Identities: Post-colonial theory & blog tasks

Post-colonialism: blog task

List FIVE films, FIVE TV programmes and FIVE online-only productions that are discussed in the article.

Films: Kidulthood, Anuvahood, Slumdog Millionaire, Sunshine, Star Trek, Rollin' With The Nines, Sket, Attack The Block, Shank, Ill Manors.

-TV Shows: Dr Who, Top Boy, Luther, 55 Degrees North, Line of Duty, The Real McCoy, 3 Non-Blondes, The Crouches, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

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Online productions: Brothers With No Game, Venus vs Mars, The Ryan Sisters, All About The McKenzies, Meet the Adebanjos. 

Watch Destiny Ekaragha's clips above (more of her work is available onher website, including the short film The Park). To what extent can we apply Alvarado's and Fanon's theories to these films? Do they reinforce or subvert typical black stereotypes in British film and TV? Refer to specific scenes and events in the clips in answering this question and aim for at least 350 words.

The feature-length film Gone Too Far by Destiny Ekaragha conveys a comical narrative through the use of stereotypes identifiable to the audience. A profound example of this corresponds with Frantz Fanon's 4-section model of representation of Afro-Caribbean people. One of the delineations suggest that stereotypes decivilise black people, which is presented through the various shots displaying the mother, as well as the foreign visitor wearing sandals, an outfit article commonly associated with poverty in third-world countries. This also links further with the idea of primitivism in the presentation of these characters, as the dialect of the visitor is foreign to British audiences, which is significant as the film is based in England and distributed to the audience within. Whilst these stereotypes are commonly perceived negatively, the more subtle stereotypes of humour and exoticism, as proposed by theorist Alvarado, are also prominently prevalent with the representation of the characters. Being of a comedy genre, the visitor of African origins plays the role of a 'clown' and is essentially the laughing stock generating comedy within viewers due to his unawareness and 'inferiority', which is a convention of comedy dictating that those who are unaware of a situation are bound to make for amusement as a result of hegemonic ideas which place the audiences at a level where they deem themselves more educated, and aware of social etiquette than, for example, the 'clown' of Gone Too Far. Exoticism is presented through the portrayal of the mother, who is dressed in traditional African dresses and has a corresponding dialect, which amounts to the multitude of stereotypes forming a comedy-drama featuring Afro-Caribbean characters. 

The short Tight Jeans by Destiny Ekaragha uses stereotypes to communicate a socio-political debate by the voices of the actors who are to an extent representative of black suburban Britain. Alvarado's theory of developing pity as a stereotype for black people is presented through the establishment of setting in what will be presumed a poverty-stricken council estate. A further application is via the use of humour as the characters adopt a comedic role in discussing serious topics such as the slave trade, and reducing them to a discussion about genitalia. 

Nonetheless, whilst Ekaragha reinforces these traditional stereotypes, many are subverted as a means of raising a conscious and very apparent inversion of beliefs such as that black youths engage in crime and gang violence - ideas which are absent in her pieces.