The attacks on 'Precious' are starting to say more about the attackers

I agree that Reed seems to be fulminating against the wrong film (as several folks here have pointed out, “Blind Side” would have fit a lot more closely into his schematic). I wasn’t suggesting that HE was nuanced, necessarily — just that reading him helped motivate me to add some nuance (or at least some perspective) to my own thinking.

Reed was, in his characteristically confrontational way, echoing the sentiments of several well-known and respected African-American critics. In fact, I recently read a really scathing review from (I believe) a British critic, presumably white, who was harsher on the film than any African-American I’ve read, including Reed.

And his criticisms were pretty much those that Reed outlined, as well as some of the ones I tried to suggest above in my first post.
This writer also emphasized –rightly I believe — that the final message of the movie is therapeutic, rather than social or even redemptive: liberation comes from “feeling better about yourself,” not from achieving anything or doing anything concrete for the benefit of the world, or even the benefit of one’s own community.

Why are critics still probing Precioius for faults? How many mainstream movies have gotten Oscar nominations, they made you say…”what you talkin bout Willis?”

I was happy to see a movie that was true, gritty, raw with no holds barred. It’s better than watching a man dressed up like a woman prance around with a gun in her purse.

Thanks Owen for the article, I don’t know how reading can be a “white” thing. What is the world coming to. Sounds like the dude needs to retire and get his eyeglass prescription updated so he can see what’s really going on in the film. Some much, much, much older people, are still trapped in the seeded discrimination and don’t know they are.

AkaziaJ, I agree with you that Reed’s history of attacks on African-American women writers has been the most problematic element of his literary persona over the years. Of course, he’s right about the demonization of Black men that goes on in American culture, but to fault Black women writers for that is misguided, to say the least.

(Is Precious’s father portrayed as evil because he’s a Black man, or because he’s a sexually predatory man? I’d say that the latter is the case.)

It’s too bad, because I do admire much of his work, especially his invocation of the venerable Trickster myths as living elements of contemporary African-American cultural tropes. But again, his positive contributions have been irrevocably compromised by his attacks on women writers.

I’m no great fan of Oprah, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a subtext of his criticism of “Precious” is his resentment of her and/or Black women like her.

Last night I watched the movie Precious. I was moved to tears. This morning, I clicked through EW.com and saw this column and then read the NY Times op-ed. The only thing I could think of was if Mr. Reed actually WATCHED the film. Not just sit there in the theater, but WATCH it. Was he just angry because it had black character doing horrific things? Not once did I think, hm, ALL black men rape their daughters. I thought about my numerous friends who survived raped or incest. It not a movie that says incest is rampant in the black community (by the way- incest and rape are rampant in ALL communities); it’s a movie about giving a voice to the voiceless who have to SURVIVE what life gives them. Precious didn’t need to be redeemed, she needed to learn to survive. Thank you, Owen, maybe Mr. Reed needs to go back to school and learn something from the thousands of Preciouses trying to survive every day.

Can you describe the moment when you saw your child for the first time?

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