Racist Matt Damon, typical Liberal hypocrite

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think you put it very well. It IS weird and tone deaf for Damon to explain diversity to Effie Brown. It just illustrates how even liberals and well-meaning white people can be biased without even realizing it.

+1 For sure.

Let's get one thing straight about diversity.

Diversity DOESN'T exclude whites. In fact, it INCLUDES all people and emphasizes an appreciation of differences. A school that's 95% African American (excluding those from African nations) is NOT diverse.

What Matt is saying is something anti-Affirmative Action folks have been saying for a long time - that we hire THE BEST person for the job. Now, that doesn't mean that we shut out minorities. In fact, in a truly diverse environment, we take time to learn about different perspectives. Sadly, this will never come to be until people feel free about expressing their true beliefs in a constructive way.

But now that everything is so PC, what's said on the outside is not what's necessarily truly believed in the heart.

Actually what Matt seemed to be saying was that you achieve diversity in this film by hiring black people for the black parts.

Pro tip: That's not really how you achieve diversity.

Pro tip, my ass

Many SMART Libs are the WORST racists out there. You want the truth? Back them into a corner and see how they'll react. It's all a cover, and I say this as a white female.

You can't cure cancer w/o finding its origin.

Stop being dense, Amateur Tip.

I wanted to respond to this, but I honestly can't understand what the hell you're saying. In response to my comment that Matt Damon is wrong in thinking that you can make a good film representing minority viewpoints just by hiring black actors for the black parts rather than having minorities involved in every step of the process, YOU said . . . that smart, liberal white people are the worst racists of all plus how to cure cancer.

Uh, that's not in any way a response to anything I said. Whatev.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, when a white guy presumes to tell a black woman what diversity is and what the right way to achieve it in a film is, the black woman does not owe that guy anything. Especially when she is outnumbered in the conversation by about 10-1. White people need to examine their privilege and get a clue.

Sincerely,
another white woman

White women in this country too--the most privileged group of people in history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dont think he's a racist. He's married to a mexican woman and has mixed children.

Not Mexican.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, when a white guy presumes to tell a black woman what diversity is and what the right way to achieve it in a film is, the black woman does not owe that guy anything. Especially when she is outnumbered in the conversation by about 10-1. White people need to examine their privilege and get a clue.

Sincerely,
another white woman

White women in this country too--the most privileged group of people in history.

Care to expand on that belief? Here's a shovel...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, when a white guy presumes to tell a black woman what diversity is and what the right way to achieve it in a film is, the black woman does not owe that guy anything. Especially when she is outnumbered in the conversation by about 10-1. White people need to examine their privilege and get a clue.

Sincerely,
another white woman

White women in this country too--the most privileged group of people in history.

Care to expand on that belief? Here's a shovel...

Biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action, held up as beauty ideal, even though it's racist...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He totally interrupted her, and then talked over her when she tried to interrupt him back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njFBkJSpUrY

If you honestly think a man would generally be just as sensitive to a female prostitute's point of view than a woman would, I think you're nuts.

But I guess I'm not really that surprised that the only black woman got talked over in a room filled with 7 mostly white guys and a white woman.

I don't think Damon is racist, but he definitely did a little whitesplaining soft shoe there.

I think PP above had a good point about the panelists perhaps being at cross purposes: Damon didn't want to have to change the rules of the contest to make it about picking the best directors FOR THIS SCRIPT, he wanted to pick the best directors, period. Whereas Brown was basically saying, given the script we have, we have to pick the best directors for this script who will be able to deal with sensitivity to racial and gender dynamics, and I don't think our best options are necessarily the teams of two white guys.

This is bull.

A Soldier's Story and Amistad were directed by Jewish white guys. You can be a good director regardless of what you look like. So women don't always need to direct movies about women and black directors don't need to limit their movies to stories about black people.

Yes and Amistad was told through the eyes of the White male NOT THE ACTUAL SLAVES...which proves the previous poster point

[Anonymous]

I saw Melissa Harris Perry on MSNBC this weekend lambasting M. Damon. She thinks everything is racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually saw the show and the moment in question. (It's on HBO and probably playing 10x a day.) I didn't think what he said was racist. I think OP is misrepresenting what he said.

He said they should pick the best director. Period. He said they should not factor diversity into the decision of who would be the director. He didn't think the diverse director duo were the best qualified. And it's a competition to pick the best director, not the most diverse director.

Separately, he made the point that all the candidates had an issue with how the black character was portrayed. You don't need an Asian guy or a woman to realize that a character or storyline might veer toward racist or inappropriate. They had all come to that conclusion. That's what he said.

I actually give him credit for including the exchange in the show. He is an EP of the show and clearly he and Ben have significant input. a) He didn't have to have Effie Brown in the room and b) he didn't have to include the dialogue between himself and Effie in the show. As soon as it aired, I thought...he's catching shit for that.

I think if he's racist, he doesn't do a and b above. He was engaging in reasonable dialogue and I thought her reaction made her seem a bit difficult.

i'm curious. are you a woman?what exactly made her seem a bit difficult? how should she have reacted?

Agreed.

I wrote this original post. I am a woman.

She did not give Matt the benefit of the doubt. She went right into - you're a racist and I'm showing everyone with my facial expressions and body language that I think you're a racist. Without her reaction, I bet there's no story.

I think he was speaking clumsily and could have been more articulate. But instead of her talking it out and assuming the best, she just went right there.

So to me, she was a bit difficult. I think she could have asked him some more questions about what he was thinking to clarify. And then if that didn't lead anywhere good, agree to disagree civilly. No "Oh wow." He'll hang himself if it's going to go there.

We have to show a certain level of body language and response when having a dialogue with white people. She never called him a racist. Ever. He was so damn disrespectful to her, cutting her off and explaining what diversity means. If being genuinely taken aback at how someone responds to your point and saying "Oh Wow" makes her seem "a bit difficult" then then bar of what makes an angry black woman is even lower than I thought. She went "right there". Such BS. How much more civil?

How about you use your brain and make some articulate points?

I'm an Asian woman in IT. My profession is sexist white guys. And it's them and little old me with my high-pitched voice. Do you know how I gain their respect? When the shit that comes out of my mouth is rock solid. Not by a certain level of body language and response. THAT is BS and will get you nowhere fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It feels like sometimes black people feel threatened by the concept of "best person for the job." Like the implication is that they won't be the best person in a true merit competition.

Sigh. The "true merit competition" in this case is judged by a whole room full of white guys and one black woman. What are the chances that all these white guys will think the "best person for the job will be... another white guy? Pretty darn good. This is what institutional racism is all about-- not a bunch of folks sitting around saying "let's exclude black people", but people, like Matt Damon, being completely oblivious to their own biases.

If you truly believe that, you need to move to a majority-black country.

Your choice.

But if you stay in the USA, perhaps you need to stop being completely oblivious to your own BS.

How can you really not see that there might be inherent bias in a population of people that have always been presumed to be the mainstream, and therefore the norm/ set the bar, etc?

That;s hardly a PC leftist leap to be able to recognize that?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, when a white guy presumes to tell a black woman what diversity is and what the right way to achieve it in a film is, the black woman does not owe that guy anything. Especially when she is outnumbered in the conversation by about 10-1. White people need to examine their privilege and get a clue.

Sincerely,
another white woman

White women in this country too--the most privileged group of people in history.

Care to expand on that belief? Here's a shovel...

Biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action, held up as beauty ideal, even though it's racist...

You obviously have never been a 50 y.o. woman in line at the USPO or DC DMV!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dont think he's a racist. He's married to a mexican woman and has mixed children.

He's not racist and what he said is not racist. He was expressing a perfectly valid point -- let's dare to discuss it, no need for the totalitarian thought police to start an insult campaign.

Do you think that in all hiring situations race should not be a factor?

He didn't say it shouldn't be A factor.

What he objected to was considering race THE main factor.

Which should be merit, especially, as he pointed out, behind the screen. It was interesting, and no one seems to object to this, that he had a different set of rules for casting.

What does "pick the best director. Period." mean to you?

Different poster here: The guy they picked was not the "best." He was wishy/washy and couldn't voice his objections to the script specifically. Others in the interview clips I watched say specific flaws and spoke up about them, which is precisely what a director is supposed to do: take script, own it, feel free to make changes/corrections/desperately needed improvements, and run with it. The movie as described sounds like a disaster in the making because of its collection of stereotypes and tropes, which may make the show itself an accidental comedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually saw the show and the moment in question. (It's on HBO and probably playing 10x a day.) I didn't think what he said was racist. I think OP is misrepresenting what he said.

He said they should pick the best director. Period. He said they should not factor diversity into the decision of who would be the director. He didn't think the diverse director duo were the best qualified. And it's a competition to pick the best director, not the most diverse director.

Separately, he made the point that all the candidates had an issue with how the black character was portrayed. You don't need an Asian guy or a woman to realize that a character or storyline might veer toward racist or inappropriate. They had all come to that conclusion. That's what he said.

I actually give him credit for including the exchange in the show. He is an EP of the show and clearly he and Ben have significant input. a) He didn't have to have Effie Brown in the room and b) he didn't have to include the dialogue between himself and Effie in the show. As soon as it aired, I thought...he's catching shit for that.

I think if he's racist, he doesn't do a and b above. He was engaging in reasonable dialogue and I thought her reaction made her seem a bit difficult.

i'm curious. are you a woman?what exactly made her seem a bit difficult? how should she have reacted?

Agreed.

I wrote this original post. I am a woman.

She did not give Matt the benefit of the doubt. She went right into - you're a racist and I'm showing everyone with my facial expressions and body language that I think you're a racist. Without her reaction, I bet there's no story.

I think he was speaking clumsily and could have been more articulate. But instead of her talking it out and assuming the best, she just went right there.

So to me, she was a bit difficult. I think she could have asked him some more questions about what he was thinking to clarify. And then if that didn't lead anywhere good, agree to disagree civilly. No "Oh wow." He'll hang himself if it's going to go there.

We have to show a certain level of body language and response when having a dialogue with white people. She never called him a racist. Ever. He was so damn disrespectful to her, cutting her off and explaining what diversity means. If being genuinely taken aback at how someone responds to your point and saying "Oh Wow" makes her seem "a bit difficult" then then bar of what makes an angry black woman is even lower than I thought. She went "right there". Such BS. How much more civil?

How about you use your brain and make some articulate points?

I'm an Asian woman in IT. My profession is sexist white guys. And it's them and little old me with my high-pitched voice. Do you know how I gain their respect? When the shit that comes out of my mouth is rock solid. Not by a certain level of body language and response. THAT is BS and will get you nowhere fast.

Lady please. Perhaps you don't understand I was being facetious in writing that. The PP is the one who wrote that she was showing with her body language that he was racist and her "oh wow" made her seem difficult. Also stop projecting. I'm happy to hear you can hold your old with the big scary white man.

[Anonymous]

I thought Matt Damon's best role was in Team America

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He totally interrupted her, and then talked over her when she tried to interrupt him back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njFBkJSpUrY

If you honestly think a man would generally be just as sensitive to a female prostitute's point of view than a woman would, I think you're nuts.

But I guess I'm not really that surprised that the only black woman got talked over in a room filled with 7 mostly white guys and a white woman.

I don't think Damon is racist, but he definitely did a little whitesplaining soft shoe there.

I think PP above had a good point about the panelists perhaps being at cross purposes: Damon didn't want to have to change the rules of the contest to make it about picking the best directors FOR THIS SCRIPT, he wanted to pick the best directors, period. Whereas Brown was basically saying, given the script we have, we have to pick the best directors for this script who will be able to deal with sensitivity to racial and gender dynamics, and I don't think our best options are necessarily the teams of two white guys.

This is bull.

A Soldier's Story and Amistad were directed by Jewish white guys. You can be a good director regardless of what you look like. So women don't always need to direct movies about women and black directors don't need to limit their movies to stories about black people.

Give me a break, it's not about just being "a good director" -- it's about being able to tell the story from an authentic place of personal experience and perspective. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there are a lot of movies out there that a lot of folks think are "great", but the people who are the subject of the story -- think suck -- the perspective is off, the viewpoint is skewed and it comes off as just another stereotypical piece of mess. Blind Side is a good example. That story was so way off from the "real" story it is shameful.
Give people a chance to tell their own story -- share their viewpoints.

I only saw this movie on a plane so admiteddly wasn't paying much attention but can you elaborate? I did read Michal Lewis' book because for one thing I love Michael Lewis' style and for the other, I'm a born and raised NY Giants fan and a book about LT's evolution of the o-line was going to be right up my ally. I clearly loved the book and Oher and family never had any issue with it from all the pieces I watched with him during his college and then draft into pro career. But I didn't intensely watch the movie so the parts I saw seemed to line up pretty closely with Lewis' narrative (as he worked with them directly as subjects). What did they veer away from?

See the link below. The bottom line is very often according to hollywood the saviour and the hero in black people's lives is some white person. It's the White Shadow syndrome. Black folk don't do well until white folk come along and show them the way.
http://www.npr.org/sections/monkeysee/2011/02/08/133590180/beyond-the-blind-side-michael-oher-rewrites-his-own-story

Thanks for posting that link to the story about Oher's book. On another note, what bothered me most about the movie was when Sandra Bullock goes to Michael's mom's home in public housing and a gang leader threatens to come across town and rape her white daughter. I live next to public housing and no one talks like that. Turns out this is not in the book at all. In fact the local gang leader tells the author that they would not try to involve Oher in the drug trade while he was in school. There is some kid on a football team who talks smack about his white stepsister but it's not an actual threat to rape her. The false story in the movie bothered me the most because it fits into the fears of suburban whites that if they just walk into a poor black neighborhood, someone will attack them immediately. The reality is that most people are just worrying about their own business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, when a white guy presumes to tell a black woman what diversity is and what the right way to achieve it in a film is, the black woman does not owe that guy anything. Especially when she is outnumbered in the conversation by about 10-1. White people need to examine their privilege and get a clue.

Sincerely,
another white woman

White women in this country too--the most privileged group of people in history.

Care to expand on that belief? Here's a shovel...

Biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action, held up as beauty ideal, even though it's racist...

I'll pretend with you for a moment that that's an established fact. So your supposition is that approximately thirty years of affirmative action overwhelms white male privilege over several millennia? You poor dullard. So are you a Young Earth or Old Earth Creationist?