Popular Culture Review Vol. 14, No. 1, February 2003 | Page 71

Miss Em’s Voyeuristic Gaze of P in ky —
White Desire for Blackness
Introduction
In the America of post World War II (WWII), particularly in Hollywood, there
was a heightened interest in the issue of race. Whether because of a new level of
tolerance or because the industry was beginning to come to terms with the con
struction of its black Other, Hollywood finally produced a cycle of films that con
fronted racial difference. Hollywood’s interest in race and seemingly relaxed atti
tude toward racial issues in the late 1940s (in addition to its declining concern
regarding the mythical “Southern box office”) was spawned, in part, by the col
laborative effort of “Hollywo(1d-OWI [Office of War Information]-NAACP axis
in search of a propaganda of unity rooted in ideas that arose organically from a
nutrient broth of historic black grievances stirred in with goals arising from the
culture of a war against fascism.”
As a result, Hollywood turned its attention to the production of films that
explored anti-Semitism (e.g.. Gentleman s Agreement^ 1947), and that later ex
plored America's racial politics (e.g.. Pinky, 1949). Both of these films were pro
duced by Darryl Zanuck and directed by Elia Kazan, and were a direct response to
the prevailing political climate. The films were generally characterized as “corny”
and “dated.” Literary scholar Ralph Ellison contends that such racial condescen
sion was not always recognized by African American spectators. Giving voice to
black spectators, he astutely observes:
The temptation toward self-congratulation which comes from seeing these
films and sharing in their emotional release is apt to blind us to the true
nature of w hat is unfolding - or failing to unfold - before our eyes. As an
antidote to the sentimentality of these films, I suggest that they be seen in
predominantly Negro audiences. For here, when the action goes phony,
one will hear derisive laughter, not sobs.
Ellison, while perceptive and insightful concerning how black spectators might
respond to these artificially produced constructions of race, hints at the sub-text
embedded in these films and that often provoked laughter. These films were steeped
in sentimentality, which attempted to mask the film’s (and filmmaker’s) actual
racial politics. Films such as Pinky, regarded as liberal testaments that spoke to an
improving racial discourse in America, were in fact soft-peddling around the issue