fredericks | (no subject)

Hancock led to a rather inevitable race discussion with Middle Bro. I started things by pointing out that the makers of the movie neatly sidestepped direct mention of racial tension/discrimination against Hancock (played by Will Smith) and Mary (played by Charlize Theron) by labeling the people who perpetrated violence against the two characters "they". The ambiguous "they" who burned down their house in the Midwest in the 1850s and then beat Hancock with a baseball bat in the 1920s (and attempted to stab Mary in the B.C.'s, but who knows what may have been going down then). Anyone with a sense of the racial history of this country would know that an interracial couple would cause major waves in the US during those times (and, let's be honest, things ain't exactly hunky-dorey on the interracial front in the present day either). But not a peep in the script addressing it. Bro accepted it, saying "it wasn't important [to the story]", at which point my statement that the writers *chose* to make it not a part of the plot in order to keep the "feel good summer hit" status of the movie in check was met with "oh, you see everything according to race". Which is a damned frightening thing for me to hear from a young black man in this day and age. When did acknowledging race become a bad thing (btw, I'm going to go ballistic on the next person I hear say "I don't see race")? I know I'm trying to intellectualize a rather thin (if occasionally intriguing) "shit go BOOM" movie, but oh well.

If anything, the cut-and-paste feel of the movie leaves open the possibility that lots of stuff was conceived and fleshed out but left out at the last minute. The whole history of Hancock and Mary deserved a good ten minutes of unfolding instead of a two minute bit of verbal exposition. Hancock's rehabilitation, imo, shouldn't have been montaged. The establishment of Hancock's baddie? Could have happened with a little more plot padding. The ending? Pure sequel set-up. I think part of the reason I spent time thinking about things I wasn't too fond of was because I saw the kernel of a really amazing movie in Hancock. Like, "release in November and garner award buzz" amazing. But I guess that's Watchmen's job.

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Whenever someone claims that they "don't see race," I feel like...nine times out of ten, they're about to say something racist.

It's between "I'm not a racist, but..." and "The Confederate flag is about heritage, not hate" on the Racist Things Bingo Card.

Whenever someone claims that they "don't see race," I feel like...nine times out of ten, they're about to say something racist.
I hear you. Like they think it gives them carte blanche to say something completely ignorant.

When people start up with "I don't see race because race is a social construct" they get a *smidge* more leeway than the folks that say "I don't see race; I'm colorblind". Stop shitting me, please. If you see race, acknowledge differences, and consciously attempt to minimize the impact on your thought process that's one thing. But that doesn't quite roll off the tongue.

Well, I am colorblind. Really.

Reds and blues, in certain shades and hues, cause me a helluva lot of problems. Purple - which my daughter decided, many moons ago, was my favorite color - gives me a particularly hard time, especially when compared with blues of a similar level of darkness.

That said, I do see race, but I've never understood why people get so bent out of shape about it. I should correct that. I do see different skin colors and other surface traits, and they're all fine by me. Well, except for overly tanned-to-a-crisp-old-before-their-time blonde people. They kind of scare me.

The heritage of a person - nationality of their ancestors - is another point of interest to me, and I suppose I put more stock in that than "race". But it's all good, and I tend to like diversity. =)

My youngest brothers are colorblind as well, and we didn't find out until they were in 1st or 2nd grade. They send out the "your child is colorblind, please discourage them from proclaiming interest in being a pilot/air traffic controller/astronaut/etc etc when they're older" form letter, which is funny and harsh.

I've against big to-dos myself, but I'm a fan of discourse.