Chance The Rapper Criticizes Netflix's 'Bright' For "Shallow" Use Of "Allegorical Racism"
“I found the way they tried to illustrate americas [sic] racism through the mythical creatures to be a little shallow.”
Chance The Rapper’s criticism of Netflix‘s Bright sparked a Twitter debate earlier this week. On Tuesday, December 26, the Chicago rapper asked his Twitter followers for their opinions on the Will Smith-helmed film, then shared his thoughts on the underlying messages the movie conveys about race relations.
“I found the way they tried to illustrate americas [sic] racism through the mythical creatures to be a little shallow,” he wrote. When a fan commented, saying Bright was “an exact representation of the social injustices minorities face,” Chance continued on to say that films like Bright, which discuss racism through symbolic fictional figures, do not capture the entire scope or depth of how bigotry affects real life.
“I always feel a lil cheated when I see allegorical racism in movies cause that racism usually stems from human emotion or tolerance but not by law or systems the way it is in real life,” Chance explains. “The characters in #Bright live in a timeline where racism is gone… cause we hate ork now.”
Bright received negative reviews by the majority of critics when it debuted last weekend, despite initially being one of the biggest projects from Netflix within the last two years. The David Ayer-directed film also stars Joel Edgerton with Smith as two police officers who live in an alternate universe where humans, orcs, elves and fairies have been coexisting since the beginning of time. Read Chance’s thoughts on Bright below and also check out the rapper’s opinion on independent success here.
Wondering how you guys are feeling about the lynched ork in #Brightmovie
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 27, 2017
I found the way they tried to illustrate americas racism through the mythical creatures to be a little shallow. #Brightmovie
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 27, 2017
I always feel a lil cheated when I see allegorical racism in movies cause that racism usually stems from human emotion or tolerance but not by law or systems the way it is in real life. The characters in #Bright live in a timeline where racism is gone… cause we hate ork now 🤨
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 27, 2017
I think the idea is that they’re a step below bottom of the spectrum blackness. Which is why Will’s character, the Mexican cop and the ork have that dialogue in the street. https://t.co/LaFMysw2WG
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 27, 2017
I tried to look at it that way but a few minutes into the movie they make wills character say “Fairy Lives don’t Matter” https://t.co/j721N38cdR
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 27, 2017
