Black Culture

Do you have any plans to see Django, or do you agree with Spike Lee, that it is disrespectful? 

It is a stereotypical White Savior film from Hollywood, or at least has inklings and residue of one.

Django gets added to the list of White Savior Films alongside The Blind Side, The Help, Dangerous Minds, The Principal, etc.  In these types of films, the white protagonist helps unlocks the black character(s)’ potential and abilities to overcome an obstacle.

We can have a narrative about slavery without a white protagonist. There is documented evidence of more than 313 uprisings or attempted uprisings of ten or more slaves.

But because we live in a racist-patriarchal society, and the media perpetuates and reinforces it, we get a limited option of what we see produced and promoted. Even though there were over 300 documented slave uprisings, Hollywood would choose the one where whites were involved if they made a film.

It’s disrespectful to our ancestors for the fact we resisted bondage for hundreds of years, uprisings, escaping and establishing maroons and quilombos, most without the help of white people. 

We will probably never get that Harriet Tubman film. Nobody wants to see a movie of a black woman putting a gun to a man’s head, warning him if he decides to turn back she’ll shoot him.

These narratives need to be told, not fictional tales that reinforce racist-sexist Hollywood frameworks for black movies. 

I support uncompromised black narratives.

Black Love