Historical events distorted in movies
By Claudia Hibbert-BeDan
The Metropolitan
ãNiggas always got to show their teeth. Now Iâma be brief. Be true to the game.ä ÷ Ice Cube.
The above quote, from ãTrue to the Gameä on Ice Cubeâs 1991 album Death Certificate, was directed toward black rappers that Ice Cube believed had ãsold outä and had become caricatures that white society would accept.
Iâll be using it in a different way.
Two films have been released to help society understand the plight of blacks in America.
Amistad, under Steven Spielbergâs direction, tells the story of 53 Africans who killed all but two of their captors aboard the slave ship La Amistad. The Africans were imprisoned in Connecticut, but they were ultimately freed after a Supreme Court case argued by former President John Quincy Adams.
The Wonderful World of Disney introduced us to Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old girl from New Orleans who was the first black child to integrate the cityâs public school system.
Each movie illustrates, to some extent, how far society has come. Slavery is long over, and schools are integrated.
Still, weâre not being told the complete truth. Movies are entertainment, but these movies are about historical events that still affect some today.
Ruby Bridges aired Jan. 18 during primetime. Families would be watching, television executives thought. Young children might be upset by the images that young Ruby had to endure. So they toned it down.
ãPeople need to know it was worse, much worse,ä said Ruby Bridges Hall, now in her 40s, in an interview with The Associated Press.
ãI have an 8-by-10 photo given to me by a friend at a news station. These crowds came by the busloads to the school. They had this coffin, a real baby coffin. Nothing like what you see in the movie.
ãAnd thereâs a black baby (doll) in the coffin.ä
In Amistad, Cinqué, the leader of the Africansâ uprising, was invited to Adamsâ place to watch him putter around his greenhouse. The men bonded when Cinqué found Adamsâ African violet.
This never happened. Look it up.
At the end of the movie, Adams makes an impassioned plea to the Supreme Courtâs conscience to free the Africans because the honorable thing is to return them to their families and homeland.
In actuality, his argument focused more on the legality of the issue.
The international slave trade had been abolished years earlier, and since the Africans aboard the Amistad were kidnapped from their country, they were unlawfully being held in the states and ãbelongedä to no one.
Americaâs history, as it relates to blacks, is just plain ugly. But movie executives seem to believe that the only way whites will tune in or pay $8 a ticket is if they can come away without feeling bad.
People are tired of hearing about slavery and civil rights anyway. So we get movies such as Amistad and Ruby Bridges that pretty things up.
A couple of images emerge from Ice Cubeâs rhyme. He wasnât only talking about ãsell-outä artists who seem to do a constant dance to remain in societyâs good graces.
He was also talking about white auctioneers opening black slavesâ mouths to show their teeth, as some did with horses, to show that they were healthy.
That is sad. But itâs sadder that most Americans donât have the guts to hear it.
Claudia Hibbert-BeDan is a UCD student and a copy editor/columnist for The Metropolitan
