Django Unchained: Mixed Feelings

Have you ever been disappointed in yourself for being caught off-guard by something? As my logical mind takes back over now that my initial impulsive reaction has faded, that's how I feel about the movie Django: Unchained. From the previews, I fully believed this to be a revenge, shoot em up Western where the protagonist happens to be a former slave rather than an cowboy who goes to rescue the girl; all Tarantino style action (think Kill Bill and Shoot 'Em Up) with just enough flashbacks and vignettes to establish a bit of a storyline. What I wasn't ready for were the lengths that Tarantino would go to establishing the setting of 1850's Mississippi. Setting the movie slave backdrop in movies typically includes some whipping, some fierce talk, maybe inhumane working conditions, etc. A lot of Americans - black, white, and other - don't want to face the true degree of savagery that took place and furthermore it's hard to decipher exactly how graphic you can be about in the cinema for the masses to see. Well, Quentin Tarantino has never had that trepidation about finding the line of political correctness/appropriateness. He seems himself as an artist unbounded by societal standards of political correctness or decency. I'm told that me made a remark saying that "Roots" wasn't realistic enough about how heinous slavery was; I found this out since seeing the movie of course. So he kicked his depiction of slavery up a notch from what you're used to. I'm talking slaves getting eaten by dogs on camera. I'm talking a smiling slave master (Leo DiCaprio) instructing slave fighter to kill his opponent with a hammer simply to stay in the master's good graces. I'm talking a white man with Jamie Foxx's genitalia in one hand and a heated hunting knife in the other preparing to castrate him as he hangs in a device which appeared designed for that very purpose. I'm talking slaves put into a cast iron chest in the middle of a field in the middle of Mississippi summer and left there for 10 days as punishment for disappointing the improvised authority on the plantation. I'm talking a slave master explaining that he doesn't understand why the slaves don't rise up and kill the white people before threatening to bash Kerry Washington's beautiful skull in simply to prove his point that Blacks are dumb and subservient. And more. Then on another note, you had the actors' performances themselves. I recently watched Robert De Niro on "Inside the Actor's Studio" when he said it's not an actor's job to judge the character, just to understand him and portray him. But that didn't make it any easier to see DiCaprio, Don Johnson, and other contemporary actors very comfortably and casually throwing around the N word and cracking offensive jokes. The worst part was seeing Samuel L. Jackson as the ultimate House Nigga, he's the old, surly, foul-mouthed representation of Black self hatred itself. At one point he goes so far as to brag to Django about the different horrendous things that he and his masters have done to Blacks in the past. It was even more uncomfortable when you notice just how hard some of the White people in the theater laughed at some of the jokes I couldn't bear to laugh at. Although I have to admit it was a very well made movie, it was difficult to watch at times; my date that night is still offended by it over a week later. I will admit, there are times were Tarantino strikes comedic genius despite the grotesque periodical backdrop (a scene with the Klan complaining that the eye holes on their hood bags aren't adequate). It is also nice in the midst of that backdrop to see a former slave hero who shoots (and at one point whips) slave masters and will do anything to get his girl back. I had to marinate on this movie, watch some video of the actors speaking about it, and sleep on it and now I've arrived at this: I have to get over it or be labeled a hypocrite. I always say that the first step for America to move past racism is be honest about it, which will involve some uneasy moments; although this wasn't an activist call to face the realities of slavery, this is an example. Although I know that slavery is much worse than portrayed in any film we've ever seen (including this one), something about seeing new atrocities depicted or being taken away into a movie which recreates that period is still unsettling at the time. Tarantino has never been shy about controversial subjects (Nazi Germany, etc) or the even N-word, so it would do no good to try to reprimand him for the controversial nature of the film. But maybe we needed this. It gets people talking. Slavery was similar to a holocaust which lasted 500 years instead of 5; we - particularly white people - must escape the misconception that this was just Africans forced to do volunteer work. Our country was largely built on the backs of a population who were stripped from their homeland and forced through torture, castration, murder, rape, and more to do the dirty work for the businessmen that claim to have made our country great. the sooner we see these things and start being honest about them and their unmistakable effect on our country ever since, the sooner we can move past our taboos and start to build understanding.

Do Better: Jim Crow Conservatism

Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly (to a lesser extent surprisingly), Ann Coulter, anyone who works for FOX News, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove...Karl Rove, each of these people make me cringe. I'm talking cringing in a different manner than my usual "I don't like politics" cringe. I'm talking about a deeper "I hope they don't believe what they're saying because it sets America back to the '30s" cringe. The previous article about election day illustrated my thought on Obama and Romney, but that's not what I'm speaking of right now. I'm speaking more broadly on the ideals of conservatism and how its base is shrinking in America. After Obama's re-election, many of the personalities mentioned earlier had similar messages to explain the disappointing (to them) results. There were common themes amongst them all: the white establishment is lo longer the majority, traditional America is no more, young people expect entitlements from the government, Latinos are only worried about amnesty and immigration, Blacks and women want to be given "stuff" by the government. They say these things with such confidence not seeing how a young, intelligent man (leave the Black out of it for now) reads between the lines to see what they're actually saying. They have singled out and badmouthed the perspectives of every demographic but one: Old...White...men; the traditional "American establishment." They have had ALL the power so long and don't see that the country has changed. They like things how they were 100 years ago when white men (whether smart, dumb, good, evil, etc) held all the country's power, achieved on the backs of the demeaned "little people" working but making virtually nothing and having no chance for upward mobility; let's just call it the Jim Crow dynamic. "Yeah, women should still make 77% of what men make; that's just good business." "These border-jumping illegals should work as cheap as the Chinese to save the jobs here; they're lucky we let them stay here." "Blacks went from being slaves to being criminals.""We don't need abortion under any circumstances because you can't get pregnant if it was truly rape, it was God's will for you to have that rapist's baby." "Gov't and gov't regulation are always the problem. Privatization is always the answer. What, you don't trust corporate America?" "We liked Bush, Obama is a retard though (courtesy of Ann Coulter)". It's 2012, these perspectives all sound remarkably backwards in today's America. We are a nation full of Immigrants, the only real Americans are Native Americans (now commonly referred to as 'Indians' since Columbus (who was not the first here by the way) missed his intended destination by 8000 miles and couldn't figure it out." Europeans showed up to a place with cultures intact and decided that this was their land to take over; and we have an entitlement problem? How do you argue you're more American than me (an "African-American")? We came on the same ship, it just so happens that you were lucky enough to be in the VIP section while my ancestors were confined like luggage inhumanely below the decks. Despite your actions, we were called 'savages', but it didn't stop you from raping our women thereby spreading previously European STDs to another population. Your plantations, your building, much of pre-Civil War America's infrastructure was ALL built on the backs of dehumanized slaves or other disenfranchised populations (see cartoon above). After the war, the same could be said of indentured servants (paid just enough to not be called a slave), then up to the present minimum wage workers. Then you have the nerve to say "You are weak, you need help prospering. We did it all by ourselves without help". That's the mind state of a place that we all knew existed but Jon Stewart finally named "Bullshit Mountain". On Bullshit Mountain, taking financial/tax loopholes and tax breaks makes you a smart business, but filing for Social Security or food stamps or disability if you qualify makes you a moocher. College is only for those who can afford to pay the tuition with a check book, which is why pell grants and scholarship programs should be slashed. Also, Viagra should be covered by health insurance but contraception should not. There are a million more examples. On the mountain, anyone who doesn't love or pray the way 'the Christian white establishment' wants you to has forfeit their right to reap the benefits of "the American Dream."  verall, what conservatives call "being principled" seems now to be holding on to previously acceptable bigotry. To be fair, I know all conservatives don't think the same. But as long as Limbaugh, Imus and others are the voices of the movement instead of Rubio, Christie, or someone who can truly explain their principles with a modern context, they will NEVER have National Appeal. Fuck all the bigotted talking heads I named at the beginning of this article. You are the reason that conservatives look like yahoos and I could never entertain the possibility of seeing things your way. America's better than than, you're not evolving with it. Do Better...