American Fiction
A movie you really should see.
American Fiction
My wife and I have just seen ‘American Fiction’. It’s been out a while, but I had just heard about it. (We’re not movie geeks.) Having watched the trailer, I expected a comedy. And there are hilarious moments, but it is generally an examination of what it’s like to be ‘black in a white man’s world.’
No, it’s not the usual movie about a black man overcoming the adversity of white hate, it’s the about the more common experience of blacks being subjected to the stereotype of blacks being unfortunate victims, unable to fend for themselves without white help.
It’s based on the novel, ‘Erasure’ by black writer Percival Everett. He is a Hollywood screenwriter who had personally experienced the ‘soft bigotry of lowered expectations’; producers want him to write screenplays about ganstas and drugs and hookers and guns. You know the usual. Both his novel and the movie are about a black writer who gets a lot of respect but can’t make a living writing about common human experience. But he hits it big, unintentionally, when he writes a novel satirizing the gansta form of fiction. His agent submits it to publishers, and they go wild for this ‘genuine’ masterpiece telling of the true ‘black experience’. We get to see some hilarious scenes of woke white executives salivating over the profits they’ll make from this guaranteed best seller.
That’s the funny part. But the movie also delves into the angst of a family dealing with divorce, sibling rivalry, Alzheimer’s and, oh yes, compassion. Believe it or not, black families are a lot like white families. Who knew?!
‘American Fiction’ is somewhat reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s “Get Out’. I initially avoided seeing that movie because I was under the impression that it treated blacks in the usual stereotypical (soft bigotry) manner. In a way, I was right. But it doesn’t celebrate that bigotry, it indicts it. It indicts the woke people who engage in that bigotry and makes them out to be the true enemies of black culture. I loved it. Still, it’s a dark movie, whereas American Fiction is very nearly joyful.
I have directly observed for most of my life the misinterpretation of ‘blackness’ in Woke America. Blacks are not allowed to be their own person, they are expected to fit the stereotype of victimhood. Are blacks ever victims? Of course. Should that be their essential identity? HELL, NO! American Fiction punches holes in that mythology, as are more and more books, movies, and other writing. I have a general sense that woke bigotry is gradually being seen for what it is. And not a moment too soon.
Comments? Have you seen American Fiction?
Saw the film. Loved it. Hilarious in points.
Some day there will not be a need for the message of this film. Hopefully, I’ll still be alive to see it.