Deconstructing Coonskin

Bakshi: The deal with the story of Malcolm the cockroach who leaves the woman who’s been taking care of him is based on personal experiences of black men I knew who couldn’t afford to feed their families, so they left because they couldn’t stand to see them suffer.

Br’er Rabbit and Black American Folklore

While watching the movie, Rabbit is caught in a tough situation where he is almost killed by the shakedown pastor he stole money from. Struck by inspiration, he starts begging “Please don’t throw me out the window to that cold ground below! Shoot me, strangle me, do anything you want…just don’t throw me into that garbage can!” Predictably, they throw Rabbit out of the window and I chimed in for the next line: ” ‘Cause I’se born and raised in a garbage can.”

My boyfriend looked at me like I was tripping. “What,” I asked, “You never heard of Br’er Rabbit?”

Apparently, he hadn’t. Br’er Rabbit (or Brother Rabbit or Briar Rabbit) is part of that dying tradition of American Folklore – things I grew up learning (along with Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry) but that are not considered standard knowledge and may or may not be taught in school. Attributed to slave narratives (though also linked to Native American traditional stories) Br’er Rabbit tales feature a trickster who can be the villain or the hero using his wits to outsmart his enemies. This was a clever inclusion on Bakshi’s part.

The Muhammad Ali/Sonny Liston Fight

This one was a cultural reference I didn’t get. Near the end of the film, Brother Bear becomes a boxer for the mafia. In response, Rabbit finds his own boxer (who represents Muhammad Ali) to take on Bear. The other boxer gets into the ring and taunts Bear, calling him an Uncle Tom. My boyfriend then drew a parallel to the Muhammad Ali/Sonny Liston fights which appears to be backed up by the movie. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Miss America

Coonskin speaks frankly about the legacy of slavery. After Mehitabel’s soliloquy, Brother Rabbit, Brother Bear, and Brother Fox walk around Harlem taking in the view from the streets. After watching a homeless man joyously picking a “genuine cotton sweater” out of the trash, Fox curses the man for getting excited about “some goddamn old sweater.” Rabbit cautions him to remember that the man’s father was a slave, and that “some brothers were beat up so bad that they never come around.”

The next scene is the entrance of Miss America. Represented as a buxom blond with light freckles, America is often pursued by hapless black men in search of reconciliation, but ends up abusing them physically or accusing them of rape after luring them to her side. Black men are often shown fighting her, trying to distance themselves from her, or trying to win her favor, but a true union with America often remains frustratingly out of reach. It is an apt metaphor for the African-American struggle to correct a dysfunctional relationship with our nation, but sexualization of the interactions between the black men and Miss America reinforce stereotypes as it challenges the relationship dynamic.

The Idea of False Salvation

It could a pointed commentary on shakedown artists, fake preachers who hustle the poor out of money with false promises of salvation…or it could be construed as an indictment of black church culture. There are multiple scenes in Coonskin when people who are supposedly of faith act completely out of character – I think the interpretation of the scenes depends on your own life experiences.

The Role of Women

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