.
I was talking to a friend the other day about the horror that was Transformers 2 came up. Of course we talked about the coon fest the was Skids and Mudflap and he pointed out to me a fact that I’d forgotten – one of those two illiterate morons changed into a monkey.
A monkey?
Combine that with the gold tooth of the other one and it really begs the question, “What the hell was Michael Bay thinking?”
Combine that tomfoolery with the first Transformers’ Jazz who introduces himself with break dancing move and a “What’s up lil’ Bitches,” (not to mention he was the only Autobot to die), as well as the coonery that was Bernie Mac and Anthony Anderson and it seriously makes you wonder whether Michael bay has some serious black people issues.
Oaky, I’m not really wondering…I’m just trying to figure out how tone def do you have to be to put this type of derogatory, stereotypical imagery in your films and then defend it when someone calls you on it and you have to wonder what decade this fool thinks he’s living in.
Obviously Michael Bay films aren’t the only ones who engage in this type of screen racism.
2008’s Fool’s Gold and 2005’s The 40 year Old Virgin come to mind when I think of other films that protrayed some of the worst stereotypes of black folks in their attempt at humor, Bay however is the most recent offender as well as being a repeat one.
I”m not naive enough to beleive that racism has left Hollywood. The slew of black films that have non-black writers is proof of that, but for such huge movies, that in the past just cast their films as black folks didn’t exist, to engage in such blatant racial stereotypes tells me that we’re not making any progress in Hollywood, but going backwards…way back…at a break neck pace.
I’m not sure what a “solution” to this would be.
Obviously boycotting Michael Bay movies is shortsighted.
Going after advertisers and studios might make more sense.
Offering alternatives to such crap is ideal, but difficult.
In the end a dialogue definitely needs to be had because these images are definitely damaging, offensive and way beyond problematic. I just wish more black actors/writers/directors would stand up and say something about this blatant display of racist stereotypes, but I know too many of them are trying to secure their next role to ruffle anyone’s feathers.
A black man was one of the voices of coon one and coon two after all
