Typology of Black Representation in American Cinema from 2009 to 2017

One of the topics focusing on cultural studies is ethnic and racial representation. The purpose of the present article is to explain the Hollywood approaches to representation of black minority in Obama’s presidency. To do this, 21  black-indexed films, produced in the period from 2009 to 2017, were selected in two non-random sampling phases, and were studied using a combination of two semiotics models. The Findings of the research show that the image of black people in this period includes five types: 1) Critical surveying of history (14 films): Advancing the demands of blacks with the help of whites (10 films), Defeat the black without the help of whites (2 films), Black revenge of white (2 films) .2) Social realism (7 films): studying the problems of the contemporary black community (5 films) and Normalization of black life beside white (2 films). It seems that the redefinition of black-and-white relations in these species reflects the convergence of American cinema with the egalitarian process of black people inspired by the new political opportunity. Also we are witnessing the denaturalization of traditional stereotypes in the illustration of black, but the systems of the labels of most films signify the existence of the “other” and “modern stereotypes”.