 2002). "White Hollywood's new Black boogeyman". Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media (45). http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc45.2002/colombe/. Retrieved 2006-12-03. 
7. ^ Persons, Georgia Anne (2005). Contemporary Patterns of Politics, Praxis, and Culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. pp. 137. ISBN 141280468X. OCLC 56510401. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Hughey, Matthew (August 2009). ""Cinethetic Racism: White Redemption and Black Stereotypes in 'Magical Negro' Films."". Social Problems (3): pp. 543-577. 
9. ^ Gabbard, Krin (2004). Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. pp. 173. ISBN 081353383X. OCLC 53215708. 
10. ^ Ehrenstein, David (2007-03-19). "Obama the 'Magic Negro'". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-center. Retrieved 2010-05-12. 
11. ^ DeParle, Jason (2008-12-28). "G.O.P. Receives Obama Parody to Mixed Reviews". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/us/politics/28rnc.html?hp. 
12. ^ "'Magic Negro' flap might help Saltsman" by Andy Barr, politico.com, 12/30/08 Retrieved 1-2-09.
13. ^ "The First 364 Days 23 Hours". The Daily Show. 2010-01-19. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-19-2010/the-first-364-days-23-hours. Retrieved 2010-05-12. 

External links

• ""Magical Negro" media appearances documented on TVTropes.org". http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNegro. 
• ""magic Negro" definition from Double Tongued Dictionary". http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/magic_negro/. Retrieved 2007-10-04.