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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7127
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 11:31 am: | 
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IN CLASS WITH HANCOCK
By Biko Agozino
I have just seen the box office hit movie, Hancock, with my two teenage sons and their 12 year old cousin. As usual, after seeing a movie with the kids, we engaged in debates about the representations and subtle messages in the movie. I asked the young men if they liked the film and they all agreed that it was a great film. I asked them what they liked about it and they said that Will Smith was the greatest superhero ever. Then they asked me if I liked the movie and I said no that I did not. Why not? They all asked in unison.
I asked the children to compare Will Smith’s character with other super heroes played by white actors. They said that all super heroes have their nemeses because people are suspicious of those who have superhuman powers. Many people dislike Superman and Batman and Spiderman especially when they are slow to beat the bad guys or when the bad guys impersonate them and make it look like the bad things were being done by the superheroes. Sometimes people dislike the superhero because they envy the superpower or because they fear that he may use the same power to defeat them if they did anything naughty by themselves. So they were not surprised that people were complaining about John Hancock in the movie, it comes with being a superhero.
I asked the young men if they knew of any superhero who was unemployed, or an alcoholic, or who slept rough on the streets, or used foul language, or tried to pinch the bum of women on the streets or called them bitches, or bullied children who were bullies, or had no girlfriend or family or went to prison just to learn how to say ‘good job’, or chased another man’s wife?
I told them that I suspected that Hollywood used these stereotypes to send the wrong messages to young black men and help to continue leading them astray. Some young black men may see the movie and believe that abusing large bottles of whiskey might give them superpowers. These are common stereotypes of the black man: unemployed, drunk addict, homeless, no family responsibility, cursing, ex-convict, childish, ignorant of his true identity and doing more harm than good.
Moreover, while he slept rough, it was a white boy who kicked him to wake him up by the side of the street to tell him that there were bad guys that he needed to fight and when he could not be bothered, the boy called him an asshole, an insult that almost everyone called him for his trouble of saving the world from dangerous criminals who were represented predominantly as foreigners or as black people while the criminal bosses were white men.
The young black men who saw the movie with me protested that Hancock gave up drinking in the movie. Yes, I agreed, but guess who made him give up drinking for a while? It was a white man who did so as if he had no mind of his own. Moreover, Hancock did not even know who he was, it was a white woman who defined him for himself the way white people like to be the ones defining black people’s identity. I Asked them if they have ever seen a superhero played by a white man who did not know who he was until a black woman revealed the true identity.
Why was Hancock persuaded to accept a prison term as the only way to win respect when it is easier to improve the image of anyone by sending him to the university? In the prison where black men were over-represented, Hancock had to prove his superpower status by pushing a man’s head up the ass of another man (a metaphor for male rape in prison), by dumbly saying ‘pass’ in the group therapy sessions, and by magically scoring baskets from incredible distance as if that was all black men could do in a world dominated by ideas of white supremacy.
Why was Hancock not given his own family or girlfriend in the movie instead of setting him up to appear as if he was after the white woman who was married to the white man who pretended to be his boss and who told him how to dress for work? He later claimed that the white woman kissed him after he had tucked her husband into bed as if he was the nanny or ‘manny’ but that was no kiss, it was a beating that he got from the white woman who simply told him that they were different because she was stronger, blah blah blah.
Finally, Hancock was persuaded to go to a different planet to avoid tempting the white woman who claimed to be his mystical wife as if getting rid of the black man was the only way to resolve the sexual desire of white women for the forbidden fruits of black masculinity. By some kind of coincidence, John Hancock was the name of one of the Founding Fathers of America who was a slave trader, tax dodger and smuggler.
Films like Hancock are rated PG with the expectation that parents would guide their children in reading the codes in the movies but not all parents have the time, skill or interest to do so adequately. As a result, schools may have to fill this void by having seminars and workshops in which popular films will be closely read and analysed by a students’ film club to guide students against the negative messages encoded in films. So PG films should also be rated SG for School Guidance.
Biko Agozino is a Professor of Sociology at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. His documentary film, CLR James: The Black Jacobins Sociology Series is being serialized by NCC Channels 4 and 11, Trinidad and Tobago. bagozino@...
Jessica Marie Johnson
Ph.D. Student
History - U.S. and African Diaspora
University of Maryland @ College Park
"We live in an age in which silence is not only criminal but suicidal...
for if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night."
--James Baldwin |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12410
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 11:45 am: |
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I had the same sentiments about the movies "Knocked Up" and "Juno" which trivialized and glorified unwed pregnancies.
Hancock is not entirely without precedent. The "Wolverine" character who is a member of the X-men super heroes is violent and sinister. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7132
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 12:23 pm: |
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Hancock is not entirely without precedent. The "Wolverine" character who is a member of the X-men super heroes is violent and sinister.
(But not a shiftless, dirty drunk who causes millions of dollars worth of damage when he excercises his powers--
Say! When did you start reading comix?) |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 10137
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 01:22 pm: |
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Funny. But I manage to disliked Hancock for LOTS of reason that had nothing to do with it allegedly being some allegory of the onerous existence of Black men in America.
But, okay... |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7137
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 01:26 pm: |
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We need to get to work on a Cynique movie.
I'll get to work on a script.
We'll make millions off it and won't give her a dime. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12416
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 02:22 pm: |
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The only problem with making a movie about me, chrishayden, is that you have scant knowledge about the subject matter; only the misconceptions that characterize the flawed assessments you make of people, in a futile attempt to elevate yourself.  |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7141
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 02:37 pm: |
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The only problem with making a movie about me, chrishayden, is that you have scant knowledge about the subject matter; only the misconceptions that characterize the flawed assessments you make of people, in a futile attempt to elevate yours
(What does THAT matter? The people only want the LEGEND, not the gritty reality.
OK, maybe we'll let you do a cameo) |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 3306
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 06:14 pm: |
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I saw the movie last night. It was very entertaining. Sorry, but this article is another unsuccessful attempt at furthering paranoiac race conspiracies and elevating misguided Negrosity to another sad level. But ya know, I was going to write precise and definitive rebuttal to this nonsense but I've changed my mind. It's hot today and I going to grab that cold imported Belgian ale in the refrig, put on Miles and start building this new computer.
It's not worth the time to talk behind someone who believes (not to mention how insulting it is)that black people are stupid enough to believe it's OK and cool to be unshaven, drink hard liquor from a bottle in public, not have a job, use bad language, insult people and not remember they were once married to a white woman -because they saw it in a movie. These arrogant race conspiracy Negroes make the case against themselves. No effort is needed. I'm done..... |
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