Oscar night

The Oscars happened tonight, I didn't watch them but I kept up with the news. Into the Spider-Verse won best animated feature which is pretty impressive considering Disney put out Ralph Breaks the Internet and Incredibles 2 this year. It totally deserved to win and honestly makes a strong argument that the division between animated and "regular" movies maybe isn't terribly useful because it's a stronger movie than most of the nominees.

Speaking of, best picture went to Green Book, and I think I have a problem with that. Now I didn't watch Green Book so I can't speak personally to it's quality, I am sure everyone involved did a very fine job and I am happy for them, truly.

I read an article earlier tonight though that pinpointed some of the problems I have with this stuff though, I have forgotten the articles title and that sucks or I would link it but essentially the writer talks about the need for a story about race to be sure to include that both sides have something to learn from the other about themselves which seems patronizing at best.

Green Book is ostensibly based on a real story of a musician traveling the south and being subject to all kinds of awful things, as well as his relationship with the guy driving him, who happens to be an ignorant redneck... OR IS HE? Stuff happens, trials are overcome, or not, and everyone(by which I mean white people) gets to leave the theater reassured that they are not the villains in a similar story, and also get to be justified in their feelings of superiority by having something to teach to black people about being judgmental.

We've seen it before and there was a time when that stuff was revolutionary and needed on the big screen, but while I can't speak for black people and their reaction to it I can say that as a white man the last thing I need is someone telling me that both sides have problems when it comes to racism. You could make an argument that there is an element of truth to the idea, that black culture is too distrustful of white people in general and it is fostering a sense of alienation that doesn't help white people feel safe reaching out to help, but that would be a stupid argument and you are stupid for making it. As always, it is not the responsibility of the oppressed to make the oppressors feel comfortable, if we are uncomfortable then we need to examine why that is and deal with it ourselves, this is old hat on this blog at this point, I've said it before and I am surely not the only one.

The stories that need to be told now are the ones that are apologetically not white, by that I mean stories that are interested in saying what they have to say without making sure the white people in the audience are feeling comfortable.

Black Panther managed that, and it is probably why it didn't resonate with me the way it did with a lot of folks, because it wasn't interested in connecting with me that way, I wasn't the intended target for a lot of the emotional subtext. Which is fine! I can still recognize it is there and enjoy the film. I don't need a POV character putting it all in context for me, none of us do. Into the Spider-Verse did this too, allowing minority characters to exist without a translator explaining what they are doing for the white folks in the audience.

The point is that a lot of folks are gonna be disappointed about tonight, and with good reason, the only consolation is that the most racist people will still be furious and we can all agree that anything that makes their lives worse is a good thing.