Miscegenation

Throughout this course, the subject of miscegenation has been alluded to, referenced, or discussed on three separate occasions. We watched the The Bitter Tea of General Yen 1933), Frank Capra's film from the Classical Hollywood period that "revolves" around the hesitant courtship of an Asian-on-Caucasian couple (Courtney 145). Second, we read an excerpt from Streible's Fight Pictures that focuses on Jack Johnson's fall from grace in the boxing ring. The black boxer's reputation for mingling with white women invited the downfall in the racially charged, early 20th century. Finally, Susan Courtney assigned us her chapters historicizing miscegenation in the Production-code era.

Three out of nine weeks of lectures and readings—one third of Streible's class invited discussions of miscegenation. Is Streible telling us something? Was miscegenation a meaningful, underlining component in film history…or at least, one third of film history?

Strangely enough, the reoccurrence of this theme may just be a coincidence or accident.

The decision to show Bitter Tea could easily be rationalized by wanting to show the students an example of Classical Hollywood cinema. Only one reading for that week addresses miscegenation. And even here, Smoodin only makes a passing reference of the star of the film who claimed that people didn't go see the film because of the mixed-race couple (53). Of course, the article concludes by proposing reasons why the film did so poorly at the box office. The presence of miscegenation was likely one the causes for its failure, but Smoodin barely addresses this hypothesis.

The Fight Pictures lecture didn't exactly focus on the content of the chapters (Jack Johnson's reign) that we read. Streible's agenda was to show us how an historian collates several texts with one another…not for us to see miscegenation in action. We could have read any chapter from book, and Streible's purpose still would have hit home for us. Johnson's story is just a sexy/compelling piece of history of that will, no doubt, keep out attention.

Lastly, the production-code chapters that we read were not chosen my Streible himself. He wasn't making a statement about the omnipresence of miscegenation in CHC. Courtney herself chose them for us to read. I can only conjecture that she did this because her work serves as a compelling example of how historians hypothesize and synthesize.

After all said and done…we return to the question…

Miscegenation …an arbitrary or constitutive function in film history?

I believe that Susan Courtney has answered the question for us. In her chapter Picturizing Race: On Visibility, Racial Knowledge, and Cinematic Belief, the argument involves both the visibility and identification of race. She uses the film Imitation of Life (John Stahl, 1934) and the production code's response to its making to illustrate her agenda.

The Hays Office initially declined its stamp of approval on the film because of the presence of miscegenation in the film. More specifically, the film does not directly address the subject but does "'evolv[e] on' miscegenation" (145). A girl that appears to be white is actually the biological daughter of the black woman. Hence, the spectator will know that the mother had a relationship with a white (or white enough) man, even if this fact is never addressed in the film. The production code recommended that the filmmakers make the mixed-race girl as black as possible. The Hays Office's explanations of what was wrong with this film, as Courtney concludes, "seem to redefine 'black' as not simply a color but an essential identity" (148).

The question of miscegenation being a recurrent theme in film history can be answered depending on whether or not you agree with Courtney. Both its presence and absence in texts speak volumes. Race is not simply a color but an essential identity. If this is the case….can you really separate race/racism/miscegenation from the very products (read "cinema") that are created by the agents of race (read "people")?

Margaret Ford