Over half a century ago, the United States had its first black president and its first female president.
They were fictional, they were on the screen, their names were Douglass Dilman and Leslie McCloud, and within the many years that followed there have been many others.
Yet none of them are nearly as good as Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate for the 2024 election, who’s a mixed race woman. Even after the United States elected a mixed race president – Barack Obama – who was the topic of two biographiesThe filmmakers didn’t create fictional counterparts. Nor were the presidents on screen ever of South Asian descent.
Instead, nearly all presidents of color on American screens have been black and male, while nearly all female presidents have been white. While the portrayal of most black presidents on screen has avoided any discussion of race, the portrayal of ladies has uniformly focused on gender.
So, as people engage within the inevitable debate concerning the significance of Harris' candidacy, it’s high time to fictional presidentsTogether, they reveal how the presidency, on this case the fictional presidency, struggles with race and gender – identical to the country as an entire.
And, in the method, perhaps we will create a watch list for individuals who need a break from what’s prone to be an exhausting presidential campaign.
The doubtful and doubted president
The first black president was Douglass Dilman, played by James Earl Jones within the film “The man.” “The Man” puts racial politics front and center. Dilman is a reticent academic who becomes a senator and serves as president pro tempore of the Senate before a series of crazy coincidences land him within the presidency. When he’s thrust into office, he faces the doubts of black activists and the fierce opposition of white politicians who don’t recognize his legitimacy. In the Oval Office, he tells his daughter, “I'm the wrong one. … They were expecting a black messiah.”
“Strong, caring family fathers” – and a few comedians
But for each doubting Douglass Dilman, there are much more like Tom Beck, the president who must lead the United States through the chance of a comet apocalypse in 1998.Deep impact.” Played with mental dignity by Morgan Freeman, Beck leads the role and not using a single reference to blackness particularly or race on the whole.
There is President Thomas Wilson in “2012”, played by Danny Glover, in one other story of world destruction. And President David Palmer in the tv series 24a candidate-turned-president, played by Dennis Haysbert, who faces each assassination attempts and nuclear terrorism.
In all three portrayals, the president is generally the identical: a robust, determined and caring family man.
Leave it to the comedians, who’re among the many few who do things otherwise.
Chris Rock used all his routines about black and white culture to construct Mays Gilliam, the Washington City Councilman who became the Democratic candidate for the “Hail Mary” Senate in 2003.Head of State.” Jamie Foxx made some indirect racist jokes in 2013’s “The White House is destroyed”, a movie that otherwise, alongside the 1997 film “Air Force One” in the President-as-action-hero genre.
Everything about gender
These family men and motion heroes don’t have anything to do with the various female presidents on the screen.
The first – Leslie McCloud – was greater than a decade before Douglass Dilman within the fictional timeline of presidents on screen. 1964 “Kisses for my President“ established the template that the history of female presidents was exclusively about gender.
In this film, the main target just isn’t on McCloud herself, but moderately on how her husband, played by Fred MacMurray, struggles with the confusion and humiliation that comes with being a person within the role of First Lady. He is pictured wearing a lady's hat on a poster for the film.
Whether comedy or drama, the fictional presidents face the identical challenges once they enter the White House.
They struggle to be each president and mother. Their husbands resent the role of ladies. And, most significantly, the male politicians around them are disrespectful and distrustful. These movies not only predicted Hillary Clinton's candidacy, but additionally reflected the broader national debate about women within the workplace.
Maybe that’s why one in all the primary TV movies on Lifetime – the self-proclaimed “network for women” – was “Majority rule“, during which Blair Brown played General Catherine Taylor, a war hero turned president who must contend with self-centered and condescending politicians who all want her job.
President Mackenzie Allen, played by Geena Davis, appeared in the tv series “Commander-in-Chief.”
Breaking recent ground
Most recently, Kamala Harris' moment was also Selina Meyer's moment, with People who rediscover “Veep”, the 2012-2019 television series during which Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a vice chairman who ascends to the Oval Office after the president resigns.
There's one more reason to observe “Veep” — as if there weren't enough already: Laura Montez, who defeats Meyer in a chaotic election. Montez is one in all the few fictional presidents to interrupt the black male/white female stereotype. Yet Montez stays a minor character in “Veep,” with only just a few fleeting jokes calling attention to the indisputable fact that she's Latina.
In the series finale – spoiler alert – “Veep” returns to the familiar. Fast forward several many years: At the funeral of Selina Meyer, a white president whose story has all the time been told when it comes to gender and sexuality, among the many guests is Richard Splett, Meyer's former worker who years later became president himself. As a black president, Splett achieves the triple success of bringing peace to the Middle East before having fun with an idyllic retirement together with his beautiful wife.
Meyer and Splett together have all the weather of half a century of fictional presidents, with Montez, the Latin American president, relegated to the sidelines.
The just one
Constance Payton is the one black president to seem on screen. You could be forgiven if you may have never heard of her, as her time in office was short. Alfre Woodard played Payton within the series “Condition”, which ran for less than 13 episodes in 2014–15.
In interviews, Woodard himself emphasized that gender, not race, dynamics play a task within the portrayal of this character. “Constance is, of course, a woman,” Woodard said“And Charleston (the CIA analyst who conducts her daily briefings) is a woman, so we have those two women in a very powerful position. So we're watching the work they're doing to keep the American homeland as safe as possible.”
All of those fictional presidents had something in common. They all tried to normalize the concept of a female and black president. They are inclined to be thoughtful, serious, cosmopolitan, and willing to tackle any difficult challenge head-on within the interest of the nation. Selina Meyer is a selfish narcissist, but that’s one in all the traits that made her such a particular figure within the list of fictional female presidents.
In other words, for the past half century, the American media has mostly claimed that black men and white women could fit the mold of great presidents. But often they’ve been either one or the opposite: a black man or a white woman.
image credit : theconversation.com