Friday, February 24, 2006
Imitation of Life: The Realities of Living in America
Have you ever discovered something new about something that you thought you already knew very well?? (that was real wordy..but n e way...) Well, I had this experience last night and it is really trippin' my head out.
My favorite movie of all time has been
Imitation of Life for the past 10 years. Well two months ago I was discussing my love of the movie with my great-grandmother Lawrencine, the one who is in the hospital right now. Well grandma is like 85 y/o and when I told her how I felt about the movie, she said that she didn't like it and I was shocked. She said that she had never seen the color version and that her dislike for the original made her not want to see the remake. Well, I had never seen the original version. I couldn't believe she didn't like it, but I didn't think anything else of it.
Fast forward to last night when the
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) channel shows the 1934 version of the movie as a part of a tribute they are doing to Oscar nominated fims. This was my first time seeing the 1934 version, as my love affair has been with the 1959 version. I feel like a rug has been pulled from under me! The 1934 black and white version is a bit different from the technicolor 1959 version. The central themes are the same, but the characters and details are a bit different. Basically, the 1934 film is racist as shit! I mean so racist and fucked up that it hurts to watch it. Now the color version has had me in tears
EVERY single time that I have seen it, but this made me want to cry for a different reason.
A few examples:
A) Delilah, the black female character, is a cook for Mrs. Perlman. They both are widows. Mrs. Perlman ends up opening up a pancake shop on the boardwalk of a beach. The name of the shop is Aunt Delilah's Pancakes or some shit like that.
Okay, immediately, an image of Aunt Jemima jumps into my head as the logo for the shop is a pic of Delilah in a head rag smiling. And she refers to herself as a mammy. The imagery is just too much.B) The pancake mix that makes the pancakes that they sell was created by Delilah. A man (can't remember his name but it begins with an E) comes in and tells Mrs. Perlman that she could strike it rich if she boxes the mix that they use. So he and she draw up the paperwork to sell the mix to stores and make big money. Mrs. Perlman offers Delilah 20% of the deal because she created the mix and Mrs. Perlman has a close relationship with her. Delilah is having a hard time being convinced to sign and Mr. E is heckling and talking shit on the sidelines. The conversation goes like this (in my words):Mrs. P - "We're going to be rich and you can buy yourself a house and a car." Delilah - "You mean you don't want me and Peola (her daughter) to stay here with youanymore. Please don't make us leave. I have always been your cook and that's what I wants to stay. I don't know what I would do if you made us leave. I don't need all those fancy things.Mrs. P - "I just thought that you would want things of your own for you and Peola and since it is your mix."Delilah - "I gave it to you as a gift. You're very welcome. I just want to be here with you."Mrs. P - "Oh Delilah, you're so sweet. You will never change."Mr. E - "Well I could have told you that! A pancake is always a pancake.
Now this cut deeply, y'all. A lot of shit was going on in this scene. First of all, racist ass Mr. E, who didn't do a fucking thing but tell Mrs. Perlman to box the mix is getting more money than Delilah and she created the fucking mix!!!!!! This bastard is getting 40% and so is Mrs. P. Now some may be thinking, why are you upset about that? That's the type of shit that went down back then. But that's just it, this is the type of shit that went down today and we are still suffering from it today. Today, whites are 8 times more wealthier than their black counterparts even when they earn identical salaries over the life of their careers. Never forgetting that we live in a capitalist society where the really important color is green!Then, Delilah damn near doesn't even want the crumbs that they are offering her. This immediately reminded me of Dr. Carter G. Woodson's The Miseducation of the Negro.
When you control a man's (person's)thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary."
Then this mutherfucka E says fucked up shit like a "pancake is always a pancake"!!! And it is so clear that he means "a nigger is always a nigger" or something degrading like that. I got sick to my stomach after watching this part.
C) Peola, Delilah's daughter, actually passes for white as a child while in elementary school and makes up her mind when she is very young that she wants to be white because she looks white. Her mother is convinced by Mrs. P that things will be better if Peola goes down south to a school especially for "high colored" negroes. Peola is so convinced that the life for her should be that of a white woman that she runs away from the school and tells her mother to basically act like she doesn't exist and let her pass for white.
This got me to thinking about a lot of shit too. Our society has been and remains really fucked up y'all. There are soooo many people of color that deep down inside really wish they were white. It is very sad when a group of people are elevated above everyone else in a society just because of their physical features, shit totally out of their control. This even got me to thinking about the black community and our issues with light skinned vs. dark skinned and good hair vs. nappy/bad hair. I'll do a more in-depth post on this issue some time really soon.
Basically, seeing this movie shook up a lot in me. I am not sure how I even feel about the 1959 version anymore. I guess it's a good thing when watching tv can cause one to think so much. If you've seen either one of these movies, I am interested in knowing other's thoughts.
D- Said It@ ::
12:08 PM ::
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