"Detroit"...I'm gonna rant a bit

Huh? That is what the media have always said about her, not counting of course the racist. Especially when she posed nude for that magazine.

 

Well I'm talking in terms of the media putting up as sex symbols. Tom Brady or David Beckham will always come to the mind of the media and those who follow the media.

 

Possibly
Who's the white guy in basketball they go crazy for or in boxing.
Track non exist

 

They are no white american stars in the NBA or boxing for the media to push.

I always wonder what is gonna happen to the NFL's popularity when Black QBs take over the NFL. I know folks don't wanna see that, that's why the sports media is always biased in favor of white QBs over Black QBs.

 

Jesus, there are no black males that the media try to push as sex symbols. Instead they are push as elite physical specimens. And there is a difference. LeBron james is a physical specimen who can sell product and move merchandise. But he is not considered a sex symbol. The American media has never been comfortable with the idea of black males as sex symbols. Ever. And if people haven't figured that out by now perhaps they never will. Serena Williams wasn't approached initially as much for advertisements not just because she was black but because too many people she has a fugly face and a body type that MOST men don't find attractive for women. Most men don't care for chicks with that much muscular covering their physiques. And believe it or not her big ass and thick thighs is not a turn on for most dudes around the world either. But her lack of advertisements was a problem that had long plagued previous female athletes whose athleticism seemed not feminine enough to those making decisions on Madison Avenue. Eventually for Serena things started looking up when they realized they couldn't ignore her success or longevity any longer and decided wisely that her accomplishments were more important than her looks. But if she had the face and bod of a Tyra Banks she would have been swarmed with advertising opportunities a long time ago. When it comes to women in the media looks are still the #1, #2 and #3 most important things. That's still an unfortunate reality.

 

Its time to get this threat back on track.

As I wrote yesterday I was going to post reasons why many black women will hate "Detroit". Here are the reasons below:


1)Its not about them. Black women on twitter increasingly have this “look at me!” mindset going on in regards to media portrayals. This leads them to often rejecting sight-unseen any show/movie with black males that don’t include back females. They refer to this increasingly as the “erasure of black women”. There may be roughly a dozen speaking parts for black actresses in “Detroit” but they are small roles. The film itself is a big ensemble piece with not one character getting a large enough role that would qualify as a lead. But the only substantial roles are given to those playing real life people who got caught up in the events at The Algiers Motel. And the only people who fit that description were black men, white men and white women. By the way the black and white male characters and white female characters in the film who WERE NOT part of that eventful night are also given slight screen time too. So this isn’t some bias directed at black women, the same treatment is given to any character not in the middle of the central conflict. Black women and their male lapdogs see the promos for “Detroit”, don’t see much of themselves in it and get pissed off. To make it worse they see some white girls in the ads and that makes it even worse. I’m cynical enough to assume if the event that took place was about black women trapped in a similar position by the police and the movie made about it had only slight roles for black men, no one would be outraged and making a big deal about it.


2) In the film the two white females are women of the sexual revolution who mingle with black guys and there is an implication that they may have done even more than that with them. Even more than that you have black dudes in the film casually interacting with them, attempting to woo them and flirt with them, trying to gain their favor by sparring with other black guys, kissing them. Granted in some cases this is happening because these women are pretty much the only ladies around in a motel in the middle of the city that’s on lockdown. Nonetheless there is a clear, mutual attraction between the guys and these women. An excitement that movie audiences almost never get to see between black males and white females. And for extreme black women who increasingly have the luxury of seeing IR portrayed in a more limited fashion that’s exclusively WM/BW, seeing those black guys interacting with white chicks breaks that comfort level.



3)These two white ladies are nor portrayed as being manipulative bitches who are using these black men in order to get their thrills for the night only to turn on them as soon as trouble ensues. What the black detractors were probably hoping for were the white women to be exposed as weak and evil and slutty. They want those chicks to turn out like real-life versions of the white girlfriend of “Get Out” so that black audiences can fold their arms and exclaim “I knew it all along”. But that’s not what is presented. Those two ladies don’t turn on the black men even when scared out of their wits. They are shocked by what is happening to the black guys and to themselves. One of them is battered. One is almost molested by a cop’s club. But they don’t protect themselves by throwing out false accusations. One of them is especially more defiant and seems older and tougher than the other. She later testifies in court in the third act. Both of them come across as being legitimately concerned over the well-being of the black guys who they were lined up next to. Basically they were not presented as evil. There is no condemnation of white women or ‘white women feminism”. In fact the most sympathetic white characters in the film were all women (that includes one white female who was helping a family identify a body in a morgue). That drives many black women nuts, the same type of black women who believe that white females were just as responsible for slavery as the white men who established and ran all institutions during the time of slavery in America. Black women who go in with that type of stereotype view of white women who hang with black men, who need to see representation of that stereotype realized on screen, will be greatly disappointed. Not to mention mad.


4)The movie doesn’t hold back knocking white men off their perch. It paints an ugly picture of white guys so insecure that they respond with violence to convey their authority. While the cops did investigate the motel to look for a shooter, what triggers them arguably more than anything is the presence of white women in the company of low-down black men. It bugs them. It makes them lash out at both the black men and the white women. They ask these white women, whether in private or in front of a crowd, why do they want to fuck black men. They almost beg them for an answer. The thought of it hurts them. They justify what’s happening by concluding that these ladies must be prostitutes. Even once that theory is shot down they still end up dismissing these women as whores (the real life man whom the main cop is based on had particularly sexists views regarding women in general). It was an on-the-money and naked portrayal of the mentality of territorial white males who need to come up with rationale to soother their fragile egos. These cops were acting as if they were personally being rejected by these white girls when they found them in the motel. The screenwriter of the film is a white male named Mark Boal and he deserves props for not sugarcoating certain truths even if his dialogue is a little too obvious at times. What this film helps make clear is that the violence directed at black men for crossing (or even appearing to cross) any sexual racial line is not the fault of white women but rather the fault of white men who resort to physical attacks. This is not the narrative that many deranged black women want to face. They like to hold on to some false notion that all IR were treated equally as terrible, particularly in the past. Some love to cling to the notion that there were more obstacles in the way of WM/BW pairings, that such relationships were just as much under the threat of danger. And that’s bullshit. An older black women in the film shouts out towards the end of the film that no deaths would have occurred if black girls had been found in the motel with white men. She’s goddamn right and black women who try to make some false equivalency out of this are out of their fucking minds. Historically white males in America have been hypocrites. White women have been far from perfect but what they have not resorted to the type of sick assault that cost the lives of others.

 

Thanks @JamalSpunky for this piece, you're making me want to see the movie twice. Katherine Bigelow and Mark Boal seem like they touched subjects that would make a lot of people uncomfortable, but in a powerful way. They are projecting this movie will make around $18-$20 Million on opening day, but I hope it does more.

 

I learn something every day. I hope to see those trailers and the flick. I will discuss more when a majority of the folks see the movie.

 

JS,you dropped deep science on that flick. There was a book about that incident and I like to know if that author has the same thoughts?

 

Take Anna Kournikova who never won a singles match yet,get all of those advertisments. No doubt the media thinks she is the face of female tennis as compaired to Serena Williams.

 

The Woody Allen film Melinda and Melinda was the only flick he ever touched on a IR between a WW/BM. I hope to see Landline soon.

 

The author may be dead. Book was written almost 50 years ago. I just ordered a paperback of it from Amazon this morning. It's not in e-book format though that may change.

 

Honestly, #4 was so moving to the point l think seeing it will depress me now. Especially because its fact based. So sad.

Yep. Selling products does not mean sex-symbol. Martina Navratilova and Billie-Jean King sold products.

 

I think you meant $18-$20 million for the opening weekend. And if the film does that it should be considered a treatment (none of Bigelow's movies have been huge box office hits). Where did you get your numbers from btw? I'm reading that the Halle Berry kidnap film (which is going to be hot garbage) is tracking better.

 

Yes,John Hershey is no longer with us. Tell me about it after you read it. I may get it from the library since the movie may have a reprint.

 

But,Anna got much more money than those legends of the sport.

 

The whack jobs are out in force.

A black writer did a piece for Complex claiming Bigelow didn't have the right to do "Detroit".

On twitter a black woman is upset that the filmmakers didn't make up black female characters to use in the film causing one black male to respond that white women and black men often collude to erase black women from TV and movies.

All of a sudden Jpohn Boyega is a bad guy and someone has called him out on twitter for not fighting more for black females in his films....as if he has say who is going to be in Star Wars or Detroit.

And someone has dug up supposedly some negative remarks made about black women by the film's star Alfee Smith, trying to Nate Parker him by ruining his rep before he can even establish one.

 

I'm actually jealous & wish Black Men would origanize like this to push their own Agendas.

 

Yes I meant opening weekend. lol. I heard it on some radio show my sister had on in her car this past Sunday. Don't remember if it was a local station or not.

 

The sad thing is that a large number of black men are organized. They just happened to be marching in-step with the black women who go on their whine-fest on twitter.