Blame rum and coke

 

BLAME RUM AND COKE

 

Despite traditional admonitions to segregate Literature or art in general  from psychology , sociology, and other soft sciences, many consumers defy the advice.  Film, for example, is a source for clues regarding the spectrum of humanity.  From watching the film Camille (1936)  a viewer can gain insights about why and how certain European women are complicit in their enslavement and the enslaving of others.  The fact that the film is based on the 1848 novel La Dame aux Camélias by Alexander Dumas ups the racialized ante. Similar films are Gigi (1958J) and Pretty Woman (1990). These films involve nuanced distinctions between a courtesan and a prostitute, but they preclude forgetting a whore is a whore. That isn't a moral judgment.  It is a clue about the origins of selective white morality.  The films invite speculation about the historical construction of the white male mind, speculation that has value in the current rage for re-examining the institution of slavery. Think  of the predilections of Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy,  Bill Clinton and other American presidents. To be sure, the evidence from these films lacks disciplinary rigor. The evidence they deliver , however, is a valid clue about the kinky side of dubious white supremacy. That evidence provides access to a topic  Hegel, Heidegger, and Derrida could not successfully whitewash.

 

Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            June 12, 2021

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