“Precious” and the Oscars
Posted By The Editors | March 9th, 2010 | Category: Hot Topics | 20 comments
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By Stacey Patton
First, I’d like to thank members of the Academy for not awarding a slew of Oscars to what New York Press film critic Armond White called “the biggest con job of the year” –Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire.
Call me a hater. I don’t care!
I’m thrilled that director Lee Daniel’s blockbuster hit did not win big at the Oscars on Sunday night.
Though the gritty film was nominated in six categories, it earned two Oscars – one for best adapted screenplay, and Mo’Nique took the prize for best supporting actress.
I give big props to Mo’Nique and Gabourey Sidibe for their courage and skill playing such harrowing roles. As one of my writer friends pointed out, when you are a black artist navigating Hollywood, sometimes you enter the door that’s open. But while a parade of critics have heralded Precious for its triumph of social realism, it also crammed all the worst pathologies and stereotypes of urban poor black people into one film.
Scenes like the morbidly obese, twice-pregnant, illiterate teen running through the streets of Harlem while stuffing herself with a bucket of stolen fried chicken was a throwback to racist depictions from the antebellum South. White racists argued that black people had an insatiable lust for fried chicken, and throughout the Jim Crow era, southern newspapers were filled with dispatches about blacks, young and old, being arrested and sentenced to hard time for “chicken stealing.”
Daniels’ film also depicted blacks as stupid, hypersexual, primitive, filthy, unhealthy, criminal, abusive, lazy, and violent. Need I say more about this perpetuation of toxic themes?
As I watched the glitzy and glamorous awards ceremony I cringed when Mo’Nique won. It’s not that I don’t think she deserved her award. I didn’t want the content of the film to be celebrated.
In her acceptance speech Mo’Nique said: “I would like to thank the Academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics.” The actress-comedienne even paid homage to Hattie McDaniel for “enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to.”
But Mo’Nique forgets that when it comes to films portraying black folks, the white-dominated Hollywood industry has consistently proven itself to be an anachronism, never separating politics, race and stereotypes from our stories. Mo’Nique’s reference to McDaniel, though respectable, also raised my eyebrows. In 1939, McDaniel won an Oscar for her mammy role in Gone With the Wind. This year Mo’Nique won for playing a lazy, heartless welfare mother who sexually and physically abuses her own child. No, Mo’Nique wouldn’t have to endure the same strictures of segregation as McDaniel, but 71 years later, the actress’s roles don’t seem so far apart.
Gabourey Sidibe, the film’s main protagonist, became the first black woman to be nominated for best actress since Halle Berry won in 2001 for her role as Leticia Musgrove, yet another Lee Daniels’ film where a black mother at times abuses her morbidly obese black child who ends up dying. The black fathers in both films are good-for-nothing and are killed off. Berry’s graphic sex scene with the racist character played by Billy Bob Thornton stirred a great deal of discussion among African Americans. Past black female Academy Award winners won for playing a mammy, fortune teller, and singer.
The point is that even though more black actors and actresses are being nominated and winning at the Academy Awards, the kinds of roles they are cast for don’t seem to be evolving. Audiences are still bombarded by distressing images that some have praised for their inspirational messages, redemptive qualities, and for providing Americans with glimpses inside worlds some of us never encounter or don’t want.
Films like Precious might provoke moral outrage and get people talking about important issues like child abuse and rape. But do they really help us understand that kind of suffering as well as the social context and strictures that breed such violations of vulnerable people? Or do they simply reproduce stereotypes and cast blacks, the poor, and other people pushed to the margins as hapless victims with no future?
The denial of humanity we see in Precious has far-reaching consequences. Contrary to Mo’Nique’s assessment about the Academy’s foresight, politics and performance are not separated. They are tools. In the case of Precious, it has come at a time when our nation is enduring an acute economic crisis that is deepening the misery of people of color and the poor.
As Ryerson University professor Mitu Sengupta argued a few days ago in a piece titled “Altruism at the Oscars,” Hollywood films serve an important political function. “They affirm us as wealthy, virtuous and lucky,” Sengupta writes. “They strengthen our sense of entitlement to intervene in the worlds we deem as impoverished, depraved and unlucky. And they harden our demand for gratitude.”
Sengupta further asserts that people like Mo’Nique and Sidibe’s character do exist, but the fact that they fail to experience affirmation or real achievement, “the various snapshots of deprivation and debasement add up to a pornographically bleak picture of spaces such as Harlem, masking their vibrancy of life and the agency of their residents.”
What we see instead is a denial of humanity.
I’m relieved that Precious did not win big at the Oscars, especially for best actress and best film. Had they won, I wonder what the implications would have been for upcoming black female actresses trying to break into the industry? We’ve already been awarded for playing maids, fortunetellers, lazy welfare queens and women who fall in love with white racists. Had Sidibie taken home the Oscar for being greased up and slapped with so much muck, I wonder how any future black actress could top all that pathology?
Stacey Patton is Senior Editor of The Defenders Online and writer for The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and Illustrator from NJ. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Kevin’s work features include: TVOne, NABJ, WBLS_107.5FM, EURweb and various newspapers & magazines throughout the country.
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Boo hoo, get over it sistah! It was an excellent movie, based on a great story. Stop seeing us as victims in everything, there are plenty of movies, books etcetera our there that put is in good light, they’re just not that good. I guess you’ll be raving about Why did I get married too? Please! I like how you say “white dominated” hollywood, it’s like you were dying to say Jew-run but bit your tongue. The problem with our brothers and sisters who see racism and victimhood in every aspect of our society, is that they are often racists and victims themselves who can’t stand up for themselves so just sit around crying all day.
My sentiments exactly.
[...] the full article here. [...]
Quite accurate and true, but have you made this much noise about the absurd, insulting, ridiculous manner in which Tyler Perry has pimped, used and portrayed black women over the past 10 or so years? This nonsense is only on the tail of Perry’s insults, and unfortunately, black women welcome being pimped by him. It find him far worse than some white folks who at least have somewhat of an excuse for believing that blacks are as one sided as they see. Perry has made it almost impossible for a black filmmaker to get a film financed that isn’t absurd, or colored. Till black people boycott these horrible self depictions, why would we ever expect white folks to do anything different. Must be what we want, right? We keep on buying it, and putting these people and their lopsided stories on some idiotic image awards. We, blacks, are truly some of the most confused and self hating people on earth. And worse, we will spend our money on anything. Happily, like the sheep we are too often.
Save your breath. Only the choir is listening. Everyone else looks at you like you are crazy when you complain about this madness we have wrapped ourselves in so tightly. We must like it . . . right?
Amen, but let’s not forget Bullock’s Oscar for The Blind Side, which was cloying magic Negro trope, or the fact that Avatar was the frontrunner–and it was an old Tarzan movie. Right down to the black actors who played the bluefolk. Note Laz Alanzo & crew got credit, yet Cameron parades around the long haired female lead, Zoe Saldona. Equally uncomfortable, as you analyzed, was MoNique’s shout out to Hattie McDaniel, mother of the Mammie trope we all suffer under.
[...] on topics such as what (if anything) does the Oscar win for Mo’Nique for the movie Precious means for balanced images in Hollywood of Black Americans in the mainstream, the latest updates on Guru of Gang Starr’s health situation (lots of updated information [...]
[...] on topics such as what (if anything) does the Oscar win for Mo’Nique for the movie Precious means for balanced images in Hollywood of Black Americans in the mainstream, the latest updates on Guru of Gang Starr’s health situation (lots of updated information [...]
Hello All,
Thanks for your comments and readership. A few things . . . .
1. Janice, indeed I have made noise about Tyler Perry’s disrespect of black women. Please see the following post that I wrote some time ago: http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/03/10/muh-deah-goes-to-jail-throw-away-the-key/
2. Chris, you’re absolutely right! We must not forget about the banner of films this year that played off of old tropes. I was sitting there thinking that Bullock was the lesser of the two evils to win for best actress.
3. Holly, I don’t like biting my tongue when I eat or speak. So I chew carefully and open wide enough to speak quite clearly. And I’m certainly capable of feeding myself and don’t allow others to put food or words in my mouth. So let me be clear, when I said “white dominated” I meant an industry that is run mostly by white actors/actresses/producers/writers and so on. They may be of Celtic, Irish, Jewish, Italian or some other European ancestry. The point is that neither blacks nor any other groups of color hold enough power in Hollywood to tell their stories in a more nuanced way. I have yet to come across a REAL LIFE Precious.
Thank you all for your input. Keep reading. Keep sharing your thoughts.
S. Patton
Hmm. I see your points. I’ve read the book. It’s sort of like a black version of Bastard out of Carolina.
A very agonizing book which is about a family of poor southern white folks. So i wonder… There does need to be more positive images of black folks, but, if this is the reality for not only black people but people in other countries, people who are apart of the dominant culture and have all of the money, but still have these kind of problems sort of the poverty and illiteracy, how can one tell these stories in a delicate way that isn’t stereotypical?
Maybe the problem is this isn’t the only reality for black people in places like Harlem and Hollywood doesn’t seem to be totally aware of that…
But still.
I haven’t seen the movie, but the book was painful, but good. It paralleled other books like Bastard out of Carolina, Born Blue by Han Nolan, the agonizing story of a girl who was white in foster care, but it mentioned Billie, Ella and Etta, which was cool. Also You don’t know me was a good book. Abuse isn’t just limited to urban poor folks or poor folks in general.
I have to agree with Holly, seems like the writer has some unsolved issues
Stacey:
You articulated all of my feelings exactly. Anyone who says that “Precious” is an excellent film just doesn’t understand the implications of these images. If it is so great, where is the white equivalent of a film like “Precious, which depicts white people in the same light?
Synesthesia: I read Bastard Out of Carolina and saw the film some years ago. I wouldn’t agree that it is an equivalent to Precious. This young white girl was abused by her stepfather I believe. But she doesn’t have all those other forms of pathology slapped onto her. And if I remember correctly, there’s some redemptive value towards the end of the story, unlike Precious. I agree with all of your other points. And thanks for those other titles. I hadn’t heard of those books.
Gwen: You are right. The consequences for this kind of porn has far-reaching consequences and there will NEVER be a white equivalent to Precious. Look what happened when Dakota Fanning was cast to play a rape victim. That film never made it to the big screen. The Christian Right had a fit. Black people are always the poster children for these depictions.
Shaun: Sending you a GREAT BIG fiber optic smile!
Hmmm. There is a movie to Bastard out of Carolina. It’s disturbing, but not as disturbing as the book. There’s also a movie I haven’t seen with, I think Dakota Fanning that hasn’t been released yet.
Then there’s some creepy movies I positively hate like Happiness that are nothing but some disturbed dysfunctional white folks.
Plus there’s also Lifetime which has a lot of movies like that… Kids, that movie is mostly white folks, and it’s also disturbing and completely depressing.
But, I haven’t seen Precious yet. I’m not going to get it from Netflix until tomorrow.
Is it just that they piled a ton of negativity in the movie on one character to the point that it’s overwhelming and it’s worse that she’s black because folks will see it as a perception of black folks that is exaggerated in its negativity?
Stacey, as always you are on point, sharp as a razor blade, fully awake, and alive!
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by keligoff: NAACP writer praises Precious losses at Oscars. The debate continues: http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/03/09/precious-and-the-oscars/...
Agree with the premise and sentiment of the article, but the politics Mo’Nique was referring to was the promotion of the film during awards season. She raised a stink in Hollywood when she slept in and skipped an awards ceremony. When Vanessa Williams(!) raised the issues you touched on during an appearance on “The View” she got slapped back by Barbara Walters. (Whoopie was off that day or else there would have been a smack down;)
how come every time something bad happens to a black person in a movie, we are promoting racial stereotypes. why can’t there just be a movie about bad things happening to a black person? is this so wrong??? those of you that are saying this movie was bad, maybe are just referring to the subject matter. or maybe not. in any case, don’t be so quick to lable every unfortunate black person as a victim. i bet the people who think this way are the same people that would’ve had a serious fit if Precious didn’t win anything, so in the end you’ll never be happy. and to the person that was talking about tyler perry, SHUTUP already. there is NOTHING wrong with his movies and i wish people would stop complaining about it. everytime a black person does something good, there will always be someone to say it’s wrong, but i never thought any of these people would be black. we as black people need to not only stop hating ourselves, but hating other black people who don’t hate themselves.
Truthfully, the film was actually better than expected. Although it remains true that black films have the same tired story lines. As an aspiring filmmaker myself I vow to only associate myself with truly creative plots and coming of age topics that are neglected in black films (such as the black middle class which I grew up in). The truth is, the media over the last 100 years has conditioned and programmed what we are supposed to like and majority of what blacks like are either drama’s, romance and self-depreciative comedy most which are extremely mediocre. My wish is for blacks from all classes to unify and support ourselves, fight for ourselves. Every race and ethnic group does this when they come to America but us.
I’m just saying as I look at the history of oscar winners…… “for being a grown man in the army and taking a whipping like it’s nobodies business….Denzel Washington…next he’ll play the role of a gangsta–two-faced cop running the gang-infested hoods of l.a. and we’ll get major praise for that” Then we have “for a horrific and disturbing sex scene between a white man and a black woman….Halle Berry….next we’ll give her a role portraying a hootchie mamma witha with a gold tooth.” Then there’s Mo Nique….” for playing a role many black folks have either seen in real life or heard of…especially if you were raised in a fairly poor neighborhood”. Why are all these roles rewarded with an Oscar for depiction of negative images portrayed by black people? Is it because it’s depiction is what everyone else feels they can now validate how black folks really act?…and btw…loved “Why did I get Married”…hate “Meet the Browns”….and I’m just not into watching grown-a$$ men play dress up in womens clothing. Eddie did it, Wesley did it, Martin did it , Flip Wilson loved it wayyy too much…and I just find it a lil disturbing….that’s all. AND….The moment Will Smith portrays a character in which he is caught having sex with another man…..”Hey …they was great acting…give that boy an Oscar!!” Give me a break!!!
I would like to offer my comments on the movie, ‘Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire’, written from the perspective of a severe infant-child abuse survivor:
http://stopthestorm.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/my-reaction-to-the-movie-precious/