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Recently, I had the chance to re-watch Django Unchained: Quentin Tarantino’s slavery revenge film. And while I was reminded of the things I had liked about the movie — truthfully, what’s not to like about the killing of racist kidnappers? — it also made me remember one thing I hadn’t.
It’s something that often bothers me whenever Hollywood portrays racists, like the slaveowner, Monsieur Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Namely, as with other race-themed films, Django relies far too heavily on a portrayal of white racists as barely literate, as if their bigotry were simply the product of uneducated stupidity manifested by people with bad dentition.
While the temptation to render such despicable characters this way is understandable, it’s dangerous.
By portraying every white person involved in the slave system as a veritable half-wit — especially the Francophile Candie (who can’t speak French but fancies himself cultured) — Tarantino risks trading on the cheap and easy chuckle at the expense of a more in-depth understanding.
The fact is, to suggest that persons with such hegemonic power were little more than illiterate hayseeds is to render the objects of their oppression embarrassingly pathetic by…
