to say this movie is "racist" is quite correct but THAT IS ONLY ONE OF THE SOCIAL IDIOCIES this wonderfully funny movie intentionally MAKES FUN of. and it is "bustin' a gut" funny as it works its magic.
the movie makes "fun" of our (EVERYONE'S; whether black, white, oriental japanese, oriental chinese, native american, etc) idiosyncracies when it comes to differences based on skin color, social strata, which country club one goes to, what kind of music you're into, etc. we all are guilty of it: we look 'down' on those who don't live 'up' to our standards and think that those who look 'down' on us are either prejudiced or snobs or whatever label satisfies our disastisfaction of their disdain for us.
in a perfect world it would be nice if a goodly portion of the human race ennobled whatever natural intelligence with which we have been blessed by getting a well-rounded education. but that will never happen. next i would expect the vast majority of peops to think for themselves and basically use their own thoughts in dialoguing instead of only a minority of the human race that does that.
but our usual non-desire to enhance our knowledge, except for some quid pro quo, goes hand in hand with our continued tribalism (in many guises) that flies under the modern flag of "racism" and "sexism" and many other "isms".
i just call all of it 'difference-ism' and we all have a sprinkling of it, some to a great degree, some less so.
'difference-ism' is just the way we humans are; whether it is under the banner of race or education or body type or hair style or taste in music or taste in clothes or whatever choices or non-choices that make us all different from one another.
dang, i am a light skinned black person with "good" hair (i have no idea what "bad" hair is). i can't tell you how many dark-skinned black peops look 'down' on me as not being 'fully black.' yet i am as black as they are.
i remember when i heard the little diddy that joan plowright sang at the table ("mother, is massa going to sell us tomorrow" "yes yes yes").
dame joan pulled that little number off perfectly. yet the audience who watches it either laughs their heads off or gets changrined, as the two people i was with did. they thought that was very "racist".
i had to tell them that dame joan was indeed singing a short number from a musical ("Through the Years") of the 40s (?) by a black woman (amelia robinson) about the plight of the american black ( http://www.schillerinstitute.net/educ/thruyears.html ). they were also surprised that this play was performed in 1995 for the martin luther kind commeration thingamig.
the bottom line i am making is that this movie is "racist" because it is supposed to be "racist" and make fun of the mindset that ALL OF US have in our claim to separate ourselves from anyone for what ever difference there might be naturally or through some acquisition.
o, by the way, one of the posters previously stated that only whites can be racist. that is as stupid as spike lee is ugly. and that is a blatant racist statement.
that would be like saying only black guys can play good basketball or white woman can lower their head and shake their long hair or that all oriental kids are good in math or that "all jews are smart". all stupid statements with a racist mentality. and, speaking of spike lee, he is one of the most racist of blacks who claims he isn't.
that is just ludicrous.
the good Lawd gave spike lee ugliness (in my eyes) and an inability to see how silly his own thinking is.
no race has a claim on racism. no difference has a claim on 'difference-ism'.
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mjcom99
18 years ago
Well, I scrolled to the bottom and finally found a post by an intelligent person. Now, nobody post any more. :)
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