No, that's a privilege I don't have. |
It seems that the average DCUM liberal considers this book “problematic” because it’s not an accurate history of slavery focused on the most violent and abhorrent acts committed on plantations. The fact that the book and movie are not and were not intended to be ABOUT slavery is irrelevant. The fact that the book and movie are known works of fiction is also irrelevant.
Basically, criticizing the book for not being a completely different book… |
DP but you are aware that Soul Food exists, aren’t you? |
Yes, dear. I’m aware that it exists and that some Black people like it, some don’t. Just like some white people like it, some don’t. You don’t get to categorically say anything is “dear to Negro hearts” as if all Black people think the same way about everything, and as if a white author writing as an OMNISCIENT NARRATOR gets to declare what “Negro hearts” love. Again, some more, the book would be more defensible if it were written from the POV of a racist woman who was the product of her time and upbringing. It is not. The narrator is an omniscient, timeless being who apparently is racist and therefore racism is the objective, all-knowing, all-truthful norm. If you don’t have a problem with that, guess what you are? |
Its been a long time since freshman English classes, but I don't remember omniscient narrators being the arbiter of universal truths or what is right and just. They are the source for the feelings and motivations of the characters and the experiences of the characters...yes, the watermelon and BBQ comment is stupid and racist by modern judgements, but it sounds like something the characters would have thought. |
Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn |
You’re unhinged, ma’am. Saying that BBQ and watermelon are dear to black peoples’ hearts (and negro would be perfectly appropriate with respect to the vernacular at the time the book was written) is about the least offensive, least racist thing you can say. It’s like saying white women go batshit crazy for pumpkin spice lattes. Do all white women like them? Of course not! But it’s a) generally true at a population level and b) not remotely racist (words have meaning, and you clearly don’t know the meaning of the word “racist”). (Let me also take a wild guess that you’re the type that thinks a slap on the butt is a violent sexual assault that should be met with serious prison time and a lifetime on a sex offender registry…) |
Because of its racist caricatures. If you can read or watch those and brush them off as no big deal that probably means you've never had to deal with racist caricatures all your life. |
Yikes. |
Yikes? That’s the response of someone who thinks they have the mental prowess to determine the literary merit of a novel like Gone With the Wind? Yikes. |
Saying that the food people like is an insult is disgustingly racist. Observing and respecting what food people like is not. Demeaning Black people for liking watermelon is white supremacist propaganda. https://thegrio.com/2022/07/04/i-will-never-be-ashamed-of-eating-watermelon/ |
wow- Yes teh omniscient narrator (the author) is stating truths about the world- rich people arent like you and me- isn't supposed to be about just those people at that time, it is supposed to be truth about the way the world works.
Are you seriously saying that A 19 year old debutante who's sole purpose in life was to snag a wealthy husband and wasn't allowed out into the sun b.c it would damage her 'complexion' would know net than teh actual peopelwho raised crops how to ...plant and harvest..raise the crops? Also most people who stayed on a plantation after were waiting there for relatives who'd been sold, that isn't even mentioned. GWTW- a book and film that I loved and which is very enjoyable, a masterpiece is probably one of the best pieces of white supremacist propaganda ever produced. Just b.c something is propaganda doesnt mean it isn't art- in many ways Animal Farm is propaganda but tbh it's not as good as GWTW is at persuading its audience. The best kind of propaganda convinces its audience, it's insidious. The only reason people get so worked up over GWTW is b/c Americans are so sexist that we cant fathom that a white southern woman did what generations of KKK night riders could not, all the soldiers of the Confederacy could not. The men lost their war, the southern women won the peace, and Margaret Mitchell was more skillful at her craft than Lee was at his. American are just too biased against women and the female sphere to believe that something as innocent as a novel could have that much influence but another woman wrote a different novel that was also propaganda that led to the abolition of slavery 100 years before GWTW. A lot of the art we consume is left wing propaganda (all Bauhaus for instance) , and honestly only the most unsophisticated rube is unaware. I can even agree with the message but still recognize that it is pushing a certain agenda. GWTW is pushing a white supremacist, classist agenda. It sanitizes American cattle slavery and transforms it into an acceptable caricature. Also the white people of that time didnt really know what it was like to live with such brutality. So many travelogues of that time recount the constant brutality and violence that slave owners lived with- they'd lash out and slap a child at a seated dinner, and continue on speaking as if nothing had happened while someone unused to such violence or abuse would be shellshocked. There are scarcely any accounts about the southern united states that dont remark on this casual violence and abuse even from people who believed firmly in slavery and Black inferiority. A lot of people were grossed out BECAUSE they were racist and couldn't understand how the southern slave owners could live in such close proximity to non-whites and rape them, have their children nursed by non-whites, have them cook their meals etc etc. . In fact that kind of racism was common amongst northerners and southerners pointed it out to them as evidence that slavery/servitude/Jim Crowe was the natural order and a kindness to Black Americans who otherwise would be sent back to 'Blackest Africa" and heathenry. The reason that GWTW has to be called out as a piece of propaganda is b.c of the above racist view was prevalent only a generation ago and its pull is insidious and many Americans are still susceptible to it. |
No one, and I mean no one, believes this in 2024. Take your antiquated talking points back with you to the '90s. Why is GWTW offensive? Because it is not aggressively moralizing and woke, plain and simple. From the culture warrior's point of view, every story touching on the antebellum South in any way must return to, again and again, the inhumanity of slavery. That must be the primary undercurrent of every story that features slaves. Because GWTW doesn't center slavery enough, it is not woke, and therefore is bad. |
Seriously? You know, in the South, there are still huge groups of white people who do debutante plantation parties when their daughters turn 16 or graduate high school? In big "Scarlett-style" hoop skirts and all. There are large swaths of people who still idolize this Southern Aristocracy era.
Search "antebellum party" to learn more. |
:roll: It's really just dated besides the obvious slavery issues. Makes sense, book and film came out in the 30s and have all the affections of media that came out then. Some things don't make the cut into timeless media. |