Why are drug dealing and jail TV shows and movies not trauma porn?
We heard outrage over slavery movies, but why is crime entertaining?
When I saw the Netflix reminder that “Monster” released, I smiled and wondered what lyricist Nas was up to lately. I’d half-listened to the movie preview, but there are some artists who I want to support in anything they do. Ten minutes into watching Kelvin Harrison Jr., I turned off the streaming service channel. I simply cannot watch black men behind bars, selling drugs, getting arrested or other crime-related activity anymore — for entertainment.
I don’t know when it happened. I used to be able to get some entertainment value out of TV shows and movies like this. I’ve watched every season of “The Wire” three times at least. I enjoyed Larenz Tate in the 2016 flick “Deuces,” alongside Meagan Good. I thought “Waist Deep,” starring Tyrese Gibson and Meagan Good (just realized the pattern), was a good flick. But then I just became tired.
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I’ve heard all of the complaints about how slavery films and TV shows like “12 Years a Slave,” “Harriet” and “Antebellum” were trauma porn to black people. I saw two of the three and thought they served their purpose. I recall watching films and reading the Alex Haley book “Roots” in elementary school. As with all Ava DuVernay films, “13th” was well-researched and well-written. Regardless of the backlash over “Birth of a Nation,” I wanted to see what Nate Parker came up with and supported that film, too.
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But I despised “Django Unchained” for every millisecond of the film, not just for its historical inaccuracies and love-to-use-the-n-word director Quentin Tarantino. It just made a mockery out of slavery altogether and tried to bring this bizarre comical and cowboy-like feel that didn’t meet its mark. While it was supposed to be this heroic take on a slave rebellion, it came across as lazy and made the blood rush to the top of my head. To no one’s surprise, Oscar winners for this film were “Best Supporting Actor” and “Best Original Screenplay” — but not the black star of a film about slavery. I hate that film, but others enjoyed it. This won’t be the first time that’s happened.