I decided to write this after seeing the movie a second time this morning. A lot of people are talking about this movie in a lot of different ways so I wanted to take a second look before commenting. I've read people who have said the movie was "the best commentary on racism to come out of Hollywood." There are sentiments about the evils of European (White) women, racist micro-aggression, etc. As usual, what is missing in all of these perspectives is the nation, class, gender, analysis that I am so thankful I have been given by our Nkrumahmist/Tureist ideology of the All African People's Revolutionary Party. You see, we view everything through our revolutionary cultural lenses. The lenses of the masses of African people. And, I am convinced that without that perspective, any interpretation by us, about us, or for us, about our conditions within the capitalist system will be badly skewed and dysfunctional at best and outright dangerous at worse.
I thought the movie had good entertainment value. And, because it has that, the emotional responses it will generate can be miss-interpreted by many well meaning people as a sign of quality when in fact, its simply what we are seeing through those emotional lenses. Certainly, there is much about this capitalist/white supremacist society that is exposed in the movie, but because this society is built and maintained on the dehumanization and subjugation of African people, this is no outstanding achievement and to suggest so is akin to suggesting that a movie that highlights the practice of breathing oxygen is a ground breaking phenomenon. I think that as oppressed people, and folks who hopefully side with oppressed people, we have to learn to view everything through our own cultural perspective because doing so will reveal much that is hidden to the naked and untrained eye.
For example, I think it does a great disservice to African people to have a character experience such disrespectful behavior by White people towards us without having the African make even the slightest effort to challenge the reactionary comments and behaviors that are made against him constantly throughout the movie. Franz Fanon wrote in his classic books "The Wretched of the Earth" and especially "Black Skin, White Masks" that African people will never achieve our full liberation until we challenge the day to day oppressive behaviors that are directed against us. So, yes, I get that the African kills the evil white people in the movie, but after the dehumanizing effort that he himself seemingly accepted throughout the first two thirds of the film, the killings seemed almost as an after thought since I know the emotional and psychological damage of being mentally beat down by white supremacy had already been established and institutionalized throughout the movie. The killings then seemed to have about as much impact as killing one or two police officers in response to systemic and state sanctioned murder against African people. Too little, too late, with the subtle message that he can kill those four people, but the system they represented still reigns on. Plus, his sickening and uncompromising support for his girlfriend's ignorant and manipulative behavior as a reaction to his very real experiences further cemented the perpetuation of the belief that how white people see things is what's most important, despite whatever trauma we are forced to experience. And this is on top of the inconsistency of his girlfriend's behavior. First, she is completely clueless about why telling her parents about having an African boyfriend would be a thing, then she emerges as the most conscious and uncompromising "Know your Rights" activist you have ever seen when confronted with the police's interaction with her African boyfriend. And that scene is handled as if what she did actually amounted to a heroic act when in reality, her actions should symbolize white woman arrogance. The same type of arrogance that has gotten thousands of African men killed. During this movie sequence we are forced to stomach the sickening concept of another white person saving us from police terrorism while the African acts like someone with no agency and a complete willingness to accommodate being oppressed by the system. It is impossible for me to see the groundbreaking critique of white supremacy in any of this. Instead, I see the same old subtle message that we still don't matter and that our purpose in life is to be oppressed and to serve as fodder for the day to day trivial pursuits of ignorant white people.
Finally, it was interesting to me that in each movie screening I attended, the participants cheered loudest when the white girlfriend is killed. Granted, she is the reason the African was subjected to the traumatic experience and I understand fully that there is a lot of anger against white women, some of it very justified, by many segments of the oppressed communities, but I believe there is also something else happening here. Even how that women's character is portrayed in the movie reflects a sort of contempt for women. It is impossible to relate to her and I don't think that is an accident. It think it subconsciously feeds into the wide spread belief that no women, not just white women, can be trusted and that whatever violence befalls women is somehow, someway, justified, no matter what they do, or don't do. With women being historically and systemically oppressed and dehumanized as policy under capitalism and feudalism and slavery before that (so for the last several thousands of years), you cannot convince me that these subtle anti-women elements aren't flowing throughout the narrative of these interactions. And, all of this reflects the contradictions of capitalism which is based on pitting all working people against one another by baiting and switching on a regular basis. What this means is the white woman is portrayed as a manipulative and exploitative promoting creative while at the same time using all of the usual tricks to dehumanize her. This is all happening during this movie while the chief contradiction, the class contradiction of the rich Europeans and how they have the resources and systems to maintain such a brutal system of repression without fear of being caught, convicted, and imprisoned (because of their insulation by being rich and white) is practically unexplored beyond a few comments. That was the significance to me of the father saying to the African boyfriend that the property was completely private. They can do whatever they want. A clear reference, whether intended or not, to the class privileges petti-bourgeois Europeans contain as a result of their class position on top of our oppression. This is the real problem, not just the general and generic concept of the white woman in interracial relationships.
Overall, I think the movie did much more perpetuation of age old stereotypes - like our need to provide willing compliance with our oppression - than anything else. It was entertaining, but like all popular culture in this backward society, its primary purpose is to provide that entertainment, not educate. And with the constant and uncompromising propaganda mechanism that is the capitalist system in this society, entertainment is defined by continuing the same programming that the fact this society was built on exploiting Africans and Africa, is really not a real problem, and that all of us need to just accept that and continue on with our day.
I thought the movie had good entertainment value. And, because it has that, the emotional responses it will generate can be miss-interpreted by many well meaning people as a sign of quality when in fact, its simply what we are seeing through those emotional lenses. Certainly, there is much about this capitalist/white supremacist society that is exposed in the movie, but because this society is built and maintained on the dehumanization and subjugation of African people, this is no outstanding achievement and to suggest so is akin to suggesting that a movie that highlights the practice of breathing oxygen is a ground breaking phenomenon. I think that as oppressed people, and folks who hopefully side with oppressed people, we have to learn to view everything through our own cultural perspective because doing so will reveal much that is hidden to the naked and untrained eye.
For example, I think it does a great disservice to African people to have a character experience such disrespectful behavior by White people towards us without having the African make even the slightest effort to challenge the reactionary comments and behaviors that are made against him constantly throughout the movie. Franz Fanon wrote in his classic books "The Wretched of the Earth" and especially "Black Skin, White Masks" that African people will never achieve our full liberation until we challenge the day to day oppressive behaviors that are directed against us. So, yes, I get that the African kills the evil white people in the movie, but after the dehumanizing effort that he himself seemingly accepted throughout the first two thirds of the film, the killings seemed almost as an after thought since I know the emotional and psychological damage of being mentally beat down by white supremacy had already been established and institutionalized throughout the movie. The killings then seemed to have about as much impact as killing one or two police officers in response to systemic and state sanctioned murder against African people. Too little, too late, with the subtle message that he can kill those four people, but the system they represented still reigns on. Plus, his sickening and uncompromising support for his girlfriend's ignorant and manipulative behavior as a reaction to his very real experiences further cemented the perpetuation of the belief that how white people see things is what's most important, despite whatever trauma we are forced to experience. And this is on top of the inconsistency of his girlfriend's behavior. First, she is completely clueless about why telling her parents about having an African boyfriend would be a thing, then she emerges as the most conscious and uncompromising "Know your Rights" activist you have ever seen when confronted with the police's interaction with her African boyfriend. And that scene is handled as if what she did actually amounted to a heroic act when in reality, her actions should symbolize white woman arrogance. The same type of arrogance that has gotten thousands of African men killed. During this movie sequence we are forced to stomach the sickening concept of another white person saving us from police terrorism while the African acts like someone with no agency and a complete willingness to accommodate being oppressed by the system. It is impossible for me to see the groundbreaking critique of white supremacy in any of this. Instead, I see the same old subtle message that we still don't matter and that our purpose in life is to be oppressed and to serve as fodder for the day to day trivial pursuits of ignorant white people.
Finally, it was interesting to me that in each movie screening I attended, the participants cheered loudest when the white girlfriend is killed. Granted, she is the reason the African was subjected to the traumatic experience and I understand fully that there is a lot of anger against white women, some of it very justified, by many segments of the oppressed communities, but I believe there is also something else happening here. Even how that women's character is portrayed in the movie reflects a sort of contempt for women. It is impossible to relate to her and I don't think that is an accident. It think it subconsciously feeds into the wide spread belief that no women, not just white women, can be trusted and that whatever violence befalls women is somehow, someway, justified, no matter what they do, or don't do. With women being historically and systemically oppressed and dehumanized as policy under capitalism and feudalism and slavery before that (so for the last several thousands of years), you cannot convince me that these subtle anti-women elements aren't flowing throughout the narrative of these interactions. And, all of this reflects the contradictions of capitalism which is based on pitting all working people against one another by baiting and switching on a regular basis. What this means is the white woman is portrayed as a manipulative and exploitative promoting creative while at the same time using all of the usual tricks to dehumanize her. This is all happening during this movie while the chief contradiction, the class contradiction of the rich Europeans and how they have the resources and systems to maintain such a brutal system of repression without fear of being caught, convicted, and imprisoned (because of their insulation by being rich and white) is practically unexplored beyond a few comments. That was the significance to me of the father saying to the African boyfriend that the property was completely private. They can do whatever they want. A clear reference, whether intended or not, to the class privileges petti-bourgeois Europeans contain as a result of their class position on top of our oppression. This is the real problem, not just the general and generic concept of the white woman in interracial relationships.
Overall, I think the movie did much more perpetuation of age old stereotypes - like our need to provide willing compliance with our oppression - than anything else. It was entertaining, but like all popular culture in this backward society, its primary purpose is to provide that entertainment, not educate. And with the constant and uncompromising propaganda mechanism that is the capitalist system in this society, entertainment is defined by continuing the same programming that the fact this society was built on exploiting Africans and Africa, is really not a real problem, and that all of us need to just accept that and continue on with our day.
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