ed break the color line. Nevertheless, African Americans in major motion pictures were often portrayed as criminals or a menace to society. If they were not, they often were in “token” roles or got killed before the final reel. Even when modern Black filmmakers started making films focusing on African American existence with primarily Black actors, many critics argue stereotypes and prejudices continued. As one Black film critic contends, “Three seconds into the film and Bam! The brother-actor gets offed. So why does every trip to the movies got to devolve into a foray into the untamed wilds of the American Racial Imagination? Assorted coonery and buffoonery, Black communities as new-jack nigga-terrordomes and a spectrum of melinated miscreants jigabooing into the 21st century,” (Cobb 1).
Ironically, not all of the negative stereotypes projected about Blacks in films portraying them stems from white filmmakers or executives. In many cases negative portrayals of African Americans turn up in films produced and directed by Blacks, starring primarily Black actors. One such series of films began with the comedy Friday, produced and directed by the successful Wayans’ (Marlon and Shawn) brothers. In many of the films produced by the Wayans’ negative stereotypes of African Americans are harsher than most white filmmakers would dare entertain in contemporary films. For example, in Friday, a comedy that has spawned two sequels, there is a scene where an elderly Black grandmother is caught smoking a marijuana cigarette the size of a hoagie. When he confronts her he says, “Grandma stop smoking my dope or I’m gonna kick your ass.” When he leaves the house, we see the old woman take a huge drag of the joint and say, “Fuck you. Motherfucker.” While the Wayans brothers surely intend such a scene as satire and parody, such images also reinforce the image of African Americans as drug addicts, foul-mouths, and viole...