Blackness Fears Constructive Criticism
This article that I am responding to here is part of a familiar pattern that is worth sketching out and observing, as it recurs over and over again in our society at this point. The pattern usually goes something like this:
Step 1: A black person does something that sparks dialogue. It might be something controversial, crass and vulgar (à la Beyoncé’s tasteless, narcissistic, solipsistic, self-promoting celebration of herself as some sort of African earth goddess), or it might be something interesting and engaging, such as the movie Moonlight (which, for the record, I saw and enjoyed), but either way, it’s something that puts the black person out there into the public realm.
Step 2: Some of the dialogue that ensues takes the form of constructive criticism by a person who happens to be white.
Step 3: Some thin-skinned, insecure black person (“black fragility”?) levels an irresponsible, overbroad accusation of racism that doesn’t even stop at the particular white person who was the source of the critique, but rather, sweeps in all white people or “white culture” or “whiteness,” whatever that is.
The goal, of course, is to chill all criticism of people who happen to be black by all people who happen to be white. Well, guess what: we live in a pluralistic, multi-racial society, and if you want to keep living in that society rather than in your own race-segregated bubble — and especially if you want to do or create things that are out there in the public eye — you have to be prepared for constructive criticism.
A film review is constructive criticism, and even though I disagree with much of the particular Camilla Long review that was discussed in the article, it was well within the bounds of a film review. It wasn’t some racist rant. Here are some of the downright stupid things that this article says apropos of the review:
- “[S]he kicks off by assuming that Moonlight’s audience will mostly be ‘straight, white, middle class’ people. What she means, of course, is that she thinks black people are too ignorant to want to watch a film about gay people. This insidious stereotype about what we will and won’t engage with has stopped created by and for us receiving the attention and funding it deserves.” Now, I saw the film in a theater in a diverse neighborhood in New York, a diverse, multi-racial city. And guess what? Much of the audience sure looked like “straight, white, middle class” people to me. So, before you start criticizing the reviewer’s comment as “racist” or trafficking in some “insidious stereotype,” why don’t you go research who’s actually seeing the film. Like, maybe she’s right?
- “By the end of paragraph one, Camilla has colonised a film that contains exactly zero white people, centred herself, and marginalised how black people — black queer people in particular — have connected with the film.” Yeah, I’m sure some “black queer people … have connected with the film,” but how exactly has Camilla Long “colonised” the film? How do you colonize a film? What exactly does this mean? That a white reviewer has dared to review a film that contains no white people? Would you rather that white reviewers simply have ignored the film? Or are they only allowed to review it if they’re going to be celebrating it uncriticallly?
- “Her first gripe with Moonlight is that it ‘barely has 10 minutes of plot,’ which completely misses the point that guides Moonlight: black queer lives are shaped by the intersecting oppressions that haunt our identities.” I mean, personally, I take issue with Ms. Long’s “barely has 10 minutes of plot” point simply because some of my favorite films barely have 10 minutes of plot. I don’t see why this is any sort of legitimate criticism unless you have the patience of a 10-year-old. Some films are plot-driven and others aren’t, and that’s okay. But what does any of this have to do with “black queer lives” being “shaped by intersecting oppressions”? It seems like the brain of this author has been intersected one time too many and those intersections have oppressed his logic out of existence.
- The author then complains about Long’s view that Moonlight “present[s] such an awful, one-note picture of the African American community’s attitude to gay sex.” Now, again, I completely disagree with Long’s review. In my view, Barry Jenkins, Moonlight’s director, was exploring stereotypes but also challenging them and doing so in an interesting way. But, again, how is any of this racist? If anything, Long here seems to be challenging the film to be less racist and stereotypical. Even if she is wrong in her critique, she is, at worst, simply misreading the film.
I could go on like this, but the point has been made sufficiently for my purpose, which is this: we need to stop the ludicrous race-baiting. It’s time to grow up. Growing up means accepting constructive criticism and responding to it in the same spirit, i.e., constructively, rather than leveling knee-jerk defensive, angry charges at the critic or, worse, at a whole race of people.
I titled my response “Blackness Fears Constructive Criticism” to make a point. Such titles and such ideas are racist, and they’re no less racist when they talk about “whiteness” rather than “blackness.” We need to move away from these kinds of pernicious labels and generalizations, regardless of the direction in which they go. Anti-white racism isn’t going to make anti-black racism any better. To quote Einstein, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” What that means, as I’ve argued here, is that if we want to get beyond racism, we need to get beyond race.
