Superheroes of the Melting Pot: Thoughts on Independence Day

Defeating evil geniuses and space invaders requires special powers. In our multicultural age, Hollywood has deemed that it’s a job the average white American gentile is unqualified for. Gone are the days when Aquaman, Superman and the rest of Saturday morning’s all-gentile, all-white League of Superheroes protected the planet. When the alien invaders in Independence Day visited earth several months ago, the only Superheroes in attendance were a pair of highly-empowered non-WASPs.

Jeff Goldblum is the brainy, chess-playing, computer-programming member of the dynamic multicultural duo. Throughout the movie, you can practically hear the high-pitched pentium whistle of his top-of-the-Bell-Curve Jewish mind. Goldblum manages to break the alien broadcast code, discovers their plan to annihilate the earth and masterminds the terran counterattack. But, Goldblum’s assets are confined to his brain. In the physical sphere, Goldblum is feeble and maladroit. During a ride on the President’s aircraft, for instance, he becomes violently airsick. When Smith takes Goldblum through acrobatic escape maneuvers in the alien aircraft, Goldblum becomes hysterical with anxiety.

Will Smith’s character profile is a simple inversion of Goldblum’s. While Goldblum stammers his way from one eureka to the next, Smith spends his time dogfighting enemy fighter craft, gushing vacuously with chest-thumping bravado at every turn. Smith is master of his physical domain, but has little interest in abstract thought. When Goldblum explains his complex plan to destroy the alien’s mothership, Smith flippantly dismisses the plan as "bullshit."

In sum, Goldblum and Smith represent benign stereotypes. In the tradition of Woody Allen, Goldblum plays the cerebral, charmless Jew constantly put out of sorts by the physicality of human existence - a stereotype of the Jewish male which has been a mainstay of anglophone culture for the last 100 years. Smith, on the other hand, plays the sunny, glib Black "action comedy" hero - the stock character that Eddie Murphy minted in 1982’s 48 Hours.

Independence Day’s carries a hard-to-miss multicultural message: Like the League of Superheroes, America can ward off its enemies only by calling upon the special abilities of its constituent elements. The cerebral Jew provides the brainpower. The gutsy Black provides the bravado. The president (who is Caucasian and gentile) oversees their efforts and makes a speech at the end. On the surface, the message is unobjectionable. The Jew is not a Shylock. The Black is not a pimp. Hollywood has covered its bases.

White American society holds a complex, ambiguous attitude towards Black males. On the one hand, notions of white genetic intellectual superiority are still widely held in the United Sates. On the other hand, many American whites regard Blacks as innately affable, musically talented, athletically gifted, and physically beautiful. Independence Day suggests that these stereotypes can be invoked positively so long as American Blacks contribute their strengths to the common cause. To the extent that the movie offers Will Smith’s character as a model for Blacks seeking a recognized station within American society, this message is problematic. Our economy is now marked by returns on intellectual as opposed to physical labor. An asthmatic computer programmer has a brighter economic future than a robust construction worker. Charisma, athleticism and beauty are no match for intelligence in the arena of income generation.

In postwar America, individual intelligence, at least inasmuch as society defines the construct of "intelligence," has been the dominant factor dictating what people earn - for Blacks every bit as much as for whites. In an earlier age, when income was more closely tied to social class than to intelligence, stereotypes based on intellectual proclivities were not the loaded weapons they are now.

The British of the early and mid-20th century, for instance, were quite eager to admit that foreigners and Jews outclassed the English in cleverness. Millions of English people accepted as their national emblem the bulldog, an animal noted for its impenetrable stupidity. This intellectual self-effacement only began to dissipate in the mid-20th century, when intelligence surpassed social class as a barometer of economic entitlement.

In the modern age, it is a very dangerous thing to assign stereotypes based on intellectualism - even if such stereotypes are not racialist. Everybody may have a "special gift," but the employment marketplace is not nearly as democratic as Independence Day might suggest it to be. In the real world, each gift is not rewarded equally. Those who make their contribution to society with their minds will be the economic masters. Those who approach the same task through brawn will be the minions.

Independence Day does not promulgate hateful messages. Hollywood has taken a great moral leap since the days when Black actors had to make their living playing pimps and hustlers. However, it’s time that Hollywood moves beyond a mere absence of malice standard in the creation of Black role models.