they make different points, yes. and they are both valid. in fact, they overlap. it's what's called dovetailing. Lennix didn't just see the trailers; he READ THE SCRIPT. At least as far as he could stomach.
i do not agree that those who went-on-to-get-along have equal footing with those who faced the dogs and the bullets. because they do not.
black folks need to wake up about a LOT of what's going on in this nation both in the present and in the future. movies like this are about keeping them asleep. Because they presents a FALSE, subservient picture of reality that has nothing to do with what actually occurred. and they feed the "soft racism" that created stop-and-frisk and every glass ceiling on which people bump their heads.
WILL they wake up?
Nope. I'm betting not.
Ultimately, as the numbers seem to show, I and those like me are in the minority on this. This makes me sad because a lot of folks are drinking the kool-aid.
But just because they're all committing suicide, there's no rule that says I have to. Certainly not because we're all black.
... Few people 'go along to get along' in the film - maybe the Terence Howard character.
... On what's going on, there is a difference between fighting symptoms and fighting causes - but both are important. That's a major theme in the film.
... On soft racism, I need a little clarification on this point. Every form of racism I've felt has been hard -- not always violent, but never soft. Having smashed more than a few glass ceilings, my approach to G.W. Bush's idea of "soft bigotry of low expectations" is that it is a rhetorical point that betrays the CCC agenda and the failings of small government conservatism more than most phrases.
... Again, my invitation to help wake people stands.
... Phrases like 'drinking kool-aid' and 'commit suicide' rightly imply the dire situation many currently face, but they also communicate a contempt for those who might differ in terms of tactics, not strategy. My business is building bridges, so I try to avoid that language.
You and I disagree on the role and value of a film like LDTB. Hopefully, that disagreement is not cause to equate Stephen from Django with Cecil Gaines in LDTB.
Worse, it should not cause either of us to avoid discussing films like "10,000 Black Men named George" or "Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property", which address similar topics of historical fiction and representations of black workers in terms of their civil rights work. Even "The Great Debaters" touches on this topic through Forest Whitaker's performance as Dr. James Farmer, Sr.