Unfortunately it will take way longer than my own lifetime to clear D.W. Griffith's name and legacy. The fact a 100 years of his filmmaking has passed largely unnoticed is a shame. To this day nothing more can be said of Griffith to a no0b without first saying he wasn't an inbred backward Southerner who ONLY made racist films degrading African Americans.
To make matters more interesting the topic of race and film goes way beyond Griffith and African Americans. Personally black folk got it bad, but Asian folk got it worse. This topic goes well beyond just Silents, but truly traditions started in Silents still ring through film as we know it today.
Since I don't feel you can cram every racial instance into one article this is going to be a 4 parter. 4 because there were 4 distinct types of racial prejudice in early film (and well...to a point still is).
The portrayals of African Americans and Interracial people ('mulatto' as it was termed) in Silents
The portrayals of Asians as well as the treatment of Asians in Silents
A little more all encompassing this one will focus on the treatment of Native Americans, Arabs, and anyone considered 'not white...but not black'.
So check back as this article will link them all!
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