Many people were upset at the movie Django because of its’ comical and gross depiction of slavery and the loose use of the N-word by white actors in the movie. I personally feel that anytime the depiction of such gruesome acts that were done in the past can be publicly displayed, I believe it does some good. There are the debates that say, “let bygones be bygones, slavery is over and let’s pick up and move forward.” This I disagree with. We must remember the past and show what happened accurately and at times artistically so that people get the imagery in their mind and don’t let it go.

Django is a movie starred by black actor Jamie Foxx, the movie was directed by sometimes controversial director, Quentin Tarantino (a white man). Tarantino is known for pushing the buttons, and going the extra mile for entertainment’s sake and normally gets a reaction from his viewers, and definitely from his critics.

Django Unchained Rundown of Black History

 

Tarantino’s movie displayed plenty little known black history facts, in that people seldom or rarely hear of the free black cowboys during those times. People rarely hear of revolting warrior-type slaves, except for a rare few such as Nat Turner. Slaves are all thought to be little submissive boys and girls who cringe at the sight of their slave master.

In the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio’s role, Calvin Candie had a lot going on within his plantation that is not common knowledge (at least it was not to me). First off, he was running a business where he allowed black male slaves to fight each other to the death of one, and if his was the winner, they received a night of rest, a slave gal to get cozy with, and a beer.

Today, we jail people who fight chickens and dogs. Candie was laying with many of the young black slave girls (well this was and is commonly known but is attempted to be hush-hush material). Candie’s house -ni%&a, Stephen, played by Samuel L. Jackson was ideally running his plantation. Stephen was a long time slave of Candie’s father, and was seen writing the checks, and making sure the plantation was in order.

Many things today are hidden from blacks because it would bring awareness. DiCaprio’s character asked in the movie, why didn’t the black slaves ever revolt and simply kill their master. The character, Candie, said he would have done so, and it would not have taken 50 years. There was a high level of fear put on the slaves, and the higher reasons to all of our black history questions are covered in The Dark Side of Black History.

 

Koko Ishe