This summer, the new Ghostbusters reboot will hit theaters nationwide, and it will feature an all-female cast starring Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones.
Before the trailer came out, many fanboys were mad over the fact that the reboot featured an all-female cast. These people are clearly sexist and not worth wasting the time to argue with.
Here’s the trailer via YouTube; I’ll share my thoughts on it below.
In the trailer, many felt that Jones’ character was nothing more than a traditional sassy black mammy stereotype, one which Hollywood has unapologetically perpetuated onto audiences for generations. Jones’ character seemed like a diversity afterthought.
The trailer also let the audience know upfront that she wasn’t as smart as the other Ghostbusters. Jones’ character’s stereotypical behavior was so blatant, I started to wonder if the movie was a spoof comedy, like Airplane, Blazing Saddles, or Ten Thousand Ways To Die In The West. I thought maybe this was a movie that wasn’t meant to be taken seriously at all.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the producers were going in that direction. Which is too bad, because I believe it would have made it a much better movie. So here is one perspective on the film from Dr. Boyce Watkins, a very influential voice in the Black Social Consciousness movement.
Now I can just imagine how many eyes were rolling while he went into the so-called “blame Whitey” diatribe that so many people would stamp on what he said.
Of course, Watkins is unapolgetically not a friend to the idea of liberal racial harmony; he’s more of a “don’t trust whites, but don’t hate them either” type of person.
In the video, he also argues for reparations, a word that causes instant tension when mentioned at most Republican gatherings, and even some Democratic ones as well.
On the other side, you have this guy. Meet the Donald Trump cheering, F the world, white heavy metal dude who loves “keeping it real” about political correctness and how people need to stop being little pussies when it comes to taking offense to everything that doesn’t bother him.
At the end of the day, you may fall into either camp, or neither. But I found these two extreme polar opposite perspectives interesting. Personally, I’m more inclined to lean more toward Dr. Watkins’ point of view than that of Mr. AlphaOmegaSin. But both men expressed things I can relate to on some level.
Featured image screengrab via YouTube.
