DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Django Dolls & Valuing Others
© NaimaLett.com/blog
© Django Unchained action figures
“Anything to make a buck!”
T’was my first thought when I saw the news re: Django Unchained dolls.
“Wow…”
T’was my second.
Anybody else stunned? disturbed? speechless?
All of the above?
No Stranger to Controversy
Django Unchained, director Quentin Tarantino’s latest blockbuster, is no stranger to controversy. It’s been a hotbed of discussion since its December release.
Tarantino’s supporters back the director who defended his work by saying he made an entertaining western and that slavery was worse than what he depicted, “The truth, or the reality, was a thousand times worse than what I showed.”
Many agree with acclaimed film director Spike Lee who refused to see Django and tweeted, “American slavery was not a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It was a holocaust. My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will honor them.”
Feel free to check out my reaction in one of my film blogs, Django Unchained: Blame Game?
The same controversy spills over into folks’ feelings about the creation of a doll line.
What’s the big deal?
If you’re asking, “Isn’t this just entertainment? They’re dolls. What’s the big deal?”, Rev. K.W. Tulloss, Pastor and CEO of the Making a Difference Foundation and Activist Najee Ali from Project Islamic Hope reportedly put it like this in L.A. on Tuesday:
Tulloss: “Selling this doll is highly offensive to our ancestors and the African American community.”
Ali: “I don’t see any dolls representing Hitler that came from Tarantino’s (Holocaust movie Inglourious Basterds)…I don’t see them making dolls of Holocaust survivors who are bald and starving in concentration camps.”
In other words, why would the Weinstein Company, who distributed the film and licensed the dolls, not be more sensitive? Academy Award winners Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Jewish brothers and Hollywood power-players most definitely would honor their own history. Why not honor the heritage of others?
Just Because We Can
Just because we can do something doesn’t always mean we should.
Just because we can make dolls depicting slave owners and slaves doesn’t mean we should. As popular as Alex Haley’s miniseries Roots was, were there Kunta Kinte dolls? I have no idea, but I just searched and couldn’t find any. What I found was a 1977 JET quote, “There have been offers to endorse Kunta Kinte dolls, replicas, reproductions, artifacts. But Haley says, “I haven’t endorsed a handkerchief… The dignity of Roots is just not consistent with overt commercialism.”
Roots and Django Unchained are two totally different genres, no doubt, but the idea is still valid that further commercializing slavery just doesn’t feel quite right. It doesn’t feel like choosing the best for others. It feels… selfish.
Paul, when he encouraged Jesus’ followers to imitate the Messiah’s humility, wrote in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
Value Others
Let’s do what we can to value one another and not just looking out for our own interests. Sure, we could exploit any people-group and “do anything to make a buck”, but if it’s merely for selfish ambition and doesn’t lift a brother or sister, let’s re-think it. You know?
Today, can we find ways to choose the best for others – in our homes, careers, communities?
And pray for us here in Hollywood.
We don’t always excel in this area. LOL!
We’ve become quite expert at making a dollar off the backs of others. We need help, Fam.
Lord help us,
Naima
What do you think?
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© 2013 Naima Lett. All Rights Reserved
Yep!
Well put Naima!
Well put!
Mike
I am 29 year’s old and my “significant” other is 46 years old. I was against watching Django from the preview, when i viewed it. I have to agree with Spike Lee and other like him. I already feel that the slavery of my ancestors has long been being exploited and in the same breath on going. I refused to watch this movie, he (significant other) got upset. I guess this movie and his attitude about it is what happens, when you kill off the 4 fathers of a race, and brain wash the new generations continuously. Sad But TOO TRUE!
Out here in the Southern provinces of Calif, I am clueless about Django dolls. I know they are lifeless figurines. Maybe like the hundreds of naked women who were pushed into a huge mass grave with a bulldozer during the holocaust. Yah, they were lifeless indeed. My bride and I were in Israel, in the Holocaust museum.
the silence was deafening. I think maybe shame rules that facility. Our shame. Each and every one of us.
It is so wrong to begin a project that is focused on the destruction of humans, their values, and their kids.
Spike Lee is one of my heros, for many reasons. He is gifted beyond belief, and is a real human being. Wo ! Q, watch out ! Depending upon how offended he is about the stupid dolls and their insane message folks seem to discern, he can retaliate in a manner that will destroy your credibility and render your silly ego useless.
We all can be slaves, as we choose our type of slavery. Our African people had no choice. Nor did the Japanese in Manzanar, or our aborigine brothers and sisters who we put in prisons forever. Yet, there they are, they remain our people. What are we going to do about it ?
Richard Three Eagles