The beginning made me flash to too many vigilante action films, so I got slightly distracted checking out the father. My brain has been trained by Hollywood to automatically accept vigilantisme as not only appropriate but attractive, at least if its on screen. As it moved into the flesh of the story and the second part, my brain moved onto conflicted horror.

The father is obviously in the wrong for the sign, and the mob is well within their rights to be upset about something that is meant as a slur and a question. I felt that it was more poignant that they had the “good blacks” (as one commenter put it) ask him to take the sign down, and for him to refuse, because I think it was directed at them as well. The shopkeeper is the little asian who doesn’t make waves, and the woman is THE VOICE OF REASON (who is promptly ignored). And it is directed at them too, at the community who wouldn’t share information but more importantly whose silence he felt was implicitly valuing “young black gangstas” over his own son. Maybe he felt that if his son was also one of those thugs, someone might have spoken out. I’m from Canada, and I don’t know the rules and regulations of the ‘hood. But those seemed to be the strands of narrative that were floating around.

I will say I did automatically have more sympathy for the asian characters, and a squeezing of the gut in sympathy for the conflicted “good” black characters (and the kid! oh the kid!). In the name of good vs. evil, I wanted someone to speak out on Daniel’s behalf. I was still sympathetic to the “bad” blacks for being angry, although much less so. And I thought the white cop was a douche, and I wondered why he didn’t have a taser and just use that. Gun vs. Bat looks really silly to my non-violent liberal sensibilities. If people are getting shot for holding bats, even threateningly (and I see from above comments maybe they are) then the world at large has some serious issues.

I do think a lot of my gut reactions were associated with: my whiteness, my class standing, and my canadianness. I was not surprised to automatically have more sympathy for the asian character, and if the situation were reversed (black dad + son, asian neighborhood) I would still be sympathetic but I’m not sure if it would be AS sympathetic. And that might be one of the fundamental issues with this film – it is very short, it did have to sacrifice cultural and racial nuances in favor of the storyline and it was designed to incite feeling. As such it is very black and white (green and red?) and almost deliberately blind, so that each character has a role as good or bad or vigilante. It did make my stomach churn, and I was completely dissatisfied with the ending although I think it was the most appropriate.

I agree with others who have said that there’s no “bad hair” only bad hair do’s and that “good hair” is healthy hair. I see so many women each day with bad do’s and unhealthy hair, all in the name of having “good hair”. For me, fake blonde is such an ugly colour. (If you’re going to dye your hair, why not make it interesting and do green or purple or blue?)

I was born with naturally blonde hair, which has darkened over the years. It’s basically straight, with a slight wave, and very fine. It’s not good enough for society, though. It’s too flat. I wash it every day because it gets greasy quickly and I blow dry it to try and give it some body, as well as using shampoos and sprays. It’s not blonde enough, but I draw the line at dying or highlighting my hair and have never done that, despite being “encouraged” to do so.

I’m not having a pity party here, because I know that’s nothing compared to using relaxers, etc. to get so-called “good hair”. But we should tell society to get stuffed, because it seems to me that no one has naturally “good hair” (and I’m referring to society’s definition of good hair).

I have a Japanese friend with beautiful, thick, straight black hair, who envies mine, I have a friend with naturally curly hair who straightens it because she thinks her hair is too frizzy.

I certainly have hair that I envy: black hair, red hair, short hair, curly hair, nappy hair, afros…but I am slowly becoming happy with my hair and with doing less and less with it.

@deathblossom
It was interesting that you brought up make-up, clothes, jewellery, etc. Just like women feeling they “have” to have their hair a certain way (which, as you point out, often comes from the white mainstream), women also feel they have to wear make-up, have to wear a suit, have to wear jewellery – and it goes on.

I now rarely wear make-up. I love make-up, it’s fun, but I don’t want to feel that I have to wear it, that I can’t leave the house without it. I don’t dress up for work (except for meetings or if I feel like it) and am lucky that I work somewhere that means I don’t have to dress up (and which also, from what I’ve seen, accepts natural black hair). I wear jewellery because I love it and also because it’s a great way to make plain clothes more interesting – but I don’t have to. I wear perfume because I like the smell.

I know it’s hard to say no to society’s ideals and it’s also easier for some of us to say no than for others. But I hope we can all try to do so in our own way, however small and help to change attitudes.

I actually was remarkably angry by the end of this movie. I had incredible amounts of sympathy for the father — after all, what father could bear the thought, much less the reality of loss of their children?

But I’ll cop to this — when I first saw the sign, my blood ran cold. By the end of it, though, what I saw was a community not caring enough that a parent lost their child, but cared enough that some alien troublemaker was insulting them and calling them out — which is resonates incredibly with me, because where I come from, the community I belong to cannot countenance the idea of being insulted, justice or human decency be damned.

That “face” trumped justice — that was what hit me the hardest, now that I think of it.

And there was a part of me that wanted, wanted so badly, to have the Asian father walk into the cop’s gun, and I suspect it had something to do with my ethnicity as well, because it reminded me of amuk.

To me, the man’s actions were essentially what we call mengamuk, because his life had become so unbearable for continued existence, he could not bear to end his own life, and he wanted to condemn the community around him that condoned such a thing.

“Look at me,” he seems to say, “You kill my son, it is okay, you say nothing. But I insult you, I slash at your belly, and you want to kill me! So kill me! Kill the troublemaker! Let my blood spill on the ground and be a mark against you!”

…

That’s how I felt initially, anyway. Then Sean’s #7 comment jolted me and made me realize — this shit? It happens to black families too.

I initially wanted to take my high school students to see it (free ticket for meee!), but alas- scheduling conflicts. Nonetheless, after reading all this new information, I think I can shell out the money to go see it.

Anyway, to echo some of the previous comments regarding the film largely ignoring the sexual abuse Precious endured from her mother, I definitely find that striking as well, especially since Lee Daniels is a gay man himself. But then again, I’m not surprised; it seems that sexual abuse, and domestic violence for that matter, can only be seen in the scope of heterosexuality or male-male(yes, priest and young boy) situations. It’s as if there’s some invisible wall there- much like when men get gung-ho about lesbians but can’t begin to fathom sex between two males. Which would align itself with patriarchy, now that I think of it…but then…how is it defined the other way around?

If “Push” and Sapphire are actually targets of Everett’s satire in “Erasure”, I think he was terribly wrong about them. Wouldn’t be the first time I disagreed with someone whose writing I love, and it wouldn’t be the last.

If someone else is suggesting that “Push” is the kind of exploitative book Everett is satirizing in “Erasure”, I think they are terribly wrong, whether or not Everett shares their misconception.

I don’t know if I was really that affected by race – being from Malaysia, I didn’t really grow up with the racial dynamics that run so intensely here. We do have similar dynamics, though.

I was really taken aback at first, seeing the sign, but as the film progressed, it made more sense. But after that, it just got to the whole “why is this happening?” When the black guy in the store didn’t say anything, why not? When the store owner didn’t want to do anything, why not?

I really appreciated that there was a range of voices – but pissed when the [only] black woman was ignored. And I got even sadder when the kid in the distance started crying for his dad, which made Daniel break down and run to the chalkmark, and I just didn’t know how to process it anymore.

I don’t know if this film factors into how we have conversations with each other, as it does illustrate how we do a lot of talking past and above each other.

Let me think about it some more.

You just cast eternal discreditation on the poor man with those nine simple words. ZING!

I’m actually looking forward to seeing this movie now, whereas I was previously dreading it.

I saw the interview of Sapphire on Katie Couric’s web show and she said two things I thought were memorable. One, every time in the past this work has been performed, the actresses have always completely ignored the mother’s role in the abuse, and generally make no reference to the mother’s physical or sexual abuse though they ALWAYS mention the father’s. She ascribed it to the inability and discomfort to confront, let alone portray, the darkness that lies in a woman and mother such as Precious’. We are nearly inured to the thought of fathers raping their daughters, yet mothers doing the same exact thing sends our heads right back to the sand, total and utter denial.

The other memorable comment she made was that, given the author, setting of the book/movie, the director and the actors it was more than likely going to be perceived as a “black” (or “urban”) movie which she felt was unfortunate. She relayed a story of screening the movie in a very wealthy, upscale, predominantly white area and at the end of the screening, a older white woman standing and turning to her to say (loudly) “I’m 60 years old and that was my life 45 years ago.” The unfortunate issue in this movie is that many will say that this is more of an issue in a minority community than in a white community and that very sentiment is what will doom countless of girls to continue to be born into and raised by dysfunctional families. There is a saying that: “All happy families are happy in the same way but all dysfunctional families have their own dysfunction.” The shame in our society is that Precious’ story is NOT unique for a girl of any color and very few girls will have the perseverence and self-knowledge that Precious inherently possesses to push through such an upbringing.

@ Lei/BSK – the film maker meant well, I know and they were a number of positive black people in the film. I’m not disregarding this – I’m just saying for a film that is using irony to challenge our casual assumptions regarding race/stereotyping, I can’t get past the idea that it recycles some of the most basic stereotypes about black men/people in media. Most of the men who we hear curse. When the woman suggests that someone saw something, the guys are inarticulate and mute. One person goes to a violent extreme. I appreciate the inspiration and message, its just this particular effort left me kinda like blah.

I think enthomusicologist Michael Veal was on the show. Anyway, he wrote a book about Fela. I wanted to learn more, so I read it. I learned so much about the man, his music and Nigerian politics.

I’m guessing the way Jones handles the AIDS issue might be a reflection of how Fela handled it. He seemed to be in denial about it, at least that’s the feeling I had after reading the book.

I also remember feeling a little unsure about his mental state as he began to immerse himself in mysticism. I think he believed that the dead could be brought back to life. (Or perhaps, I’m misremembering.)

But, speaking of zombies…. “Zombie” (a song about Nigeria’s military) is one of my FAVORITE cuts. I like “Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense” too. It’s nearly a half hour long! (Ten minutes of a live performance is posted on youtube. Love it!) His shows at the Shrine would go on for hours. He studied classical music and he wanted to create African classical music. Thus, some of his songs are lengthy compositional arrangements.

I wanted to check out “Fela” when it was 0ff-Broadway about a year ago. The reviews said it was too long. I hope Jones was able to trim it a bit.