So there I was, just minding my business in the movies when I saw a really huge poster for the movie "The Help". I was transfixed in one spot for a good 2 minutes staring at it. Then some kids walked by and started laughing at the poster and making jokes. I thought to my self, the impressions this movie leaves on people will stick with them for a long time.I then went home and saw the trailer....
Okay. My thing is, NO MATTER WHAT, when anyone leaves that movie, (children, older people, whatever) images of minstrel wild black people and soft beautiful white people will be dancing in their heads. And even though I KNOW it is a movie about overcoming the shit, it still inceptions ideas of subordinate and lower status blacks and dominant white people (whether it is due to them repressing or one of them trying to save blacks) in people’s minds. As in, ideas that white is up and other is down. And this movie (there is one every year)
has the old white person saving helpless races. Damn there are enough of these damn movies already. I like stuff like The Great Debaters because it promotes images of educated black people helping themselves. The way that a lot of black people used to act all wildly and uneducated and subordinate to white people was already mostly due to the repressive white segregative, dehumanizing system, the least that can be done is to try not to give the next impressionable generation these images of blacks all the damn time for them to add to their repertoire of black behavior cause it will affect how this generation blacks navigate in the world. Its hard for me to explain by writing. It probably didn’t make sense.
Great Post ivie, I love it, am soo sick of these damn movies too. Jojo
ReplyDeleteYou should really check out the latest edition of The NAACP's publication the Crisis. Its focus is on Black film and filmakers and mentions both "Help" and "The Great Debators". Several articles were pretty inspiring and I hope to change the way I approach Black film as a whole....Just a thought!
ReplyDelete-friend of Jo
OKay, I'll check it out, and thanks Jo
ReplyDeleteam not one to leave comments, but 'the Help' has absolutely nothing to do with what you are describing. In fact, there is no 'old white person' helping the black folks out.
ReplyDeleteAnd you do know its based on a book right? A book about the triumph and resilience of a people bound by the limitations of slavery.
And the black maids portrayed in the book: anything but helpless
You so aptly described the plot of the movie and the damage it will do/did/ continues to do to race conversations and struggles. Such stories have no merit in being retold..absolutely none. We (black people) must take ownership of our stories and tell them how we want them to be told, in 2011 there should be no white person retelling this hurtful part of our story. It's not theirs to tell! I was and still am appalled at the movie and it's (white) writer.
ReplyDelete