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Thus we have to ask the question: how comfortable should we be with the

fictionalized distraction of quiet struggles during the Civil Rights Era when today, atevery turn, real-life conservative crackers attack the very advances that were made

through loud demonstrations that ended, in some cases, in bloodshed?

Brandon Bowlin

thedarkroome.com

This may seem a lil Monday morning quarterbackish but I actually wanted no part inthe quarrel about the movies Oscar chances. This is the better timewhen the smoke

has cleared and jealousies, imagined or not, pale in the sunlight of the aftermath. Therewas a lot of chaff being tossed about regarding the success of the movie The Help. Black

folk seem to hold it in vessels of ambivalence strained by our progress, a Black President,

his attackers, and the belief that it may be time for us to sit out the from a servants

eye movies.

Granted I think that hurdle was run up on round theDriving Miss Daisy days. Backthen and there we had stomach-churning toss-ups when this film and Glory were both

nominated for Oscars. One film was about Black Men literally fighting to be men. The

other was a about a relationship between a White woman and her Man-Servant. Yes,

Miss Daisy had some

eloquent and decidedly

honorable moments,

but the movie was

about a Southern ideal

of imbalanced

humanity, and it took a

memorableIn Living

Colorsketch to defuse

the dredging-up of the

particulars of such

imbalance. And even

while were all still

very happy to see

Morgan Freeman in

both efforts, it was

Denzels impudence

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of women agreeing to be heard through the filter of this White woman supposed to hold

as much significance as Hamers speaking at the Democratic convention and her

moniker, Im sick and tired of being sick and tired?

The second problem for me is that I see Latino housekeepers in Los Angeles in 2012 that

are just as invisible as those sistas back then. Both Black and Latina women from the farreaches on this hemisphere have helluva stories that bridge tremendous odds and human

interconnection. These womens real-life landings diminished my interest in this film.

The giant twisted elephant in the room is that today, through the Republican Party, allof those victories and, indeed, our full citizenship and humanity, are/is in jeopardy. Now

the coincidence of this films release and todays espoused conservative bigotry may be a

simple accident of time. The schedule of production to the screen can only be controlled

to a certain degree. But now that its here it is very hard to watch while seeing

Republicans in State House after State House move to dismantle voting block districts of

color and even to disenfranchise citizens of their voting rights.

No, right now I dont wanna see folk quietly fighting back. I wanna see full-press

indictments of the Rights evil roots which are traced back to those very days. I wanna

see the hellishness of the White Citizens Council or the Kochs actual father or Pat

Buchanans nascent separatist beginnings. I wanna see how the same rhetoric today was

used to disenfranchise, disfigure and even kill people merely standing for their rights

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back then. No, I am in no mood for housekeeping, maid uniforms, yes maams and

victories through a lil White Girl. A made up White Girl.

Yes. Thats the most stunning part of all this. The Help is fiction. Fiction supposedlybased on true stories as related through a maid by a friendblah blah blah.

Thus we have to ask the question: how comfortable should we be with the fictionalized

distraction of quiet struggles during the Civil Rights Era when today, at every turn, real-

life conservative crackers attack the very advances that were made through loud

demonstrations and bloodshed?

I am not saying that The Help wasnt a story that should not have been told but, from

Hattie and Butterfly to Rochester to the fictionalJane Pitman to the slightly less fictional

Roots to Sally Hemings, and so on, Ive seen the rubric of the black servant device

before and, to me, it was not effective in this instance.

Could be contextualcould be expectationsor maybe, truly, weve moved on. Maybe

we no longer say Im for the Black film because Blacks are in it. Maybe we want to

veer away from the easy role. The one we know all too well.

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I will let experts on culture and zeitgeist paddle back and forth about whether or not such

films should be made. Theres enough history and talent to argue on both sides. For me,

its about celebrating the success of the actors and crew for achieving good things with

their film.

butI just didnt like it.

brandonbowlin