CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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Django Unchained and the N-Word

Thursday, February 28, 2013

this entry brought to you by radiohead, "paperbag writer"


In the weeks leading up to the Oscars, I felt like there was more and more noise about the supposed "controversy" with Django Unchained and the use of the N-Word. When I saw it in the theater, it was a thing I didn't even consider.

Sometimes I feel like there are "controversies" where absolutely nobody is offended, but it has the ingredients of things that have happened in the past that were controversial, so people in the media say "Well, is this supposed to be controversial? I haven't heard anyone that's offended, but we should probably err on the side of being offended for the sake of making a news story."

Here's the thing. I understand Spike Lee's objections to the movie. I disagree with them wholeheartedly, and I feel like he is utterly wrong to have those objections without having seen the movie. But I understand where he's coming from. I do understand the question of, can a white person make a movie about slavery without it being exploitative? And also, I can understand why a black man would want to know why a white man has used the n-word in so many of his movies.

I understand the objection to the "n-word" in every single one of his movies before Django Unchained. Again, I disagree with it. I think that any director can make any movie he wants, and I think he can use language in any way he wants. I also feel like, artistically, Quentin Tarantino has proven time and time again that he knows what he's doing as a director, and that he never uses the word without considering the implication of it.

...I understand the objection in every single movie except Django Unchained! It is a movie about slavery! It is a movie that is cartoonishly violent in extended places, hilarious and bad-ass in others, but deadening, unflinchingly realistic in others. And it makes absolutely no sense to be upset that the same country that once defined a negro as being three-fifths of a person would, gasp, use disgusting language to describe those people.

Listen, I don't like the word, and I never use it in conversation. I wish black people wouldn't use it. But I'm not interested in watching a rated-R movie about slavery that doesn't have that word in it. If you've made a movie about slavery and it never uses the word "nigger", then I think what you've made is a very nice Wonderful World of Disney special, and I'm sure it will be fun and educational for the whole family. It's just something I'm not interested in seeing.
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with love from CRS @ 10:56 AM 

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