Who’s coming to Dinner? Serious Examinations of Race Relations
Race relations in film have come a long way. It’s been a long time, thankfully, that we’ve seen the African American appear in film as only a slave or simple minded helper or dancing fool.
Films have evolved and so has the role of the African American in American life and film. More and more over the years since the 60′s has the African American taken more important roles in film. Sidney Poitier portraying a detective in “The Heat of the Night” demanding respect comes to mind. Also, comes to mind was his portrayal of a black man engaged to a white woman in Spencer Tracy’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”, which raised eyebrows.
Later, having blacks as lead characters, such as Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams in “Mahogany”, became more and more common. It turned out that movie goers of any gender or race started to enjoy movies for the story lines and not so much care what color the actors were.
Whoopi Goldberg won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in “Ghost”. Although, Hattie McDaniel won the same statuette for her fine performance in “Gone With the Wind”, Goldberg’s winning role was not a black stereotype.