Painting on the wall

I just wrote a paper for my film class that discussed the clown painting. The class focuses on performing masculinity. The section that talks about the painting is the last paragraph--let me know what you think:

Shaft serves as someone who takes the side of black maleness against white maleness. For Shaft, his masculinity is directly tied to his race. He lives in a time where racial tensions are high and he works in a city where race has dramatic effects on someone’s life. For a black man, performing masculinity was difficult because he was denied the power that was granted to white men. That’s why I believe Shaft shows multiple power plays by black men—specifically Shaft himself.
Carroll reveals that, “Constructions of, and challenges to, black manhood have been central to American and African-American history” (15). Shaft is only part of a turbulent creation of the identity of the black man. He was, “trying to navigate a tenuous position between the highly politicized black and white worlds” (Henry 3). And even though he is the epitome of the ‘cool’ black man, Shaft barely has any power. He has to get angry, bargain, and fight to do anything in the white-dominated world of law enforcement.
He tries other methods to gain power as a black man. One of the most interesting ways is by trying to fit into a white world—by becoming white himself. To some men, Shaft is betraying his black identity by working with white men. Some think his interactions with white individuals have gone so far that they even say he “think[s] like a white man.” Someone even gives him the nickname ‘Snow White’. Shaft must have a great performance in order to gain entry into the world of power controlled by white men while still not losing his black masculinity. If he doesn’t balance this well, he faces the fate of the biracial protagonist in James Weldon Johnson’s novel Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man who, “in passing as white, denies his blackness and thus his manhood” (Carroll 17). Shaft’s manhood is defined by how he performs it and this is difficult in the dichotomized world he lives in.
This reveals the truth in the Jackson Katz line: “The essence of masculinity is performance” (Henry 1). There is one small detail in this film that reveals the performing nature of Shaft’s life. On his wall is a painting of a clown. It seems like such an odd thing to be hanging in the apartment of someone like Shaft, but, considering the fact that someone’s home reveals things about them, this painting reveals many things about Shaft. On the surface, it could imply that he is attuned to art and thus expresses a sophistication that adds to his ‘coolness’ and ‘otherness’. However, the image is of a clown. This incites many questions. Is this clown a black man with white paint on his face? This would fit in perfectly with how Shaft has to put on a performance (just as all clowns do) in order to be ‘white’. Perhaps this act also makes him feel like a ‘clown’. Perhaps this painting serves as a reminder that he must put on a mask in every situation, either to fit into a white world or a black one. In class, it was discussed that Shaft’s masculinity is built up and over the top which insinuates that it needs to be built up because it does not stand on its own. If Shaft’s life is a walking performance, perhaps the ‘over-the-top’ theatrics of black masculinity are necessary to help him retain his guise!