Heartwarming Movie About the Friendship Between a KKK Member and a Black Man Set to End Racism
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all post-racial propaganda movies are created redundantly.
Fresh off the heels of trite feel-good concepts such as Best of Enemies and Green Book comes Burden, a film helmed by Andrew Heckler. The film, set in the 1990s, will star Forest Whitaker, Garrett Hedlund, Usher Raymond, and Tom Wilkinson.
Itching to know what it’s about?
Says the Hollywood Reporter:
Burden, based on a true story about racism in America as faith and love overcomes hate, tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a KKK member (Hedlund) and an African American reverend, played by Forest Whitaker, in a small southern town where a museum was opened to celebrate the KKK. The film is billed as a story about redemption, forgiveness, and love.
Burden has been acquired by 101 Studios after winning audience awards at Sundance in 2018. (Of course it fucking did.) It is expected to premiere on Nov. 1 with a limited release and plans to expand throughout the month.
“Even though it was written over 20 years ago, unfortunately, Burden is more timely than ever. Now in a time when the world has become so polarized and divided by ethnicity, race and religion, Burden can deliver a powerful message of how extremes can join together to overcome and resolve our differences and hatred through love and tolerance,” Heckler said in a statement via THR.
*fucking sigh*
OK, can someone send me a Google Calendar alert once we dead this whole “love overcomes hate” rhetoric when it comes to the systematic clusterfuck known as racism?! It’s contrived at best and completely unrealistic at worst, especially as it’s used as a Band-Aid for something that needs significant surgery. Every time I hear it in a society where loving black boys are being executed in their neighborhoods, I want to implode. We not only have the right to be infuriated about this shit without someone tossing in a lovely “cure,” we have the audacity. Yes, we absolutely have the unmitigated gall to be mad as hell.
So, racial kumbaya-marketing spins like this film are beyond aggravating. It’s like watching a heartwarming commercial with twinkly music that ends with the tagline: “Every kiss begins with KKK.” Kiss every inch of my black ass. Enough already.
I’m sure Forest is going to act his ass off, though. I’m sure.
