what's up with african men being the new weird exotic in movies?
Yeah, let me just post this—I've been watching a lot of movies here; two of the ones I rented were I ♥ Huckabees and Garden State. So in each of these films there is an African man who has been adopted by a kooky white suburban family, played for either mystery or laughs. Now, I suppose these are both your youth-oriented hipster flicks, possibly not meant for the likes of me, and everyone is cast as quirky but what are they trying to say about black men, about African men? That they aren't quite like the white folks around which they live and work—indeed, in whose families they are depicted living? Given that there are no other black folks in either movie—no friends, no clerks, none—these plot arcs based solely on the "joke" of difference are really rather troublesome. Has anyone else seen either and can offer their opinion? I wanted to like both films, but I kept thinking, why can't the black man just be?
posted by Carla at 5:09 PM
5 Comments:
You are so right, Carla. I saw I Heart Huckabees a while back. I wanted to like it, and the idea of an existential detective agency really tickled me. But the film pissed me off. The more I think of it, the more it bothers me. Even the handful of great Mark Wahlberg lines and Lily Tomlin laughs couldn't mitigate the problems with the "mysterious" African man and the supremely annoying male lead.
Yeah, the more I thought about it the more bothersome it became, too. I also wanted to like that movie for the same reasons. Mark and Lily were both great. But it's like encountering a really brilliant jerk—you're expected to give him props for his ability but there's this glaring problem with his behavior that you can't get beyond no matter how good he is at what he does.
And don't even get me started on Gedde Watanabe's performance in Alfie. Why are people comfortable with these portrayals? I guess really I only have to go back to my own experience watching Bringing Down the House to know why—there are a bunch of racist and/or bigoted dolts in the world.
And how!
I didn't see Alfie. The first one was awful enough. (Blech!) I can't really watch anything except for Democracy Now online anymore, alas... maybe snippets of Dave Chappelle when I'm staying at a hotel (more on him in a minute).
Gedde Watanabe is in Alfie? That poor guy has a long career of tragic roles. You know how Huey and Caeser have that "most embarrassing black person" award in Boondocks (the one Condaleeza won)? Gedde must be up for something comparable -- if he didn't already win it after Sixteen Candles (or was it Pretty in Pink?).
Okay, so my mom and I were at a hotel in downtown Cedar Rapids (which smells like fried chicken -- apparently it's the combination of the Quaker Oats factory and corn syrup plants, but the whole city smells like bad fried chicken), and we watched Dave Chappelle, which I hadn't seen since the first season since I don't have cable TV. The skit that was killing me, which is probably old, featured Dave and Mos Def as representatives for some kind of racial draft (as in an NBA draft). Different racial teams were claiming members, arguing over who belonged where. Dave was the white rep, and he drafted Colin, which the black camp, represented by Mos Def, would agree to ONLY if the whites took Condi too. So then Colin and Condi were "officially white." They went back and forth like that with OJ, Eminem, etc., etc., but then the Asian rep stepped up to claim the RZA, the late ODB (who shares my mom's birthday, may Dirt McGirt rest in peace), and the whole Wu Tang Clan. I couldn't stand it.
Okay, speaking of the Wu Tang Clan (not that I was ever the biggest fan, but...), I also finally saw the movie Ghost Dog, which I'd been avoiding. I knew I'd kind of hate it. I like Forest Whitaker (mostly because of a brief, but stunningly sexy facial expression he flashes at the camera in the otherwise worthless film Ready to Wear), but Hagakure is not my scene ... at all. And the application of a mythologized samurai ethic to contemporary gangster fiction was enough to bum me out. But I watched it, and it had some okay moments mixed in with all the irritants. One thing I didn't expect was how much I'd like RZA's soundtrack. It was really good, one of the best movie soundtracks I've heard in a while.
Program on the emergence of civilization.
"14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa."
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it's applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals, so this nulified diversity of life claims on sub-continental Africa, zebras being a fine example.
god is a computer
And we're all on auto-pilot.
Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK - perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as "god"
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management –
3. Mafia (evil) aliens - runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere ("On planets where they approved evil.")
Then we come to terrestrial management:
4. Chinese/egyptians - this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans - they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia - the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician - Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Survival of the favored.
Program on the emergence of civilization.
"14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa."
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it's applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals, so this nulified diversity of life claims on sub-continental Africa, zebras being a fine example.
god is a computer
And we're all on auto-pilot.
Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK - perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as "god"
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management –
3. Mafia (evil) aliens - runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere ("On planets where they approved evil.")
Then we come to terrestrial management:
4. Chinese/egyptians - this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans - they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia - the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician - Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Survival of the favored.
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