Barbara Bush Approves of 'Precious'

Apparently, former First Lady Barbara Bush is an avid fan of the movie "Precious." She promoted it during a recent NPR segment. It seems that Mrs. Bush strongly connects with the film's message about the power of literacy to change one's life.

First off, why is she doing this? What's the real reason behind her christening this movie with her stamp of approval? It's just too random for someone like her to promote a movie like this. And I don't buy, for one minute, that spiel about her resonating with its message of literacy. Of all the themes depicted in that movie, literacy was the one that evoked the strongest reaction out of her? Now I admit, I haven't seen the movie yet so it's possible that the message of literacy was hammered throughout the film. Still, I can't help but wonder if she's trivializing the subject matter to find something "safe" for her and "mainstream America" to relate with.

Bush raves about the film throughout the NPR segment but laments one of its drawbacks: "it stereotypes Precious as a black." First of all, it doesn't stereotype Precious as "a black"; it stereotypes her as a black person or an African-American! Who in the world says "a black"? That phrase, alone, left a bad taste in my mouth. She might as well have said "a colored." This just goes to show how out of touch she is with the black community. No wonder she thought the Katrina evacuees--many of them African-Americans--were better off in the arena because they were "underprivileged anyway." (More on that later.)

Second of all, the film doesn't really stereotype Precious as "a black." The author of the book that inspired the movie is herself "a black" and it's not uncommon for African-American authors to write stories about African-American characters and depict them in a positive, negative, or neutral light. While I generally believe that more positive portrayals of African-Americans are desperately needed, I don't think our experience should be sugar-coated at all times. There's room in the black (and American) film canon for a movie with such gritty subject matter, especially if it's well executed.

Third of all, she's not fooling anyone with her pseudo-concern for negative stereotyping of black people. Anyone who thought the people camping out in the sports arena were better off than their previous conditions in actual housing has no grounds to accuse anyone else of stereotyping African-Americans. Which brings me to my last point. Michel Martin, the interviewer, actually seemed like she was going to touch upon this issue with Barbara Bush but immediately backed off by watering down the interpretation of Bush's comment and asking what Bush meant by the more innocuous meaning. At first I was amazed at Martin's boldness to even broach the subject, but was quickly disappointed when she backed down. Why did she do that? If you ask me, the whole interview is suspect.