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I was very young when I saw the movie, and felt it was a metaphor for certain parts of our society. I was a little older when I read the book and it made me think of Martin and Malcolm. I didn't know until a few years ago that a black man wrote it. It made me sooooo angry that they had a white man play the part in that masterpiece. I guess there are good arguments for and against, but what I really want to say is I am SO sick of the race thing.
For a long while I just refused to believe racism, to any measurable extent, was still at work in America, because nowhere in my experience could I find it, but friends from other parts of the country insisted I was dreaming, that it was alive and well all over the country, telling me ugly story after ugly story after ugly story to convince me the country was NOT as progressive as Northern California. So I caved, but I may be on the verge of going back to my former position on the matter because I am beginning to think the whole business is a manufactured-by-the-fascist-media bullshit wedge issue, generated on purpose to keep everybody frightened and confused and resentful.
I just DON'T believe it. People don't want to hate each other. People don't want to kill each other. They have to have some sort of environmental conditioning to get them there. We're being played. We've always been being played.
We can stop playing.
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Huh?? I think you many be getting Black Like Me mixed up with Invisible Man. Black Like Me was written by a white guy, John Howard Griffen.
ReplyDeleteOh, yer so hopelessly literal! I have been naming certain posts relating to black issues "black like me" for a while now. I fancied it up here. THIS wasn't about a literary reference. It was just me expressing my solidarity.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Ellison's book had been made into a movie.
ReplyDeleteAnd there was a Black Like Me movie in 1964, which fits with you seeing it when young.
ReplyDeleteWell I think I'm beginning to get to actuality from childhood assumptions again... like the famous "shooting star" one. I think the movie was from an HG Wells novella and the book by Ellison was NOT the same one. Now I'm trying to figure out if what I read was HG Wells or Ellison. I'm trying to remember now if I was THINKING it was a metaphor for the lives of black people, or if it was straight out about the lives of black people and I just got mad because a white guy played the protagonist in the movie... that was not based on Ellison... or if I got mad LATER when I found out Ellison was black... or what.
ReplyDeleteIt is NOT optimal I should have to think about this on a day when my marbles have gone missing... AND my eyes.
And I don't think I ever saw or read "Black Like Me". I just always resonated with the term. I was a HUGE fan of Martin and Malcolm and Angela in my youth. I have for my whole life started crying when even THINKING of racial injustice... especially against blacks... but everyone. I totally FREAKED when my mother found my crush on Harry Belafonte so unacceptable. I was only three or four, and I didn't see ANYTHING different or wrong with him. It didn't get better after that.
ReplyDeleteto add to the confusion. Black Like Me was written by a man named Griffin, which was the name of the title character in Wells' story. :)
ReplyDelete