Tropic Thunder

Uhm....

First of all: Go watch the trailed for Tropic Thunder. Look it up on youtube or something...

Then go humor me and google "Blackface."

I'm relatively super tired, the sun wears me down (how fucking wonderful has this heat wave been? ok, so like borderline cool and sometimes horrible. But you can't blame me for lovin' the sunshine). But I digress... Because I'm so tired let me put this in list form.

I will be referring to this article off and on: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20182058,00.html

1. First of all (and my first reaction upon seeing the trailer) Uhm... whhhaatt?????
2. Please let me know if I'm getting this right... Robert Downy Jr is playing the role of a black man in order to... what?... Be politically correct?!
3. And... They couldn't make the character white? And the black actor dropped out? So they thought, "don't worry, lets paint a white guy?"
4. Was I the only one in the theater who remembers the racism of our country's history (I'll ballpark it and say the mid 1800's) where white people would paint their faces black and put on little shows for white people. And at the shows they'd prance around and pretend to be Black, acting like idiots, not knowing how to talk English properly, and singing silly songs? I know we didn't learn much about it in my high school but I'm pretty sure its a pretty big representation to the very prevalent racism in America at the time.
5. In discussion I compared this with joking with the symbol of a noose or a burning cross in someones yard. I was told that it was far too extreme of a comparison and I was being ridiculous. And I know that it WAS very different to be made fun of and to be threatened. But I would like to clarify that the products of Blackface Minstrels is still present today and the image of this sort of black man has damaged general public view in a very important way. People are STILL trying to break the stereotypes established in those "funny" little shows! There was and continues to be a very strong emotional, psychological, and representational violence here. And that violence cannot be ignored.
6. The EW articles states, "And then there's that little issue of a white guy playing a black guy. Stiller says that he and Downey always stayed focused on the fact that they were skewering insufferable actors, not African-Americans." So... This means... In a nutshell, because they were focused on making fun of one kind of person everyone else doesn't matter? Because they were poking around at actors, and that's what they WANTED, they shouldn't care about implications and other side effects? Does that mean, if I intend to slap my friend and instead slap a stranger I shouldn't worry about the consequences? Does that mean, with their same line of thinking, that we shouldn't be accountable or responsible for the unintended harms we do onto others? And to take it the opposite direction, for instance, if I was playing a game of chess and I meant to take a pawn and inadvertently got a check mate. It wasn't my intention to do so well, so should I not claim it? Would I throw it aside and say "wait, that was an accident, let me go back so I can lose it?" I think most of us wouldn't. If there are unintended POSITIVE consequences then we take them without questioning. The negative ones we will also take, sometimes hesitatingly, because we know we deserve them. Just because the MAIN intent was making fun of actors and not for them to injure the image of any individual Black American, it doesn't mean it's OK. It doesn't mean they're somehow free from any criticism.
7. It's generally held that if anyone says "No offense but..." or "I don't intend to offend you but..." it means they're about to say something pretty goddamned rude. And they KNOW it. And they think their little precursory warning excuses it. People think it means they aren't rude, just what they're about to say is. "No offense but you're gaining SO much weight" or "I don't mean to offend you but I think you're SO Asian." This just in: It *is* rude, it *isn't* excusable, and it's *not* OK.
8. Article also states, "He recently screened a rough cut of the film and it scored high with African-Americans. He was relieved at the reaction. ''It seems people really embrace it,'' he says." Because it receives general approval of a SMALL demographic of people doesn't mean it can be accepted as OK. First of all, I'd like to state, that how many people, whether black or white or yellow, red, blue, or brown have truly taken the time to educate themselves about race politics? How many of those who watched the screening or the American public in general have CRITICALLY looked at ANY piece of media to point out the perpetuation of cruel stereotypes? How many have had the good grace, luck, and ability to truly educate themselves about challenging the institutions that we find ourselves in and the patriarchal, racist, heteronormative system we find ourselves in? I can easily say, very few. And this part is harder for me to explain cause I'm still in the process of learning it and it has taken hours of reading, discussion, lectures, and deep-rooted, life changing thinking to begin to comprehend it, and it may be really controversial. But, when life gives a person a role, a status, a way TO BE... It is very hard to break out of it. If a people have been suppressed for generations and generations with violence, bias, laws, and public opinion: many of that people will begin to follow suit. I don't know if you've heard about or read the sociological study they did I don't know when... Where they gave a bunch of little girls dolls. And the black girls preferred the white dolls. It was this study that helped break down the idea that segregated schools weren't a good idea. Because it showed that there was some sort of psychological impression being made on so young of children that what they were: black, wasn't as good, wasn't as pretty, wasn't as desirable. I feel like all of this general line of thinking is something like the approval of this movie. The public has been very strongly been told how to act, how to think, and how to form the conceptions they have of a certain kind of people. Rather than go through the hardship and discomfort of questioning what's going on and the implications, it's much easier and happier and acceptable to just laugh along with everyone else. This is possibly the most long term damaging effect.
9. Of course, we can bring up the racism and stereotypes of ALL kinds of people in the media: Gays, women, whites, blacks, Asians, native Americans, and any whosits, whatsits you can possibly think up that differentiates people. It's in video games (see Jake or Danielle), movies, magazines, advertisements, TV shows, and even the much beloved novel. You can go barely anywhere and escape some form or other of prejudice. Because we are inundated with it, and are powerless to stop it doesn't mean we shouldn't continue fighting it. Because we know one day we might die doesn't mean we shouldn't live. Because love ends doesn't mean we shouldn't fall. There's the possibility that this fight is a losing one, but for the sake of the future, for the sake of humanity, for the sake of the present, and even for the sake of the past: we must continue fighting. We have to attempt to question and criticize and sometimes outright reject the things we see that perpetuate such unfair harmful thinking. The first step to victory is realizing there's a fight at all, it's opening your eyes to see the battlefield before you.
10. I've gotten VERY far off topic
11. But I supposed it's the actual topic I've been meaning all along.
12. We cannot say we are anywhere near free from racism when we along something like a comedy movie portray and continue something that is so awful.
13. All of this is, granted, and perhaps unfairly assumed, without seeing the movie yet. I reject it on pure principles. There's a SMALL chance that it could be taken a completely different direction than I anticipate. And the entire 2 hours of the movie will be spent deconstructing the meaning of Blackface minstrels and the legacy we are left with today. Hey, Robert Downey Jr. could end up being an upstanding black citizen of America that proves all stereotypes very wrong. I somehow doubt that.
14. And believe me, I do understand that it's a comedy and they ARE doing more than making fun of African-Americans. They're making fun of Americans, Vietnamese, film makers, movie stars, and even the audience watching. I know that maybe I need to lighten up, its just a joke...
15. But I never know, when has a joke crossed the line? When is something downright inappropriate? Maybe you can fill me in. Cause I think I'm missin' it...