America Beyond the Color Line

In the conclusion, Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. surveys the state of blacks in the movies. “Has Hollywood become colorblind in pursuit of profits at the box office?” he asks. Not yet, Gates concludes after interviewing a number of successful figures. “Hollywood is anti anything that isn't green,” Samuel L. Jackson tells him, but Jackson shows how that can cut both ways, a point echoed by Israeli-born producer Arnon Milchon, who casts a hypothetical film with combinations of white and/or black actors and speculates on how much money they'd make. Also interviewed: Chris Tucker, Quincy Jones, Alicia Keys, Don Cheadle, Nia Long, and directors John Singleton, Reginald Hudlin and Reggie Rock Blythewood.