Those who have seen “The Butler,” a slightly
fictionalized account based on a real person, are treated to an encapsulated
history of the modern American civil rights movement. It does not mean we have shared the experience. White people, especially the young, who use
the word “nigger” in any context, let alone casually, are guilty of the most
appalling historical and sociological ignorance. While the less unaware may believe they are
doing a Lenny Bruce on the word by taking away its significance, they are
mistaken. And the clueless who view it
as a “term of endearment and friendship” are pathetically delusional. While it MAY sometimes be those things
BETWEEN African-Americans, the time is FAR off when it can be so used generally
by whites, whose skin color being associated with historical and occasional
contemporary oppressions of the worst kind, means that time might NEVER come.
Do you recommend the movie, and is it a male version of The Help?
ReplyDeleteI do recommend it, even though as a historian, it's mixing of fact and invention, while certainly not at Tarentino standards, is still irritating and needlessly misleading to a public already far too history-ignorant.
ReplyDeleteI do not know if I would characterize it as a male version. Something to think about.