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| Matt Damon |
HBO’s Project Greenlight is a Matt Damon and Ben Affleck project where they give first time filmmakers the chance to make a movie
During a discussion about diversity in one of the films being offered, the only black person in the room, Effie Brown, says she is concerned about a film in which there's only a single black character in it named "Harmony." And "Harmony" winds up being is a prostitute slapped by her white pimp.
Brown ACTUALLY has to explain why this is problematic and how not having a diverse film making team is part of the problem when Matt Damon keeps interrupting her, eventually saying:
"When we're talking about diversity
you do it in the casting of the film,
not in the casting of the show."
Damon said this so fast, it rolled off his tongue so quickly there was no way he hadn't said it before -- to a white group that agreed with him.
But me?
I had to listen to this crap 3 times before I was sure that Damon was saying,
as long as there are some dark folk in the film
we do not need to be any dark folk involved in the making of the film.
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| Effie Brown's Reaction to people of color aren't needed behind the camera and if you use "merit" you'll find only white men are good enough |
Listen to it here
I'd like to hear Matt Damon-splain that to any black or brown person that saw Kevin Costner's movie, "Black Or White" Costner's movie is a perfect example of good white intentions gone to hell in a racially unconscious hand basket.
While "Black and White" was thrashed by the critics, it appears to be quite popular on Netflix among the white folk. And while I am indeed ASSUMING it's the white folk that loved this movie enough to give it a 4.5 out of 5 star rating, I am almost certain I'm right. White race logic was the spine of this movie and white folks, for the most part, are the only ones who love that sh**.
In "Black Or White" A White Grandfather and Black Grandmother fight for custody of their bi-racial grandchild.
A) Standard white supremacy set up of the story
1) The 17 year old white girl has already died in child birth giving birth to bi-racial child
2) The 23 year old black man, the father, is a drug addict that has already disappeared. (Comes back later in the film)
3) The words "statutory rape" are never uttered as the white girl, at 17 might be a minute too old to make that claim. But the "rape" implication is there, unspoken, throughout the movie.
4) By making the bi-racial girls parents a white girl and a black man, there is also the ever present implication that the white GIRL never made a real choice to be in an interracial relationship. She was bamboozled and taken advantage of. (Why? Because white Grandpa has to be mad about something other than race)
5) The white grandparents have been raising the bi-racial child until white grandma dies in a car accident or something. White grandpa, Kevin Costner, is alone.
6) White Grandpa wants nothing to do with the black family after the white grandma, his wife dies. (There's a hint this might be racial...for "reality's sake" but we KNOW "I'm not a racist is the goal" of this movie from the jump)
7) Black Grandma (Octavia Spencer) doesn't think a white man can raise a black girl alone. She sues for custody when he won't even bring the child to visit. (Her motives are clearly not racial from the start)
8) Though Grandpa, Kevin Costner, is a drunk. He is only a drunk BECAUSE HIS CHILD DIED and then his wife died RECENTLY. Black father has been a drug addict for a decade or longer, I'd guess.
9) There is never an explanation for how Costner's innocent white daughter came to be hanging out with a black drug addict from South Central Los Angeles. (In real life the explanation is that she's a drug addict too. I promise you.)
B) Then there comes the standard white racial logic:
1) "race doesn't really matter" theme was ever present
2) Two scenes used to depict black culture
(a) The first black culture(?) scene was 15 people in the same small house all watching television in different rooms, midday.
(b) The second black culture(?) scene was an impromptu family jazz concert in the living room with 30 black people in a 3 bedroom house, as if that happens every weekend. I have to assume this was meant to imply this is what the child would be missing if she never saw her grandmother. (Yeah music on the weekends is the most IMPORTANT thing to be communicated about black identity. It would be terrible if grand daughter missed that.)
3) A white people are allowed to use the n-word defense was employed: "I only said called him the n-word because he called himself the n-word in a text message I read" was successfully used in court as a defense.
.
4) A good black man was introduced at the very beginning of the movie-- a barely out of college, super intelligent, African man with halting English. (Why get a regular Black American character for a math tutor/piano teacher? That would be confusing. Black Americans aren't smart. Who is going to believe that? <--sarcasm)
5) There was no discussion of the black child feeling isolated in white world on a day-t- day basis when she is 5 or 10, much less when she 15 and wants to date.
6) I can't begin to explain the class issues, intertwined with race, that were ignored on one hand but used to make Costner appear stoically brave on the other while he was visiting South Central Los Angeles. The African Tutor was nervous not Costner's character.
7) The expected, heroic race speech of the movie comes when Grandpa Costner admits to the courtroom judge that he does see race when he first meets a black person (GASP!) but his first thought is followed by a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th thoughts that are better thoughts
JUST LIKE
when he first meets a woman he first sees her breasts, but then immediately has 2nd, 3rd, and 4th thoughts that are better thoughts
IMPLYING
that it is bad to notice that those poor black people are not white like me (<---yes this is sarcasm but I am not making this up.)
Soon after the race speech, drunk, white grandpa played by Costner, who has been outted as a drunk at the custody hearing, gets full custody of the bi-racial girl. FULL Custody.
Someone tell Matt Damon that there were tons of black folk cast in this movie. A whole 4 or 5 black folk had speaking roles, more than the white roles probably. But if there were any black people behind the camera, involved in the creating the story line of "Black Or White", they were all psychological clones of Ben Carson and Stacey Dash.
Somebody please black-splain to Matt Damon that white people do not have enough introspection as a group, generally speaking, to make a movie that is representative of anything except themselves NO MATTER WHAT color the actors are.
Nobody on this planet needs one more movie that explains what white people think about race or racial others. People of color know that white people think race and racism is something that will go away if you ignore it. We've heard you every day for decades via main stream media. WE KNOW.
If the film "Black Or White" didn't reinforced every superior, white, liberal attitude there is, it probably got as close as any movie ever will. Ending this crap is the reason why we need Black, Brown, Asian, Latino, Native American...film makers.
http://jezebel.com/matt-damon-interrupts-successful-black-woman-filmmaker-1730553152?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=j
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