Is that he plays white Americans. Exactly what othr options he has, given our sensitivity toward white people playing non-white roles, I'm not sure. But Black NPR contributor Eric Deggans makes it clear that Hanks has sinned greatly by playing white American heroes, or movies that celebrate our racist nation's past without focusing on our nation's racist past. And then - horrors - Hanks went on to say we should do more to emphasize the Tulsa Race Massacre (because we don't spent enough time focusing on America's sins). Apparently that was too much for Black NPR contributor Eric Deggans to handle. He appreciated the gesture of filling those few extra hours in a day that don't focus on America's sins with more about America's sins. But he felt Hanks needed to be brought down for falling to realize his words are hollow as long as he seeks to find anything but bad in our nation's heritage.
Remember, you're either 100% obedient to the Left's latest dogmas, or you're 100% irredeemable deplorable, especially if you have the wrong gender, skin color, or other group identifier. Such is America, 2021. We've never been as close to the totalitarianism we saw in the last century as we are today. In addition, bigotry, prejudice and discrimination have suddenly become all the rage with a zeal that would shame hooded horsemen in the Jim Crow South.
Unlike the ills of the past, however, those institutions that once pushed to overcome such sins - journalism, education, arts and culture - are now firmly behind these developments. Joined with corporate interests and religious leaders who can always be counted on to invest in the latest golden calf, it turns out that saying racism is bad or we need to come together for equality are now subversive and racist ideas.
On the one hand, I understand the desire to bring out the darker side of American history. On the other hand, if it's not balanced, it will result in an equally unbalanced anti-American perspective. Should we talk more about the Tulsa race riots? Yes, but let's also talk about Calvin Coolidge and his attempts to make Lynching a federal crime. Should we talk more about slavery? Perhaps, but that should also include the role of Black and Arab slave traders. Should we talk more about America's war crimes against Indian tribes? Maybe, but let's also talk more about war crimes committed by One Indian tribe against another. Have we romanticized Christopher Columbus and tended to ignore his faults? I would say yes, but going to the opposite extreme and saying he was a genocidal Nazi isn't the way to fix that.
ReplyDeleteThe desire to bring out the darker side of American history is not nor has it ever been for balance in the narrative of history. It is a blatant attempt by the leftist to destroy whatever vestiges of greatness and belief in our nation and to demoralize it's citizens by instilling skepticism about everything we thought we knew about the United States and paving the way for communism to be installed in our country as a 'better and fairer' system of government where bad things no longer happen to minorities because the right kind white supremacists will now be in charge...you know...like Soros and Gates.
DeleteLike OC says, there is little about studying America's sins that has to do with studying America's sins. It's a very Christian thing to look at the sins of anything, as long as it's for the Christian reasons of repentance, forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation and unity. My parents had no problem loving America as a great country while complaining about how horribly American Indians were treated. But that's not what the Left's attack on America/The West has ever been about. It's about the destruction of America/The West.
DeleteYou may not be interested in the gleichschaltung, but the gleichschaltung is interested in you. God forbid popular entertainment be ... entertaining. Or that literature concern itself with the dramas and dilemmas of mundane life.
ReplyDeleteMost things today seem to serve the State. From little league soccer to the latest blockbuster. That alone should warn us that we've crossed a line somewhere.
DeleteTom Hanks is what passes for one of the few remaining "honest liberals" today. He is generally well spoken, not mean spirited and keeps his work and his opinions separate. Thus it is most appropriate that he is attacked by someone like Deggans in order to demonstrate just how far off the rails what used to be civil differences of opinion have come to. Possibly it will cause honest searchers for the truth to see what they are up against.
ReplyDeleteWe would like to think it will, but I still think many honest liberals are so beholden to the 'left good/right bad' template that they refuse to see the obvious.
DeletePerhaps it's the fear of knowing that their popularity and celebrity status was not a result of raw talent but a creation of Hollywood and by Hollywood they shall fall.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Hollywood in the last few decades (the Weinstein era) is a separate animal fro Hollywood at any other time. And much that is garbage has been elevated, and much that is good has been suppressed.
DeleteYou wanna dance ya gotta pay the fiddler..
ReplyDelete