Posted on 02/16/2017 5:34:13 PM PST by drewh
NBA great and cultural commentator Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes a column for the Hollywood Reporter in which he examines the critically-acclaimed hit film La La Land and how it “misleads” on issues of race, romance and jazz.
As someone who finds La La Land bold and daring, I can also admit that there are a few elements that warrant closer examination, particularly regarding its portrayal of jazz, romance and people of color. In fact, the better a work of art is, the more we must dissect it, because now we’re not just measuring box office, we’re assessing its proper place in our cultural canon.
No, I don’t think the film needs more black people. Writer-director Damien Chazelle should tell the story as he sees fits with whatever ethnic arrangement he desires. However, it is fair to question his color wheel when it involves certain historical elements — such as jazz.
The white guy wants to preserve the black roots of jazz while the black guy is the sellout? This could be a deliberate ironic twist, but if it is, it’s a distasteful one for African-Americans. One legitimate complaint that marginalized people have had about Hollywood in the past is that when they were portrayed, it was done in a negative way. The ditzy blonde, the Muslim terrorist, the gay predator are all familiar stereotypes from years of TV and movies. So much has been done in recent years to overcome those debasing images, but we still have to be careful.
It’s not that a black man can’t be the sellout or the drug dealer, it’s just that they shouldn’t be if they’re the only prominent black character in the story. Whether it’s intentional or unintentional, that sends a bigoted message rippling through our society.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Get ‘em Lew! Those Hollywood honkies are a bunch of racist bigots!
John Legend is a sellout!
Jabbar is now dribbling from his mind, if not his mouth. He didn’t notice, I guess, that John Legend was the main producer of the movie. He must be down with the message.
movies and tv reflect life?...hardly....just watch your daily dozen cop/lawyer shows and you have to know that every criminal is white, and blacks are just the poor righteous victims, every single time....
Don’t worry Kareem, Pelosi will still wash your feet and give you a bottle of her wine. If you get all worked up,really angry,you can even go
to Berkeley and break a window......or take a knee at the playing of the anthem.
Come on, Kareem, you know there is no damn way the cars on the 105 transition to the 110 are filled with white dancers. ;). Racists!
I loved you in Airplane, my favorite scene in the movie.
When I lived in Milwaukee, Kareem was my neighbor. I never, ever got the slightest racist vibe from him. Smart, soft-spoken, and really knowledgeable about Jazz, which is what we talked about most. He is socially Black though, like my BIL is socially Turkish.
I’ve not met him personally. He has always given off a anti white vibe though.
I saw him at Little John’s in Orange California. Guess what? They sell guns and he was looking to buy one. He was into the cowboy shooting at one time. This has been a number of years now.
So this documentary is somehow inaccurate?
Did I miss something? I don’t recall the movie being promoted as anything but fiction, not as a documentary.
Kareem is right, of course.
The film reflects real life, especially that part where the main couple are dancing and suddenly they’re floating into the air, still dancing. I used to be able to do that every time I danced, but only when I was younger and light on my feet.
I thought maybe Kareem would be more upset that the “La La” might be too close to rhyming with “Allah”...
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