Does the Film Precious Promote Stereotypes? Yes, It Probably Does

I went to see the film "Precious" with a tremendous amount of anxiety. I'd heard the film received rave reviews from reviewers, award panelists and others in the media who love to see a good movie about dysfunctional black people. I knew the film was being analyzed by the same individuals more likely to notice Denzel Washington playing a sick, crooked cop in "Training Day" than to see him play a strong, intelligent black man in the film about the life of Malcolm X.

While reviewers might consider "Akeelah and the Bee" to be unrealistic, "Precious," or "Hustle and Flow" seem to be stunningly accurate reflections of their perception of life in Black America. Yes, we certainly have our share of pimps, prostitutes, and child molesters in the black community. But would hardly expect that we're any more problematically programmed than other ethnic groups.

I thought the performances in the film "Precious" were very good. I admit, however, that I found the film depressing. Not that the movie was entirely unrealistic. Rather, it seemed to feed itself off of one emotionally-draining scene after another. The star of the film was illiterate, poor, morbidly obese, physically abused, sexually abused, HIV positive, inclined to steal and suffering from low self-esteem. It was almost as if the directors said, "What else can we do to make people feel sorry for her? Oh yea! Let's let her mother be a welfare queen who beats her child and molests her when her sexually abusive father isn't home!" Yes, there are kids like this in the black community, but this film is not a representation of the prevailing experience for most black youth in America.

I am not here to say that the filmmakers expected their audience to see "Precious" as any kind of call to action. It may be the case that they just wanted to tell a good story about something that could happen to a few children across our country. Child abuse is nothing to laugh about, and it happens far too often. But we must be careful not to extrapolate the experience of "Precious" in a way that implies that her experience was typical or significantly more likely to happen to an African American child. If "Precious" is meant to spark a national conversation about all kinds of child abuse, then fine. But if it is another film saying that "black people are really screwed up," then we've got a problem.

Did you notice that many of the darker-skinned characters were either evil or mentally ill, while the two light-skinned characters (the male doctor and female teacher) were the heroes? Can we ever get past that please? It's as if some of us still believe that light-skinned blacks have purer souls than other people. Sorry, but they don't.

The film "Precious" almost seems to be public therapy for a screen writer or producer who has yet to overcome a crippling childhood. Rather than laying his/her issues out for the entire world to see, I would imagine that therapy could have been cheaper. Most filmmakers draw from their own life experience, and I have a tremendous amount of sympathy for the damaged adult who has been made to believe that the experience of the film's main character is somehow typical. If the film can be watched through the lens of balance, then it is a good one. But it cannot, and should not be used to understand the black experience in America.




Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition.