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Social Education 67(4), pp. 213-216 © 2003 National Council for the Social Studies Historical Fiction to Historical Fact: Gangs of and the Whitewashing of History

Mario Tursi c/o Films

Benjamin Justice ers. celebrates this have forgotten our own past. history in a bloody pageant of histori- Scorsese’s movie joins a long list of cal fiction set, for the most part, in the popular historical films of the last two “America was born Five Points district of during decades that have attempted to cash in in the streets,” 1862-63. The film’s thesis, put simply, is on the public’s fascination with history by or so proclaims the menacing publicity that before modernity, American civil settling on controversial topics—Vietnam, poster for ’s recent film, life was wild, mean, and bloody. Even the assassination of JFK, , Gangs of New York. Before the advent of during the Civil War, the great turning and D-Day to name a few. And like the professional police forces, social services, point in American history, the Union was best of its ilk, the film aims for super- and housing codes, urban slum-dwell- hardly unified. Within that context, Irish realism, right down to the buttons. This ers led their lives in chaotic, desperate, immigrants won a place for themselves emphasis seems to go hand in hand sometimes violent circumstances. Gangs through heroic acts of violence and resis- with an unstated assumption about big- of roughs warred over territory with tance on the streets. In our twenty-first budget historical films: that they are gangs of competing police and firefight- century comfort, we (the film’s audience) historically truthful. Although they are

May/June 2003 213 unregulated, and produced by large cor- the poor and working class whites who not to mention the horrific violence porations for the sole purpose of making opposed the war were usually racist done to blacks during the . Scorsese money, historical films carry a certain “natives” while Irish immigrants opposed throws a few pitiful bones—a token black weight in the public consciousness. Direc- it only when they faced a draft. The narra- member of an Irish gang, a priest bonk- tors boast of the accuracy of their films, tor is an Irish gangster, and lest we make ing an Irishman on the head for shouting and go to great lengths to make good. any mistakes, Team Hibernia is the good at a “nigger” to leave a Catholic church, Scorsese filmed Gangs in for the guys. The script makes Irishmen impish, and a random camera pan past a lynch- sake of period architecture, injected a cheery, and morally righteous; it makes ing. However, none of these has any lexicon of nineteenth-century jargon in the “natives” who oppose them intoler- meaning within the film, except maybe the script, and put lavish detail into the ant, somber, and greedy. Middle class to stave off the critics. As one reviewer hair, costumes, and characters. Given the Protestant reformers are boobs. has put it, the film “got the hats and the script’s thesis (that we have forgotten our The trouble with focusing on the knives right, but the main lines of the true past and that this is it), all this atten- Draft Riots, though, is that the fact story don’t make much sense.”5 After all, tion boils down to a single point: Scors- does not sustain the fiction. The Draft how sympathetic would the good guys ese wants to educate the public, and he Riots were race riots as much as attacks be if they were even more intolerant and expects it to trust his credibility. Barring a against the government, and the fac- racist than the bad guys? How boobish massive attack on that credibility, the film tions were not white Irish versus white would the urban reformers be if we saw will become a major source of the public’s Protestants, but white Irish men, women, them as abolitionists fighting for the understanding of the past. and children (and some white Protes- rights of slaves? In the opening dialog The trouble with this scenario, how- tants) against blacks.1 For four days and of the film, the audience is supposed to ever, is that while Gangs is accurate in nights, these angry mobs picked many sympathize with the Irish immigrant’s detail, it is distorted and mistaken in its targets—police stations, newspaper offic- right to live peacefully in America. The larger characterizations and interpreta- es, homes of the well-to-do—but they film groups good guys and bad guys tion. This should not be surprising: Gangs visited consistent and bloodthirsty vio- around their acceptance or rejection of of New York is a moneymaking enter- lence on African American men, women, this central premise. But in refusing to prise. The public likes heroes and happy and children everywhere. “It seemed to acknowledge the vicious of Irish endings. Yet because the film purports be an understood thing throughout the gangsters themselves, it denies African to be historically accurate, the result is city that the Negroes should be attacked Americans the same dignity. It’s as if to the creation (or perpetuation) of a new wherever found,” reported The New say being prejudiced against Irish people feel-good mythology about the past that York Times.2 Mobs terrorized, assaulted, makes one evil; being prejudiced against replaces the old feel-good mythology and murdered. The Christian Recorder black people is irrelevant. Without the of a noble, united North that Scorsese reported that “many men were killed and veneer of historical righteousness, objects to. And for the most part, this thrown into the rivers, a great number Gangs is just another Scorsese blood- new mythology has been accepted, and hung to trees and lampposts, numbers bath among white men. It’s the sheen even praised, by those who are supposed shot down; no black person could show of historical “truth” that lends nobility to alert us to credibility problems: the their heads but that they were hunted and sympathy to the characters. press. like wolves.”3 A mob including many women and children looted and burned The Popular Press The Film a black orphan asylum to the ground. In spite of its flaws, Scorsese’s film The setting of the film, The day after the riots subsided, The New does provide one of those “teachable on the eve of the 1863 Draft Riots, is York Times tried to quantify the carnage: moments” we history teachers crow incidental to Scorsese’s larger vision of “Hundreds [of blacks] have been killed about—a rare chance to engage students reminding Americans of their violent in the public streets with atrocities such and the public in history while we have past. New York, among other Ameri- as we have never seen before in a civi- their attention. The film includes his- can cities, saw gang warfare and riots lized country ... hundreds of them have torical figures usually found only in throughout the nineteenth century, and had their houses sacked and burned, textbooks, such as “Boss” Tweed, Hor- the film could have chosen any period to and their little property all forcibly taken ace Greeley, and P.T. Barnum. Some make its point. The choice of the 1863 from them; thousands of them have fled memorable scenes burst the bubble of riots, however, allows Scorsese to cre- from the city in abject terror; and nearly Northern denial of its own history of ate a convenient fiction by exploiting all of them have been thrown out of racism and reluctance to end slavery. a largely unrecognized fact in popular employment.”4 This was ethnic cleans- Despite its limited focus on male vio- historical mythology: Many Northern ing, on American soil. lence, the film breathes life into nine- whites opposed the Civil War as much What Gangs gives us instead is teenth century New York—the clothes, as their Southern counterparts did. This worse than apologetic; it’s denial. The the buildings, and the politics. The cast fact, portrayed powerfully in the film, film ignores the seething racism of Irish list boasts a number of superstars—Daniel allows Scorsese to create a fiction: that immigrants against African Americans, Day Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cam-

Social Education 214 eron Diaz, and . While the at all). In the post-Trent Lott, politically Civil War, but also noted the passing and film might have gotten some of the story correct America, such a version can no marginal interest in the racial dimensions wrong, at least it’s got people talking. longer earn money at the box office. of the riots of 1863.13 Public interest and publicity have led Instead a new Civil War mythology is ris- Despite these and a few other excep- to headline reviews and historical com- ing to replace it, switching the Southern tions, the majority of reviews of Gangs of mentary on the film. They are singing Lost Cause with the Righteous White New York have followed the lead of the our tune. Immigrant Struggle. Chicago Sun-Times, , Or are they? And the mighty New York Times, USA Today, and other major periodicals, The response of the popular press to which reported on the riots (and city either hailing the historical accuracy of the movie has been mixed; the response crime in general) so courageously in the the film or failing to mention the history to the historical aspects of the story has 1860s and 1870s, missed the boat com- at all. Among the 105 reviews I read been, with a few important exceptions, pletely in its 2002 review of Gangs, and of the film at the online clearinghouse troubling. Instead of digging into profes- seems to have been caught unawares of Rottentomatoes.com (a website that cre- sional scholarship on the riots, or into the new Civil War mythology it heralds. ates links to movie reviews from online primary sources such as contemporary Reviewer A. O. Scott hailed the film as magazines, websites, and newspapers), newspapers, the popular press has largely “historical filmmaking without the balm seven noted the film’s racial fiction. The accepted Scorsese’s whitewash of the of right-thinking ideology, either liberal rest either agreed with the film’s his- Draft Riots. or conservative,” but failed to notice the torical interpretation or didn’t discuss In some cases, the most disappoint- inherently racist balm of making Irish the history at all. Eight reviews went ing reviews of Scorsese’s history have gangsters racially tolerant and sensitive.8 out of their way to hail the film’s histori- come from the most respected sources (Other leading information sources, Roll- cal truthfulness.14 The general consensus of film critique. Chicago Sun-Times film ing Stone, Time, The Los Angeles Times, was that the historical aspects of the film critic hailed the “revision- , CNN, and The were among its greatest strengths. The ism” of the piece, particularly its cynical Chicago Tribune, avoided mentioning the new mythology of the Righteous White portrayal of city politics, but unwittingly actual racial history of the Draft Riots Immigrant stands victorious. amplified Scorsese’s racial deception in at all.9) his summary of the film: “Competing Not all reviews have been blind to History and Heroes fire brigades and police forces fight in the historical fiction of the film. Despite Gangs is hardly the first film about the the streets, audiences throw rotten fruit the lack of leadership by the Times, some past to create fictions to suit its own at an actor playing Abraham Lincoln, New York publications have been sav- purposes. Martin Scorsese’s primary blacks and Irish are chased by mobs, vier. of The New Yorker interest is to make money; his product and Navy ships fire on the city as the expressed concern about the absence of is entertainment. Likewise, the complic- poor against the draft.”6 In this brief realistic racism in the film.10 J. Hoberman ity of the press in the passing of fiction summary, African Americans and Irish of The Village Voice pointed out the strange for fact should not be surprising—papers Americans share equal victimization by deemphasis of the “four-day and magazines are themselves products racist natives, and the nebulous rioters against the city’s African Americans,” of large entertainment corporations and direct their attention toward a distant, and wryly called the film a “Celtic soul rely on advertising from them. Promises cruel government. fest.”11 The New York Post hit the nail on of historical accuracy may woo more The widely read USA Today com- the head, labeling it a “dishonest history customers to the theater, but because plained of the film’s length, but hailed lesson.” As Post writer Jonathan Fore- professional historical scholarship is no its historical vision. “Historians will pick man explained, “The film turns ... nativ- longer in the hero-making business, big apart Gangs for years,” wrote reviewer ists into the most virulent racists and budget hero films may have to settle for Mike Clark. “The reason: For all its lack Irish Catholics into brotherhood-of-man making the knives and buttons look good of breathing room ... it realistically puts types. The narration flat-out lies that it and not pretend to offer rigorous inter- you into the Civil War North as much was a generic multi-ethnic mob that took pretation. Or they may have to rethink as Gone With the Wind does with the to the streets in July 1863.”12 Likewise, a heroism. romantically idealized South.”7 Ironi- few city newspapers and media for and In that sense, sadly, historical films cally, the comparison between Gangs by African Americans have shown more like Gangs actually resemble the his- and Gone with the Wind is appropriate interest in the film’s racial inaccuracies. tory textbooks they strive to replace. As for quite the opposite reason: it signals criticized Scorsese for historians James Loewen, David Tyack, the changing of the guard from the old taking the film “out of moral context” by and others have shown, textbook com- Civil War mythology to the new. The trying to make us sympathize with the panies create politically correct history old version romanticized the Southern lynch mob against the government trying that will sell. Rather than reflect the latest way of life and deemphasized the evils to stop it. SeeingBlack.com editor Ester professional scholarship that asks us to of slavery (if it managed to consider the Iverem was grateful for Scorsese’s explo- abandon our heroes, history textbooks -wealthy, non-white point of view sion of the myth of Northern unity in the provide feel-good pap that simply adds

May/June 2003 215 new characters to the old cast. When an into one familiar to us today. In a dramatic excluded group objects, its members get a voice-over, the narrator waxes, “For the token hero of their own. Like the tokens rest of time, it would be as if no one ever of racial prejudice in Gangs, however, knew we were here.” these add-ons don’t jibe with the main Had the two characters been African narrative. That story has remained the American, this would have been the tru- same for a century.15 est line of the film. G It does not have to be this way. Unlike textbooks, films are largely above poli- Notes tics—they respond directly to markets. 1. The brave conduct of Irish policemen and They even help shape them. In that sense, soldiers who put down the riots speaks to the great complexity of the relationship between films have the potential to be impor- , African Americans, and the tant sources of historical thinking. His- Civil War. Those interested should also con- tory textbooks can’t take risks with race. sult Archbishop Hughes’s speech to the riot- ers on the first day of peace, reported in The Films can, and sometimes do. Why not New York Times on Saturday, July 18, 1863. include historical heroes with their flaws? 2. Tuesday, July 14, 1863, 1. There are many people in American 3. As cited in Kenneth T. Jackson and David S. history who engaged in heroic acts, or Dunbar, eds., Empire City: New York Through who expressed heroic thoughts, despite the Centuries (New York: Press, 2002), 266. their own personal limitations and flaws. 4. Friday, July 17, 1863, 4. George Washington and Thomas Jef- 5. David Denby, “For the Love of Fighting,” The ferson owned slaves. Franklin Delano New Yorker (December 23 and 30, 2002), 168. Roosevelt hid his polio from the nation. 6. Chicago Sun-Times (December 20, 2002). The public is willing to have imperfect 7. Mike Clark, “Gangs Makes for Arrest- heroes—even has his kryp- ingly Ambitious Movie Going,” USA Today tonite. Why not find heroes among the (December 19, 2002). Irish police officers who sheltered Afri- 8. The New York Times (December 20, 2002). can American families from the savage 9. Peter Travers, “Gangs of New York,” (January 2, 2003); , storm, or the Irish soldiers who put down “Have a Very Leo Noel,” Time (December 23, the mobs, or the Irish archbishop who 2002); Kenneth Turan, “Murder, Revenge, struggled both to restrain and protect his Rage... and Apathy,” Los Angeles Times (December 20, 2002); Lisa Schwartzbaum, flock, or African Americans themselves, “Gangs of New York,” Entertainment Weekly who bravely defended their lives and (December 18, 2002); Paul Clinton, “Review: homes? Epic Gangs Oscar-Worthy Effort,” CNN Online (December 19, 2002); Mike Wilm- The lesson from the whitewash of ington, “Movie Review: Gangs of New York,” Gangs of New York should not be that Chicago Tribune (no date given). Irish Americans were “bad,” or “worse” 10. “For the Love of Fighting,” The New Yorker than native Protestant ones. That’s a fool- (December 23 and 30, 2002), 168. ish simplification, a stereotype, and not 11. J. Hoberman, “Vice City,” The Village Voice, www.villagevoice.com/issues/0251/ the business of historians. Rather, the hoberman.php. problem with Gangs is that it wants us 12. Jonathan Foreman, “Gangs Not All Here,” to think that Irish gangsters were “good” New York Post (December 20, 2002). by ignoring their racism while it wants to 13. www.seeingblack.com/x122302/antwone_ make us think others are “bad” because fisher.shtml. Her review also appeared on africana.com. they are racist. In so doing, it marginal- 14. Other reviews critical of the whitewash izes African American history and covers include Gary Thompson, “Gangs Tells of a up an event that we must never forget. City’s Violent History,” Daily A 100-million-dollar film that boasts an News (December 20, 2002); Tor Thorsen, “Gangs of New York,” reel.com. accurate depiction of history should be 15. David B. Tyack, “Monuments Between able to give us sympathetic characters Covers: the Politics of Textbooks,” American without cheap shortcuts. Behavioral Scientist 42, 6 (March 1999), 922- As it is, the end of Gangs offers an 932; James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995). unintentional, brutally ironic observa- tion: After burying the man he has just Benjamin Justice is a professor of bludgeoned and stabbed to death, the social studies education and history of protagonist and his love interest stare at education at Rutgers University in New Manhattan from across the . Brunswick, . Slowly the skyline grows and changes

Social Education 216