deceitful lips

 

The birth of a nation is a horrifying film, created as propaganda for those who were unhappy about the result of the civil war and the loss of the institution of slavery throughout the United States. The film displays overt racism as well as casual racism and highlights performances of dangerous stereotypes within race and gender. Flora Cameron, a white woman in The Birth of a Nation, is portrayed as the perfect victim: a woman who would rather jump to her death than be raped by a black man. Within the film, Gus is the threat to Flora, with the film assuming that he is trying to rape her, chasing her in the woods until she jumps off of a cliff. Gus, played by a white man in blackface, dramatizes his character, creating a caricature of the black savage rapist with exaggerated lips, emphasizing the darkness on his skin. Gus’s very existence is a threat to white women, “the most helpless” type of person within this societal ideology: they must be protected at any and all costs by the white male savior (within this film, the members of the Klu Klux Klan). This is shocking due to the fact that during slavery, white slave masters were able to rape and abuse black women with no consequences while black men raping white women is a narrative that was created to criminalize black men and instill fear within society of black masculinity. Another depiction that dehumanizes and emphasizes a stereotype is the example of the “mulatto housemaid”. She is portrayed as a seductress, a woman who has no morality, that only wishes to gain from marrying a white man. Her lips are again the visual emphasis of her otherness, with this absurd depiction instilling fear within white men that they are being taken advantage of and manipulated by women of color only for social or financial gain. These stereotypes exist as a means of justifying acts of violence against black people, describing their character as dangerous, and deceitful.