If you’re one to peruse all viewpoints to remain informed, you will have seen The Drudge Report’s tall, bold, n-word laden headline about Django Unchained.
The headline links to a review of the film that just touches lightly on the use of the offensive word which leaves the reader asking: Was it necessary to place that word, in size 40 font, and splatter it across the front page of the site?
Quentin Tarantino has never really been known to be shy of language, especially if he feels that is historically conversationally appropriate. The film Jackie Brown, which got the director into hot water with colleague Spike Lee, had 38 instances of the n-word being used. Django Unchained doubles that amount, with over 80 reported instances of the word used in the film.
On the flip side however, the Drudge Report (the nation’s seventh leading news source) has been accused of having a history of racially charged news stories and headlines. In 2009 reporter Bill Maher slammed the right wing blog for it’s race hyping headlines. It’s even been alleged that Drudge interweaves stories involving African Americans to make it appear as if there’s an all out race war against whites.
This isn’t even the first time the site has reported on the film and it hasn’t even been released. Monday morning’s story showed a photo of star Jamie Foxx with a revolver in hand, and the headline “UNCHAINED: Foxx Jokes About Killing ‘All The White People’ In New Movie…” which linked readers to a Saturday Night Live monologue.
The monologue was considered to be highly controversial to online conservative media, not only being covered by The Drudge Report, but the National Review Online as well. Foxx stated:
“Black is in. I play a slave. How black is that? [...] I get free. I save my wife and I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that?”
Commentors on the site were quick to jump on the racism bandwagon, saying things such as “He’s obviously one of those people who isn’t opposed to the ‘culture of killing’ in the black community and uses his celebrity to encourage it.”
What you don’t see is the same kind of criticism levied against “white savior” films, particularly those that have come out in the last ten years (e.g. Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai). That’s because the content of the film overshadowed whatever racist tonality it might have, and until the Django Unchained comes out I think it might be a bit premature to pull the racism card.
Nation
What is your opinion on the “potential” racism of the film? Do you feel it’s offensive? Does it make you uncomfortable? Let us know in the comments below.
