It's tough trying to entertain a four year old. I have no four year old friendly movies in my collection, so I have to pretty much rely on Comcast. Later after the little one was tucked away I broke out an oldie but a goody in my collection. It's while watching this particular movie that an idea came to me for this post.
So I was thinking; who are the top ten movie house Negroes of all time? I have my ten. Check it out and tell me what you think. If you have someone who should be on my list, by all means, please let the rest of us know about them.
Here is my list in no particular order:
1. Hoppin Bob from the movie Life. (The prisoners were more afraid of Brent Jennings character than they were of the warden. And you always got the impression throughout the movie that the warden had less respect for Hoppin Bob than he did the prisoners he was charged to keep.)
2. Bagger Vance from the movie with the same name. (Will, you are my homie, but come on.......don't you ever pick a script like that again)
3. Wendell from Get On The Bus. (Wendell Pierce played the hell out of this character. That line where he says to Ossie Davis; "why Nigger?" had me on the floor. But a used car salesman who sells Cadillacs and is proud of the fact that he didn't go to "one of them Nigger schools"? They should have thrown his ass off the bus a whole lot sooner)
4. C.J. Memphis from A Soldiers Story. (Am I the only one who thinks that Adolph Caesar's character, Sgt. Waters, was right?)
5. Sam, from Casablanca. (Sam, you don't have to play shit for me ever again. Dooley Wilson played Sam. The Negro's name was Dooley, so I guess playing Sam made perfect sense.)
6. Bubba Blue from Forrest Gump. (Run from this house Negro Forrest, run. I loved Mykelti Washington in "Con Air", hated him in Forrest Gump. It's S-H-R-I-M-P negro S-H-R-I-M-P!)
7. Left Hand Lacy from Mo Better Blues. (It's not the fact that Giancarlo Esposito's character was in a interracial relationship, it's the fact that he was so proud of it.)
8. Mammy from Gone With The Wind (Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Oscar, and the first to sing on the radio. That's all great; but sorry Hattie, you were still Mammy in Gone With The Wind.)
9. Charlene Morton from Bringing Down The House. (Perfect title for that Queen Latifah fiasco.)
10. And last but certainly not least: My man Hoke Colburn from Driving Miss Daisey. (If I have to explain why to you then you might be a house Negro.)
68 comments:
BJ's Wholesale. Bunch of Disney DVDs on sale for like 10 bucks. We just got the Three Musketeers for our girls. Both the 6 and 2 loved it.
No, Field, you are not wrong in your thinking about Sgt. Waters in "A Soldier's Story".
I thought I was evil for thinking the same thing you did.
Actually, you're a little hard on Sam, from "Casablanca". Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, and Lincoln "Stepin Fetchit" Perry, are two more classical House Negroes.
Field,
I recently got a DVD of one of my favorite films from childhood and I was shocked at a bit of jigging that I did not remember since I last saw the film 30 years ago.
High Sierra, 1941, starring Humphrey Bogart, is a remarkable film in many ways. A gangster film made years after the genre had died, Bogie played a noir protagonist that was a breakthrough role. So why is this my nomination for House Negro status?
Willie Best, AKA Sleep 'n' Eat, plays Algernon, an eyerolling Steppin Fetchit yassuh boss negro for comic relief. It is truly painful to watch and it wrecks the film for me now.
earlgrey, thanks for the tip.
Christian Prog... maybe I was a little hard on Sam. Let me think about it for a minute....nope, I am sticking with him. Although I like yours as well.
Gregory, that's interesting, I bet there are lots of movies like that.
It was such a different time back then. I swear I couldn't have lived through it.
I have to be honest, I didnt get most of the refrences you listed here (darn my horrible memory!). I do agree with most of the ones I do recognize.
You do have to give Bubba Blue some slack, though. It was his idea to start a shrimp-boat enterprise that lifted his momma out of the despairs of poverty and Mammy-ism she was mired in. That just might be considered Field Negro behavior?? Hm?
L
Speaking of black people in cinema, has it occurred to anyone that there are no black vampires in True Blood? Is this a black thing I can't understand, or yet another example of white privilege at work?
grinder,
FWIW, the 1971 film Blacula was not bad, considering its budget and genre limitations. It had some bits that were adequately scary but as a teenager I felt disappointed in the absence of gratuitous nudity (which is why I saw every Pam Grier movie that came out).
All things considered, I would rank this as a minor classic of the blaxploitation era.
Sgt. Waters was dead wrong. He was the reason CJ committed suicide. He doesn't get a pass.
What about the one Halle Barry won an Oscar for?
Martin Lawrence in big momma's House. Tyler Perry in every Madea movie made and all the future Madea movies. Eddie Murphy in the movie Norbit. Please don't get me started I could go on and on.
Grinder:
LOL!
Driving Miss Daisy is a wonderful film. If saying this makes me a House Negro so be it.
But if you can see the performances, it’s about Love. But if you cannot see beyond race you will always be offended.
Hey Field,
Eddie "Rochester" Anderson was the 2Pac of his day.He wrote for Jack Benny. He was one of Jack's "Kids in the Hall".Eddie did some X-rated stuff.If you look at some of Jack Benny's stuff,Rochester dogged Benny.He scared white people.His movies was banned in the south.He wasn't Sleep N Eat or Stepin'Fetchit he was off the hook.Rochester would sit in the back of the car and Jack Benny would drive him.My mom told me about him.
Grinder,I never thought about that. Maybe the bartender sister will become one down the line.
Granny,I thought about Halle for Monster's Ball,but then...hey,I am a man.
Anon 2:29AM don't get me started on Mr.Perry.I thought about him,but that would have been too easy.I could have rounded out my top ten with his flicks alone.
Gregory I loved Blacula toom:)
Lola,way to think this thing through.I do like the fact that Bubba started his own business...let me think about him a little more.
Hell to the Nah you're dead center Field. We need more CJ's then all this crossing over and thinking you can CONVIENTLY mingle back in the circle of Black will be easy identifiable, I say if you marry yte go her Mama & Daddies house for Sunday dinner if the Daddy will let you in lol, the best way to divide a unit is to enmass confuse that unit then it is no long united or can unite, unity in social, finicail, entertainment,sports etc. And being that we are a little more sofisticated than that era, it's less excusable to not know better. That being said, yes we need money it's the amerkkkain way, morality is somewhere wayyyy down the list. But entertainers should be held accountable when they go to far, even StepandFetchIt, said all that money he made every week, and when he walked into a Black tavern, dance or church, no one wanted to be associated with him hardly. Now let's add these to you list; Any black who showed up in a #1.Shirley Temple flick #2 in the movie Liberty Hieghts, the Black teenage girl didn't even blink when A. Brody said the jews were slaves that built the pyramids, huh? there were NO ytes in Africa when the pyramids were built, but children read this non sense in schools #3 Push, Roscoe Jones etc. if I see one more movie with only overweight darkskin black women waiting to be saved by a lightskin or mixed woman UGHHH!
This is a HILARIOUS post. I will always hate Morgan Freeman and his "Don't Worry 'Bout Massa; Gits Yo' SELFS Together" portrayals! Why folks love him, I'll never understand.
DEAD ON re: Bagger Vance. JeeeZUS, Will. WTF??!
May I confess a guilty pleasure (while also contributing to the list)?
Oh, my darling, sexy, handsome, quirky, racially-confused Cuba Gooding, Jr.???! Man that I cannot HELP but finding hot, hot, HOT? You are so addictive, that I suffered through that ISH role you played in "Radio." YOU ARE NOT FORGIVEN.
Bubba just seemed like a country Negro.
If you took any reference to race from the movie, Driving Miss Daisey, Miss Daisey was my grandmother.
When my dad was six, he and his cousin played plantation children in Disney's "Song of the South" with Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit and the crew.
I don't think they distribute it in the states, but it can be found in pieces on YouTube.
I have yet to show the movie to my sons, six and seven. "Hey boys, you wanna watch Granddad work on the plantation?"
Wesley Snipes was a Vampire, and a vampire hunter in Blade.
Field, would hunting vampires be FN behavior?
Didn't see Meezie's comment til I posted.
Morgan Freeman's role and the banter is a role many black men had in real life. It fed and clothed his family; it was considered a good job. If you are a southerner as old as I, Freeman's character is not a house Negro. The language is very nuanced and stays within the boundaries of maintaining his dignity. This portrayal rings true more than any of Stepin Fetchit's antics.
It may be hard for us to hear these conversations now, but you have to understand that time.
Hey Hathor,
I co-sign.Morgan was keeping it real.He wasn't tomming.Cuba,Tyler, and Martin do that.
Great Post Field!!! and why y'all gotta talk so loud at the Movie's anyway??? Just Kiddin... but my man, ya left out one of the Great Unsung Black Actors of all times...
Albert Popwell
I know...ALBERT WHO??? He was the guy Clint Eastwood askd "Do Ya Feel Lucky, punk" in 1971's "Dirty Harry". Al was in all but the last of the Harry series, playing a pink Cadillac drivin Pimp in "Magnum Force", Black Militant "Big Ed Mustaffa" in "The Enforcer", and Harry's detective buddy Horace in "Sudden Impact". Al also appeared in "Cleopatra Jones", "Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold" "The Buddy Holly Story", and even played opposite Madonna and Sharon Stone in "Who's that Girl" and "Scissors"...
I think its "Dirty Harry" month on AMC...check him out... Alberts a Field Negro with a capital "Field"
Have a good weekend,
Frank
I'm going to have to disagree on the choice of Hattie McDaniel.
Like it ot not, her and others playing those degrading roles, paved the road for people like Whoopie Goldberg and Denzel Washington to win their awards many years later.
Notice I didn't mention Halle Berry (and that YOU should have added her role to this list) because it's despicable that a Black woman had to show her vagina/make love to her husband's white executioner to win the Oscar for Best Actress in a leading role.
Ummm sorry Field, finally READ your post, so these are actors/actresses you DON'T like???
I'm still havin trouble with that whole "House" vs "Field" thang...
anyway,
Albert Popwells a Serious MoFo FIELD Ni...Negro...
You left out the Black Foreman at the beginning of "Gone with the Wind" that says
"I's be's the Foreman and I's say whens it be's Quittin Time..."
"Quittin Time..............."
Of course I know y'all never actually watched GWTW...
Little Spoiler, the Good Guys Lose...
Frank
I find this obsession with who is "house" and who is "field" to be tiresome and not just a little bit childish.
I thought so many of my forefathers/mothers bled, suffered and died so I wouldn't have to be in the house or the field. They did all of that so I can be FREE.
Now I already know the response to that. Someone posts a link to some racist committing a racist act and yell "see? you AINT free!" And then I shake my head and sigh...
morgan freeman's house negro roles extend beyond driving miss daisy. you can even throw batman and bruce almighty into those categories. great actor, but always there for massa.
Anyone remember "Street Smart" and "The Electric Company" I didn't consider those roles to House Negro.
I got one. Denzel Washington in Training Day. Being a corrupt black cop has to the be highest form of house negro there is! He even hid behind his kid so he wouldn't get shot. And Fly, you're right: Hattie did make it possible for blacks to get Oscars. Of course you have to play a crooked cop, a black lady who gets slammed by a white guy in a movie, and a blind, drug addicted singer. Maybe Samuel L. Jackson can get one if he plays a foul mouthed pimp from Mississippi who aspires to be President...
Bill Robinson, Antonio Fargas
Paul Benjamin,
"Field, would hunting vampires be FN behavior?"
Yes. But dodging the IRS is not. :)
Emptysuit, thanks for reminding me about "Huggy Bear". Now that was a HN if I ever saw one.
Hathor, you are right, when I think of Morgan Freeman I don't think HN. (Malik is being a little rough on ole Morgan) But when I think of Hoke I do.
Meezie, I know he is your boy, but you do know that some of the roles Cuba played had HN written all over them, right?
"I find this obsession with who is "house" and who is "field" to be tiresome and not just a little bit childish."
I agree. From now on I am going to stop pointing fingers....HN are people too.
"I thought so many of my forefathers/mothers bled, suffered and died so I wouldn't have to be in the house or the field. They did all of that so I can be FREE."
Soooooo why are so many of us refusing to take our freedom? Sometimes freedom can be a bit uncomfortable. The house, on the other hand, never is. ;)
Ethel Waters in Member of the Wedding.
The cast of Amos and Andy
Buelah
Sidney Poitier in Lillis of the Field
Buckwheat and Stimey of Our Gang
Whoopie Goldberg in Corrina, Corrina
Sgt. Waters in A Soldiers Story
Danny Glover in The Color Purple
Angela Bassett's husband in Waiting to Exhale
Steppin Fetchin
Oh yeah one more.....
Antonio Fargas as Huggy Bear of Starsky and Hutch. Ugh! I cringe just thinking about it.
too hard?? c'mon field! You know 99% of the time morgans characters are a supplement to the lead white character. and lets not talk about off the screen! this is the same guy who said the only way we're going to get over racism is by not talking about it! you think they're saying that in the field?? lol
anyway, yes house negroes are people. which is why despite all this i still love the man. what can i say... he told a kid to "kill himself expeditiously". classic.
here's one... how bout spike lee in his own movie, malcolm x. telling brother malcolm you can't join the movement because you love white women and pigs feet too much sounds like house negro behavior to me. lol
12:32 PM
Blogger Malik said...
here's one... how bout spike lee in his own movie, malcolm x. telling brother malcolm you can't join the movement because you love white women and pigs feet too much sounds like house negro behavior to me. lol
The character Spike Lee played in Malcolm X is a real person."Shorty" actually told Malcolm X that.
shorty's character was a collection of real people. not just one person.
i am so glad that someone mentioned medea. everyone i know tells me i'm nuts for not liking those movies.
btw, there was a black vampire on true blood. she was killed when the house was set on fire.
cynda williams in one false move is on my list. leading your white boyfriend to a house full of black people so that he could rob and kill them is HN behavior.
FlyNMy40s said...
I'm going to have to disagree on the choice of Hattie McDaniel.
Like it ot not, her and others playing those degrading roles, paved the road for people like Whoopie Goldberg and Denzel Washington to win their awards many years later.
Absolutely. I cannot be critical of early actors. They played the parts that were available and many, Hattie McDaniel being one, played those parts remarkably well. Modern actors should be cut some slack also when playing historical roles, Freeman in DMD for example. If we throw out the historical context, there is no point is making the movie.
I too have a slight problem with the house/field Negro dichotomy. As used here a "House Negro" is a person who betrays others for personal benefit during slavery and after. But there were also Negroes who worked in the house that passed information, food, clothing, and medicine along and used what little influence they had to help the plight of all Negroes.
In any case, we should leave child actors out of this discussion...Buckwheat and Stimey of Our Gang. Children are children.
Ok this is really starting to become sad.
I cannot understand why a Negro artist (actor in this case) is supposed to play only one kind of African American person (whose version of the Black experience I am not sure), or you have House Negro status.
We have so many stories, so many experiences and so many perspectives
Artistic performance is to stimulate thought, and as we judge the degree of blackness we seem retarded.
@ Anonymous 3:18,
I u/s what you are saying. But I think much of what people are feeling is that these "HN" roles have been acknowledged so positively by mainstream (White) America. I remember when Driving Miss Daisy came out, and so many White people loooooved that movie. I have never heard any White person say they loved Lee's Malcolm X film.
I read the Amazon reviews for that book The Secret Life of Bees (later adapted for a film)-damn near every single one was glowing with praise for the "strong, god fearing Black women who took the white girl-child under their wing despite all odds"-and any Black reviewer who noted the mammified aspect of the story was slammed as being 'racist against Whites'I know that there were loving, nurturing Black women who had to raise White children in order to feed their own families, (this wasn't the plot for Secret, btw)-but do I want to watch overly simplified images romanticized on the big screen that don't portray any insight into the minds of these characters who look like me- hell no. As others mentioned I won't judge the Hattie McDaniels, Stepin Fetchits, etc. because that was a horrific time in our history. But Mr. Morgan 'racism will go away when we stop talking about it' Freeman doesn't get a pass from me.
forgot to mention, yeah Field's choice of Latifah in that Steve Martin coonfest is so right. She could have done a Black houseguest movie like the one Sinbad did with Phil Hartman (can't remember the name but it was hilarious), without the ghetto stereotypes and White people singing fake spirituals about being sold on an auction block, but she didn't and deserves HN status.
@ Blue Topaz
I thought I was the only one that thought that "The Secret Live of Bees" with the three black women characters were mammified characters. I was labeled as racist by both black women and white women for giving my reasons for not liking the film. I'm sorry but I thought August, who was the oldest sister, was the most mammy of them all. Portraying the strong black woman stereotype. The asexual character that carries everyone's burdens. June, plays the light skin stuck up woman or the angry black woman generally. Although the interesting thing about the film I liked was that these women were very cultured. The character that I liked was May. She was the only that was not afraid to show her weaknesses and still hold on to be happy as much as she could. Other than that, that film reinforced the strong black women stereotype. I think it's getting old and played. Black women or black people in general need more diverse roles.
Lady Di
oh yeah brotha field your list is on point. I couldn't help but laugh as I read your list.
Lady Di
I perssonally like the movie "the secret life of bees" and thought the acting was superb!
My favorite character was the one played by Jennifer Hudson because she reminded me of myself in a lot of ways.
I could be reaching here, but perhaps the reason so many balck women only seem to "see" the mammy characters in a film with so many other black female characters is because that's how you see yourselves.
old white guy:
"But there were also Negroes who worked in the house that passed information, food, clothing, and medicine along and used what little influence they had to help the plight of all Negroes."
That is the absolute truth there and is overlooked. Some of them even tried to poison the massa.
Jazz,
Stimey was the president of "Our Gang, inventor and the first president of the He- Man Women Hater Club. So what if his plan resulted in Jackie getting a complete ass whooping from Darla.
Oh, and Petey was a pitbull.
let's not forget that big old "take-my-hand, Boss!" simpleton from THE GREEN MILE. Just the mere mention of the movie sets my teeth on edge.
@nuboop, sho you right.:)
"But there were also Negroes who worked in the house that passed information, food, clothing, and medicine along and used what little influence they had to help the plight of all Negroes."
That's a true statement. Those Negroes might have lived in the house, but they were NOT house Negroes.
They are like those of us today who are working in corporate jobs, but who invest their time and money into their communities.
Lady Di, I never thought of that with "The Secret Life Of Bees", but you make a good point.
"cynda williams in one false move is on my list. leading your white boyfriend to a house full of black people so that he could rob and kill them is HN behavior."
Cp-sign with shtzskia.
I'm with Granny. I couldn't even take this list seriously when Halle wasn't number one for Monster's Ball. I haven't taken her seriously since then. We won't even get into her "off-screen" activities.
The responses have confirmed a belief that I have had for decades.
“We will never be free, until we are allowed to be individuals”
I used to cringed seeing Huggie Bear on Starzky and Hutch. And those ridiculous clothes he wore were clownish. All that was missing were balloons, a painted on smiley face, and a big red bulb nose.
Superfly and the Mack.
FN, you need to take at the children shows your neice is watching. Trust me, there are alot of house negros or whitemansidekick blackchild who is always the butt of the jokes. This isnt limit to adults.
@ Fly:
I could be reaching here, but perhaps the reason so many balck women only seem to "see" the mammy characters in a film with so many other black female characters is because that's how you see yourselves.
***********************************
Are you out of your freaking, myopic, conservative Republican, I'm-not-like-those-other-Negroes mind?!
Just because you identify with a character in a mammy ensemble, it's foolish to project that onto Black women who do not. I'm not going to watch any movie set around the Civil Rights movement that centers around the care and nurturing of a little White girl by a family of Black women. Unless they are Black Panthers training her to infiltrate the system. Period.
And what other movies with "so many other black female characters" are you using for a reference? Dreamgirls? I wasn't aware there so many movies with a large Black female cast.
All that to say-yeah, you are reaching. Just a tad.
There's got be honorable mention for my favorite closet queers, Tyler Perry and Jamie Foxx in any number of roles.
And Lord, as demented as he was, we need Sgt. Waters more than ever. He'd know full well that you can't fight the Limbaughs of the world with the handicap of legions of dumbass bammas and ghettofab fools. There's nothing wrong with that. What was wrong was him setting folks up for prison (or suicide).
I disagree with the commenter who put Sidney Poitier in the HN category for Lilies of the Field. In that movie, everyone was a FN except a white guy who owned a construction company. The movie is quaint now, but it's a parable about community, not race. Homer's backstory in the novel - not told in the movie - was that he was just out of the Army.
Then I thought of Eddie "Rochester" Anderson on the Jack Benny Show, but I suspect Rochester was a FN who somehow convinced the Jack Benny character that he was a HN, & the Benny character, not being southern, was too dumb to know the difference.
I'm going to have to plug for Rochester too. My mother was a fiend for old radio shows, so I got her a series of them, including Jack Benny. Rochester ran that house. Jack Benny paid for it, but there was no doubt who really ran it.
Eddie Anderson was a writer on the show.He did stand up at the Apollo.To my mom and folks back then he was their Dolomite.They banned some of his movies in the south. We're looking at him through todays prism.There were some toms back then,but he wasn't one of them.
I think the selection of Sgt. Waters as someone to be celebrated is deluded. He kissed more white ass in a Soldier's Story than CJ himself. IN fact the ONLY people who was bold enough to talk msack to were Black.
How in the hell is THAT revolutionary?
BluTopaz said...
And what other movies with "so many other black female characters" are you using for a reference? Dreamgirls? I wasn't aware there so many movies with a large Black female cast."
Frequently when I read comments I get the feeling that NO ONE had a SAT verbal score over 300 and they give you get 200 points for taking the dam test.
I didn't say there were "all these movies". Reread what I said because it's obvious what I did say struck a nerve with you otherwise you could have responded without the false labels and defensiveness.
In case you missed it, Undercover Black Man discusses "Time-Tested Negro Archetypes" in this post:
http://undercoverblackman.blogspot.com/2007/12/coming-attraction-never-back-down.html
@ Fly.
Ok I re-read your drivel. And? You still have not explained where you are getting the idea that Black women who want to see a fair balance of depictions of Black women in the media somehow see themselves in these types of characters.
And what defensiveness; if one of your ilk over on Fox News made a similiar comment I would have responded the same way. And sorry to disappoint you, but I do not see myself as the caretaker of any White children simply because I am tired of seeing this imagery in the 21st century. This is one of the most asinine comments I have ever heard, even moreso because a colored woman stated it.
No we do not need any more Sgt Waters he was tormented over not being born white.
BluTopaz said...
"if one of your ilk over on Fox News made a similiar comment I would have responded the same way."
The only thing ASSinine in this comment section is your dermination to label every conservative Black a fox news watching, Republican.
Now maybe if you and your ilk would refrain from having babies out of wedlock at 13, maybe Fox news would have less to talk about.
i don't know if you can denigrate people for ACTING.
just because they play a unworthy character(in your eyes) does not mean they are unworthy as individuals.
morgan freeman played true to character for that time and circumstance.
i don't hear white people saying that jack nicholson deserves scorn for portraying that role in a few good men or keifer sutherland for 24.
i know you can all tell reality from earning a living.
if black people only played roles which were uplifting and moral would that be representative of the race?
BluTopaz,
us white folks heard of MalcolmX as a flamethrowing anarchist dangerous black guy... in school.
I've been meaning to watch that Malcolm X flick, when I get the chance, simply because all of YOU, HERE, speak so highly of the chap.
But it shouldn't surprise you that nobody speaks highly of it, when we get all that jazz shoved down our throat at school.
And i Totally Want to see a group of black women training a lil' white girl to infiltrate the system! That would be rad! (umm. that slang is so past it's expiration date. my apologizes)
I disagree with Bubba (who was developmentally disabled - wasn't he) and Hoke (he did defy Miss Daisy when he told her he was a grown man and had to use the bathroom).
Adolph Ceasar played my favorite House Negro of all time. He was unforgettable. He deserved the shot he got in the end not for being right about some things he said (you know he wasn't lying!), but for being a total jerk about it. As for Queen Latifah, sigh. I really like her and the movie was funny, but I have to admit--she was Housin' big time!!
Did anyone one mention Mr.T.? How could anyone leave this buffoon out? The sad thing about Mr. T is that he is NOT acting. He really is a buffoon who will play the ignorant, angry, savage negro who is not to be taken serious about anything. Now he is doing infomercials where he follow a White woman around an snorts about how good the food looks. Uggh!! One step forward, two steps back.
How could everyone miss the current Brando of house niggadom:
Marlon Wayans - (insert any movie he's been in here)
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