Photographed by Breanne Estelle in a farmhouse in New York
I have watched more movies in college classrooms then I have in my life put together. I used to tell people I was Amish when they took a sharp breath in when I confessed I did not understand the thousand movie references they were building our conversation on. This means the way I am comfortable watching movies is watching them with a very critical eye, then talking about all the messed up social dynamics and racism in the movie.
This past weekend was my friends birthday and since we are a big group of adults, the only logical thing to do is to make blanket forts and eat pizza bites and watch movies all night. The first movie we watched was Fantastic Mr. Fox. Not only was this movie highly patriarchal, there was a comment after a fight and death of a rat when they were doing a funeral service “Redemption? Sure. But in the end, he’s just another dead rat in a garbage pail behind a Chinese restaurant.”
Because this movie was for the most part animals and all the humans were white, I was taken aback to hear that comment as the only blatant talk about race. People watching this movie may argue that it doesn’t matter because all restaurants probably have to throw out rats at some point, this line is very significant and it stings. America isn’t known for talking openly about race and what that means for people’s identity, so if those conversations aren’t happening in the home, they are just avoided altogether. Therefore, this comment signifies in people’s mind that Chinese restaurants are more dirty and unclean compared to white owned food places.
This comment also strikes a chord because this week I read the book Chinese Born American by Gene Luen Yang, for my Children’s Literature class I am taking. Even though I understand this book is about becoming white washed then realizing that it is better to accept who you are, there was so much racist stuff that went down with relationships and other students.
Also, learning about the Chinese Reconciliation Park and seeing the exhibit by Zhi LIN add layers and layers to the way I am thinking about the history of Chinese people in America and how Chinese Americans have been treated and what they have to go through now.