“Precious” Triggers Heartfelt Debate within Black Community
African American LA Times journalist, Erin Aubrey Kaplan, does her job as a writer in her article Black Viewers Are Divided on Film’s ‘Precious’-ness as she surfaces the contours of the diversity of perspectives among African Americans in their response to the movie “Precious” directed by black director Lee Daniels.
There are those who laud it for what they consider its brave, unvarnished look at difficult and painful issues within the Black community. Others are angry at what they see as reinforcing stereotypes. And there are many others who are truly deeply conflicted. One African American friend wrote to me just yesterday, “Saw Precious this weekend. Amazing. Difficult.”
Whichever way one views “Precious” either as an African American or not, it is clear that the nature of conversation is different in the Obama Era. For one, the fact that such a wide range of opinion within the black community shows up and can be surfaced publicly, is quite a contrast to a past, even a very recent one, when in the face of being a totally marginalized minority, public disagreements within the community would rarely be made public with the understood coda that “there is no need to air our dirty laundry.”
In a New York Times magazine profile of director Lee Daniels, reporter Lynn Hirschberg in the article titled “The Audacity of ‘Precious’” writes, “the movie is not neutral on the subject of race and the prejudices that swirl around it, even in the supposedly postracial age of Obama.” After the movie received a 15-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Festival in May, the director himself leans into the complexity of the issue during his interview with the journalist:
“‘Precious’ is so not Obama,” Daniels said. “ ‘Precious’ is so not P.C. What I learned from doing the film is that even though I am black, I’m prejudiced. 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. Anybody that’s heavy like Precious — I thought they were dirty and not very smart. Making this movie changed my heart’ …
“‘For some audiences,’” Hirschberg writes, ’that may not be reason enough to make a movie that risks reinforcing old stereotypes. It’s a criticism Daniels has heard before.’ ‘As African-Americans, we are in an interesting place,’ Daniels said. ‘Obama’s the president, and we want to aspire to that. But part of aspiring is disassociating from the face of Precious. To be honest, I was embarrassed to show this movie at Cannes. I didn’t want to exploit black people. And I wasn’t sure I wanted white French people to see our world.’ He paused. ‘But because of Obama, it’s now O.K. to be black. I can share that voice. I don’t have to lie. I’m proud of where I come from. And I wear it like a shield. ‘Precious’ is part of that.’ “
While the best answers to this controversial movie are not clear cut, what is refreshing is the reality that society, in the Obama Era, can enter – albeit not without difficulty — into more complex and truthful conversations across racial lines and within the communities of color themselves. And as we have learned, until we can talk about the issues, we cannot hope to find solutions. The only way out is through.
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