storyteller
Superstar
The only good part of this was when those ancient CaC faculty pics become realized, and you realize nothing will ever change because generational supremacy reigns on
That was the big message to me. The whole movie was about how the institutions founded on supremacy will chase the optics of addressing racism but it's just that optics. That optics motif is the piece that I think carries the whole narrative. I could make a list of all the times people's actions are based on "what it looks like" but stuff goes unaddressed. Just a few:
- They don't want to give tenure because a teacher doesn't have enough publications which is pure optics. They don't discuss how she is as a teacher until Regina Hall mentions the complaint.
- Then they hire her over the optics of adding a tenured black teacher after what happened, even though that teacher might have had a hand in the stress that caused the suicide. Again, they don't care how she is as a teacher. It's optics.
- Their one black teacher is a white woman in blackface and nobody even notices. She also assumes her black student comes from poverty, which is one of the bigger clues that she's a Dolezal stand-in
- The book they discuss is the Scarlet Letter...the letter being a marker so you don't have bother getting to know the person. The first discussion in that class is about how the name Pearl is supposed to make her seem innocent.
- The girl doesn't report the rape because of what it might look like. The institution ignores it because of how they'd look. The plot just moves on because that situation was buried.
- All the creepy ritual stuff seems like just religious practices from a strict religious group and when we finally meet one of them, she's completely humanized.
- Oh yeah, and the first comment about the rope at the dorm room is something like "are you sure it's not just because of the whole witch thing" which gets at the optics of claiming ambiguity over obvious racism (I think this one was a reference to the Nascar driver incident).
- Then they hire her over the optics of adding a tenured black teacher after what happened, even though that teacher might have had a hand in the stress that caused the suicide. Again, they don't care how she is as a teacher. It's optics.
- Their one black teacher is a white woman in blackface and nobody even notices. She also assumes her black student comes from poverty, which is one of the bigger clues that she's a Dolezal stand-in
- The book they discuss is the Scarlet Letter...the letter being a marker so you don't have bother getting to know the person. The first discussion in that class is about how the name Pearl is supposed to make her seem innocent.
- The girl doesn't report the rape because of what it might look like. The institution ignores it because of how they'd look. The plot just moves on because that situation was buried.
- All the creepy ritual stuff seems like just religious practices from a strict religious group and when we finally meet one of them, she's completely humanized.
- Oh yeah, and the first comment about the rope at the dorm room is something like "are you sure it's not just because of the whole witch thing" which gets at the optics of claiming ambiguity over obvious racism (I think this one was a reference to the Nascar driver incident).
And there's a bunch more like the girl and guy that are hooking up but don't want to put a title on it. Like just a whole bunch of optics related ish. For as foul as a lot in that movie is, at least it finishes with a straight-up middle-finger to phony efforts to address institutionalized racism. The lack of subtlety should be a kick in the teeth to anyone that's under any illusions about that ish.
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, that's what sold it for me in the end