Backlash against Harriet Tubman biopic.

That tweet is wrong.

 

What do you mean?

 

@RickyRawls of the "Champagne Sharks" podcast livetweeted watching a bootleg copy of "Harriet":

https://twitter.com/RickyRawls/status/1190499966357319680










Twitter video clips:


https://twitter.com/RickyRawls/status/1190507849077731328


https://twitter.com/RickyRawls/status/1190517676654972929

 

This... lol... wow...

 

The so-called Black media is claiming that the movie fell victim to some kind of bot-driven online whispering campaign similar to Russiagate.

They also keep gaslighting about how white brutality was downplayed and the main villain being a Black man despite the fact that people have been sharing the bootleg clips all over social media.




https://newsone.com/3892395/harriet-movie-controversy-2020-election/


Non-Black people are giving honest assessments of how disgusting this movie is while these Black media types cover each other's asses. No wonder the community is in the state that it is.

 

Well, the writer/director is a feminist, so I guess this is just a black feminist fantasy film.

between shonda rhimes, Ava duvernay, and Kasi Lemmons (as well as countless others), it seems that the black matriarchy has come full swing and is accidentally telling on itself.

 

Thank you, Zoe Chance!

 

Goddamn, Twitter is killing it on this shitty ass movie.

 

I was keeping up with the controversy in rea time when it got going strong last Saturday. Going through twitter I was sad that I had to end up being on the side of the ADOS folks who already came in hating the film because of the non African American playing Tubman. But such circumstances make for strange bedfellows. I hated the first trailer for this film, it looked awful and corny and overly lit. Something like a Lifetime movie. The second trailer was an improvement but by that time the lukewarm reviews from the Toronto film festival came out and I knew this movie was a dud. But I never got the sense that it was the abomination it now seems to be.


Some thoughts:


Initially people were blaming white writers for what took place in the film. But the two writers were African Americans. A black dude wrote the first script. And Kasi Lemmons, the director, rewrote a lot of it. I’m not sure which of the two is responsible for the most egregious aspects of this story. I’m disappointed in Lemmons though, a woman I have admired over the years.


This Bigger Long sounds like a caricature out of “The Birth of A Nation”. D.W. Griffith would be proud. How fitting that in a story largely taking place in the slavery era, this movie manages to put out another example of the negative representation of the BM/WW connection. A bad black guy who sells out his people (even murders them) so he can get money to fuck white whores. Doesn’t matter that BM/WW was not the illicit black-white pairing of that era. That would be white men and black women. But what does that matter when black people in Hollywood can push the idea that black men with white women is a bad thing in any form. Someone needs to tell me how a black male of the antebellum and Civil War South would be allowed to get anywhere near a white woman, even if they were prostitutes. No white male would allow that. Was he planning to do this in the North? Even so no white travelling male companion from the South who knew of this would let this take place, not even talk of it.


I’m convinced Janelle Monae’s character is there just to be a very cute black women with “pretty hair”. African American women HATE seeing black women on screen with their actual hair, especially if its nappy and unkempt. That’s their goddamn kryptonite and their eternal shame. So in novels, TV shows and movies, black women of those time are often described or shown to have the type of straight hair that was uncommon for the vas, vast majority of black women of that time and place. Its like they came out of the beauty salon after being worked over with a hot comb. Often times the black women get the long or curly hair because the characters are conveniently mulatto, part white or part Native American. This allows the black women to “compete” with the beauty aesthetics of the white female characters (who are typically portrayed as being envious of black female beauty), which suggests that the people behind these tales (regardless of their race) don’t think black women can measure up without that hair. Obviously the filmmaker of this movie knew she couldn’t pretty up Harriet Tubman like they did in that farce Abram Lincoln Vampire Slayer flick. Too many people have seen images of Tubman and understand she wasn’t exactly a beauty queen. And that should be alright. But no, it wasn’t enough. Enter Monae’s made up character with the unblemished face, the long locks of curly hair and the lovely outfits she wear.


I’m not familiar with everything about Tubman’s story but I know the white slave owner who chased her was pretty much made up as well. And his being in love with her? Ridiculous. Not based on historical fact. But I was worried about what I saw in the trailer, that the film may take that route. And so they did. This has become such a trope. Every story about the era of slavery in our modern era must have some white dude or two who can’t control their heated passion for black women. Its unnecessary and misleading. Yes, a great extraordinary number of black women were raped and a lot were caught up in affairs with their white masters and overseers. This is well chronicled. But the majority of black female slaves did not have these experiences and the majority of white Southern men weren’t raping or sleeping with them based on what I’ve read. But facts like that must take a backseat to this idea of desirability of the black wench. Its like a method of making black women feel good about themselves and NOTHING apparently does a better job of improving their self-esteem than this idea of black women being desirable to white men. Anyway there is nothing I’m aware of which suggests that Tubman fit those qualifications anyway. Regardless even despite white guys being about 100% responsible for the sexual brutality of that era of American society, this movie apparently presents white men’s affections for black women as so overpowering pure that it helps transcends their bigotry to the point they would shoot down the black male beast to protect black women. And that is just sick.


Also it is no coincidence that the white slave master in question is played by some pretty boy actor. This is what Hollywood does. Cast slave masters with great-looking actors. I suppose the idea could be that if you cast an average-looking or ugly actor, that would be a pile on considering the character is a despicable slave owner. But why shouldn’t there be a pile on? Instead by picking pretty and charismatic people to play those roles, Hollywood is allowing those characters to gain some sympathies from the audience. This is because we are a pretty shallow society and good looks can lead us to overlook horrendous actions from others. This type of casting is far too much of a trend. Tarantino originally wrote DiCaprio’s character in Django as a fat, unattractive slob. But he went and hired DiCaprio for the part. In the memoir 12 Years A Slave, Solomon Northup described his last owner to be as unattractive as he was brutal. But for the film? They picked Michael Fassbender. And now Harriet makes use of Taylor Swift’s pretty boy boyfriend to play the main slave owner. Coincidence?


If the film does not have you walking away greatly impressed with William Still then it has failed to do its job in educating. Though pretty much unknown to people of today, Still was an African American businessman and abolitionist who became known as the Father of the Underground Railroad. He was probably the most important member of the Underground Railroad and was responsible in helping over 800 slaves escape to freedom. On a few occasions Tubman brought the escapes slaves she was leading t his office. He also aided and provided shelter to a number of the men who were part of John Brown’s crew at Harpers Ferry and found themselves fleeing when things went wrong.


There is a great book that focuses a lot on the history and records of Still as well as other members of the Underground Railroad movement. Its titled “Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad” by Eric Foner.




Admittedly Its kind of a dry text, better suited for the classroom perhaps. But it is so informative. It gave me a greater understanding of what the Underground Railroad was about. For example I learned from it how black people were the dominant forces running the Underground Railroad and how they alone put themselves at physical risk by travelling into slave country and escorting slaves out or at least leading them to Canada when those slaves escaped on their own. White members of the Underground Railroad mostly contributed finances or provided locations for black people to stay in and hide during their journeys on this Railroad network. Still is played by Leslie Odom in the film.

The movie has no chance at Oscar nominations other than that perhaps of the lead actress. But I'm hoping the controversy kills any hope of that for good.

 

Not "accidentally."

 

I heard people online including tonetalks in his youtube review of the movie mention how they made the villain "bigger longer" character a simp lusting after white women to try and paint out negative portrayal of bm/ww IR pairings while they tried to get the audience to have sympathy for Harriet's white male slave owner and understand him.

This movie isn't for and stands against everything about this site so this will be the last time I talk about this here.

But I leave with this; I really hope whether this movie inspires it that we get a movie made about those books I have mentioned that detailed bm/ww IR relationships. There were some where the white woman was just using black men for sex but the book made sure to talk about the love stories including the love story of Nell and Charles who was the actual first IR marriage in the US(although not legally recognized)
https://www.capitalgazette.com/lifestyles/ph-ac-cn-irish-nell-1104-20161105-story.html

https://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-to.objects22zjun22-story.html

Another good read by Martha Hodes that I would love to see a movie about was The Sea Captain's Wife


That also details a love story between a white woman and a black man

Martha Hodes uncovered and did bm/ww pairings throughout those times justice and showed what people like the ones behind Harriet didn't want to show that their made up character of bigger longer was a not only a myth but a stereotype.

I really hope someone pays attention to these stories. Because even if they do face backlash for turning these love stories into a movie at least their defense will be legit because these were factual events. And you know what they say about people who argue against facts.

 

So my take away from black feminist is they use black men as a penetrating point into white acceptance. It's a gamble they really can't lose with because demonize black men and their might be a job in it for you might meet the white man of their dreams or at the very least never get held accountable.
I knew this movie was gonna be trash anyway.

 

I’m usually not one for conspiracy theories but I really do believe there is a concerted effort to emasculate and denigrate Black men in Hollywood and other media outlets vote with your wallet Black men it’s the only way!

 

At this point I advocate for mass exodus. I know others would have us believe we should work it out with these kinds of black women but honestly life is far too short to waste time on people who should know better than anyone else why this nonsense is unacceptable. Take our talents elsewhere to people who don't both feel entitled to us while showing some warped affinity for abusing us. And yes I know it's not all or even the majority of black women but you spend time around other groups and you see how differently they operate.
If this were a movie about Asians this wouldn't happen. For one their women don't sit around bashing their men hell even Asian women who prefer white men don't bash Asian men the way black women who claim to prefer black men do. The Asian person who created it would get dragged within the community and they simply wouldn't pay money to watch some revisionist bs. They most certainly wouldn't pretend any representation at all is good even if it's hurtful representation.
We unfortunately got this matriarchal system that's made our women into feminist who can't either see or don't care that they're being used to support white supremacy.

 

This ain't no conspiracy theory, it's 100% fact.

 

I bailed out over 20 years ago. By the way, gents, this black matriarchal bullshit is literally on the ballot with Kamala Harris. No straight black man has any business voting for her. Only "yas queen" gays and cream-certified simps are riding with Kamala. Just say no.

 

No one is voting for her. Mayor Pete checks the diversity box and moderates get a "ethnic" white guy. We're gonna hear for a few months that racism and sexism kept her from the nominee but we know better.

 

Great post. Excellent insights.

 

More like don't care. To a certain truly bitter segment of bw, it doesn't matter who wins, as long as you lose.

...But to be honest, I don't blame feminism. I think the core problem is something else entirely, with a huge dollop of media images and innuendo to fuel it along.

In fact, it's very telling that most black women aren't feminists when it comes to white men. The fantasy among many is to meet a rich white dude who caters to her every need, to be "protected and provided for" (even fought for, as the directors of "Harriett" understand), to have all the adulation they're sure white women have, to finally be the standard of beauty -- and none of those things are feminism.

Rightists want black men to believe the problem is feminism and "welfare" (& the social safety net in general), but nah -- that's not it.

In fact, these days we're learning that black women have played "both sides of the fence" loooong before the era of feminism and welfare.

Not bashing bw, but I think it's important for bm to be clear-eyed about the challenges they face & the options they have to navigate them.

Also -- for the record, many, many bw have spoken out against "Harriet" in twitter and Youtube comments. Their comments, for the most part, align with everyone else's. However I'm not sure they care that there's a whole agenda that wants to use them as pawns to manage black people & the community's aspirations & outlook by pitting them against black men and boys.

They're now seeing that Hollywood has caught on to the "gender war" -- but tellingly, they're not saying a peep about the whole agenda just yet.

 

Thanks for this. I've seen enough. Saves me from ever having to see the rest of this flick.