So I had a conversation with a fellow attorney today about the movie, Django Unchained. (I still haven't seen it.) She happens to live in a very white area of the burbs and she told me that she took her teenage daughter to see it. The crowd in the movie theater, she said, was almost all white. She then told me that she walked out in the middle of the movie because she just could not take the constant laughter from the crowd every time the "N- word" was used.
I just finished reading a post from TheRoot which reminded me of that conversation.
"2013 is going to be incredible, if for no other reason than because this will undoubtedly be the year the cultural discourse shifts from simple discussions of "race" or "racism" to the majestic land of "how we talk about and react to race in mixed settings." While ideas of a "post-racial" society are but a single cute step below thinking the world was going to end on December 21 on the "awwww, that's cute" scale, what we are in 2013 is post-"race and things typically associated with a single race existing only within that racial silo." Finally ...
As I left the theater after Django, it was interesting to see how diverse the crowd was, and, based on the conversations being had in the lobby, how they were all impacted in some way, whether it was by the violence or the language or the fact that it was simply a really good movie. I left the theaters feeling oddly proud of Tarantino for making such a thought-provoking film, while feeling the exact opposite way about Spike Lee for not giving Django a chance. I was slightly shocked at how numb I became to Leo's use of the N-word, to the point that I almost started to marvel at the bravado with which he uttered it. As for my "Django Moment," yes, there was the horrible foreign couple behind me that thought everything was hilarious, but mine came from a more unexpected place: the laughter that filled the room when Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Foxx would say the N-word -- less like we imagine blacks would have in the 1800s, and more like they were two of the four Kings of Comedy ...
And in the world we live in today, where access to various modes of public expression is becoming increasingly accessible, the walls around "talking about race" are rapidly crumbling. Finally. And, just as a heads-up, if this makes you uncomfortable, if the idea of potentially offending someone is your greatest fear, or if you're content to discuss it like a simpleton, then 2013 might not be your year.
This, my friends, is the new apocalypse. Buckle up." [Source]
It's funny that it should take a guy who got his black card because his mama slept with Wilt to bring on the "apocalypse".
I think all the hype/controversy around this movie is part of why it's so successful at the box office. Spike Lee's comment probably made more people see it, since the comment got so much publicity.
ReplyDeleteI will probably see it if it gets a lot of Oscar nominations, but it is not at the top of my list.
Field said...
ReplyDeleteShe then told me that she walked out in the middle of the movie because she just could not take the constant laughter from the crowd every time the "N- word" was used.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She's very sensitive, or...not...I just wonder why it would bother her so...I like that word. We use it in Spanish with our own also.
I don't go to movies, but my thoughts are that perhaps Tarantino was presenting the ugly origins of the word, thus underlining why it should not be used by any other than those that 'own' it, so to speak.
The word is turned around and stripped of its cruel intention by using it with love, between loved ones.
Enjoy the movie when you do go Field! Any chance of an analysis after? ;p
It's funny that it should take a guy who got his black card because his mama slept with Wilt to bring on the "apocalypse".
ReplyDelete-------------
Well that makes a little more sense when thinking about Tarantino. Thank you field, for that information.
And about that apocalypse, it's on, and I'm ready.
From the previous thread:
ReplyDeletefield negro said...
Sup UTS? You can't get rid of trolls, you can only try to contain them. :)
10:19 PM
-------------------------------
Field your comment is quite disturbing. I mean, it's down right depressing. Are saying that you want to get rid of us anons?
Do you know that it ANONS who give color and spice to your blog? Field, you would be NOTHING without us.
We Anons made you. We put your blog in neon lights in both the Black and White blogosphere. WE made your blog one of a kind.
And Don't you 'ever' forget that! Field, you are 'one' ungrateful Negro.
Dear Field, as promised I have found the perfect lawyer joke for a leftist "R" chasing lawyer like you:
ReplyDeleteAn engineer, a physicist, and a lawyer were being interviewed for a position as chief executive officer of a large corporation.
The engineer was interviewed first, and was asked a long list of questions, ending with "How much is two plus two?" The engineer excused himself, and made a series of measurements and calculations before returning to the board room and announcing, "Four."
The physicist was next interviewed, and was asked the same questions. Before answering the last question, he excused himself, made for the library, and did a great deal of research. After a consultation with the United States Bureau of Standards and many calculations, he also announced "Four."
The lawyer was interviewed last, and was asked the same questions. At the end of his interview, before answering the last question, he drew all the shades in the room, looked outside the door to see if anyone was there, checked the telephone for listening devices, and asked "How much do you want it to be?"
Mr Field, I hope you enjoyed the joke, and will continue to see the value of Anons on FN. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Sincerely,
Anon, Inc.
Dear Mr Field, how do you like this religious joke about an extremely 'rare' event.?
ReplyDelete"Following a distinguished legal career, a man arrived at the Gates of Heaven, accompanied by the Pope, who had the misfortune to expire on the same day.
The Pope was greeted first by St. Peter, who escorted him to his quarters. The room was somewhat shabby and small, similar to that found in a low-grade Motel 6-type establishment.
The lawyer was then taken to his room, which was a palatial suite including a private swimming pool, a garden, and a terrace overlooking the Gates. The attorney was somewhat taken aback, and told St. Peter, "I'm really quite surprised at these rooms, seeing as how the Pope was given such small accommodations." St. Peter replied, "We have over a hundred Popes here, and we're really very bored with them. We've never had a lawyer."
"The crowd in the movie theater, she said, was almost all white. She then told me that she walked out in the middle of the movie because she just could not take the constant laughter from the crowd every time the "N- word" was used."
ReplyDeleteWell, I walked out of the movie and demanded my money back because of an inconsiderate black"B*t**" who came to use her cell phone during the movie. I can't stand Negroes who do that.
Anyway, the owner of the movie house finally had to call the police about that stupid ass moron and escorted her to the police station. On the way, they beat the shit out of her for interrupting their day. You see, in Oakland, we are short of Policeman and they have been consumed with killings. To be called to a theatre because an ignoranmus won't stop talking on her cell phone during the movie is very irritating to the police.
Hopefully, this stupid inconsiderate black jackass will get the message. Although I am not sure, because she bitched about having paid her money and not seeing the movie. There is no question in my mind that my race has some of the dumbest and most repulsive people on earth.
From this day forward, I will not attend a movie if there is more 30% Negroes in the house because there is going to be some shit.
Field, "It's funny that it should take a guy who got his black card because his mama slept with Wilt to bring on the "apocalypse"."
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing strange about a white person such as Quentin in bringing on the "apocalypse". He is talented and probably a genius. There are no Blacks who could do this.
Look a Spike Lee. He couldn't make a movie of this sort which is needed to bring on the apocalypse. Spike is about keeping everything under wrap, which is what most Americans want to do.
Quentin is a risk taker and he happens to be a talented risk taker with insight into the American psyche. I don't know of anyone today who could have done this with such emotional entertaining precision. Not even Clint Eastwood could match this and I love Clint Eastwood's movies.
In any case, there is nothing strange about a white guy like Quentin bringing on the apocalypse...this is a nation run by Whites and it is only natural for someone White to do this.
Mr Field, here is something from the National Institute of Health that I thought you and Whitey would find quite interesting:
ReplyDeleteThe National Institutes of Health have announced that they will no longer be using rats for medical experimentation.
In their place, they will use attorneys.
They have given three reasons for this decision:
1. There are now more attorneys than there are rats.
2. The medical researchers don't become as emotionally attached to the attorneys as they did to the rats.
3. No matter how hard you try, there are some things that rats won't do.
Lord have mercy.
What??? You haven't seen "Django Unchained" yet???
ReplyDeleteWhat are you waiting for? =)
See it. Very good and entertaining movie.
It's of a piece with "Inglorious Basterds".
http://www.theurbanpolitico.com/2012/12/movie-reviews-django-unchained-curse-of.html
Oh - we are ready to talk about race. Only it might not turn out the way you think it will.
ReplyDelete"Accuse others of what you do." - Karl Marx
"Enjoy the movie when you do go Field! Any chance of an analysis after? ;p"
ReplyDeleteYes.:)
"Oh - we are ready to talk about race. Only it might not turn out the way you think it will."
How will it turn out?
You all are killing me with the lawyer jokes.
For the record Anon. Inc, I don't like lawyers. :)
"Anyway, the owner of the movie house finally had to call the police about that stupid ass moron and escorted her to the police station. On the way, they beat the shit out of her for interrupting their day. You see, in Oakland, we are short of Policeman and they have been consumed with killings. To be called to a theatre because an ignoranmus won't stop talking on her cell phone during the movie is very irritating to the police."
You have a very active imagination.
They said the same thing about "Roots" 36 years ago. That's the way people talked in 1858. I'm going to see "Django Unchained" tonight.
ReplyDeletehahaha! I hope Field doesn't hate me, but the lawyer jokes are so funny (there only jokes Field hehehe)
ReplyDeleteEspecially the one about the Pope:) had to think a second on the punch line, shared with the family! (I sorry Field lol)
Desertflower on the IPod ;)))
The use of the N-word might have been a bit much. It might have been historically correct, but hell, the movie's climax involved the use of dynamite, which wasn't invented until after the Civil War.
ReplyDeleteThe movie might be in the same category as "Defiance" (other than the fact that "Defiance" was based on a true story): Violent defiance against a system that regards those being different racially/ethnically as sub-humans.
I don't LIKE the n-word, but then again I don't think words actually trump what we actually do. As a deformed mutant, I think the word "ugly" is an ugly word. And, yes, that means I don't even think drapes should be called ugly. It's a sucky way to look at things and a sucky word. But I'm practical enough to realize that the word ugly itself doesn't always mean the deformed freak is getting thrown out of the village - so I don't think we can go around policing words and thinking it's a good idea. It pretty much isn't. If people laugh when they hear the epithet "nigger", maybe that's better than awkward silence. I can't pretend to be the judge of that.
ReplyDeleteI don't typically go to the movies when movies like this are in theaters (Rosewood and Amistad, come to mind).
ReplyDeleteIt just works out better for me to watch at home. And no matter how great the movie is/may have been (and we've got an extensive movie collection), I can only watch movies like these ONCE.
BTW, long time so see UTS!!!!
I'm not planning to see the movie, but I can certainly see how decades of comedic use of the word have conditioned white people to laugh instead of to be shocked. I am white, but I grew up in the south and heard the word occasionally, and I was shocked when I read "Kindred," by the late, great Octavia Butler, which is partially set on a plantation in the pre-Civil War South, in which the word is entirely appropriate for the place and time and the people who use it. In this particular case, I suspect the medium of film is the problem, and the reason why it provokes laughter instead of shock. Too many of us have become desensitized to it and have lost all sense of its inglorious history.
ReplyDeleteHey field
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't that bad at all.
Its a good movie. I do not know what she expected.
memo to qt:
ReplyDeleteshake the selective word police & hypocritical haters off
spike lee is a rabid hater hobama girl
kudos to django!
____
ps:
do those who fools love that hnic hobama love their new pay cuts too???
shame on the bilked blind duped dumb fooled fleeced sheeple!!!!!!
http://aliciabanks.xanga.com/769548050/selection-2012--%E2%80%9Cforward%E2%80%9D-with-the-fleecing-of-america/
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=FL2OFfSyqFMfqIPU_BexopXg&feature=plcp
____
I swear people kill me with their so-called offended because the movie used the "N" word too much. What in the world do you think that they called black folks back during slavery? Do you think they called them honey or sugar? It was a common usage word for that time period. Smh!
ReplyDeleteThe movie was good. Django had a lot of action, it was a love story, and it is about overcoming obstacles to win a victory. All of the actors played their part, especially Samuel L. Jackson. In fact, he reminded me of a bunch of Negroes in this day and age—that goes against and belittles their own people and wouldn’t know how to stand united with their own people if someone wrote it in all caps on the wall in how-to-do steps.
What if Hollywood barred movies with black folks in it? Would that make folks happy? I swear when a Negro gets a dollar and a donut they act like their bowel movement does not stink. Come back down to earth. If the truth be told, some of the main ones complaining about the use of the “N” word too many times in the movie probably sneak and use it behind closed doors.
Pssst Desert Flower, it has a few six packs in it too. *wink* BTW, it is up for some Oscars—seven to be exact.
BTW, who cares what Spike Lee thinks? The majority of his movies reeked with misogyny. He only made two that were okay. Most of his movies were boring.
GrannyStandingforTruth said...
ReplyDelete"I swear people kill me with their so-called offended because the movie used the "N" word too much. What in the world do you think that they called black folks back during slavery? Do you think they called them honey or sugar? It was a common usage word for that time period. Smh!"
No actually they were called Blacks, just like today's Whites. "Neggar"
didn't become a common pejorative until the 1900's.
Imagine learning history from a movie made by a White man.
"The movie was good. Django had a lot of action, it was a love story, and it is about overcoming obstacles to win a victory. All of the actors played their part, especially Samuel L. Jackson. In fact, he reminded me of a bunch of Negroes in this day and age—that goes against and belittles their own people and wouldn’t know how to stand united with their own people if someone wrote it in all caps on the wall in how-to-do steps.
What if Hollywood barred movies with black folks in it? Would that make folks happy? I swear when a Negro gets a dollar and a donut they act like their bowel movement does not stink."
OK now you are going all senile fantasy...Imagine if......there was no heaven. Get real, a lot of White folks love movies where Blacks are called niggers.
I bet you this movie made by a White guy calling Blacks niggers makes a lot of money, while movies like Red Tails that show Black Heroes bombs at the box office.
You figure out the rest and by all means keep it real, real what? Only history will say.
Granny!!! *Gasp*
ReplyDeleteSix packs did you say?
I was just thinking Im long overdue for some movie action...;)
Desert from the IPod ( I no have a laptop no more:((
Ny nana taught me to never use the word and i don't/i grow weary of all the justifications of why we all stii use it...
ReplyDeleteDjango was a black hero too. He had the courage to stand up for his woman against his enemy and risked his life to save her. And saved her he did. In addition, he showed respect for her and cherished his woman. He didn't turn the other cheek like black men do nowadays and clamp his mouth shut in a cowardly fashion. In fact, most black men nowadays participate in verbally abusing and degrading black women. Yep, black men's courage is dead when it comes to protecting black women.
ReplyDeleteBtw, I liked Red Tails, went to go see it, and brought the DVD to add to my collection. I agree with you that white folks love to go watch movies with blacks being called a "nigger" in it. We know that about white folks and they're not going to change, so all I can say is pluck those who are racist.
BTW, in the beginning they did not call them "Black" they called them Sons of Africa.
In 1619, John Rolfe used negars.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Frederick Ruxton 1821-1829 used niggur. He was a writer during that time period.
Thomas Jefferson used Black.
Benjamin Franklin used Sons of Africa.
The French used negre
The Nigger of the Narcissus: A Tale of the Sea written by Joseph Conrad in 1897.
I saw "Pulp Fiction" 19 years ago now. It was entertaining, but the so called "cartoon violence" it was filled with disgusted me. And those scenes are the only ones from the film I recall today.
ReplyDeleteSo I read here...
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/01/hollywoods-nigger-joke/
... a review of Django Unchained by novelist and essayist Cecil Brown, the following:
"In another scene, [a slave holder] has dogs eat a black man to death on screen. In yet another scene, DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie is watching his Mandingo fighters kill each other; Calvin offers the winner, a hammer to beat [the loser's] brains out.."
You could not pay need to expose myself to such scenes of racist violence. Even if there were no racial element to it, you could not pay me to expose myself to such scenes of violence. For what it is worth, Mr. Brown's take on the film is thought-provoking, although he should have hired a proofreader.
GrannyStandingforTruth said...
ReplyDeleteDjango was a black hero too. He had the courage to stand up for his woman against his enemy and risked his life to save her. And saved her he did. In addition, he showed respect for her and cherished his woman. He didn't turn the other cheek like black men do nowadays and clamp his mouth shut in a cowardly fashion.
------------
Um, Granny, Django IS NOT A REAL PERSON. He is a character in a movie.
And if black men have a problem today, it is not turning the other cheek. Maybe if some mouths got clamped once in a while, there wouldn't be so many bodies.
Stop being such a fool.
"Even if there were no racial element to it, you could not pay me to expose myself to such scenes of violence. "
ReplyDelete===========
Me too. I despise pornographic violence.
But the racial element is the key element here. The idea is to shock the viewer with evil of the white man, for the purpose of rationlizing any level of violence against whites.
There is a great evil in the air.
"But the racial element is the key element here. The idea is to shock the viewer with evil of the white man, for the purpose of rationlizing any level of violence against whites."
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting point, but do you really believe that?
Quentin Tarantino, the last time I checked, is white.
"Quentin Tarantino, the last time I checked, is white."
ReplyDelete======
He is typical of the elite, artistic, Hollywood class he represents in his hatred of his own whiteness, which he flees and distances himself from by his veneration of all things not white. By aligning himself with the chorus of voices decrying white America, he proves his rejection of his race and seeks forgivness for the sin of being white (and rich). In his case, there is also something going on with his rejection of his father.