Keeping Mary Frances Berry’s words in mind on how the left uses racism as a weapon, I notice the latest fake outcry over Glenn Beck comparing Obama’s America to The Planet of the Apes. Low hanging fruit that can be easily misinterpreted when taken out of context? Yep. But Glenn Beck is a racist (or so says the script). So he must have been suggesting that Obama was Caesar (those familiar with the film series know who I am talking about).
It may come to a surprise to many that when the Planet of the Apes series came out back in the day, Hollywood actually thought that they were doing Black folks a favor by pattering the movie “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” after the civil rights movement and the riots of ’65. Check out the following clip.
“Planet of the Apes is bursting with racial tension. It’s a theme that gains resonance throughout the four sequels. In Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, human society uses apes as slaves, training them as waiters, janitors and messengers. Their eventual rebellion is self-consciously based on the Los Angeles Watts riots of 1965 in which African-American protest escalated into a full-scale battle with police.” (source)
“Conquest is primarily concerned with the status of blacks in the United States and with the nature of the black struggle for liberation. This concern, implicit in the previous films, is here made explicit. One of the earliest indications of this shift is the presence and function of a large number of both major and minor black characters. ”
[...]
“African-Americans here (in Conquest) have an increased quantitative presence and increased qualitative importance. African-Americans are visible throughout the film; they are shifted to the center of the conflict and are now visually, narratively, and thematically indispensable. This central placement of the black American in both Conquest and Battle was used to indicate the centrality of racial conflict, most specifically black-white conflict, to the later part of the Apes series.
Anybody who has seen the documentary for The Planet of the Apes will remember the part when one of the producers of the film said that they actually pre-screened the film in theaters in Black communities in the LA area before releasing it nationwide. According to him (I have to find the documentary again to get guy’s name), the film was very well received with Black folks standing up and cheering.
Nobody wants to remember that. Nobody wants to remember how in those times Black kids had no problem with toting Planet of the Apes lunch boxes to school or dressing up as one of the apes from the film for Halloween. Those of us who were around in those days and are willing to admit it know this is true.
I confronted one of the main columnist of a well known Black media site on Facebook and challenged her to get off of the FoxNews hatefest and tell the whole story about how we as Blacks had very little problem with the film. She deleted my comment.
Glenn Beck is gonna be Glenn Beck. So this is hardly an attempt to defend him. Those who want to reduce it to that I leave that up to you. Instead, I wish the over/fake – sensitive members of the peanut gallery would just take the time and read a book. Because if they did, they would see that the previous generations were too busy fighting real racism instead of trying to find it in clips and excerpts.
Short & Selective Memories
by Duane on August 10th, 2010 at 8:24 amKeeping Mary Frances Berry’s words in mind on how the left uses racism as a weapon, I notice the latest fake outcry over Glenn Beck comparing Obama’s America to The Planet of the Apes. Low hanging fruit that can be easily misinterpreted when taken out of context? Yep. But Glenn Beck is a racist (or so says the script). So he must have been suggesting that Obama was Caesar (those familiar with the film series know who I am talking about).
It may come to a surprise to many that when the Planet of the Apes series came out back in the day, Hollywood actually thought that they were doing Black folks a favor by pattering the movie “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” after the civil rights movement and the riots of ’65. Check out the following clip.
And this from the book “Planet of the apes as American myth: race, politics, and popular culture” By Eric Greene, Richard Slotkin
Anybody who has seen the documentary for The Planet of the Apes will remember the part when one of the producers of the film said that they actually pre-screened the film in theaters in Black communities in the LA area before releasing it nationwide. According to him (I have to find the documentary again to get guy’s name), the film was very well received with Black folks standing up and cheering.
Nobody wants to remember that. Nobody wants to remember how in those times Black kids had no problem with toting Planet of the Apes lunch boxes to school or dressing up as one of the apes from the film for Halloween. Those of us who were around in those days and are willing to admit it know this is true.
I confronted one of the main columnist of a well known Black media site on Facebook and challenged her to get off of the FoxNews hatefest and tell the whole story about how we as Blacks had very little problem with the film. She deleted my comment.
Glenn Beck is gonna be Glenn Beck. So this is hardly an attempt to defend him. Those who want to reduce it to that I leave that up to you. Instead, I wish the over/fake – sensitive members of the peanut gallery would just take the time and read a book. Because if they did, they would see that the previous generations were too busy fighting real racism instead of trying to find it in clips and excerpts.