I haven’t seen the Oscar-nominated Django Unchained yet, although I plan to do so very soon. Reggie Hudlin, an East St. Louis native and Harvard-educated producer of the film, is my primary motivation for doing so.
I’ve always supported homeboy in his other endeavors, from House Party to Boomerang, The Great White Hype and The Ladies Man, as well as his collaborations with Aaron McGruder of The Boondocks fame.
I even plan to discuss Django at some point on my radio show, but not before I’ve had the benefit of viewing and critiquing it for myself.
St. Louis American writer Kenya Vaughn, in her review, was critical of the films’ use of the N-word, something that Django director Quentin Tarantino seems fixated upon in many of his films. I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve seen the film.
However, even without seeing the film, I am acutely offended by a story recently released by abcnews.go.com announcing that a collection of Django Unchained action figure dolls are being sold through Amazon.
The collection includes figures of Jamie Foxx’s Django, a freed slave-turned bounty-hunter and his on-screen wife Broomhilda, played by Kerry Washington, and figures for the Mississippi plantation owner, played by Leonard DiCaprio, and house Negro Stephen played by Samuel L. Jackson.
Let’s start with the audacity of whoever decided that the trivialization of slavery with “action figures” was appropriate. That is absurd. In fact, Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network has already called for a boycott of the dolls, and rightfully so.
Action figures, back in the day, like GI Joe, Captain Action, Johnny West, etc., were designed for children, through their play, to imagine themselves as soldiers, superheroes or cowboys.
What, then, will children envision as they play with the Django action figures? Who will be “Da Massa” and who will be the slave? And why is playing Massa versus slave fun? The questions are just as ridiculous as the concept of Django action figures.
Can you imagine, for one minute, the Jewish community embracing, tolerating or purchasing Holocaust action figures which trivialize their oppression by the Nazi’s? It will never happen, because the Jewish community is sophisticated enough to understand the impact of negative imagery upon the perception of their community by others.
And the African-American community must get to a point where there is zero tolerance for the proliferation of negative imagery, whether it’s Django action figures, comedic buffoonery, “reality TV” lunacy or whatever debases the African-American image in an age of America’s first African-American President.
I’m happy for brother Reggie Hudlin, but I’m saddened that Hollywood’s definition of Oscar success for blacks continues to be Driving Miss Daisy, The Help and now Django.
If you like my column, then you will love my radio show on WGNU-920am every Sunday from 4-5 pm. Please tune-in and call-in. I love to hear from my St. Louis American readers.
