Summary

In her section on Race & Entertainment, Gay writes multiple essays which each critique how the entertainment industry portrays the African American experience. Gay is highly critical of The Help because of its "narrow, condescending, mostly racist depictions of black people in 1960s Mississippi" (209). Gay rejects the trope of the magical negro which is present throughout the film. She explains that the magical negro is a stock character who "appears as a lower class, uneducated black person" (209). and whose sole purpose is to help the white characters is some way. Gay then critiques Django Unchained, a Quentin Tarantino film about slavery in the antebellum South. Gay critiques the prolific use of the N-word throughout the film which she feels is disingenuous. Again, she feels that this film tells the story of slavery though the eyes of the white characters and places them...