August 21, 2013

"The Butler"

From my movie review in Taki's Magazine:
The hit movie Lee Daniels’ The Butler, staring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, takes us back to the bad old days when blacks worked in the White House rather than lived there. 
Strange as it may seem now, in an America where Hispanics and Filipinos fill ever more of America’s servile jobs, African Americans were once employed across the land in vast numbers as trusted domestic servants. With the coming of the Black Pride movement in the late 1960s, however, blacks began to see service work as neo-slavery and an insult to their masculine dignity. 
Meanwhile, well-to-do whites, alarmed by the rising rates of crime and surliness among blacks, were happy to be handed a politically correct excuse to stop hiring uppity African Americans ...

Read the whole thing there.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Robin Williams as Eisenhower?

Wow.

Anonymous said...

How about Tyler Perry's The Butler starring Oprah Winfrey as Medea? Sounds like fun, no?

Anonymous said...

Robin Williams as Eisenhower? Wow.

Yeah, it's not like there are any balding, late-middle-aged, ridiculously over-qualified thespians out there, twiddling their thumbs, treading water, hoping for the next big part, who would jump at the offer, and who just so happen to be Republicans themselves.

Like, say, KELSEY GRAMMER, or FRED THOMPSON.

PS: I'll cross-post to the next thread.

Anonymous said...

Almost comically, the mocvie's black gay director Lee Daniels thanks that America is even more racist with Obama as president:
http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2013/08/19/the-team-from-lee-daniels-the-butler-talks-race-in-america/

Mr. Anon said...

"Strange as it may seem now, in an America where Hispanics and Filipinos fill ever more of America’s servile jobs, African Americans were once employed across the land in vast numbers as trusted domestic servants."

Whereas now, whites no longer trust blacks to perform that function.

Mr. Anon said...

The title of the movie is listed as "Lee Daniel's The Butler". "Lawrence of Arabia" wasn't known as "David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia". This Daniel fellow must have a mile-wide ego.

I guess plenty of liberal white women will rush off to see this grievance-mongering crap, but I have no interest in it. Another "poor, poor put-upon black man kept down by the man" movie. They're wearing a little thin after the first fifty years.

Londoner said...

Hey, we can let a little fictitious slave-rape-murder slide, can't we? I mean, we've got the lynchings of millions of blacks to atone for, so if it takes a bit of 'truthy' filmmaking to help move the Honest Conversation About Race along, then so be it.

Anonymous said...

Steve is like a foreign correspondent filing reports from Mainstream World. Very few regular readers of this blog will see The Butler, but now we have some idea of what's in it.

Paul Mendez said...

When it comes to race, liberals are ever more living in the past—as seen in recent fiascos such as Trayvon, the Oberlin KKK blanket, and Marco McMillian. That’s because whipping up fear and loathing of white conservatives is the only thing that keeps the diverse Obama coalition from splintering into ethnic camps warring over spoils.

My take is more psychological than political.

IMHO, As liberal Baby Boomers come to terms with their impending mortality, they will become increasingly obsessed with race simply because the Civil Rights Movement is the only thing in their lives they can look back upon and feel the slightest sense of accomplishment about.

The Baby Boomers never won a war or built an interstate highway system or put a man on the Moon or eliminated a major disease. Unlike their parents, most Baby Boomers have accumulated little or no personal wealth to show for a lifetime of work. The cultural achievements of their parents and grandparents will be appreciated long after the world has forgotten silk-screened soup cans and the mud of Woodstock.

Rather, the Baby Boomers have ruined just about everything they touched. Thanks to them, a college degree is worthless, the economy is based on theft, sex can kill you, and bastard children are the norm. Speaking of bastard children, the Baby Boomers surely can't feel proud of their brood of infantilized, narcissistic, lazy and aimless tattooed freaks who are so useless that employers would rather import uneducated Third World peasants than hire them.

As the Boomers slip into senility, EVERY day will eventually be March 7, 1965 an that bridge in Selma. Their last tattered memories will be that of braving fire hoses, snarling police dogs and clouds of teargas to save Negro children from evil Jim Crow.

Anonymous said...

That fictitious libel of white men raping black women really needs to be taken to task strongly and once and for all. It's just a lie and a damned, wicked, barefaced and outrageous lie at that.

Every year, official US crime statistics consistentally show that there are *zero* rapes in the USA perpetrated by 'white' men, (knowing the authorities they probably conflate 'white' here with other ethnicities to skew data the way they want), against black women. Yes you read correctly, zero. Year in year out white Americans commit zero rapes against black women. A trend that strong can only mean that it has persisted for a very long time. You might take issue and try to make pettyfogging distinctions as to whether 'statistical zero'really means one or two or ten, but any way you look at it and considering that there are around 80 million or so sexually capable white males in the USA, it is remarkable.
Such a strong pattern can only mean that white men have an inherent distinct 'lack of interest' in back women.

Whiskey said...

Strong was "Jonathon" on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So you can blame Joss Whedon indirectly for the Butler.

The default value of Whites is to worship Blacks. As Blacks got more lumpenproletariat and violent and aggressive and threatening, Whites worshiped them more and more. In fact, can't get enough of them -- the Butler was number one at the box office last weekend. Whites LOVE LOVE LOVE Blacks at their angriest and most threatening.

Just at one step removed, physically. On TV, in movies, etc. See Michael Moore's fantasy of an all Black Flight 93 on 9/11.

And that violence has been VERY VERY VERY successful for Blacks. Blacks are not going to compete with Whites, let alone Asians for cognitive jobs such as engineers, architects, skilled craftsmen, plumbers, electricians, etc. Stuff that cannot be easily outsourced cheaper in China.

So being violent and extorting welfare payments has been quite successful. And I would take issue that KKKrazy Glue holds the Obama coalition together.

Rather, it is innate hatred of White guys and their capacity to produce massive social change that is disruptive through technology.

The Obama coalition is White women, gays, Blacks, Hispanics, and upper class Whites yelling STOP! to technological change driven by Joe Average White guy that threatens the gravy train. So it is very, very coherent and strong.

Anonymous said...

Danny Strong is the worst, and I say that as someone who shares most of his political views and enjoyed his performance as the nerd/weenie Jonathan on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His big breakthrough HBO movie about the 2000 Florida recount was just tedious, and Game Change managed to focus on the least interesting thing about the 2008 election, when all the drama was in the Hillary vs. Obama knife fight and the self-immolation of John Edwards. The dude is basically Aaron Sorkin without Sorkin's knack for writing crackling dialogue.

slumber_j said...

Delighted that you mentioned Whitaker's scene in The Color of Money. It's one of my favorite short bits of screen acting.

ipcomma said...

Ran into a Filipino cop in S.F. the other day. He'd obviously taken some lessons from blacks in how not to be servile.

Anonymous said...

To be sure, masters took sexual advantage of their slaves more often than they should have. However, actual outright rape was very uncommon. If you were a slavegirl spending time in your master's bedchamber was far preferable to having to actually work.

smartandwise said...

Steve Sailer writes:

Oprah is terrific, by far the most entertaining aspect of The Butler.

Steve, I couldn't agree more. She brought that character to life and her performance was so moving, I completely overlooked the film's flaws.

smartandwise said...

That fictitious libel of white men raping black women really needs to be taken to task strongly and once and for all. It's just a lie and a damned, wicked, barefaced and outrageous lie at that.

In fairness, the African American woman who is raped in the film is played by Mariah Carey, who has too much white ancestry to be considered black by any objective definition. By having the white guy pick the one "white" African American to rape instead of one of the many black ones, the film acknowledges your point about white on black rape being rare.

Anonymous said...

The Obama coalition is White women, gays, Blacks, Hispanics, and upper class Whites yelling STOP! to technological change driven by Joe Average White guy that threatens the gravy train. So it is very, very coherent and strong.

Gosh.

Gee whiz.

Ya know, I can't quite put my finger on it, but I just have the strangest feeling that a certain very prominent ethnic group is missing from that list.

Huh.

I dunno, maybe it's just my imagination playing tricks on me.

Who knows?

Didn't get much sleep last night.

Anyway, back to work.

TTYL.

Paul Mendez said...

Such a strong pattern can only mean that white men have an inherent distinct 'lack of interest' in back women.

Maybe. Or maybe it means white men don't need to resort to violence to satisfy their taste for brown sugar when $100 is all it takes.

Anonymous said...

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/21/camille_paglia_it_remains_baffling_how_anyone_would_think_that_hillary_clinton_is_our_party%E2%80%99s_best_chance/

Anonymous said...

IMHO, As liberal Baby Boomers come to terms with their impending mortality, they will become increasingly obsessed with race simply because the Civil Rights Movement is the only thing in their lives they can look back upon and feel the slightest sense of accomplishment about.

Amen to that.

And (white) Baby Boomers on the whole hated both their (white) parents and their (white) children. Many of them see ethnic minorities as their "spiritual" children, and prefer them to their real children. Add that that Baby Boomers being stuck in 1965, they see minorities as underprivileged as they were back then.

The problem may have began with the so-called Greatest Generation hating their kids, the Boomers, in grand Victorian style. The Boomers hated them back, and mixed in race. Whatever their other faults: Generations X, Y, and Z do happen to love their children.

Anonymous said...

And (white) Baby Boomers on the whole hated both their (white) parents and their (white) children. Many of them see ethnic minorities as their "spiritual" children, and prefer them to their real children. Add that that Baby Boomers being stuck in 1965, they see minorities as underprivileged as they were back then.

And what do those same Boomers think about their spirital children murdering ol' Greatest Generation Grandpa Whitey?

WWII vet, beaten by teens outside Eagles Lodge, dies
Published On: Aug 22 2013 07:53:50 AM PDT
Updated On: Aug 22 2013 04:05:48 PM PDT
kxly.com

SPOKANE, Wash. - WWII veteran Delbert Belton survived being wounded in action during the Battle of Okinawa only to be beaten and left for dead by two teens at the Eagles Lodge in Spokane on Wednesday evening.

Belton, 89, died from the injuries he suffered in the beating Thursday morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center...

Spokane police are looking for two male suspects in the attack. They said the suspects are African Americans between 16 and 19 years old...