Django; loss of black solidarity and the "nigger"

Quentin Tarantino's latest film "Django Unchained" is not for the squeamish at heart. While the film tackles issues of race relations and the brutality of slavery in the South two years before the Civil War, what is most interesting is the relationships between the black characters.

Through a series of brutal torturings of human bodies, the slave masters often pit the slaves against one another. So when Django and his German born partner devise a plan to rescue Django's wife, the black slave overseer played by an older Samuel l. Jackson, finds it fit to tell his beloved slave master candie, played by Leonardo dicaprio. Instead of helping a fellow slave to freedom, he seeks to keep everyone in the same place or below him.

The western drama paints a very graphic portrayal of slave life in the south. While each slave is of an equally low status, when one slave rises to a somewhat higher status the others despise him as he rubs it in his face. When Django appears before other slaves as a freeman, instead of sympathing with them he treats them as if he is ten levels above them. Django even goes so far as to refer to other slaves as property. Similar to modern times when a black person rises to even a shred of success others who are seemingly below him show qualities of "haters". In contrast those who do rise above often forget where they came from and begin acting like the same ones that oppressed them.

The use of the word "Nigger" and it's slang counterpart "nigga" has been up for discussion a thousand times but viewing this film resonated a new meaning to the word. Words like "nigger", "boy", and "jimmy" were used interchangeably as a sign of ones unintelligent property or slave. The slaves weren't viewed as people but as a good that was bought and sold and if a certain slave were to get out of line they were either tortured or fed to dogs.

The movie does little to justify the historical era of the institution of slavery. The film more so drones on over three hours as an old western with disrespect for human life with all the bloodshed. It isn't until the end of the film that there appears to be a sense of comradely among African Americans. By that time everything is torched and all the major characters have died a bloody death. If there is anything to be learned here, it is that Hollywood never gets the black story right be it of slavery or modern day life of the black experience In America.