And some of us are silenced

Francis, Patricia

Abstract

In Mangrove the first of the Small Axe films, bio-chemist student Althea says “We need to challenge the system… We mustn’t be victims but protagonists of our stories and what better way of representing ourselves but self-representing ourselves.” A bold, incisive statement and perhaps an appropriate message for Black British women today. Nurse, mother, wayward teenage girls, educationalists, and lesbians are presented in these films, the Black female trope of carer, nurturer and sexual being is reinforced.

In Welcome to the Jungle Kobena Mercer acknowledged that ‘[t]he impact of black women’s voices in the early eighties heralded the pluralization of black identities that would become a key theme throughout the decade.’ Not one of the five Small Axe films is dedicated to any of the many Black women active in the struggle for equality in the UK.

Prime time Sunday evening viewing across five weeks offered McQueen the opportunity to give volume to the silenced, to offer an alternative social historical account of the plurality of the Black British experience, to represent and re-present. He did not. The voices of Black British women were muted.

In the 1979 hit Silly Games’ Janet Kay sings “You’re as much to blame, ‘cos I know you feel the same…” McQueen acknowledges systemic racism in his films, and in my paper, I will argue that in depicting the sexist and racist tropes Black women consistently defend, McQueen’s Small Axe films fail to advocate for ‘Black sisters’, instead they carry ‘the burden’ for Black men only.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: 14th Annual Contemporary Directors Symposium
• Start Date: Sep 24, 2021
• End Date: Sep 24, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jun 27, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 25, 2024
• Series Title: Steve McQueen Symposium: "I Want the Burden"
• Keywords: Director, Film, Women, Black British, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Race, Class
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11984217
• Publisher URL: https://sussexcds.wordpress.com