From the "better late than never movie review" files, here's a quick rundown of 12 Years a Slave: it's a lavishly photographed, brilliantly executed, disgusting, appalling film. It is in fact, I believe, meant to be all of those things, and as such, fits well into my wabi-sabi view of the universe.
And yet, it also transcends that aesthetic, in that when viewing movies such as 12 Years or Django Unchained, I inevitably come away thinking that William Tecumseh Sherman let them off too easy, that if there had been atomic bombs and daisy cutters at the time, the confederacy sorely deserved to have flaming hell visited upon them.
While the national media gets its periodic moral enema on over the Donald Sterling kerfuffle, some things need to be put into perspective: one, that Sterling is 80 years old, and a billionaire, so banning him from the NBA "for life" means less than folks might like it to; and two, the media abandoned tealoading welfare rancher Cliven Bundy way too quickly, perhaps because Bundy's own people spotted him granting interviews whilst holding a dead calf, and thus realized because of that, that their boy might just be shithouse-rat crayzay.
Bundy's comments ("I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro") deserve more scrutiny in this light. What films like 12 Years (and to a lesser degree, Django) make clear is what more astute observers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates have been elucidating -- that this dynamic is and was systemic, and that, no matter how often these "those darn racist bastards" stories crop up in the media, things don't just magically wash out that cleanly. There are any number of studies showing hard numbers on the discrepancy of education for inner-city schools, or for numbers of black men imprisoned, versus other races.
Because Cliven Bundy was primarily a conservatard cause celebre, once he made his bed, his conserva-buddies were the first to jump ship on his ass. They have a hard enough time as it is convincing non-whites to vote or even listen to them, they don't need this asshole mucking things up for them.
And yet, it is only sensible and just to continue exploring the motifs behind someone like Bundy. Recall that this started with Bundy as a would-be insurrectionist, replete with armed supporters ready to square off with the feds over someone else's right to graze cattle on public lands. The Hannity types were just fine with all that, not just because Black President, but because Democratic President. They will pull this shit and more on the next one, and the one after that. Anything and everything to distract and obstruct.
So we've got the crazy established, but it went up another substantial notch. Again, Bundy's comments re "the Negro" were not so much merely insensitive as thuggishly clueless, the musings of a person who seems genuinely not to understand why they shouldn't bludgeon a beloved pet.
The only thing a thoughtless dickweed like Cliven Bundy will understand, in the wake of his revolting "I wuz jes' wondrin'" comments, is to be forced to pick cotton all day under the hot sun and the lash of the whip, and then to watch 12 Years over and over again until he gets it. Until they all get it, that even if there were "nice" plantation owners and slave masters -- and common sense should tell you that such people were either non-existent, or a less-than-1% minority -- it doesn't matter.
This was a system of owning human beings as property, using any manner of violence -- rape, murder, torture, maiming, breaking up families -- to do so. There is no excuse for continuing to defend what is and always has been completely indefensible.
I don't know why this is so fucking hard for them, but such people deserve no mercy in the court of public opinion.
And yet, it also transcends that aesthetic, in that when viewing movies such as 12 Years or Django Unchained, I inevitably come away thinking that William Tecumseh Sherman let them off too easy, that if there had been atomic bombs and daisy cutters at the time, the confederacy sorely deserved to have flaming hell visited upon them.
While the national media gets its periodic moral enema on over the Donald Sterling kerfuffle, some things need to be put into perspective: one, that Sterling is 80 years old, and a billionaire, so banning him from the NBA "for life" means less than folks might like it to; and two, the media abandoned tealoading welfare rancher Cliven Bundy way too quickly, perhaps because Bundy's own people spotted him granting interviews whilst holding a dead calf, and thus realized because of that, that their boy might just be shithouse-rat crayzay.
Bundy's comments ("I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro") deserve more scrutiny in this light. What films like 12 Years (and to a lesser degree, Django) make clear is what more astute observers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates have been elucidating -- that this dynamic is and was systemic, and that, no matter how often these "those darn racist bastards" stories crop up in the media, things don't just magically wash out that cleanly. There are any number of studies showing hard numbers on the discrepancy of education for inner-city schools, or for numbers of black men imprisoned, versus other races.
Because Cliven Bundy was primarily a conservatard cause celebre, once he made his bed, his conserva-buddies were the first to jump ship on his ass. They have a hard enough time as it is convincing non-whites to vote or even listen to them, they don't need this asshole mucking things up for them.
And yet, it is only sensible and just to continue exploring the motifs behind someone like Bundy. Recall that this started with Bundy as a would-be insurrectionist, replete with armed supporters ready to square off with the feds over someone else's right to graze cattle on public lands. The Hannity types were just fine with all that, not just because Black President, but because Democratic President. They will pull this shit and more on the next one, and the one after that. Anything and everything to distract and obstruct.
So we've got the crazy established, but it went up another substantial notch. Again, Bundy's comments re "the Negro" were not so much merely insensitive as thuggishly clueless, the musings of a person who seems genuinely not to understand why they shouldn't bludgeon a beloved pet.
The only thing a thoughtless dickweed like Cliven Bundy will understand, in the wake of his revolting "I wuz jes' wondrin'" comments, is to be forced to pick cotton all day under the hot sun and the lash of the whip, and then to watch 12 Years over and over again until he gets it. Until they all get it, that even if there were "nice" plantation owners and slave masters -- and common sense should tell you that such people were either non-existent, or a less-than-1% minority -- it doesn't matter.
This was a system of owning human beings as property, using any manner of violence -- rape, murder, torture, maiming, breaking up families -- to do so. There is no excuse for continuing to defend what is and always has been completely indefensible.
I don't know why this is so fucking hard for them, but such people deserve no mercy in the court of public opinion.
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