When Black people are written through a white gaze - Malcolm and Marie Review.

The premise of Malcolm and Marie initially intrigued me, yet after the second time around watching it, I couldn’t help but wonder just what audience this film was meant for.

To be clear, I was drawn toward it the moment I heard Zendaya would be starring and because of that, went into the movie without a clear expectation of just what was in store. Needless to say I was left with questions, concerns and just general confusion of who Sam Levinson was attempting to reach. Not just Levinson, but Zendaya and John Washington as well. More so, who were the two of them attempting to portray?

We were given a movie with a “Black” couple facing a tumultuous argument that mirrored their even more broken relationship. Discussions of tokenism, politics, and place of Black identities in film ensued and to an extent that was okay. These are no different than discussions Black creatives have every day. Yet, the glaring issue with their relationship, the characters themselves--more importantly Marie is that, the movie did not read as if it was created for a Black audience.

The movie, so painfully trying to explore the Black experience failed because it simply could not capture the “authenticity” in a way that made it plausible for a Black audience. Malcolm read like the poor caricature of a Black man through a white man’s gaze. The emphasize on aggression, violence, hatred for the Black identity and mistreatment of his girl friend--all the worst types of stereotypes amplified by a white director.

On the other hand--Marie, seemed so incredibly white that--she failed the capture me at least, as a Black woman. I was not able to identify with her story--I was not able to sympathize with her or recognize her struggle as a Black woman simply because she wasn’t written as one.

Marie was written for a white woman’s audience as a self insert, while Malcolm was written as a Black caricature again--for a white audience. This is how I at least, as a black viewer interpreted it.

These accusations may come off as absurd, or even me to an extent attempting to erase Zendaya or Marie’s identity. She is clearly a biracial woman, so why—is it okay to say she reads like a white woman? Is it because she is biracial—because that would be an issue to make such claims?

That much is true, Marie and Zendaya’s biracial identity alone isn’t why she reads as white to me, but it plays a role in the movie. There is certainly something to be said of Levinson taking a biracial, light skinned actress and allowing her to be a vice for white women. Her proximity to whiteness, her lighter skin, and tumultuous narrative of being berated and abused by a Black man clearly open the pathway to why many may see her as white.

This isn’t to say this narrative isn’t something that Black women are familiar with—that is completely false and to promote such ideas is harmful. Yet, in the case of Marie we have a light skinned , biracial woman written through the lenses of a white director pulling harmful stereotypes that cause the characters to fall into specific roles.

For starters, Marie is heavily paralleled and represented by “Karen” or “The White girl form L.A Times”. This is where most of the evidence of her being for a white audience, for me at least, comes from. Marie’s relationship to this white woman is strange in a sense that not only does she form a ‘sisterhood’ with her, in relation to Malcolm’s misogyny, she also is the only woman Marie speaks highly of. She is the only woman who Marie defends and it is clear through the movie—the two of them have a bond.

We as viewers do not know what the “White Girl from LA times” looks like or even her name, yet as much of a joke as Malcolm and Marie attempt to make her, Marie warms up to her and toward the end of the movie defends her. Marie even claims that Malcolm, a Black man is more privileged than her at a point. This is a stark contrast to how Marie speaks of the Black women in the film.

Kiki, Imani and Taylor are all at the receiving end of Marie’s hate (to an extent, even Malcolm’s mother). All these women just so happen to be Black women or at least, viewed as such. There is a point in the movie where Marie negatively comments on the three girls, as “a girl with hips and an actual ass”, and then speaks about how she herself is skinny and thin.

Looking at this through society’s perspective, Black women are always demonized and sexualized for curves, hips, butts, etc. Whereas white women are seen as desirable and more innocent for being skinny, and thin. Black women by default are seen as sexual beings and proactive figures for our natural bodies, where as white girls are the opposite for their natural bodies.

In this moment, Marie has managed to negatively condone features unique to black women, while speaking poorly of Black women throughout the duration of the film. We get a sour image of Taylor and by extension Imani because we as the viewers are supposed to feel as if Imani was stolen by Taylor. Marie creates a fantasy where we may view Taylor as a homewrecker; words like “psycho”, and “crazy” are used to describe her. Marie is incredibly rude to Taylor and paints her in an awful light. Without even seeing Taylor and or Imani—we already have a negative image of her, and her relationship to Marie.

The same happens to Kiki and the revelation of her sex with Malcolm. Marie paints her as a disgusting figure, and a secret that Malcolm should’ve never brought up given she potentially ruined his character and their sex life. Without ever seeing Kiki, we area made to dislike her, see her in a poor light, again a home wrecker, and of course, see her as an adversary to Marie. There is again, an emphasis on Kiki and Taylor being curvaceous in a negative way, where as Marie is skinny and frail.

This is why I feel that Marie is written for white women, or women who have a close proximity to whiteness. From her demonization of Black women, to being portrayed as a victim to a Black man, to her sisterhood and near identical comparison to a white woman—it was clear that her whole conception was supposed to be for white women.

There is no way I, as a Black woman felt I could connect to her. Not with the colorist and near antiblack language she used toward Malcolm—a dark skinned Black man (“a fuckin’ animal, a fuckin’ barnyard animal’), not with her clear hatred toward Black women, and not with her sisterhood to a liberal white feminist White woman.

That all said, Marie offered an interesting narrative but ultimately failed at capturing a Black woman’s audience simply because wasn’t a Black woman.

It’s important to note that, this movie touched on heavy subjects and it would be completely inaccurate to imply that it’s harmful to speak of the abuse and mistreatment Black women face by Black men. Because it is real, and we see it in our community every day.

While I don’t see or view Marie as a Black woman—others may, and her story of abuse, addiction, and pain may resonate with them. Yet, these are stories that should be told by Black women, with a Black woman playing a part. The abuse Black women face isn’t something that should be handled by a nonblack person because in the end, it feels very antiblack.

Malcolm was an abusive man, yet it was hard to ignore that he was intentionally written in a racist light for a white audience. He was a racist caricature falling so easily into the Brute Caricature Trope—a trope that involves making Black men aggressive, animalistic (was referred to as an animal in relation to Marie and the "white girl from LA Times" , dangerous or violent toward white people—especially white women. He was made to terrorize Marie and the ‘Karen’ from LA times to the point where even though this white woman was not mentioned, you could feel her there as Marie defended her.

He sang jazz music, danced, drank, shouted, screamed, punched the air, was aggressive, hyper active, in some instances self hating, etc., all of these were seen in a negative light. He was an aggressor to a white woman and a white coded woman and the whole time, the audience was praying for Marie to escape. His violence toward the Karen from the LA times became less justified the more Marie agreed with her and therefore, the narrative succeeded at turning him into the brutish, scary Black man.

This is where the story lost its ground. The foundation was not meant to tackle the complexities of Blackness as much as it was meant to capture Blackness to make white people comfortable. Here was an amazing opportunity, to showcase a Black couple going through a struggle that could perhaps had promise.

However, Sam Levinson was far to busy attempting to make a caricature of what he and other white people assumed Blackness was, and therefore, ruined the plot before it even began.

That said, this is why it’s important for Black people to tell Black stories. Socially aware Black people at that. Having our stories white washed for a white gaze does more harm than good, and further promotes harmful stereotypes that sill affect Black people today.