So there is this movie coming out called “Detroit” that may be an Oscar contender. You may have heard about it. If not check out the trailers below.
When the announcement was made about the film going into production it was a big deal because Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal were behind it. The two had worked together twice before on “The Hurt Locker” and ‘Zero dark Thirty”, she as the director and he as the writer. Bigelow ended up becoming the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director and “The Hurt Locker” had won for Best Picture that same year. Zero Dark Thirty was nominated for Best Picture. So the two have a pretty good recent track record.
What also interested me was that the movie was supposed to be about some murder that occurred during the Detroit riots in the 1960s. Casting started coming out and a few of the first names announced were guys like John Boyega and Anthony Mackie. Then there was the announcement of two white actresses, then some white dudes, then so more black actors, etc. Around this time all the press and studio releases were describing this movie as if it was only about the riots. And that made me wonder where were the black actresses. If this movie was going to be about the Detroit riots certainly black females were involved. But I checked the IMDB listings and I couldn’t find any prominent role for black women. But I knew the inclusion of the white actresses must have meant something. So I did some quick research with Google and realized the movie must be about The Algiers Motel Incident. Would make sense because that involved controversial killings by the police during the week in which the riots took place. Sounded intriguing. But I thought about the lack of black actresses and I knew there was going to be trouble.
Months later the first trailer comes out. And BOOM. There was trouble. Black folks saw the trailer and didn’t see much representation of black women and HAD A FIT. Black women in particular were irate and awoke Black Twitter to slay some demons. Where are the black women? Why no sistas in this film? This movie is erasing black women and I ain’t here for that. Blah, blah, blah. To be honest if all the folks had seen were just black men and white men on the screen this would have been less of an issue. But the presence of white women, including quick shots of a black boy or two appearing to flirt with white chicks, meant this movie was an enemy to black women. And of course their chump black men rushed in to save their queens and demand answers! Some of us tried to point out that the film was about the Algiers Motel Incident. This incident didn’t involve black women. That the riot itself was just serving as a backdrop. But even those who stopped foaming long enough to listen to this explanation still weren’t satisfied. To them the next logical question became why did the filmmakers choose this particular story rather than other ones involving the riots.
So for the following months there has been a lot of talk on twitter by black women about not supporting the movie. Much of it was nonsnse. But what I came across yesterday even surprised me:
https://twitter.com/CatladyShazza/status/885650352195989504
So you have this tweet by SJW Movie Reviews who is apparently a black woman but a more honest description would be Latest Scumbag of the Earth. I guess she wasn’t all that thrilled with that picture of the cast of the film she was responding to, the one that included a bunch of black guys, two white chicks and one token white dude. The poor girl was triggered or was at least painfully reminded about this prestigious film coming out. That led her to make a comment beyond venomous:
A movie about Detroit featuring ashy niggas and the mediocre Beckies they cape for.
Shit. How toxic is that? How vile and despicable? In less than fifteen words she unpacks a lot of baggage and hatred. She’s definitely pissed that no black women are in the picture and thus don’t have a large role in the film. She is so disgusted she attacks the looks of the black actors in the film, guys who are paid to play the roles they are given. I’m certain they are more photogenic than she is but blind rage doesn’t allow for someone like her to look in the mirror. And of course she takes shots at the white gals, referring to them by slang (Beckie) , and describing their looks as being mediocre. Not to mention she demonstrates uninhibited anger that these black guys will be slurping over these girls in the film and her fucking fragile ego can’t take it.
I’ve been on these boards for awhile and those of you who are familiar with me know I don’t use certain words. But I’m giving myself a pass today in this thread. I can’t stand these bitches. Can’t stand them, fed up with them, hope they succumb to a disease and die. Seriously FUCK all of them.
The Algiers Motel Incident was an event in which three young black males were murdered by the police. It was a travesty. I don’t know of all the particulars but what I do know is that a best selling book was made about it as was a record by a folk singer. Which probably explains why the filmmakers were interested in making a movie about this in the first place. I have read that a couple of white girls whom the black guys may or may not have been hooking up with also got caught up in the madness and were treated like shit too. And all of us here are smart enough to realize that when trigger-happy, macho-postering white guys in authority with guns come across white women hanging out with black males that’s a formula for disaster. So this is no joking matter. Three black men were killed. And, no, it wasn’t their fault. And it wasn’t the fault of the young white women. It was the fault of the white police officers who went too far.
Katheryn Bigelow decided to tell this story, a story that is quite fitting considering the times we are living in the USA. But instead of respecting what Bigelow is doing or at the very least respecting those that died in that incident, we have certain black women on twitter acting like petulant children making a mockery of themselves and our people in general.
I’m not claiming all black women or even the majority of them share these same attitudes . But there is enough of them out there to shape discussions and attitudes going forward. And it is clear these women want to put black men in a box and limit their romantic options both in real life and especially on screen. They like crying about the rare glimpses of white women and black men on screen while simultaneously basking in the glory of Spiderman: Homecoming or creating sites dedicated to Rick and Michonne. It would be easier to ignore if it was just them but they have a bunch of black male dupes who buy into it, a progressive and conservative media who overlook their blatant hypocritical bigotry and an entertainment industry who, unintentionally or not, does their bidding.
It is really….REALLY important for people, especially black men, to push back against this bullshit. There is nothing about this Detroit movie that insults black women, there is no justification for black people to ignore the movie simply because black women don’t play a major role in this particular story. Would black women anywhere have traded places with the victims of that motel just so they could have a movie made about what happened to them fifty years later? I don’t fucking think so. I expect white folks from racist site to direct blatant racism towards black people so far as movie and films are concerned. But black women and black people in general who demonstrate such bigotry think they are justified and don’t have to hide behind any phony excuses explaining their hatefulness. They pretty much have mainstreamed prejudice within Black Twitter and other races outside of white people are picking up on this. This nonsense has to end because while I’m aware of racism that affects me, I don’t prescribe to the level of intolerance that some black folks feel justified in promoting. Those bastards don’t represent me, they don’t speak for me. So, yeah, I’m paying money when ‘Detroit” comes out. And if its good enough I’ll play to see it again.
