reflections on the birth of a nation (1915)

After reading Linda William's writing: "Race, Melodrama, and The Birth of a Nation (1915)" I understood that there was much more going on alongside racism and white supremacy. There are the undertones, seemingly less important that the major injustices but equally important to recognize. 

Thomas Dixon was very anti-Tom storyline, as Williams addressed in the content. He created African Americans as an individual with unruly features and carried other attributes as a, "Hyper-masculine rapist who can only be stoped by lynching" (244 Williams). The level of aggressive exaggeration that was employed by Dixon clearly made him a white supremacist, lacking in the understanding of man as equal.

Williams wrote about how Dixon created the complex of African American men. She notes: "The constant threat of rape was not simply a rationalization used to obscure the real function of keeping black men in their place, it was also a way to keep white women in their place." I had never thought of this before but studying history in high school I do recall that often men were depicted this way. There is a new level of understanding of marginalized groups being kept in their place.  Williams goes on to quote Hall (1993,  153): "The 'fear of rape, like the threat of lynching, served to keep the subordinate group in a state of anxiety and fear'". According to understanding, there are consequences, very serious consequences; sexual assault and death put in place to keep people from 'standing inside the margins' so to speak.