I come to you today with a heavy heart. This has been a a good week for me and a bad one for the world. One of my heroes have passed away, but you have heard enough about that. Lets talk about something you may or may not have miseed. Lets take a walk together and see what's happening.
Transformers 2 is a pretty good movie, explosions were big, girls were hot (a little bit of sexism there, but i wont go into that) robots doing high kar-ate...
But i couldn't help being disturbed, i wanted to like it, but...
Skids and Mudflap - red and green (think african flag) rather silly ass illiterate robots, one complete with gold tooth. Now some may say, "Gill, your taking this a little far" But honestly folks, none of the other robots had teeth, especially not two big protruding teeth speaking in a Caucasian version of annoying ebonics. If Michael Bay could have given them a pimp hat, gold chain, and a pager he would have gladly done it. And they can't read, really?
But i don't just rant, here is why it its important.
We are a nation of influence. What happened when our great icon MJ put on a red leather jacket and a white glove? When Jay-Z told us about 2-way pagers? We all went out and tried to sport the new ish. When i was a kid for Halloween i was an ewok, batman, spiderman, superman just to name a few. Media influences both adults and children. Who really wants to see little white kids talking black and pretending they can't read? They were major points of comic relief. In the struggle for equality, (yes there is still a struggle) we have to be careful what we consume, black and white folks alike. Because eventually it will come to surface again. And regurgitated ignorance is never pretty.
Great points, Gill! I haven't seen the movie, yet and am looking forward to it; but I have seen that type of stereotype in other film and TV, and I don't think it is helpful to anyone. I think that many times our underlying prejudices come out in some hidden ways (like a movie), even where we think we are enlightened and entirely unprejudiced. And I say that knowing that I have had to work to change past attitudes that did not reflect who I wanted to be or who Christ wanted me to be; and I am not there yet. Great writing...I am enjoying these glimpses into your world.
ReplyDeleteBen Howard
Ewok?! you have to post a photo! but in regards to your views, i understand fully. I havent seen the movie but have read an article about it that was on yahoo.com
ReplyDelete"And regurgitated ignorance is never pretty." Dude, this is in my top five life quotes. I couldn't stress this enough! Very, very well said - as usual. :)
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