Magical Negro

The magical negro (sometimes called the mystical negro, magic negro, or our Magical African-American Friend) is a stock character who appears in fiction of a variety of media. The word negro, now considered archaic and offensive, is used intentionally to emphasize the belief that the archetype is a racist throwback, an update of the "Sambo" stereotype. The term was popularized by Spike Lee, who dismissed the archetype of the "super-duper magical negro" in 2001 while discussing films with students at Washington State University and at Yale University.

Description

The magical negro is typically "in some way outwardly or inwardly disabled, either by discrimination, disability or social constraint," often a janitor or prisoner. He has no past; he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist. He is the black stereotype, "prone to criminality and laziness." To counterbalance this, he has some sort of magical power, "rather vaguely defined but not the sort of thing one typically encounters." They are patient and wise, often dispensing various words of wisdom, and are "closer to the earth."

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. In this way, the magical negro is similar to the Deus ex machina; a simple way for the protagonist to overcome an obstacle almost entirely through outside help. Although he has magical powers, his "magic is ostensibly directed toward helping and enlightening a white male character." It is this feature of the magical negro that some people find most troubling. Although the character seems to be showing African-Americans 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."

To save the white protagonist, however, he would do anything, including sacrificing himself, as Sidney Poitier portrays in The Defiant Ones, the prototypical magical negro movie.

Examples

Examples of magical negroes as published by social commentators include:

• Uncle Remus (James Baskett) in the film Song of the South (1946)
• Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier) in the film The Defiant Ones (1958)
• The magical negro is a recurring archetype in novels by author Stephen King:

• Dick Hallorann in The Shining (1977), and in both the 1980 film adaptation (Scatman Crothers) and the 1997 TV miniseries (Melvin Van Peebles)
• Mother Abagail in The Stand (1978), and the 1994 TV adaptation (Ruby Dee)
• John Coffey in The Green Mile (1996), and the 1999 film adaptation (Michael Clarke Duncan)

• Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) in the film Ghost (1990)
• Cash (Don Cheadle) in the film The Family Man (2000)
• Bagger Vance (Will Smith) in the film The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)

Note that black characters with apparent supernatural powers who are portrayed as independent, have a level of power roughly equivalent to that of other characters and who are not subservient to whites—such as Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) in Star Wars, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) in the Matrix series, and Storm (Halle Berry) in the X-Men—are not usually considered weakened magical negroes, nor are helpful non-white characters without some magical or fantastical element.

However, the common repetitive trend remains — that all these non-white characters are still not the main protagonists (heroes) in their storylines. Hence, the definition of the magical negro may also include non-white protagonists who continue to be teamed up with a white hero as well. The concern is that the magical negro may still be covertly used as a subordinate character to white protagonists. Even though they may play a central figure in a storyline, they are portrayed as being unable to solve challenges without the involvement of a white associate.

For these reasons, a black actor performing as God in a film (like Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty) is not generally considered an example of the magical negro archetype, although some commentators think otherwise. Since God is not a character created by the author, and has neither race nor gender, a person of any race or gender could also be selected to perform the role, like Alanis Morissette in Dogma (although another commentator asserts that, "Chris Rock’s Thirteenth Apostle in Dogma is one example.")

Barack Obama

On March 19, 2007, Los Angeles Times columnist David Ehrenstein wrote: "But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination—the 'Magic Negro.'" Ehrenstein, himself an African-American, detailed the reasons he believes Obama fits the template in his opinion column. The column received world-wide attention and discussion, especially in the news media and in talk radio. Rush Limbaugh aired a song parody called "Barack, the Magic Negro", sung by Paul Shanklin impersonating Al Sharpton and based on the Peter, Paul, and Mary song "Puff, the Magic Dragon". Limbaugh also referred to the 2008 presidential candidate as the "magic negro" several times during his radio broadcast, each time prefacing the reference by explaining that the title came from Ehrenstein and/or the LA Times.

See also

• Ethnic stereotypes in popular culture
• Media and ethnicity

External links

• Steven Hyden, Sean O'Neal: Inventory: 13 Movies featuring magical black men. www.avclub.com, 4. März 2007, abgerufen am 12. Mai 2007. 
• Moe Zilla: Rush Limbaugh: Racial exposure vs. racist. www.helium.com, abgerufen am 12. Mai 2007.