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Can White Movie Racists Redeem Themselves?
We seem to prefer big-screen bigots unrepentant or dead at the end.
https://play.ht/articles/d9a5d0b2-085d-4332-9509-872f7b4c7477
Movies tackle racism at their own risk. If they completely revolve around the Big R, they automatically open themselves up to a special brand of scrutiny. Just merely dabbling in the R word still can land it on the chopping block.
Three of the most despised race-themed movies, according to think pieces this century, have been three that made themselves even more vulnerable to contempt by winning Oscars: 2005’s Crash (three gongs, including Best Picture), 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (two gongs), and 2018’s Green Book (three gongs, including Best Picture). Let the hateration begin!
First, full disclosure: I enjoyed all three movies for different reasons. Do I think they were the best of their respective years? Nope. But they’ve become too-easy targets, obvious punching bags that are more reviled over time. As society’s “woke"-ness rises, the punches leveled at them grow harder and angrier.
Anyone who has experienced racism and Hollywood movies firsthand should be well-versed in the myriad problems of race movies, especially ones made by all- or mostly White creative teams. If…
