# The Magical Negro **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 15, 2010, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830 "2010-09-15T11:55:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/21 "2010-09-15T15:57:52Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > I’ve always seen the MN used in modern horror films whenever something supernatural needs exposition. It isn’t always a black person. Depending on the location of the setting or culture of the monster/horror, the appropriate ethnicity is employed. If the protagonists are being stalked by a chupacabra, it will be Jose the Gardener who provides the legendary back story. If it’s a voo-doo threat, it will be the Jamaican maid letting us know that the curse can only be broken by finding the Macguffin. The MN could even be a white guy if he’s the local farmer who warns us to look out for werewolves and what to do about it after the inevitable werewolf encounter. Basically, the MN is used whenever you need to provide the facts to the ignorant protagonists/audience. The ethnicity provides “expertise” on the subject. It’s racist to varying degrees, sure. **But it’s born from the laziness of screen writers**. Bullshit. Tell us how you will expeditiously provide such exposition without a character providing it. Give us a specific example. Tell us how you’ll explain the the Force to the audience in Star Wars without Kenobi & Yoda, or the Matrix without Morpheus. You can pick another example if – but an actual story with such a character, please. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/22 "2010-09-15T16:04:41Z")
For you fans of The Samurai Cat (and there may not be many), Mark E. Rogers referred to this trope as the WOBL (Wise Old Black Lady). One of the most egregious examples is Mother Abagail (literally a 108-year-old magical black woman) from The Stand. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/23 "2010-09-15T16:14:31Z")
I liked the role of Mr. T. in the Not Another Teen Movie. He was the Wise Janitor with critical life advice to give in specific situations. Fool. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/24 "2010-09-15T16:18:37Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Bullshit. > > Tell us how you will expeditiously provide such exposition without a character providing it. Give us a specific example. Tell us how you’ll explain the the Force to the audience in Star Wars without Kenobi & Yoda, or the Matrix without Morpheus. You can pick another example if – but an actual story with such a character, please. I think you’re confusing what he’s saying with another situation. He’s not talking about characters exlaining things to audiences. He’s talking about how lazy writers use ethnicity to establish the character’s information as “authentic” without any other backstory. Of course the mexican gardener knows all about the chupcabra and its one weakness. Of course the old black woman knows about voodoo, even though she lives in New York and has no real reason to. Kenobi was introduced as an important character. Before he showed up, we learned he was a general and important enough to Leia to travel directly to him and send the droids off in a desperate attempt to get a message to him. Implictly, she considered this _more important than her own life_. In his first appearance, he was shown to have mysterious and undefined abilities. He also knew all about Luke, so it was no great surprise that he would know more about what was going on. Also, he fills in some backstory for Luke, with the bonus of implying a lot more to the audience. Obi-Wan is _shown_ to be an instrinsic part of the story from the word Go. I’m not sure this really qualifies as the Magical Negro, but it is somewhat close. At the very least, both the MN and the random-horro-movie-guy-who knows-stuff tend to come out of nowhere, essentially fix the plot or set things up, and then usually go away at the end without any explanation of why they know this or having shown any other character trait. Their ethnicity is used to assure middle-class white people that the minority on display is “authentic.” Other than that, they have no personality or purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/25 "2010-09-15T16:21:47Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > I’ve always seen the MN used in modern horror films whenever something supernatural needs exposition. I agree with **Skald the Rhymer** - you’re talking about something different here. Really you’re just talking about characters who provides exposition. On its own it does not meet any of the elements of the character type we’re talking about. > [@Zoller Seitz](#): > > (turns out Stephen King’s fiction has been a magical negro factory). I’ve also seen King mocked for writing a lot of “magic retard” characters. I’m not getting into whether or not that’s accurate, it’s just something that I’ve seen discussed in his work. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/26 "2010-09-15T16:30:22Z")
> [@](#): > > This is just a variation on a very old trope in US literature: the nonwhite friend of the hero. You can see it in Jim in Huckelberry Finn and Chingachgook form Last of the Mohicans. Chingachgook also has some superhuman abilities for things like tracking enemies. I see it a little differently – the MN seems to be a more specific type – an advisor to the hero who has superior knowledge and acts as mentor, and who generally tragically loses his or her life prematurely. If Merlin or Obi wan Kenobi had been black, they would’ve been seen as perfect MNs. I think the MN really started when they were trying to work roles for blacks into productions that didn’t obviously have them. Somewhere someone suggested Ben Vereen’s character in **Pippin** , which seems to me the real beginning of the MN. Where the hell do you find a role for the black guy in a musical about Medieval France? But making the Leading Player black, you not only get a confidante and commentator, he can also be modern and street-wise. The MN, I think, got started as a way to inject an anachronistic modern sensibility into the story and give a black actor a place in what would otherwise be an all-white world. It has its attractions, but it got used way too often and has come to be seen as a cliche and, worse (and ironically), a demeaning role, since it’s one of the few blacks seem to get. the thing is, it’s arguably a step up from zero roles. I’m not trying to excuse the MN. It _is_ a demeaning role if that’s all there is. A better way is to have lots of both black and white roles (and other ethnic types, as well) all as concrete, realized characters. This isn’t easy to do, which is why you don’t see more of it. But the Matrix trilogy did have lots of black, white, hispanic, indian, and other roles. ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/27 "2010-09-15T16:30:37Z")
Bah! I say confirmation bias abounds. What about all the Magical/Sage/Wise Old White People in movies? Most of the time, this character is indeed just a plot forwarding device; the color of their skin matters less than their background or what they know. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/28 "2010-09-15T16:30:51Z")
I have a theory that writers who invoke the “magical negro” tend to be people who grew up in areas where black people were scarce on the ground. Stephen King is of course a prime offender in this department (The Shining, The Stand, The Green Mile), and he grew up in Maine, which has a black population of about 3. I’m sure that to a young Stephen King, black people must have seemed awfully exotic. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/29 "2010-09-15T16:32:49Z")
People, people. How could we forget the archtype of the character: Carl Weathers as Chubbs in _Happy Gilmore_. Come to think of it, Carl Weathers in anything except _Predator_ and the first two Rocky films. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/30 "2010-09-15T17:42:56Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Bullshit. > > Tell us how you will expeditiously provide such exposition without a character providing it. Give us a specific example. Tell us how you’ll explain the the Force to the audience in Star Wars without Kenobi & Yoda, or the Matrix without Morpheus. You can pick another example if – but an actual story with such a character, please. In **Ghostbusters I** and \*\*II \*\*the mystical 411 is provided by the main characters themselves who get it through research and then explain it to each other and/or their clients. Still bullshit? ETA: **Marley** , yes, the MN is more often than not used as the exposition device. But quite often it seems like the point of their ethnicity is to give extra authority on the supernatural. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/31 "2010-09-15T17:44:28Z")
How about Hand that Rocks the Cradle? Ernie Hudson plays a mentally challenged guy who ends up saving the family from the evil white woman, even after they’ve thrown him out of the family fold (they think he’s a pedophile but he’s not). ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/32 "2010-09-15T18:30:33Z")
For posters who are poo-pooing the whole idea of MN, I understand the extinct to say, “I’m tired of folks seeing racism in _everything_”…but I hope you read the article. It really does make a good case for MN syndrome. That said, I gotta say, I don’t think Morpheus fits at all. He isn’t being all magical to cowtow to white folk. He is being strong and smart and cool to save the freakin’ world. There are tons of black people in Zion for him to save. Different than say, Baggar Vance or The Hand that Rocks the Cradle’s MN, who I wish Freudian wouldn’t even had reminded me of! Shudder! Makes me cringe. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/33 "2010-09-15T18:36:37Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > [Thought-provoking essay](http://www.salon.com/news/race/index.html?story=%2Fent%2Fmovies%2Ffilm_salon%2F2010%2F09%2F14%2Fmagical_negro_trope) in Salon. Does “God” in _Bruce Almighty_ count? > [@Baboonanza](#): > > A lot of the parts played by Morgan Freeman count. I’ve been saying for a long time that Morgan Freeman has been typecast as the “wise old black man,” and that he’s better than that, and have even kind of felt it to be semi-offensive. I’m glad to see that others have recognized this, too. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/34 "2010-09-15T18:44:51Z")
Every time I see the title I keep getting this inexplicable desire to see a Peter Sellers movie and listen to some Badfinger. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/35 "2010-09-15T18:50:08Z")
The key part of the Magic Negro isn’t just that they’re magic, or negro. What makes them a Magic Negro is that they use their magic powers to help troubled middle-class white people, instead of downtrodden black people. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/36 "2010-09-15T18:54:17Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > The key part of the Magic Negro isn’t just that they’re magic, or negro. What makes them a Magic Negro is that they use their magic powers to help troubled middle-class white people, instead of downtrodden black people. That’s what bothered me the most about Ernie Hudson in Hand that Rocks the Cradle. (Sorry to bring it up, **Nzinga**!) The white upper middle class family throws him out even after he’s done a great job working for them, without even giving him a chance to explain. The white family doesn’t even let him touch the new baby though. And then he spends his time following and watching over them just so he can swoop in and save them. And in the end his reward is that he gets to carry the new white baby down the stairs to the living room! Huzzah. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/37 "2010-09-15T19:07:04Z")
I think that Morpheus is not a MN because he’s a prime plot mover, not merely an exposition device. Although he does provide much back story, he makes his own decisions, and has actual power over others including the hero. ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/38 "2010-09-15T19:51:51Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I’ve been saying for a long time that Morgan Freeman has been typecast as the “wise old black man,” and that he’s better than that, and have even kind of felt it to be semi-offensive. I’m glad to see that others have recognized this, too. Him hosting “Through the Wormhole” on the Science Channel isn’t helping that perception. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/39 "2010-09-15T21:48:55Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > > [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > > > Not kidding about people “overseas” attaching more significance to Obama’s race than (white) Americans did. > > I have to disagree. The election of a black president was a huge story. I’m not saying it was a big deal to every single white person but it was a big deal. I have no idea how people felt about it overseas. Hi **Marley 23**. Here’s a Wikipedia cite.[International Media Reaction to Obama’s Election](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_media_reaction_to_Barack_Obama%27s_2008_election). It doesn’t deal with opinion polls, shows overseas reactions that are incredibly enthusiastic. More enthusiastic than American media IMO; so again: not kidding. \*\* When Obama emerged as the victor, people in many countries were outright ecstatic. An editorial in French daily Libération was headlined “Hope, at Last! For One Day, Let Us Hope!” and encouraged readers to abandon their skepticism and allow themselves to feel joy. “After this already historic November 4th, let us admit that we’re caught up, almost all of us, in a sense of joy. For one hour or a day, let us speak with an enthusiasm that is now sweeping the planet. For a few hours, the Americans hope; for a few hours, the whole world feels better.”[6] In Brazil, Folha columnist Sérgio Malbergier wrote “it is so epic and multidimensional that it fills us with amazement and exhilaration.”[7] Tracee Hutchison, writing for The Age in Australia, said “It may only be for a moment, but somehow this week’s US election result rings like a clarion call for hope and peaceful momentum.”[8] Kenya’s Daily Nation reported that “excited crowds waved the American flag and carried life-size photos of Mr. Obama.”[9] In Swiss newspaper 24 heures (Switzerland), chief editor Thierry Meyer applauded America’s overcoming of racism and said Obama “is the embodiment of its lasting dream, its primordial founding virtue: optimism and confidence in its destiny.”[10] In another Swiss paper, Nachrichten, commentator Patrik Etschmayer said, “The victory of Barack Obama is historic. Historic, because Obama was an impossible candidate who ran an impossible campaign against all the odds and expectations.”[11] Christian Merville wrote for L’Orient Le Jour in Lebanon that Americans had astonished the world: “The miracle is that this is a country which has reconciled with itself after a very long estrangement has a renewed hope for a better future. This, just when everything seemed grey and the most sacred principles - those of democracy, freedom and free enterprise - had lost all meaning.”\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830/40 "2010-09-15T21:52:30Z")
Jesus, foreign perspectives of the US are skewed and stupid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-magical-negro/553830.md?page=3)