[MOVIE REVIEW THOUGHTS] Django Unchained - Kim Katrin Crosby

Seeing the way that some Black people are embracing Django Unchained communicates to me that some people like to be slaves and reminisce about slavery. As Imani perfectly articulated, they would never make a movie about a Jewish person who has a sexy action packed adventure to murder another Nazi for his freedom. Because genocide isn't something to play with. Plantations were death camps where Black folks of all genders were raped, murdered and engaged in back breaking labour. Black people who killed white people for any reason, (even when we looked at white people the wrong way) were murdered (rest in peace Emmet Till). When I visited concentration camps in Eastern Europe, it was clear that they were places of horrible atrocities. When I visited the plantations in the south, they are restored to inspire nostalgia. Nazis tried to destroy the evidence of concentrations, and white people stay trying to rewrite history as though African people found slavery bearable, citing The Help as yet another example. They aren't even ashamed. We are constantly told to stop talking about it, meanwhile no reparations, no truth telling. African people's never for a moment stopped resisting slavery. It's true I cant and have no desire to hold the descendants of slaveowners accountable for the crimes of your ancestors, but I can and will hold you accountable for what you do about the legacy of those crimes and the ways you continue to benefit from them. #idlenomore Fuck what you heard. From the Cormantee Nation to Haiti who is still being punished for daring to pursue their freedom, we always resist. Why are people content from the crumbs falling from masters mouth? We have made so many incredible accounts of slavery, we have so many incredible stories including ones prior to colonization. Why wait for people who don't acknowledge you as the full humans they believe themselves to be to represent us? We can spend money on our own artists, our own movies, on people who challenge and uplift us? Think about what representation means to you? Do you only feel represented when Euro Western media highlights our achievements? I am more interested in the Instagram feeds of my community than any vogue spread. I don't get my news from CNN, I get it from community bloggers many who I know and trust. People who care about me back and want to be accountable. We don't have to look at these tired, derivative spectacles. I am not watching movies that erase bodies of diverse abilities, make caricatures out of people of Colour, who exploit our stories and pay us nothing. Movies like Sankofa, Rabbit Proof Fence, Lackawanna Blues - there are so many that tell the truth, employ us fairly and have enormous artistic merit. Fundamentally, I just want the choice, the choice not to watch or participate in this drivel or be socially punished because I don't want to watch the last of the Mohicans, Pocahontas, the help, Django unchained... So to be clear, I'm not watching these movies and no amount of convincing will have me do otherwise. My body is sacred, as is my spirit, I will do my best to keep toxins out of me.