MovieChat Forums > Lovecraft Country (2020) Discussion > Racial tension in this show hard to watc...

Racial tension in this show hard to watch


Like in the latest episode (spoilers) I hated seeing the white people honking their car horns indefinitely because Leti bought a boarding house in a white neighborhood. Can nothing be easy for the black folks on this show?

Yes I have white guilt because had I been born and lived through this time I don't know if I would have acted any different as it's hard to go against one's culture, even a hateful one.

I suppose things have improved which is somewhat relieving.

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My black friends tell me there has been no improvement. My best black friend, who is a well-educated psychiatric social worker whose daughter is a Dean at Harvard, tells me she fears for her life in any interaction with a police officer.

I completely agree that this is hard to watch, which means that we need to watch it.

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Good point.

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You're right they haven't changed enough. Lots of work to do. I'll keep watching.

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I couldn't agree more!!

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Thank you, Filmtenk and sussanah.

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The US is completely bonkers, these days. In some ways there's been TREMENDOUS improvement, in others, none whatsoever.

Who'd have thought we'd EVER have a Black president?
How on earth are police Still abusing people. . .even in the current climate; with cameras Everywhere?

And on and on and on. Worth noting: the famous philosopher Eddie Murphy's take on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZofkPo_zRY
(1:00, 2:48)

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I’d like to know the date on the Murphy video, please. Thank you.

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!!!! You've never seen Delirious???? WOW

Came out in '83. Seminal, *seminal* stand-up concert; one of the things that cemented Eddie's place in the annals, and the blueprint for many, many subsequent comics.

Chris Rock has a similarly hilarious take on the possibility of a black president. . .as well as the schizoid nature of race relations in the U.S. Worth checking out, for sure.

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Thank you.

Also, thank you for taking care to put 2 “n”s in “annals.” Many here would not.

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That's insane. A black person is about 100 times more likely to be killed by another black person than by a cop.

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About the same rate as a white person and every other race. The fact is, most crime committed against people of the same race just due to basic demographics. The difference is, when someone of the same race kills you, it is not likely due to be BECAUSE of your race.

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True but where is the proof cops are targeting black people? More white people are killed by the police. It's pure nonsense. And black people are more aggressive against the police. Like this idiot in Kenosha. George Floyd? There was exactly zero evidence it was racially motivated. None. Every time a black person is killed by a cop, which will happen because they commit most of the violent crimes, they are going to riot and loot? Absolute idiots.

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The proof is that the percentage of black people to white people in the US means about 6 times as many white people to black would be killed annually to make it 'even'....but that isnt the case.
Also the fact that black people are often stopped and asked for ID or frisked without cause and driving while black is often a reason they get pulled over. I do not know any white people that are literally scared to walk to the store in the middle of the afternoon without proper ID on them or scared to go out after dark at all.....I do know several black people that are.

Black people are not more aggressive towards cops. There is massive amounts of video evidence at this point. I have seen many videos of black (males in particular), complying and still getting the crap beat out of them. The last one I watched, the dude was literally standing in a parking lot with his hands on his head, not moving and a cop came up behind him and drop kicked him and then two cops piled on him and started beating on him.
Attached to that was a clip of a white guy in a pick up truck that got out of his truck several times, screaming at the cops, literally said he was going to kill him and then spit on him, the cop never laid a hand on him. Not to say some white people dont get their ass beat too, cuz police brutality is an overall problem, but it is less likely.

Also the FBI has released statements recently saying 93% of the protests have been peaceful (all in my area have been), and that in a number of cases, a lot of the riots have actually been started by white supremacists trying to discredit the movement.
Furthermore, in the cases of mass riots a lot of time, the protests start out peaceful until the cops show up in riot gear and start shooting people with rubber bullets and throwing tear gas.
And, I mean, at this point, I cant even blame some of the riots. They have literally been asking for this to stop for decades and nothing ever changes.

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Are you sure your friend is well-educated?

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Yes, I am. One of my degrees is an ED.D. I understand education. This is the first and final time I’ll reply to you.

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Well, that's certainly a weird response.

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Yea the show strikes me as kinda preachy. I wonder how long until this hollywood woke [phase dries up and we get straight story telling again. I'm hispanic and I felt the show is too preechy just ion the first half an hour like can they start advancing the ploit already.

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I wonder how long it’s going to be until many of the anti-Hollywood reich who keep crying and sounding like the broken record reactionary chuds that they are realize (maybe accept) that this industry - and many in society, thank fuck - won’t regress and go back to the good ol’ pro-exclusionary (bigot-friendly) days just to appease and not offend the actual PC regressive brigade who happily had Hollywood tell them many, many stories that were catered to their small-minded and privileged kind for a century. Yeah, unless Faux News starts their own film studio and produces flicks that keep it old school... to hell with inclusion, F science, F different people existing, F stories based on “preachy” reality, etc... and they take off like crazy, then don’t ever count on the agenda that your social injustice chuds have an agenda against to “dry out.” Sure, things/ideas that are the total opposite of woke, like fascism, may be kewl again with certain loud people (the reich). However, as with reactionary-triggering Hollywood, that stuff will never be accepted by the unkewl and un-regressive majority. Go woke go broke? Lol, providing ‘Murica doesn’t destroy itself, ya chuds will be saying this 50 years from now when things are only going to look less vanilla than they do now... the horror... and yet “somehow” the industry will still be riding high. Sorry not sorry, propagandist chuds....

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Did you guys understand a single sentence that person wrote?
If so could you please give me the gist in English (and maybe also tell the poster about the horrible consequences of long term coke abuse...)?
Many thanks!

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Point being made is I'm not aware of much of HP Lovecraft's racism aas I was only attracted to his stories due to the cosmic horror where his style of writing introduced us to sci-fi horror at a time when most horror was still based on supernal elements like werewolves and vampires, ghosts demons etc. Instead this show's primary focus is on racism which is itself so alien to me that its not relevant as well as most americans don't relate to in any way. I have no memories of mistreatng black people and don't need a show full of reminders of how not to treat my fellow man no more then I need a TV series about kicking puppies to remind me not to miss treate animals. What does holly wood think were gonna just forget and start lynching black people if were not reminded of how wrong it is every waking second. Its as if I should be riddled with white guilt (Awkward since I'm hispanic and in no way white nor have the same history as racist white americans). Sure it sucks to be black back then but I had nothing to do with it. I'm fairly new to lovecraft and only read call of chtulu which I find to have pacing problems. Chutulu only shows up in the last 3 pages of the story. The rest of the story is just about an expedition team making their way to the artic or ant artic. In short my comlaint is that I am neither white nor a racist just a viewer that stumbled into what I thought was a cosmic horror story. My suspension of disbelief should be focused on accepting the cosmic horror elemets of the show not the contrived plot points of an overly racist American history which is really all this show wants to be about it seems.

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No, I hear you. I was more struggling to make sense of DracTarashV2's manic message in reply to yours.
I mostly feel the same way you seem to do about the recent capture of art by (very on-the-nose and very trivial because so very obvious) politics.
It also feels like a large portion of the population suddenly became mind-readers and know what's going on in every single white person's mind better than they do themselves.
Anyway, woke propaganda notwithstanding, I thought this show was pretty poorly written, shot, lit, edited and acted. A disaster and an insult to the intelligence.

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I coulden't make it past the 2nd episode. I guess will have to wait yet another generation or 2 for a cosmic horror show. Originally lovecraft stories don't translate very well due to budget constraints now it seems like we have to dodge woke politics before another decent attempt at love craft horror can be made made. I admit I'm more intreged by the horror lovecraft inspired about elder gods rather then his less then steller writing style. I got interested in lovecraft as his work is said to have inspired Dan Obanon and HR Gigers Alien mythos which led me to taking an interested in HP Lovecraft. I liked the idea of Gods so old and powerful they arn't even aware of nor care about humanity. I never cared for the cult conspiracy aspects of Lovecrafts work whiwas translated to mob racism in this show so its even less attractive to me as narrative device. I'm sure the writers of the show think they are geniuses that made the show more relavent by focusing on racism but it's nothing more then a bait and switch as far as I'm concerned.

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I can't wait until they can make a decent, faithful version of At The Mountains of Madness.

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Ever consider intense psycho-therapy?

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The racial material is why this series exists.

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The racial material is why this series exists.

The series or lovecrasftian cosmic horror?

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Come on. We all know Lovecraft's racist views. The book, and now the series, is clearly a way to turn that on its head and be about African-Americans being tormented by whites.

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Well I fguess I'm not interested in Lovecraft anymore. :/

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Apparently the culture wasn't so hateful because the majority gave the minority equality.

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Just listen to all you fucking retarded liberals bleating. Fucking do one.

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That's why I stopped watching Watchmen and never checked out this show. I remember checking out the Watchmen and it just felt they took a story they already wrote and just slapped someone else's character into it. Watchmen was never about racism and that's the entire premise of the show.

Then I hear this show, which is based on Lovecraft lore, which is abouts, monsters, etc., is about racism. Like...what?

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