Monday, February 24, 2014

The Existential Fears of the 'Exceptional Nigger'

    “You’re an exceptional nigger Platt, but I fear no good will come from it.”

    – Master Ford, in 12 Years a Slave


There is no doubt that as an artist, Steve McQueen is exceptional. This writer is grateful to him and the rest of the 12 Years a Slave team for inspiring so much discussion about slavery and the filmmaking process. But if we are not willing to be deeply critical and examine the real politics and psychology of Hollywood (read multi-national capitalist filmmaking) – then like Master Ford, “I fear no good will come from it.”

Most of what has been written about 12 Years a Slave so far has failed to consider the impact of the politics of some of the key individuals involved in the creative team. Two notable exceptions are the work of Willie Osterweil and Armond White.

In his recent piece entitled “The good white folks of the Academy,” Willie Osterweil observes that we have had several significant “Black” films lately that are written and directed by people of African descent – but for most of these films the producers are still White. Osterweil suggests that “…itʼs the movie’s producers — who have more power over a film’s content than most recognize … and if a movie wants that precious Oscar bump, it would do well to reproduce the worldview of the rich old white men who run the industry.” With respect to the much-heralded 12 Years a Slave, Osterweil clearly feels the makers of that film (Black & White) were in sync with the “rich old white men of the academy”. Osterweil further suggests that the personal politics of the screenwriter of that film are worth considering with respect to their potential alignment with the message in 12 Years a Slave. Osterweil ridicules Ridley’s assertion in a 2006 Esquire article that institutional racism is over with and that privileged Black folks should separate themselves from “niggers”.

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