06/25/08
Text: Scott Indrisek
Note to budding screenwriters: it’s officially okay to trot out the most tired racial clichés in the history of cinema, provided you have Cuba Gooding Jr. on board. The minds behind Harold—the comedy starring Ally Sheedy, Spencer Breslin, and Gooding, due for a July 11th release—realize that white audiences can’t get get enough of well-meaning African-American guru types.
We’re posting two things below. One is a portion of the press release from Harold. The second is a don’t-call-us-lazy-‘cuz-we-took-it-from-Wikipedia definition of “the Magical Negro.” Now, it’s true that Gooding doesn’t seem to have any actual magic powers in Harold—unless he can, of course, take flight on his janitor’s broom—but this must have just been an oversight on the part of the directors.
Enjoy—and start writing those scripts in which Cuba Gooding Jr. is a telepathic bum who saves the failing marriage of the white CEO he encounters on the corner of Broadway and 52nd Street!
From press materials for Harold:
“As a young teenager suffering from really early male-pattern baldness, Harold has never had it easy. Despite the efforts of his scattered mother (Ally Sheedy)—and aggravated by his beauty-queen-mean sister (Stella Maeve)—life is a trial for Harold. And now his teen angst is topping out: He's facing his first day at a new high school in a new town...
Harold's saving grace arrives in the person of Cromer (Cuba Gooding Jr.), the subversive school janitor, who knows and cares far more about the students than any teacher or administrator. With a cleverness hidden behind his unassuming janitor's uniform, broom and bucket, Cromer comes to Harold's aid, teaching him how to out maneuver his adversaries, and, ultimately, how to survive that most difficult and dreaded American institution—High School.”
And now Wikipedia on “The Magical Negro”:
“The magical negro [is] a term generally used to describe a supporting, often mystical stock character in fiction who, by use of special insight or powers, helps the white protagonist get out of trouble. The word negro, now considered by many as archaic and offensive, is used intentionally to suggest that the archetype is a racist throwback, an update of the ‘Sambo’ and ‘savage Other’ stereotypes. Spike Lee popularized the term, deriding the archetype of the ‘super-duper magical negro’ in 2001 while discussing films with students at Washington State University and at Yale University.
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 is patient and wise, often dispensing various words of wisdom, and is ‘closer to the earth.’”
