Django: The African mind (Re)chained

by | Feb 24, 2013 | Blog | 3 comments

In light of its nomination and the proximity of the Oscars, the members of the Kwame Ture Society of Howard University have collaborated to write a serious critique of the film, Django: Unchained. With African-Deep Thought as our critical methodology, it is our hope that this critique is insightful as well as engaging.

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Later in the piece.

He goes on further to say, “Off chance there are any astronomy aficionados amongst you the North Star is that one.” This simply

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implies that the Black men were not “exceptional” enough to make their own decision such that Dr. Shultz had to point out the blatantly obvious. In addition, the satirization of the klu klux klan –though it may have been well intended to show the idiocy of racism – not only made lite of a serious situation but also gave whites an alternative with regards to genealogical attachment. In other words, whites who viewed the movie could make the claim that their ancestors were not the stupid Klu Klux Klan but were more akin to the brilliant Dr. Shultz.  But, even greater than that, the movie, in general, was intended to be funny and to satirize slavery; let us not forget the enslaved women enjoying themselves on the swing just as the whipping is going to take place. The unfortunate thing is that Tarantino and his cast, although comfortable satirizing slavery, would never make a film satirizing the Jewish Holocaust in the same manner.

In conclusion, Django: Unchained failed as a movie under its various claims of heroism and historical accuracies. However, the movie did manage to successfully deceive some people who felt the movie was “good”. Blinded by the sentiment of love and one man’s revenge, people completely missed all the clandestine undertones, including: the over sexualization of Black women, lack of dialogue between Blacks, reinscription of the “Exceptional Nigger” , the passivity of the enslaved and the satirization of slavery. In addition, there were a number of other instances that should have offended people. For instance, Django says that “Broomhilda ain’t no field Nigger, she’s pretty”. The implications are quite far reaching and they too reinscribe a particular ideology aimed at colorism. As remediation for this psychological-trauma of a movie, we offer the movie Posse, by Mario Van Peebles, as an alternative if you need a western hero. Though the movie does not deal with slavery – it takes place after the emancipation proclamation – it does effectively deal with everything else that was overlooked in Taratino’s sorry excuse of a movie.  Your (African) mind has been UNCHAINED.

Read entire piece: https://www.facebook.com/notes/kwame-ture/django-the-african-mind-rechained/10151503163425539

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3 Comments

  1. Nell's Place

    Wait.. Didn’t the same guy make ‘Inglorious Basterds’ – which made light of the Jewish Holocaust?

    Reply

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