God's Step Children - Critical Debates

Critical Debates

God's Step Children has both been hailed as a masterpiece and denounced as stereotypical and racially denigrating. Patrick McGilligan provides a good summary of the film's reception and of arguments over whether it favors light-skinned characters. Protests at the time of the film's release apparently targeted scenes and dialogue in which Micheaux repeated his long-standing criticisms of the "race," charging it with a lack of ambition and an inability to plan. As in previous Micheaux films, God's Step Children seems to repeat the very bias in favor of light-skinned blacks that the movie also tries to critique. The "bad" blacks, such as the gamblers, are dark-complexioned. Clyde, whom Naomi rejects, is also dark and speaks in a buffoonish country accent. It is difficult to reconcile the film's praise for Clyde's industriousness with this caricature, and difficult to criticize Naomi's rejection of him, though she is obviously prejudiced against him largely because of his appearance. The film does not engage current social-political issues as forcefully as earlier Micheaux movies, such as Within Our Gates or Symbol of the Unconquered, and thus it is a challenge to rank it in equal importance to those works.

Although it is never explicitly stated, some viewers have speculated that Naomi's biological mother (who was played by Dorothy Van Engle), gave birth to the even lighter complexioned Naomi as a result of an affair with a white man. Such a parentage might explain why Naomi's mother was unable to live in African American communities as a respectable working mother (and therefore unable to keep Naomi with her), since illegitimacy, compounded with the race issue, would have been very heavy burdens in America during the 1930s Great Depression era. This interpretation may also lead viewers to the conclusion that Naomi was unwanted/rootless from her moment of birth or conception. An alternate interpretation is that Naomi's mother was herself the product of such a liaison and wanted a better fate for her own child, thinking Naomi would be better off raised by the light-complexioned widow, Mrs. Saunders. A combination of these views may provide a richer understanding of the film.