Current Events > King Kong is racist as shit. You see it, right?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I mean, not a joke. Has anyone else here ever actually watched the original movie?

The King (who happens to be a giant monkey) of the black natives literally steals a white mans woman. Its not hard to see what fear of the 1930s they were leaning on. Its not even subtle.

I cant even count the stereotypes and racist tropes in this film. Heres some of the more overlooked ones...

1. Giant African King ape kidnaps a white woman. White man is powerless to stop it.
2. When King Kong breaks his bonds and is given freedom he immediately steals from a white man and plunges the city into chaos.
3. The super-powered-Black-man trope that is partly credited for the over use of force by police on black suspects. Here the black menace is super imposing and capable of taking great abuse while inflicting considerable damage.
4. Have you seen the island native scenes? Uh, it aint good.

It seems like King Kong was a racist 1930s metaphor for white peoples worst fears. Namely that if black people were given freedom that theyd ransack the city and steal your women.

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Maybe. But modern Kong is cool. I liked Skull Island and can't wait for the big showdown in 2 days

BeyondWalls posted...

not a joke

-_-

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I think you're trying to hard to be offended.

Zikten posted...

Maybe. But modern Kong is cool. I liked Skull Island and can't wait for the big showdown in 2 days

Yeah. But still. I feel like people should acknowledge its past.

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Most movies during that time were racist

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Questionmarktarius posted...

I think you're trying to hard to be offended.

So acknowledging that racism existed in the 1930s is trying to be offended?

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Shit, don't hurt yourself reaching so far.

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BeyondWalls posted...

So acknowledging that racism existed in the 1930s is trying to be offended?

Acting like any specific 1930s movie is particularly bad, rather than that kind of just being how movies in general were back then, is the issue.

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Hey tc,

Daffy Duck.

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Trumble posted...

Acting like any specific 1930s movie is particularly bad

Well... Triumph of the Will didn't age well.

https://youtu.be/DHgz-UfQpEQ

Hell, the racism even exists in the 1976 movie! No Mr Black Man! You may not have our white woman, says the White Savior!

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gmanthebest posted...

Shit, don't hurt yourself reaching so far.

This is pretty common knowledge. Maybe ask yourself why you feel so compelled to deny it

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Phynaster posted...

This is pretty common knowledge. Maybe ask yourself why you feel so compelled to deny it

Ouch.

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It's just a monster movie bro. All that sounds like your own hangups being projected.

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Questionmarktarius posted...

Well... Triumph of the Will didn't age well.

I'm sure you can find a few examples then - just like you can now - of ones that were bad even by their time's standards. But Kong isn't one of those, yeah it sounds racist as fuck (I haven't seen it) but it doesn't sound any more racist than I'd expect 30s movies in general to - that's the point I'm getting at, that there's nothing especially bad about this one compared to others of its time.

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Damn TC you really opened everyone's eyes. I can't believe you're the first person to notice this.

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I have TC tagged correctly

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Admittedly I haven't seen all of the original, but I always just considered it a monster movie in the same vein as the Mummy, Frankenstein, Creature From the Black Lagoon, etc. Those types of movies were very popular back then

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You've convinced me

I'll never watch a movie ever again

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these movies have always sucked and I don't understand the appeal of Godzilla/King Kong/monster rawr movies for the most part, they are very rarely done well

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ShyOx posted...

I don't understand the appeal of Godzilla/King Kong/monster rawr movies for the most part

destruction porn.

Questionmarktarius posted...

destruction porn.

Yeah but Rampage actually let the player do it ;}

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I mean... Out of all of actual racism that existed because of segregation, this movie really seems like a non issue.

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BeyondWalls posted...

So acknowledging that racism existed in the 1930s is trying to be offended?

Well, you see, we all know racism existed back then. We dont need to #cancelkong because of its racist past almost 100 years ago.

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BeyondWalls posted...

Have you seen the island native scenes? Uh, it aint good.

I'll give you this, but only this.

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BeyondWalls posted...

So acknowledging that racism existed in the 1930s is trying to be offended?

Yes. No one is confused that racism exist or existed.

You still equating monkey to black people is quite fucked up and you should probably work on that.

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Rise of the planet of the apes is also racist

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It is but still a great movie though. Saw it again a couple of months ago and still holds up pretty well and was groundbreaking for its time. It's actually the first American talking film to have full fledge score.

Ho-mer
Ho-mer
Ho-mer

I agree. But we can still make and enjoy new kong movies that don't have that racist context.

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Does this make Donkey Kong racist by default then?

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Phynaster posted...

This is pretty common knowledge. Maybe ask yourself why you feel so compelled to deny it

I'm not denying the actual racism in it, which was common during that era in any movie. But to pretty much say that the entire thing is white people fearing black people being free is incredibly stupid when we're talking about a monster flick.

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TC just finding out things everyone else has known for decades

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Billyionaire posted...

TC just finding out things everyone else has known for decades

You'd like to think that, but yet this topic is full of people screeching "nuh uh".

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King Kong's creator denied there were any racial implications behind Kong. The story was inspired by the Komodo Dragon, a reptile once thought a myth, which was brought back to New York as proof of its existence. And which died almost immediately after.

Merian C. Cooper was also a fan of the novel Adventures in Equatorial Africa in which an African woman is abducted by a gorilla and rescued by explorers. That was probably an influence too.

And he lived in Africa for a while. He did documentaries before he branched out into traditional filmmaking. He wrote a piece praising his African host community. The films that he made were not entirely absent of stereotypes, nor was he completely without racism, but I can say with certainty that he did not create King Kong as a racist metaphor for Black people.

BeyondWalls posted...

So acknowledging that racism existed in the 1930s is trying to be offended?

Aknowledgeing it existed and looking for it anywhere and everywhere aren't the same thing.

It's not like you had to be particularly subtle about your racism 90 years ago

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