On black folks and the movie “Precious”

From the Los Angeles Times piece Black viewers are divided on film’s ‘Precious’-ness by Erin Aubry Kaplan.

Verdicts about high-pitched movies from black viewers and public figures are usually swift and decisive — “Do the Right Thing,” “The Color Purple,” and the recent Robert Downey Jr. performance in “Tropic Thunder” come to mind. But that’s not what happened this time out. That’s partly because the embrace of “Precious” by the white film establishment has been a bit disorienting for black folk, even off-putting. But it’s also because the tough stuff in “Precious,” whether you like the movie or not, is striking chords of recognition for many black people that are making them not angry or enthusiastic, but uncertain. That’s new territory.

Black folks want to see more representations of “us” on screen. The question is, which “us” gets to be most visible? Also from the piece:

Nonetheless, Wright decries the movie for its lack of what he calls “achiever values.” And here we get into the thorny issue of class. For black people that means not solely money and education, but a concern about how we are being represented in public. How blacks are represented in movies always galvanizes such concern, and “Precious” is no exception.

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Also see: To Blacks, Precious Is ‘Demeaned’ or ‘Angelic’ from the New York Times (log-in may be required)