Reading Notes W7 Hollywood Mammy (Hughes), Part B

I found this reading to be very interesting. Langston Hughes wrote this unpublished play, called Hollywood Mammy, as a response of sorts to Hattie McDaniel winning an Academy Award for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone with the Wind. Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Academy Award, but it was kind of a bittersweet feeling for African Americans, Hughes included, because she won the award for her role playing a stereotypical black woman from the south. This did not sit well with Hughes, who was all about black empowerment, and so he decided to write this play.

The play is basically a monologue of "Mammy" explaining how although she is nothing like the character she portrays in Hollywood, she will play the part in order to get paid handsomely. She says at one point "I used to study French before I discovered my vocation. At home I read Freud and Ernest Hemmingway. But when I get out to the studio its How is yawl tuh-day?"(Hughes) This quote is saying that the actress playing Mammy is not dumb like she is portrayed in Hollywood, she is actually quite the opposite. "Mammy" explains: "But in Hollywood I make my living pretending to be dumb. Still, if I'm smart enough to get an Oscar, I must be going some!" (Hughes). Hughes goes on to write that Mammy will "buy stocks in American T. & T., so when I get too old to be a Mammy, I can set down and be free." This sentence is important because it shows that this African American woman can play dumb for all the whites in Hollywood and across the nation, but she is getting paid enough to be able to invest in her future and be set for life.

This play tells a lot about this point in time. The fact that the first ever African American to win an Oscar won it by playing a stereotypical and borderline racist role shows us that there were a lot of problems in the country at this time. The fact that people were not interested in a black man or woman playing a serious role is gross, and it makes me understand a little more about why a movie and character like Black Panther is so powerful to the African American Community, because there was such a large amount of time where Hollywood would only give them roles like Mammy. The part of this play I like the most is the fact that the joke is really on the racists, because the actress who played this role still has not only her own life with her own interests and personality, but she is also walking away with a boatload of money from their pockets that she can use to take care of her and her family for the rest of her life. I also like that Hughes is trying to share with people that the African American community is not at all like stereotypes you see in the movies or books, I think that it is a play that could have done a lot to push for equality in a time before the civil rights movement. I think that it is very empowering and I enjoyed this read this week.