Ugh, I spent too much time trying to spell Mississippi right.
At any rate, I think it’s hilarious that people have never thought of non-white people being racist towards each other. This isn’t new in the slightest. I can’t speak for everybody, but I’m Korean. You would not believe what people say in Korean about everybody else, except Chinese people. I haven’t heard much dirt on Chinese people. Japanese people though, whew. Filipinos are game, same for Indonesians, as well as most people in SE Asia.
I think I mentioned in an earlier post already, something about white people being racist towards each other in Europe, and also in the States until eventually all the European people turned into white people.
I believe Aly mentioned an idea that she dubbed ‘localization,’ when a group of people in an area come together and form bonds, and also touched on the idea that this localization also separates the group from everybody else. What I probably should’ve told her is that she literally defined the general form of what we know as nationalism and ‘other-ing,’ to which I will also throw in the term ‘tribalism.’ What surprises me most is that it seems people never bothered to expand and explore the meaning of these terms in all their fullness, and without context (to white people). I’ll admit I’m a little disappointed in people.
I think several weeks ago, we talked about the (coagulation? There’s a co-word that means grouping together, and I don’t think it’s coagulation) of Asian people under the generic brand of ‘Asian,’ and the idea that this grouping-together can strengthen the power of the collective – however, when the common threat is diminished or defeated, there are instantly issues. In this film, the presence of white people is pretty minimal, the black folks and Indian folks coexist in their town, working together for the sake of business. However, when business can be diverted and there is a hierarchy of power, a single incident upturns the peace and a sort of economic war breaks out between the two racially divided groups. Yung Denzel is friggin lucky his car got hit in that accident, otherwise he’d have been screwed completely. I don’t remember who made the comment, but I believe Chico’s response was something like “So it was a tenuous relationship to begin with.”
COALITION
HAH
Ahem.
Also, fun movie. I’ve always liked Denzel. 8/10