The problem with criticism of "Precious"

[Louisiana1976]

"I wanna say I am somebody. I wanna say it on subway, TV, movie, LOUD. I see the pink faces in suits look over top of my head. I watch myself disappear in their eyes... I talk loud but still I don't exist." — Precious

Not everyone is singing hosannas.

Indeed, though it is — maybe because it is — among the most critically-acclaimed movies of the year, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, has inspired a fierce backlash. Jack White on The Root.com (full disclosure: Jack and I worked together a few years ago at Hampton University) slammed it, unseen, as over-hyped and a waste of time.

Courtland Milloy of The Washington Post called it "a film of prurient interest that has about as much redeeming social value as a porn flick."

Armond White of nypress.com said it was more demeaning to black people than any film since D.W. Griffith's crudely racist Birth of a Nation in 1915.

snip

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/opinion/story/79522.html

[Warpy]

1. Apparently Mr. White longs for the 60s

and all those Sidney Poitier films in which he plays a black man who would never lower himself to go to the bathroom. Such roles were probably necessary then to overcome years of minstrels and servants, but they're inappropriate now.

I've only seen the trailers and read the plot (I'm a DVD person, not a theater person), but the film seems like a trip under the invisibility cloak that modern racism confers.

Old women also wear that cloak, but to a lesser extent.

[XanaDUer]

2. And the poverty cloak, too

Good post.

[ShamelessHussy]

3. never heard of this film, but after reading the article and seeing the trailer

i want to see it!

thanks for sharing :toast:

[Daveparts still]

4. Anytime

You step out of the box of accepted reality you get stoned and kicked until you get back in the box. Reality is ugly, reality demands a response. Reality points an incriminating finger at us all. Lets just watch Dancing with the Stars and listen to Country music cause it tells us we’re wonderful. “Some get stoned, some get strange, sooner or later it all gets real."