And so...I was on netflix this weekend and wanted to find a certain movie, but didn't remember the title so I looked up African-American movies. As I'm scanning over the movie for descriptions, I realize that most of these movies are leaving Feb 29th. What the WHAT? Did Netflix just pull one over us for Black History Month? They only got movies on there for Black people for Black History Month....(it's not true, you militants, I'm just trying to make a point.) So I decided right then and there...that I would take one for the team and watch every single Black movie on there I haven't seen.
So I was watching Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and I found myself getting angry at this ignorant little white girl and this Black man who knew better, to get married interacially in the 60s, have you lost your minds?? I was shouting at the White parents to tell them to wait 6 months and see how you feel and other things your parents try to tell you when you are making a mistake. Wait, what....it been 50 years since this movie came out....either this movie was futuristic progressive, or I'm a backwards thinker. OR maybe I'm just a planner. This movie made no sense to me and if tears came up in Katharine Hepburn's eyes one time, I was going to throw my laptop. It made the women seem like dreamers and romance chasers, the men as rational human beings, who can't bear to break their children's hearts, when that jerk (Poiter's character) set it up, so he could slide out if he needed too. Which is why I love what the White Dad said at the end.(*No spoiler alert). And then it ended, boom.
So this got me thinking about Sidney Poiter, amazing man with an amazing career. So I googled him. AMAZING GUY, but that's not what caught my eye. It was the play and movie, 6 Degrees of Separation, loosely based on a guy who said he was Sidney Poiter's son and got into a lot of people's houses and lives just from that. The author was amazed at the power of just his name was for people to trust this guy and open up his home to them.
So that got me thinking about one of my favorite quotes is from this movie. I actually made my mom sit with me and watch 6 Degrees of Separation with me. It is a looooonng movie. And my mom hates what she calls "rhetoric" when the whole movie is about talking and no one actually does anything. BUT Will Smith's character at one point has to explain/apologize about why he snuck a male prostitute into the room, he was staying at with hospitable strangers.
He said, "I was so happy I wanted to add sex to it. Don't you do that?"
But then when you think about it you do. So they find themselves wondering are they angry because he is sleeping with a man? Or because he picked up a prostitute? Or because he brought him to their house? Or is what he said logical? Would they have been mad if it was a woman?
And then I went back to Guess Who is Coming to Dinner and I realized the argument is the same. Are they angry because they are interracial? Because they are rushing into marriage? Because they are not thinking about or planning their futures? Because he is so DANG old for her (he was 37, she was 23.) Or would all of this being ok if they were with their own races?
And then I stopped thinking about it, turned off Netflix, rubbed my head, because all this 6 degrees from Sidney Poiter is confusing... (And did I mentioned he married a White women in real life? Did it feel just like the movie? Was it deja vu? Did he do the same thing?)
AND END THOUGHT.
PS I started this blog so many times. It was first going to be about my night last night, about my friend for 9 + years and how we have more adventures than Ramona Quimby and Amelia Bedelia combined. But I couldn't tell any of the stories...all of them made us sound crazy. Then I wanted to write about having sex when you are happy based from that quote, but I can't do that...too private info. So then I just got tired and half a$$ed it. I'm sorry. I got you next time!
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