(The Movie) "The Blind Side" Is An Obvious Appeal To White Guilt - My Analysis & Expanded Focus

The Blind Side Is An Obvious Appeal To White Guilt by Christopher Chambers

Social commentator Christopher Chambers and I achieve a rare and fleeting agreement about the new Sandra Bullock move "The Blind Side" - it is "White Paternalism" on the big screen. A White woman in Memphis gets emotionally invested in a poor Black buck and per her attachment to him she makes his struggles in life her own. Not even his own thug friends that seek to keep him in the barrel will stop her.

My ever so tentative agreement with Mr Chambers disintegrates as I bring forth the irony by noting that the same paternalism that is offensive to Mr Chambers and other BQPFRCs are essential elements of their "social justice" policies via government intervention in these same impoverished communities.

In my reply to Mr Chambers' online article I try to tie his outrage about "White paternalism" to a real world news story that came from Memphis TN a few years ago.  The ABC News show "20/20" featured a longitudinal tale of the uncomfortable friendship between a young single Black expectant mother inside of Memphis and a suburban White mother whose church sent her into the poor Black  areas of the city to reach out to their suffering brothers and sisters.

The entire area of Memphis had a black eye with respect to the unacceptable "infant mortality rate".  (MSNBC: Memphis Battling Infant Death Epidemic).  This epidemic is centered in the Black areas of the city where poverty, broken families and casual sexual relationships rule.   In this real life tale where "life imitates art" the suburban Whites that moved out of the city as "White Flight" had taken place were now asked to go back in to these communities to form bonds of friendship in the name of removing this shame from their extended community.

Please allow me to clarify my point.  I applaud the church for identifying a need and then calling upon their flock to provide Christian charity.  This is a part of their calling.  The key point that disturbed me about the segment was that all of the outreach was directed toward the single Black mother, insuring that she received sufficient prenatal care.  As with many other social policies the valuation of the baby has triggered this attention.

The one key actor that was missing in this story between the suburban White helper and the pregnant Black mother to be was the Black male who sired the child.  In the "20/20" piece this particular male was in his young twenties.   The pregnant girl was just a "piece" that he "hit" among many others.  He had other children around the community and was an equal opportunity provider.  This meaning he didn't provide for much.  He was shown to be investing more money in his custom car than in his own newborn daughter's life.  Later on in the extended review he was shot dead during a drug deal.

There was no structured outreach from anyone to the young Black males in the community who are armed with the "life creating" force known as "sperm".   Ironically the relief provided to their children by these outsiders merely allowed them off of the hook, free to "rinse and repeat" elsewhere in the community with another womb that welcomed them.   I question how Mr Chambers can be offended by the paternalism that is shown on the big screen yet mistake real world government entitlement in the name of "social justice" as any different.

Any systematic engagement which fails to demand that every capable mind within the Black community to contribute toward the common goal by aligning their thoughts and actions behind these goals is a plan that merely creates unintended consequences.

The real valuation of the Black human form does NOT come from what society provides our people through the government channel which allows us to live at a standard that our own actions don't allow us to.   Instead real valuation of Black people is balanced by the assumption that we are indeed FULLY CAPABLE HUMAN BEINGS and thus we are expected to be the primary vehicles by which are desired standard of living is delivered.