“Black chick down on all fours”
Review by Melanie Maria Goodreaux
Well, Hollywood has pulled another fast one on us, folks — and Halle Berry should be ashamed of herself for saying at the Oscars, “This moment is much bigger than me … this is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, etc.” I highly doubt that Lena or Dorothy would ever find themselves down on all fours for a racist white ex correctional officer in a soft porn sex scene for all of America to watch. Just imagine us telling our little black girls that they too can be Academy Award winners now because of Halle Berry. Their next question may be: “Well, mamma, what role did Halle play to get the award?” I guess my answer would be a big gulp. The entire premise of the film is that Halle’s good black pussy changes this racist into a black people lover who starts to empower the black people of his community. The mind of the film doesn’t offer us much more room than to believe that the hot sex he has with Halle’s character is what changes his mind. It’s not like they talk to each other, date each other, etc. The day after they have explosive sex at Halle’s house, he goes to the black neighborhood mechanic and offers him money to fix his truck, which he plans on giving to his new lay, portrayed by our lovely Halle. Earlier on in the film, he shoots this same black man’s children off of his property with a shotgun at the request of his racist father. In another encounter with Halle’s character before they actually copulate for 7 minutes on the big screen, Billy Bob’s character doesn’t even tip her at the restaurant for doing such a sloppy job waiting on him.
After he “hits it” though, her tip goes up to two bucks, she inherits his truck, she get a gas station named after her, and he moves his racist father out of his house and into an old folks home because he insults his new “lady” by saying that in his prime he also had a thing for “nigger juice.” This, of course, is after or Letitia has pawned her wedding ring to buy Billy Bob a white cowboy hat — even though her most urgent need is saving money to keep her own home.
“Love conquers all” is what this film’s supporters are throwing out as a cheer. It’s more like “Good black pussy will get a white man to save your life, move you into his crib — and after he eats you out, he’ll go to the store for you and buy you some CHOCOLATE ice cream that you both will eat with a WHITE plastic spoon.” Hmmmmmm. Well. Even at the film’s ending, when Letitia figures out that her new savior was one of the correctional officers that electrocuted her husband the audience is given a sense that when he comes back home, either she is going to kill him or herself. Noooooo. Lovely Leticia sits on the back porch with her savior, eats chocolate ice cream with a white plastic spoon, eyes the tombstones in his backyard and looks up at the stars — the two of them are star-crossed lovers who find love. Awwwweeee. WHATEVER! Take Halle off the covers of Ebony and Essence and put her where she seems to really want to be — the cover of Playboy or Penthouse. I can’t really play another sister like that, though. Let’s see — put her where she really needs to be — in a film class that deciphers the film’s symbolism and its cultural consequences. Only then will she realize the bigger symbol that she created for America — that as a black women — getting down on all fours and being fucked by a racist was the way we got handed the Academy Award. Somebody had to do it. I heard she begged for this role. Wow.