Michelle Burton
10/25/2015
CJS 257

The movie Rosewood by John Singleton shows the harsh reality of race relations in the Antebellum south. The events in Rosewood persisted seven days but had a lasting impact; left a small town destroyed by fire, scarred blacks, and enabled white men in their sense of superiority and control. These events were fostered from the idea of defending White Supremacy, maintaining social control, as well as guilt and innocence pertaining to color and gender. Through Rosewood we see the how controlling images of the True woman, paternalism, the Black Brute/ physicality, and moral panic were used to defend these ideas.

The traditional values of the Whites not only in Rosewood but in the South during the early 1900’s were based off of paternalism (protecting family and traditional values such as obedience and respect) and the image of the True woman also White womanhood. During this time, the young generation was seen as “rapidly becoming unmanageable” which was attributed to “a deep seated dislike of control and discontent with family life and conditions”. It was a man’s job to protect his family, keep authority, and keep them in line with the norm so they would not deviate from it. We see this with Duke throughout the movie as he tries to teach his son how to be a man. Blacks were seen as becoming unmanageable and Whites were ever more intolerable to insubordination. To combat this, The KKK as we read through MacLean took the initiative of “cleaning up the towns…particularly vices tending to the destruction of the home, family, childhood, and womanhood”. White womanhood or the controlling image of the True Woman can be seen through Mrs. Wright and in a smaller sense, Fanny Taylor. Mrs. Wright is a strong white, pious, and restrained woman who is loyal and defensive of her family as when the mob comes and she all but dares them to come into her home while standing her ground (her own sense of “paternalism”). On the other hand we have Fanny Taylor, she is a white woman which already places her higher even though it is known she in unfaithful and unrestrained. The role is to protect the dignity of the True Woman and White womanhood.

With Blacks being free, they fought against the Whites for their rights as “sovereign American citizens” and against the violation of their fundamental rights as U.S citizens. From this time we see the “looming threat” that this change would bring and the idea of the Black Brute. Giving blacks any authority or rights would bring them close or even give some the ability to surpass Whites which we see in Last Place Aversion theory, nobody wants to be last, better yet, and nobody wants to be beneath a Black person. The Black Brute was seen as animalistic, threatening not only the True woman, but societal order. Maclean mentioned how Black war veterans were seen as a threat because a black man in a uniform is a symbol of commanding respect and this was seen as “danger”. The threat was that the black man would, “act on the new ideas and social aspirations” from fighting in France which would ensue in bloodshed. Mann was a Black veteran who volunteered to go over to France we find out when Mr. Wright talks about how it must have been messed up for him to be forced to go and kill whites. We see the shock in his face when Mann tells him the truth. Mann is already seen as superhuman as he is bigger than the other men which unwittingly demands/brings respect, authority and attention. This superhuman ability s shown when the men go into the woods after him and run back claiming they were shot at by fifteen black men while it was only Mann. He is a threat to the Whites in Rosewood because he is everything they entail a man should be but Black and better at it. On the other hand, we have Duke, the white version.

With Blacks fighting for their basic citizenship rights, race riots, and the Whites feeling threatened trying to preserve traditional values and society there ensues moral panic. In Rosewood the moral panic ensues when Fanny claims she was attacked and beat by a “Black man”. The sheriff who already knows what will happen as well as John Wright are the only ones who initially try to assuage the situation. The concern here is that a black man has assaulted a white woman, a pure innocent being, this also cause a disruption in order. Mann serves as the perfect scapegoat along with the rest of the Black community especially because he is a mysterious outsider who just came upon them. He is also a threat because he’s only been in Rosewood but a day and has already become a “leader” (aside Sylvester) who they look up to. On the other hand, we have John Wright, the only white man actually living in Rosewood among the Blacks who some do revere with respect but does not really step up initially to defend them. We then have this hostility that grows bigger beyond who attacked her to the whole group of Blacks (us vs them) and a consensus among one group “the lynch mob” that action (legal or non-legal) must be taken. Meanwhile this whole panic is disproportionate because there is no threat because Fanny was not attacked by a black man and there is the volatility in moral panic where it was short lived. The Blacks must be handled before order is destroyed. This moral panic is similar to the belief in 1919 that Blacks were organizing against Whites and so their spending habit were monitored and even the FBI started looking into their habits.

With moral panic ensuing there was only one way to restore order in Rosewood to the whites and that was to bring their justice. The sheriff’s job anywhere is to maintain order and uphold the law. Sheriff Walker must keep order in Rosewood but also at the time keep social control (within the social order). He is an enabler because while he does warn Sylvester, tell Duke in the beginning not to shoot the fugitive, and tries to control the mob, he does nothing to stop them or punish them. The Lynch mob takes it upon itself to “uphold the law” and respond the Black threat/Black brute. They must protect white innocence at any cost. MacLean spoke of how the KKK wanted the return of the state’s authority. Here the whites in and around Rosewood want the full authority. The lynch mob also serves as justification of the Brute physicality of White Masculinity. The mob has a shoot first, question later mentality; you’re dead whether or not you answer. We see this when they destroy Sylvester’s home and even when they question Mr. Carrier with John Wright present. They abandon reason. White is innocent, black is guilty. As Aunt Sarah says to Sylvester, “Nigger is just another word for guilty”. They refuse to hear or entertain the idea the attacker was white, all the while the sheriff knew and even question Fanny about it (she needed scapegoat more vulnerable). They act as crazed animals on the prowl and will not stop until all Blacks in Rosewood pay for what one person, in their eyes, what one black man did. They are monsters as Duke’s son calls his father in the end.

Rosewood is a prime example of the brute physicality of the white man in wanting to keep authority, social order, innocence, and traditional values. An innocent won reduced to nothing, never restored. We saw the unwillingness to accept Black as Innocent and White as guilty. The fierce protection of the reverse was entailed and enabled unlawfully and unrestrained. We see what happened when the authority of whites came into question in the Blacks fight for justice and equality.