MovieChat Forums > Sione's Wedding (2006) Discussion > Enough of the Wiggers already!!

Enough of the Wiggers already!!


Why is it, in every comedy starring black/ brown actors (this, Barbershop, anything with Martin Lawrence and literally a hundred copycat wanna-be others) does there have to be a sole (not soul) white character who is so desperate to be 'down' with the 'homies', that he must humiliate himself throughout the duration of the movie by using cringe-inducing 'US Ghetto' vernacular in order to appease himself to the main characters? (who of course roll their eyes, as if no white man could ever be down with their exclusive members-only club)
CHANGE THE FORMULA PEOPLE THAT WAS FUNNY IN 1990!!(for 5 minutes) The reversed role 'Uncle Tom' thing, or 'thang' is it is known 'in tha hood' is 'played out' "Y'all"

Otherwise a pretty good movie, with good characters, and some genuine comedy - most important: The soundtrack was awesome!!

PS as an aside, am I the only P.I./ Palangi in NZ who's sick of our kids modelling themselves on LA Gangs?? The LA street slang, tagging, even naming themselves after Crips, Bloods etc? Bah. Get your own identity, losers.We didn't get to this fine country on slave ships.

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[deleted]

I quite agree I'm a P.I. woman born and raised in England. I think the fact that you have Sione's Wedding and NO. 2 doing well and coming out of NZ shows that we have a cultural identity of our own in filmmaking. We don't need to do all that ghetto, brother rubbish! Boyz from the Hood! Island boys should not be aspiring to that LA gang rubbish stuff. We should embrace who we are as Islanders and create our own style of filmaking. I hate those ghetto films. What's so awesome and inspiring about that!

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the brain nz

I salut you.



Agreedx3.

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Yes and our hip hop was getting really good too, it was original, it was our own style that was never heard before for example Nesian Mystik and Scribe. But now days it's beginning to move into that whole American gangster, bling bling trash, with the skanks and fancy cars in the background.

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I have to say as an African-American (not from LA) I am very offended by your posting, although I do see your point on racial stereotypes. But it is very offensive that you think you have anything to comment on about "tha hood" as you so maturely put it. No one where I'm from acts or talks like that so unless you have personally been to "tha hood" which I seriously doubt, you need to comment on something you know about. You see those movies half-way around the world with the "US Ghetto" vernacular and you think thats how all African-Americans talk and act, and if that is the case, you are seriously closed-minded, so unless you want to be schooled on African-American culture you need to stick to knowledge on your own culture. And by the way, we didn't ask to come to our fine country on slave ships!!

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You totally missed my point. I have indeed been to the States (my mother is from Philadelphia), and not just LA, (PS saw some bloods hanging outside McD's in Santa Monica, by the pier) but Boston, NY, DC, Providence, Philly of course and no, people don't all talk like that, but here in NZ the exposure we are force fed through music, TV, movies, magazines ,commercials and other media is ONLY that - do you see?
My point is our children mimic what is fed to them through these channels, and sadly aspire to be part of the 'Gangsta' image. Maybe you should take a walk around my 'Hood' to see what I mean. I recently walked down the road with my wife wearing a red jacket to be intimidated by a car of youths making throat cutting gestures and making what I presume is a 'Crips' sign.
FYI our kids also name their gangs after Crips & Bloods.
You say people in your neighbourhood don't talk like that, but your tv shows and movies do, and thats what our kids see. Shows like Pimp my Ride (MTV) aspires these impressionable children to have a car/ lifestyle like a pimp - just look at the music vids - need I mention any names of Rappers on their vids counting cash surrounded by 'ho's' smoking drugs. They talk about keeping it 'ghetto' or keepin it 'gangsta'- Our kids can't tell 'real' from make believe posers.
Every weekend, some youth is killed in a gang fight here in Auckland. Our streets are littered with 'tagging' - another import.Kids walk around talking like LA Gangsters, wearing bandanas of their 'colours' throwing up signs and so on.
YES I WOULD LOVE OUR KIDS TO STICK TO OUR OWN CULTURE - THATS THE POINT!! LA GANG CULTURE IN THE FORM OUR KIDS PERCEIVE IT IS NOT HELPING OUR SOCIETY.
I am sorry you are offended, nowhere in my posting did I insinuate that represented African Americans as a race/ society. My point about slave ships was not meant to open up another can of worms, but was in reference to the common cop out clause 'gangsters' use in the movies about why they are 'forced' to live the life (REF : Boyz In Tha Hood, Menace To Society, Clockers)

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thebrain nz I would like to apologize for anything I stated that offended you. I am sorry that in your culture there is such a problem with kids imitating the rappers and others on MTV potraying these negative images, when half of them have of those people have never even lived that life. In some of the lower income neighborhoods where I am from (St. Louis, MO) there is also a epedemic of violence mostly from the generational thinking of do anything to survive, even if that includes genocide, we call that a ghetto mentality. I just have a problem with the generalizing aspect of the comments and portrayals people from other parts of the world tend to make about certain cultures and I am sure that maybe you have experienced this as well. So once again I apologize and I am sorry that the kids of your culture are imitating and idolizing these, basicly posers, who are just in it for the money no matter what the effect on this generation.

P.S. I would not recommend using the word wigger to make a point because it sounds like the n word and that alone could offend alot more people.

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Yes I agree dreamcatcher 7580, this film has nothing to do with African Americans so I don't see the need to call them Wiggers. Call them wislanders or woconuts instead. After all thats who they're trying to imitate isn't it? not African Americans.

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[deleted]



Interesting theory there leftbolo.

Diet alone?

Surely we would need a bit of love and affection too.

What may I ask does your diet consist of?

Thanks in advance,

Your right nut.

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[deleted]

I am from the Netherlands and always wonder what's wrong with the word n i g g e r? In our country we call a black person a 'neger', literally meaning a black person. The word is derived from negro, meaning black, and so is n i g g e r. To me the word n i g g e r doesn't have any negative feeling or meaning about it. It's just a word for a black person, nothing more. So why is it that so many of you black people are offended to be called well, black people? And why is it that I hear rappers and even comedians say the word n i g g e r lots of times without anyone complaining? If someone (black or white) were to call me a white boy I wouldn't be offended at all. I AM a white boy after all.

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I understand your confusion. There are two things to understand about the US. We're a polite society, extremely modest, despite what anything or anyone says, and slurs are not tolerated. The usage of slurs in any context gives power to those slurs, and so they are generally never used in anything remotely public. Nothing resembling anything demeaning to anyone is appreciated or tolerated here, so the usage of the N word as taboo is more of a practicality if anything. If a person says it, then what stops them from saying anything?

Secondly, while race doesn't come up often amongst most people here, the N word specifically, but any word similar, is generally a form of exerting your will over another person, and has been for hundreds of years. Every American knows about old African subjugation, just like practically everyone else in the past 2000 years, if anything, it is a sign of disrespect to our forefathers to use the words that their murderers and oppressors used to bind them.

Calling you a "white boy" really isn't the same thing. The closest thing I could think of would be maybe calling you a *beep* despite knowing you are from the Netherlands.

Ignore rappers and comedians, btw. The use of a single word killed the biggest genre of music since Jazz.

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it's that kind of political correctness advocated by Dreamcatcher that leads to those terrible wigger characters. It's also a reverse racism - the white people look rediculous and the non-whites lookwise for rolling their eyes.

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I is wid thebrain_nz on this one. You go girl!

Seriously though - good point, well made. New Zealanders should understand you PS, others may not. I will say however that the 'wigger' does exist in society, so in a way they are valid for ridicule. Usually they're an outcast of some sort and try to find an identity by adopting another culture and embracing it as their own. It's not normally as over-the-top and pronounced as many films portray for the sake of comedy though.

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am I the only P.I./ Palangi in NZ who's sick of our kids modelling themselves on LA Gangs


YOU ARE SOOO NOT ALONE!! I'm a Cook Islander and I have many cousins who think theyre gangsters they even have a gang called Elaws (Wale spelled backwards. "Wale" pronounced Wah-leh being the name of my island) It puts shame to my culture and honestly i wish i could just plonk them in those dangerous American ghetto suburbs such as Compton L.A where they can go get shot or jacked in their own car.

although I dont mind them turning their graffiti into "legal murals" or a work of art...it does annoy me when they vandalise the place.

and i think wiggers are so funny....so are "islander emos" which i saw the other day!!:)

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Hi, I'm an African-American woman from Detroit,MI, who just rented this film and loved it to death--I actually was laughing out loud at one point---the cast was so engaging and well put together that I couldn't help but like it! I'd never heard of the movie,just picked it off the shelf because I thought it was an Asian-American film. I was surprised to find out that it was actually a New Zealand film--which was fine with me because I love foreign films. To me, it was hilarious to hear New Zealanders of Samoan descent speaking African-American slang (and very accurately,BTW---here in Detroit,not everybody,but a LOT of black folks actually talk EXACTLY like that,mainly because we're the majority population here,so it's pretty much the norm--it's not just something everybody gets from hearing rap tunes). Plus it's just refreshing to see a film from New Zealand that's not focused on white people for a change! I like Australian/New Zealand films anyways! (I have already seen others,like UTU,ONCE WERE WARRIORS,THE FRINGE DWELLERS,and I have to rent out WHALE RIDER again so I can finally finish it,and yeah, I've also seen some of Peter Jackson's early horror films.)

Loved the rap tune (I Do Believe) at the beginning of the film--is the soundtrack available in the U.S. yet,if anyone knows? I read a long time ago that New Zealand has a thriving hip-hop scene,so that's another reason I liked the film---it was cool/hip/fresh without really trying to be, and realistic without the BS Hollywood-contrived situations--that's what made it so damn funny to me! I'd love to but on DVD if I had the chance and would love to see more films like this--any recomendations? It's a damn shame this flick hasn't gotten more of a wider release here in the States, but at least it's available for rent! Plus it didn't rely on lame,stupid jokes about bodily functions that a lot of American comedies have come to rely on in the last 10 years or so,and on the top of that,the Magasiva brothers (who played the characters Michael and Sione) are both hot! (Sorry,but the white boy was funny as hell---and even though that stereotype of the white person wanting to be "down" was obviously exaggerated for comic purposes,yes,there ARE white/Arab folks here in the D that act and speak like that,but that's usually because,if they grew up here they mainly grew up around black folks,depending on what part of the city they're from,so it's not just an affectation for them.

And about the representations of African-American in overseas media---it sounds like from what I've read so far on this post,all you get imported over there are the ghetto/shoot-'em-in-the-hood flicks and comedies---please don't take that as the sole representation of black people in the U.S.,period---even in the ghettos,a lot of us work,go to school,have kids and do what we need to do to get by in life,and all of us aren't in gangs either--a lot of us try avoid getting caught up in that gang/selling drugs as possible, which is hard when that's constantly going on in your 'hood.

Anyway I've been a hip-hop fan since age 12,and I hate how rap has just degenerated into nothing but a full-on advertisement for "bling,bitches,and grills" or being a member of some damn gang/or the so-called pimp lifestyle. I think it's all just bull***, for real. I remember back in the day when rap was serious (but fun) vehicle for instilling pride/the need for education in black youth (a good and recent book titled WHEN RAP MUSIC HAD A CONSCIENCE by Tayanna McQuillar discusses that very subject) and I've always enjoyed hearing the different and unique takes rappers from different countries around the world bring to their approach to hip-hop and the subjects they deal with. I hate the fact,however,that the worst aspects of American culture (not just AA culture,I'm emphasizing) are getting exported to other countries because a lot of those images are just created for a profit/audience that eats that s*** up like its the truth. Basically,don't believe everything you see about us black Americans in the exported media---the sad part is that there are black directors/producers making some of that BS. Search out examples of independent black American cinema that ain't about all that BS,like PARK DAY,MARRIAGE PREP--okay,these are late '90's indie flicks, but also check out LIFT,OUR SONG,etc.

To close out, I hope to see more engaging films made by/about people of color from the NZ! SAMOAN WEDDING (that's the American title) gets mad props in my book!

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Although I think that Derek was surprisingly funny for the somewhat 'stereotypical' role that he played (perhaps its the hilarity of me knowing white people who actually do act like that, that are indeed from G-G-G-Gfield), I do agree with the rest of your post.

How intensely stupid is it that NZ kids are going out and hurting, or in some cases even killing each other because they want to be just like Crips & Bloods? You're not American! Get over it!
There are two schools on the North Shore (if you're from there, you'll know what I mean), who have this gigantic feud going on, simply because their SCHOOL UNIFORMS are the colours blue and red. Words cannot express how ignorant that argument is.

If kids these days want to live the gangsta lifestyle, heck, go ahead, I don't care all that much. But don't put your life in danger, don't go doing stupid stuff, don't go committing your life to this idea that's been fed to you through the media - it's not half as honest as you'd like to think.

Random place to have a rant, but oh well. :)

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are you stupid? were you expecting these guys to eat crumpets and drink earl grey tea over a game of chess?

This film was a clear depiction of modern day south auckland,and the "wigger" represented white people in those areas and the influence the dominant brown population has had on them.I am also PI but am complete opposite having being brought up down south amongst a predominantly white population,and as Ive grown,i have come to both act and speak like a palangi,which is somewhat of a disadvantage in some respects as I have not been as exposed to the Samoan culture and language.

Although the white guy acting like a brownie was included for comic purposes,there are actually people like that,especially in areas like South Auckland where the PI's have major influence.

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Islanders arent original, they just copy what blacks do on tv and even though they dont relate they still proceed to imitate. I cant believe they even made a Rodney King reference hahah
However I did enjoy this movie, it seemed a bit try-hard wannabe at times. But still its enjoyable

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