According to Khadija Nassif.
Based on their long-term track record, BM creatives don’t deserve any benefit of the doubt.
Let’s see . . . who benefits if this movie—which is a dramatization of an African-American man’s autobiographical experience of being kidnapped into living in slavery with other African-Americans—is financially successful?
Who makes money and reaps other benefits from this movie about historical African-Americans?
Director Steve McQueen benefits. Mr. McQueen is a foreign Black person, and not African-American (AA).
Actress Lupita Nyong'o benefits. Ms. Nyong'o is a foreign Black person, and
not African-American (AA).
As I glance down the cast list for this movie, I see some AA actresses, but the top names being lifted up in connection with this movie about a historical
African-American person belong to either foreign Blacks or White actors and actresses. The AA cast members get to be bit players in a movie about their own ethnic group’s history. {sarcasm on} Great, just great. {sarcasm off}
There used to be a time when I thought it was automatically a good thing for more truthful stories to be told about slavery and other forms of oppression that AAs have endured.
I don’t feel that way anymore. Because, unlike the strategic use that Jewish people make of their own Holocaust history, AAs misuse—and allow outsiders to profit from misusing—AA history.
By contrast, AAs have consistently failed to make any strategic use of these slavery films. Traditionally, these movies are pain pornography that brings no benefit to AAs. Modern-day, new school AAs have allowed these slave movies to become outright cartoons and jokes in which negro slave consumers pay outsiders big money to be disrespected. Such as the D’Jango Unchained mess—negro slave consumers paid that WM director big money to verbally assault them non-stop with the n-word.
I’m beginning to feel that since AA directors, actors, actresses, and consumers are opening the door wider and wider for the total disrespect and misuse of our history,* it’s probably safest that we don’t have any more movies about slavery. [*For example, Russell Simmon’s Harriet Tubman sex tape parody.]
Let me repeat: Reasonable minds can differ about who benefits from this movie (and about who benefits the most from this movie). I’m delighted that (thanks to the BWE social justice movement) there’s been enough consciousness-raising among AA women that we can even have the sorts of online conversations that are taking place these days. Such as the recent conversation
HERE. It's wonderful that we're learning to ask common sense questions about the pros and cons of the various media images of AA women. Instead of blindly supporting anything that features Black faces (including supporting poison that runs BW's image through the mud).
My bottom line is that this slave flick “12 Years A Slave” is not doing anything to benefit ME or other AA women like ME.
Non-AA outsiders have the top spots in this flick.
http://muslimbushido.blogspot.com/2013/10/follow-money-resources-trail-part-3-12.html
