Blog #4

    For this analysis/blog post, I will be discussing the poem Dinosaurs in the Hood by Danez Smith and since current world circumstances don’t allow me to go to an event, I want to connect it with my experience watching American movies.  Danez Smith is clearly irritated by the portrayal of African Americans and other minority groups in the film industry in this country. He discusses how black boys are portrayed with guns and how it foreshadows their ultimate demise. He discusses how Quintin Tarantino would rather give the boy and gun to breed violence instead of a toy. He wants a scene where the black boy is treated as just a boy who wants to play not someone who is looking to harm. I don’t understand the Quentin Tarantino reference here because it is incredibly inaccurate. The author portrays the esteemed director as someone who makes racist roles and movies with black men creating violence. In my opinion, this depiction of the director is completely false and misunderstood. From what I read in the poem Smith doesn’t want Quentin to direct because he thinks he is a racist who will fill the movie with disrespectful stereotypes and actions. If you watch a Quentin Tarantino movie you will see that is far from the case. Samuel L. Jackson (a black man) has made his film career tied heavily to this director (a supposed racist), a weird combination given the circumstances presented by this author. Samuel L. Jackson has been public in his support for his director saying that any black character he has portrayed is far from racist and so is Tarantino. Jackson even says that all of his characters are the smartest, most respected, and most in control out of all the characters in these films, what a weird role to for a racist to write for a black actor. None of these characters are fools in any sort and know what is going on in the world around them, they aren’t being vilified or causing harm unnecessarily.  I think the author of this poem missed that in movies and Hollywood everything and I mean everything in overexaggerated and fake because that’s what makes for a good movie people will pay to watch, not because there are racist undertones with everything. Movies are fake and should be taken as such, they are merely for entertainment purposes and to make money, which should not be confused with the lives and actions of everyday people who may be portrayed in the movie, you have to have the maturity and self-awareness to realize that. The author is yearning for a scene where a young black boy is playing with dinosaur toys with his eyes wide and hopeful and dreaming of his bright future. To this, I would tell him that this is not a good movie scene, but it is a beautiful real-life scene that can and is found in the world today even though he may not realize it. In my opinion, there is nothing your skin color can do to prevent you from doing anything. People aren’t like they used to be and the ones that are proudly proclaimed idiots who you are supposed to disregard. Any dream that a young black boy may have can be achieved if he puts himself on the right path and conducts himself and a respectful and proper manner. If he can deliver the results he wants and he and only he has the power to do so, just the way it should be. That young boy has the opportunity to make out of his life whatever he wants if he is willing to do the work required, work and results have no bearing on skin color, and to believe it does is pretty ridiculous if you ask me.