MovieChat Forums > Jungle Fever (1991) Discussion > Why did Reverend Purify give that racist...

Why did Reverend Purify give that racist speech to Angie about slavery?


i don't think Italian owned that many slaves in America.

Also, i thought Italians were only considered 'white' after the late 1800s.

why is he pissed off at her? She's not an anglo.and most anglos living in america before 1865 didn't even own slaves.


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[deleted]

His speech is historic- he's telling true facts about slavery: the raping of Black slave women is an undisputed historical fact.

Also, Italians, Spaniards, British and Portuguese all owned slaves in the Americas, so I don't understand ur point.

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Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people

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There was something very passive-aggressive about this speech as it was directed at Angie, whether the facts in it were true or not. It's clear the reverend was trying to humiliate Angie by insinuating that her feelings for Flipper amounted to nothing more than a lot of cheap objectifying stereotypes about black men. Sadly, this seems to have been Spike Lee's view of the relationship too--I heard he clashed a lot with Sciorra about her character's motivation.

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[deleted]

America was not the first country to own Africa slaves. Portugal was.

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...and this is relevant because...? The point is that Angie's Italian, and historically blacks and Italians hate each other. Period.

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The whole point is racism exists between ALL races. He said her parents were racist and it bothered me that she didn't say well so are yours! Why is it that racism is always defined as a white people thing? Black people are just as racist against white people as they say whites are...
Also,why are white people today hated on for what their white ancestors did? White people today have no control over what happened then, but they are paying for it still.



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[deleted]

What he said was true and there's no denying that. The only problem I had with his speech was that he generalized that all white people were the same regardless if she was Italian. That she was to have the same deep rooted feeling to get a black stud like what white slave owners wives were. Which was racist itself for him to have that assumption.

She could have came out and said "I wouldn't know nothing about that, I can trace my family back to Italy and they never owned slaves" But she didn't, so it was assumed that she got hit by a ton of bricks and realize she was just exploring to piss off her family or getting away from where she came from.

If Sciorra got pissed at Spike Lee for making her character look that way and for having the story turned out the way it did, she shouldn't, because she's suppose to be an actress playing a part. However we all get the impression she is she was playing someone very similar to herself, so it's understandable she would get pissed, but someone who is a professional actor/actress has to separate the two.

Sciorra was good in the Hand That Rock's the Cradle, a role where she wasn't just playing an Italian American girl, and The Sopranos where she playing an insane chick. But I guess if you're playing something so close to home it's upsetting that the character looks foolish..



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.....did someone actually say Blacks cannot be racist?.....towards whites?

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Please.. Blacks can be racists towards other Blacks.. IE) Paper Bag tests..



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racism is oppression. blacks can be prejudiced or bigoted toward whites, but not technically "racist". People use the word racist, do not understand the meaning of the word.

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[deleted]

She could have came out and said "I wouldn't know nothing about that, I can trace my family back to Italy and they never owned slaves" But she didn't, so it was assumed that she got hit by a ton of bricks and realize she was just exploring to piss off her family or getting away from where she came from.

If Sciorra got pissed at Spike Lee for making her character look that way and for having the story turned out the way it did, she shouldn't, because she's suppose to be an actress playing a part. However we all get the impression she is she was playing someone very similar to herself, so it's understandable she would get pissed, but someone who is a professional actor/actress has to separate the two.

Sciorra was good in the Hand That Rock's the Cradle, a role where she wasn't just playing an Italian American girl, and The Sopranos where she playing an insane chick. But I guess if you're playing something so close to home it's upsetting that the character looks foolish..


^^This.

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit me!"- Hudson in Aliens.

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Spike Lee could really have gone places with the message of this movie; but the story kinda detoriated (SP?) in the final half of the film.

Plus the scene where all the black women "discuss" cheating and race felt like Spike Lee wanted to spew hate about how HE sees black women and their feelings towards white women.

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Flippers' parents aren't racist; they just would rather see Flipper stay with his wife, then commit adultery with Angie. That doesn't mean, of course, that if Flipper were single, that they would be completely OK with his dating outside his race. But since they are fictitious characters, only their creator - Spike Lee - would have the best insight into that.

And your complaint about all whites being blamed for past slavery seems out of place here. No one in the movie puts the blame for slavery on any white person's shoulders. For example, no one accuses Angie of being a 'slave-keeper'.



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I see what your saying but get this. The same way whites his still being defined by their ancestors is the same way Blacks are still being defined too. I for one can say that Blacks have it harder than any race when it comes to discrimination. people always say your so pretty for a Black girl, how comes your nose is so straight, your so intelligent for a Black girl, really you don't have any kids and your 24 also your a virgin wow; and it goes on and on. White people are always discriminating us based on our looks or behavior so i don't think your justified by your statement. Yes you didn't enslave anyone and your probable have nothing against Blacks but everyone knows that all of us as a race reap what our fore parents did. All in all i don't hate white people but in my country and the group i'm from we don't believe in inter racial dating and to most the guys in my country especially the rasta's being with someone white is an abomination their just not attracted to white woman.

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The whole point is racism exists between ALL races. He said her parents were racist and it bothered me that she didn't say well so are yours! Why is it that racism is always defined as a white people thing? Black people are just as racist against white people as they say whites are...
Also,why are white people today hated on for what their white ancestors did? White people today have no control over what happened then, but they are paying for it still


Because blacks still face racism from whites from jobs to housing. Whites still today feel that they are better than other races, especially blacks.

And blacks aren't racist against whites. They just don't like it when a black person looks down on their own and feel that whites are better.

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Bull$hit. Chris Rock wasn't being facetious when he made that joke about old black men being the most racist folks around. There are racists everywhere and within every race (I live in one of the most racist areas of North American and I see it every single day from people of all races).

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His speech is historic- he's telling true facts about slavery: the raping of Black slave women is an undisputed historical fact.


Truth.

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The dad's speech may have been historically accurate, but it was still highly offensive & rude, under the circumstances. He should've saved it for when he was alone with his ADULT son. To make that speech in front of his son's white girlfriend was tasteless and evil. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything. Flipper was a bigger fool for bringing her there to begin with.

His dad's idiot wife praising Jesus and clapping in the background was just as tacky.

The main problem I had with the movie was that the director himself, hated this interracial couple from the get go. He didn't want them to succeed. He threw every cliché in the book. You didn't learn ANYTHING, other than everyone is racist and hateful. The only likeable people were Theresa Randel, Anabella Sciora, Debi Mazur and Tyra Ferrell.

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Oh i never said that i agreed with how the dad handled the situation.

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Italians did NOT own slaves.
As for Spain and blacks, I'm not as sure about that.
Most of the slavery was done by the Brits, Danes, etc.

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If Angie had been more educated, she coulda schooled the good Reverend that the majority of Italians arrived in the U.S. after the Civil War, meaning that they weren't slaveowners.
And of course the Spanish owned millions of slaves. Who do you think brought all those Africans to Central & South America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the American Southeast?

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Actually now that I know. I'll break it down.
The only country that really owned black slaves was Portugual and the USA.
In the UK there was slavery but it was never legal, so it never got systematic if you will.
In Spain, there was slavery, but most of it was against Native Americans, and in the 16th century it was illegalized, but replaced with the Economienda system, in which poor people were forced to work in workhouses.
In France, it's arguable. They too had a lot of African slaves.
Portugual was the one that got the slave trade going.
And the only reason there's a lot of black people in Dominican Republic is becauase it was part of Haiti a long time ago.
Only Portugual and maybe France enslaved blacks to the mass.

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Actually no Spain didn't really have slavery officially. They did enslave the Native Americans, but abolished slavery afterward. What they had was the Economedia system -- which was indentured servitude. The reason all the black people are in Latin America is because the Spanish offered them freedom.

The Portuguese, Brits (to an extent) and French were the biggest in the African slave trade.

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Italians were not part of the trade at all. In fact, Italy wasn't even a unified country.

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But she's still Germanic. Tucci is a Germanic surname. It's not like the real indigenous Italians.
Gosh people today and their stupidity

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According to Spike Lee and like-minded folks, there isn't one single aspect of black/white relations in America that isn't ultimately rooted in slavery.

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