"I'm prejudiced against people who are darker than me...When I was young, I
went to a church where the lighter-skinned you were, the closer you sat to the
altar". --Lee Daniels, director of "Precious".
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I will drop a review of "Precious" in the next couple of days. Short answer: I
loved the film, though it's difficult to watch at times ( i will say, due to
all the hype, it's not as bad as I'd expected, since I was prepared for a lot
more graphic abuse depicted). One thing that does bother me about the film,
now that I've heard it mentioned, is that the good people in it are all
light-skinned. Indeed, Paula Patton, Lenny Kravitz, and Mariah Carey are all
biracial. The "bad" people are all dark skinned.
It's interesting that director Lee Daniels admits he's had some issues on the
color line, as noted in the article below. Interesting discussion on skin
colour, that's unfortunately still relevant today, and interesting that in a
film meant to explore the issues we all have, some of the creative work behind
it reveals some of the same problems.
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http://racerelations.about.com/b/2009/11/08/what-precious-means-for-race-relations.htm
What "Precious" Means for Race Relations
Sunday November 8, 2009
The film " Precious " premiered in select cities Nov. 6, and reviews are
pouring in about the movie with a Harlem teen whose life transforms through
education. To say that the circumstances of Precious Jones' life are bleak
would be an understatement. Precious is illiterate, living with HIV and has
been victimized by her parents in numerous ways, including sexually. Her father
has twice impregnated her, and one child she's borne by him suffers from Down
syndrome .
"Precious" tackles an array of issues. Because the protagonist is black,
however, both the media and the public have raised questions about its effect
on race relations. I've summed up two major questions about the film below:
Why do white audiences eat up black films and novels that depict dysfunction,
poverty and abuse?
Why are the villains in "Precious" dark-skinned and the heroes light-skinned?
"Precious" is based on the novel Push by Sapphire. Both the film and the book
have been compared to Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Toni Morrison's The
Bluest Eye in that they, too, garnered praise from white critics and featured
emotional and sexual abuse of black youth by family members. The fact that
these works feature abuse isn't in and of itself a problem. The problem is how
the mainstream receives these works. I have no problem if viewers and critics
regard "Precious" et al. as representations of particular black families. On
the other hand, I do object to viewers and critics who regard a film like
"Precious" as the only authentic black experience and a television program such
as " The Cosby Show " as inauthentic. The fact is both of these slices of black
life are authentic.
I do understand, though, why some members of the black community have
criticized "Precious." Positive images of blacks in the media remain few and
far between. In comedies, blacks are portrayed as buffoonish, cartoonish and
uncouth. Films such as " Norbit ," " Doctor Dolittle " and " Big Momma's House
," not to mention any Tyler Perry flick, mock black womanhood. And on the
dramatic end, we've had stories of gang warfare, virulent racism and abusive or
absentee parents.
There's no doubt in my mind that media portrayals of people of color can lead
to racial stereotyping. I'm reminded of a former classmate from a
Mexican-American family from East L.A. Her roommate freshman year was a
Midwesterner who, upon seeing the gang film " Mi Vida Loca ," said that she
didn't realize my classmate had lived such a hard life. My friend laughed and
told her that she had little in common with the "Mi Vida Loca" characters.
In the case of "Precious," critics not only fear that the film will lead to
racial stereotyping but that it constitutes "poverty porn." This refers to
films that cater to privileged moviegoers who get off on taking in images of
poor people in desperate situations. After watching such cinema, the privileged
feel like better people just for having seen the film but do nothing to make
change in the world they've witnessed on screen.
In a New York Times Magazine interview , director Lee Daniels confessed that he
worried about screening "Precious" for a European audience.
"To be honest, I was embarrassed to show this movie at Cannes," he said. "I
didn't want to exploit black people. And I wasn't sure I wanted white French
people to see our world."
He added, however, that because the world now has a black role model in Barack
Obama , a story such as "Precious" can be shared without fear of racial
backlash. I don't agree with this, considering that Obama is likely viewed by
those in the U.S. and outside of it as the exception rather than the rule as
far as African Americans go.
I was also eager to hear Daniels discuss how he feels about exposing audiences
to the thread of " colorism " that runs through "Precious." While the evil
characters in the film are dark-skinned, the benevolent characters are played
by actors so light-skinned they're not easily identifiable as black.
"I'm prejudiced against people who are darker than me," Daniels remarked in New
York Times Magazine . "When I was young, I went to a church where the
lighter-skinned you were, the closer you sat to the altar. Anybody that's heavy
like Precious -- I thought they were dirty and not very smart. Making this
movie changed my heart. I'll never look at a fat girl walking down the street
the same way again."
I'm glad that Lee's prejudice dissipated during the course of making
"Precious," but that doesn't change the harmful message sent by the colorism in
his film. In the book "Precious" is based on, a dark-skinned teacher with
natural hair changes Precious' perceptions of dark skin from negative to
positive. This powerful transformation is lacking in the film because a
fair-skinned actress was cast to play Precious' teacher. If Daniels really did
become less prejudiced about size and color while making "Precious," hopefully
his next project will feature dark-skinned blacks of strong character rather
than violent, exploitative brutes with dark skin.
