The First to Die Phenomenon

Jurassic Park

Token Black Character

The cliche of ‘the first to die’ is a common belief amongst moviegoers; when one is watching a film and they come across a black character, it is assumed that they will die first. Spanning from movies like Alien (1979) and Damnation Alley (1977), black men are the first dead out of the normally majority-white mass of people trying to survive. This is because of their casting as ‘Token Black Character’. The token characters are a secondary character that lacks any kind of development, but provides diversity for the movie. The characters are usually just the unevolved side-kick, while the protagonist has goals, wants, and desires. The token black characters are only in the film for the welfare of the white character. There are many potential explanations for the phenomenon of token black men being the first to die in horror movies, but the reasoning that Robin R. Means Coleman provides gives is critical and well thought. She begins by explaining the film, Jurassic Park (1993). In Jurassic Park, the black person is killed off first and relatively quick. Coleman poses the question ‘what’s scarier than a great big murderous dinosaur?’ which is quickly answered with “a big black man with a big black gun”. With that known, the dinosaur needs to kill the black man, the secondary threat. That is why the black man would need to be killed off first because “it establishes the superiority, the horribleness, of the monster” (The Code Switch) and also provides that the monster must be capable of horrifying acts if it can kill off black men thus insinuating “the white man, who ultimately defeats the monster, has to be intellectually superior, racially superior, that's sort of the hierarchy in horror films..." (The Code Switch).

Photo Credit: Jurassic Park (1993) To the left: Jurassic Park Movie Poster Below it- First death in film is Black man being eaten by dinosaur

The Shining

The Sacrificial Negro

Much like the token character, the sacrificial negro’s sole purpose is for the welfare of the white protagonist. The sacrificial negro puts themselves in the face of different dangers so that the white character can survive. This idea can be seen in the film, The Shining (1980), with the character of Dick Holloran, who is portrayed by Benjamin Sherman “Scatman” Crothers. In the film, Danny, the white child protagonist discovers that he has a telepathic connection with a black man named Dick Holloran. Danny asks Holloran for help when he finds that his father has gone insane and is on a killing spree. Holloran, being in a different state makes it his mission to save this little boy, by traveling out of state dodging dangers without any extra help. Holloran comes across as a protective character who is cognizant of his surroundings, especially being able to navigate any and everything to come to help a child he barely knows. When he finally arrives at Danny’s aid and opens the door, the antagonist of the film, comes from around the corner and puts an ax through Holloran’s chest. He died while Danny watched on and was saved by Holloran’s death. While this is a direct example of the sacrificial negro trope, that could have been realistically avoided if Danny gave a warning, this was not supposed to occur in the film at all. In the original book, The Shining, Dick Holloran survives, but in the movie adaption, he is killed by the antagonist. This is done to further prove the insanity of the antagonist. This creates an ideology to viewers that, the white antagonist must truly be instable if he was able to so easily defeat a black man who proved his strength throughout the film.

Photo/ Video Credit: The Shining (1980): To the left- The Shining movie poster Below it- Dick Holloran comes to save Danny and is killed

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