The African American Cowboy

A famous aspect of American culture is the myths of the taming of our wild west. Another famous although less fortunate aspect of our culture would be our spoiled past with the slave trade. When combined these two faucets of American culture make for quite the breaking of stereotypes. DJango: Unchained, a film by Quentin Tarantino is a breaker of such stereotypes.

In the mythological American West most cowboys were white men, sometimes you would have an occasional Mexican or Native American, but the majority of the heroes of the wile west had pale skin.

Django turned that all around. As a former slave he becomes a bounty hunter, hunting down white men for the bounties placed on their heads. Instead of him being the one running from the white man, he is the one chasing them down. An ironic scene in the movie is when Django is hunting down a group of brothers who are hiding out on a plantation. Well Django takes the opertunity to show one of the brother just how much the leather whip hurts. He turns the tables on slavery and takes charge.

Django is doubly surprising because he is an African American cowboy. The towns people are all shocked and confused when they see him riding about on top of a horse. At the plantation they visited, the owner even mentioned that it was illegal for a black man to ride a horse. Django didn't care, he was a cowboy and he had earned his freedom. He had just as much a right to be a top a horse as any man.

Spike Lee, the director of Bamboozled, would probably appreciate the originality of Django. He would like how the character strikes back against his oppressors and how he does not get used. Django fights against his suppressors and a society that sees him as a lesser. Django does not give up although the odds are against him, he keeps moving on because he must accomplish his goal and free his wife from the same oppression he so luckily escaped. Django is the image of a strong black man far from the bumbling buffoonery of minstrelsy, Spike Lee would definitely approve with pride.