In Django, Samuel L. Jackson plays Stephen, an assistant of Calvin Candie, the owner of the ranch. He is an example of success through wearing "the mask." Stephen was treated better by the whites at the ranch because of his actions and attitudes towards them. Stephen is the biggest obstacle for Django to overcome in retrieving his wife from Candie because it is he that discovers that Django and Broomhilda know each other. However, Stephen has a very different approach to his advantage over other African Americans. Instead of using it to help other African Americans, Stephen is selfish and has the same attitude that many whites had towards African Americans and he even treats them just as bad. I picked this picture because it shows a different perspective of the mask. Unlike people like Maya Angelou who are aware of "the mask", I feel like Stephen chooses to put this out of his head and thinks of himself as another white person and does not feel the need to help his fellow African Americans. Many key terms of our course were referenced in Django. This includes the term "real man." The males on the ranch were stripped of their manhood and were emasculated throughout the whole film. The phrase being a real man plays a big role in the African American society because it has such a varying definition. It also incudes "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy", "race man" (which Django depicts), and basically represents many types of prejudice that African Americans have had to struggle with.
“Just Walk On By”- Brent Staples My first victim was a woman—white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties. I came upon her late one evening on a deserted street in Hyde Park, a relatively affluent neighborhood in an otherwise mean, impoverished section of Chicago. As I swung onto the avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discrete, uninflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried glance. To her, the youngish black man—a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket—seemed menacingly close. After a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest. Within seconds she disappeared into a cross street.
Carter G. Woodson's 1933 classic The Mid-Education of the Negro: As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching. It kills one's aspirations and dooms him to vagabondage and crime. It is strange, then, that the friends of truth and the promoters of freedom have not risen up against the present propaganda in the schools and crushed it. This crusade is much more important than the anti-lynching movement, because there would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom
“Forty Million Ways to be Black” -But confining most people within one of these modes isn’t easy. Different moments present different situations that demand that we modulate. “Here’s the trick Black people always understand,” Dyson said. “Depending on where we are, we’re any one of those Blacknesses. This is the beauty of Blackness. When you’re at a job and you’re trying to get as raise in a predominantly white corporation, you’re probably accidentally Black. You say, ‘Hey Bob, how are ya? Did you see Modern Family last night? Hysterical. All right, do I have the raise?’” Dyson and I agreed that you may also throw in a little extroverted Blackness to further your bond by bestowing a feeling of coolness on your audience. “You could say, ‘Yo, you heard that new Jay-Z album? It’s tight!’ And you’re saying it in a way that what you’re really saying is ‘I’m gonna give you temporary access to the black card. This card will self-destruct in twenty four seconds. But for a moment you’ll feel cool and that’ll help me build the relationship I need.” I know some successful black writers who go into the offices of stodgy white magazines calling everyone brother and sister, in a way that puts people at ease and makes them feel cool and respected and helps build a bond.”
Excerpt from "The Mask" by Maya Angelou
We wear the mask that grins and lies.
It shades our cheeks and hides our eyes.
This debt we pay to human guile
With torn and bleeding hearts…
We smile and mouth the myriad subtleties.
Why should the world think otherwise
In counting all our tears and sighs.
Nay let them only see us while
We wear the mask.
We smile but oh my God
Our tears to thee from tortured souls arise
And we sing Oh Baby doll, now we sing…
The clay is vile beneath our feet
And long the mile
But let the world think otherwise.
We wear the mask.
When I think about myself
I almost laugh myself to death.
My life has been one great big joke!
A dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke.
I laugh so hard HA! HA! I almos’ choke
When I think about myself.
Carter G. Woodson's 1933 classic The Mid-Education of the Negro: As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching. It kills one's aspirations and dooms him to vagabondage and crime. It is strange, then, that the friends of truth and the promoters of freedom have not risen up against the present propaganda in the schools and crushed it. This crusade is much more important than the anti-lynching movement, because there would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom
“Forty Million Ways to be Black” -But confining most people within one of these modes isn’t easy. Different moments present different situations that demand that we modulate. “Here’s the trick Black people always understand,” Dyson said. “Depending on where we are, we’re any one of those Blacknesses. This is the beauty of Blackness. When you’re at a job and you’re trying to get as raise in a predominantly white corporation, you’re probably accidentally Black. You say, ‘Hey Bob, how are ya? Did you see Modern Family last night? Hysterical. All right, do I have the raise?’” Dyson and I agreed that you may also throw in a little extroverted Blackness to further your bond by bestowing a feeling of coolness on your audience. “You could say, ‘Yo, you heard that new Jay-Z album? It’s tight!’ And you’re saying it in a way that what you’re really saying is ‘I’m gonna give you temporary access to the black card. This card will self-destruct in twenty four seconds. But for a moment you’ll feel cool and that’ll help me build the relationship I need.” I know some successful black writers who go into the offices of stodgy white magazines calling everyone brother and sister, in a way that puts people at ease and makes them feel cool and respected and helps build a bond.”
Excerpt from "The Mask" by Maya Angelou
We wear the mask that grins and lies.
It shades our cheeks and hides our eyes.
This debt we pay to human guile
With torn and bleeding hearts…
We smile and mouth the myriad subtleties.
Why should the world think otherwise
In counting all our tears and sighs.
Nay let them only see us while
We wear the mask.
We smile but oh my God
Our tears to thee from tortured souls arise
And we sing Oh Baby doll, now we sing…
The clay is vile beneath our feet
And long the mile
But let the world think otherwise.
We wear the mask.
When I think about myself
I almost laugh myself to death.
My life has been one great big joke!
A dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke.
I laugh so hard HA! HA! I almos’ choke
When I think about myself.