I've basically sworn off big movies, and big stars. But for some reason, I'm a devoted fan of Will Smith. I was just watching the trailer for Seven Pounds, which may be awful, and yet there was a voice inside me that said, "We're going to see that film." I thought the first half of Hancock was pretty damn good, but it went to seed when it started explaining itself. Too bad to, because I also like Charlize Theron. But that's another thread.
I think part of the appealing thing is watching this black dude walk through a largely white world without compromise. I think a lot of folks missed the importance of how Barack Obama ended his victory speech. His subject, Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106-year old black woman who'd voted for him. But instead of simply casting her story as a black woman who'd suffered racial oppression, he talked about cars on the road, and planes in the air, he talked about the dust bowl and the depression, he talked about women's suffrage and he also talked slavery and the bus boycott.
Andre 3000 has this great line in one of his songs where he pretends to have a conversation with a critic of hip-hop who says "I thought hip-hop was only drugs and alcohol" and he responds by telling her hell no, "but yet it's that too." That's the thing about that story--it's not that Obama white-washed Cooper and ignored race, it's that he weaved race into the larger story of her as a human being and an American. She was not just a victim of racial oppression--and yet she was that too.
I see a lot of that in Will when I watch him acting. Dig his style in Hancock or I Robot. Whatever you think of those movies, you can see hip-hop oozing out of dude's pores. I make no brief for black exceptionalism here--this is how identity works. But I think one of the things that's so cool about this generation--the Andre 3000s, the Jay-Z's, the Colson Whitehead, the Junot Diazes--is how we claim our heritage but not to the exclusion of the rest of the world.
I want to be clear--this is about freedom and opportunity, not some special quality of this age. When he was kid, my Dad loved Dostoevsky, Dickens and Dumas. But history called him into Vietnam and then into the Black Panthers. Didn't mean he liked Dickens any less. He'd give Booker T. Washington/Malcolm X lectures on the importance of black business one moment, and then head down to the Charles Theater to see the latest French flick the next. He was always complicated, but the times called for a particular part of him.
Hmm, this was supposed to be how much I like Will Smith. I guess it's about how cool it is to get a little more free.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
Damn well said. It's that multiplicity of moments and influences and inspirations in all our heads that matter, and it comes from everything we soak up as cultural sponges. It's *all* there, if we let it happen and then fuse and recombine it as we do, and then we're all still ourselves anyway, thank heavens. (God knows I would be bored with a world of just clones of me around -- I'd already know what I was going to say.)
You're so cool. I love this blog.
And seriously, congratulations again on getting the fella in the White House. You've gotta still just be walking on air.
Since I first saw him on some Science Channal program, I've been trying words for what it is I find so compelling about Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden planetarium. I think this post nailed it.
That's the thing about that story--it's not that Obama white-washed Cooper and ignored race, it's that he weaved race into the larger story of her as a human being and an American. She was not just a victim of racial oppression--and yet she was that too.
This is precisely right, and well said.
The contrast to McCain's speech struck me as well. While I give credit to McCain for classiness, the refrain in his speech was very much - the president is African-American. Shouldn't African-Americans feel great about that?
For Obama, the point was that the struggle for racial equality and justice is inextricably intertwined with struggles for women's rights, international anti-fascism, and for economic fairness. He emphasized the particular historical location and meaning of his triumph, but he also made it an American victory and a human victory. It was beautiful.
that is the thing of being, of growing up gay, and why I wept when I heard of Prop. 8 in CA. I watched my brother, as a child, struggle for models (this is hindsight.)
Now, he's happy. 20 years happy. Everyone accepts Uncles Jay and Todd.
But he didn't have the natural models of love and romance to base his life on, he didn't have the public celebrations of dating and prom and wedding. I don't know how to express the pain of it, but when I think on it, I feel it; and it's a lonely, sad place.
So telling the narrative of his life that includes he's gay, like Will's hip hop, it's hard, it doesn't sit comfortable on the skin yet, because we haven't made it a human victory yet, as DivGuy says.
At the risk of sounding ridiculously flag-waving, I think this fusion is a particularly American talent. Our culture celebrates the integration of ideas, styles, cultures-- and at the best of times, it brings them together without losing any of the original uniqueness. Doo-wop, jazz, hip-hop-- they could only happen, IMO, here. And I think we keep getting better at it. I sure hope we do.
Ta-nehisi-
If you like Will, I hope that you've seen Six Degrees of Seperation. It's a completely different side to him, and it's the first movie that convinced me he could really act.
That's the thing about that story--it's not that Obama white-washed Cooper and ignored race, it's that he weaved race into the larger story of her as a human being and an American. She was not just a victim of racial oppression--and yet she was that too.
Goes back so something early on, after Obama had spoken in Selma. Someone asked him wasn't it great to remember this African-American history and he said no, he was remembering AMERICAN history.
Oh yeah, I love Will too...though you do understand that most of it's because of his marriage to Jada...LOL
Awesome. I love nearly all your posts, but sometimes I have to stop and re-read a post two or three times before I can move on. Thanks for one such post to greet me on a Friday morning.
I love Will for the same reasons, though, not sure I'm feeling his casting in an "Old Boy" remake:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117995429.html?categoryid=10&cs=1
With Spielberg no less? I can't imagine a Spielberg/Smith collabo is going to keep the original's sick and twisted premise. Can it?
De-lurking after reading this post and remembering one posted earlier when you said you'd originally thought you'd stop blogging after the election. I'm a daily visitor after about only four weeks of reading. Definitely don't stop, Atlantic or no Atlantic! Insightful, topical posts like these are what keep me coming back.
And I want to second Persia's comment... I want to believe that yes, this bringing-together is America's special premise and promise, and just what we do in our best moments. Like so many others, for the first time in a long time I'm hopeful that this faith of mine (and so many others) is grounded in reality. We can be a great gift to the world, instead of the terrible tyrant we have been... please God let it be so.
I agree with you on the whole, and I've decided to consider it a sign of how far we've come regarding race in this country that I can comfortably hate Will Smith without feeling guilty.
He's following the Tom Cruise model of movie stardom: Only do $100 million-plus movies, only accept starring roles, and every once in awhile spearhead some Oscar-bait. He rocks this out in public, too, working the lines at premieres and earnestly, grinningly answering the most inane Billy Bush questions imaginable. No one should be that likable.
But yeah, on content, we live in a world where selling out doesn't mean selling out your demographic group. Rockin'.
You're right about the model. But he's a much, much, much better actor than Cruise.
I never, ever comment on blogs. But I love this blog. Please keep writing!
Some of your posts hit me right in the gut. My father was a voracious reader, from Sartre to Singer. He loved French film, and I have fond memories of going to the Village Cinema with him or this strange theater out in Queens, where you could see two independent films for $2.50.
He was (and is) obsessed with the rise of Hitler and calls himself an "old Jew", yet he rejected the religion and complained bitterly about Jews acting like their stereotypes.
He still was amazed that there were planes flying in the sky and we'd go to Kennedy airport to see them land and take off.
This doesn't have much to do with Will Smith, I know, but with you making me think of my own father, born in 1915, who grew up in New York City when everyone lived in their own bubble of a neighborhood.
My father and the old men in his building (black, white, brown and yellow) probably haven't seen a Will Smith movie (he'd probably say "Will who?", but they were all walking around in a daze of non-belief on election day. The day they never thought they'd live to see had come.
Can I come out of the closet as liking his rap music?
Love the actor, most recently in I am Legend, which I thought was a powerful meditation on being human. (I don't care about horror movies, so the scariness of the zombies was a minor part of the film to me, the question of how long you go on surviving when it might make no difference much more profound.)
I've always been drawn to Will Smith, too. It's that swagger he has as he walks through a white world. It's the fact that he always saves the world in his movies. In I Am Legend he, the black man, is the only human in a world of subhumans. He fights with his body and his mind, rejecting the duality that says it has to be one or the other. Then he's black Jesus at the end (uh, spoiler alert?). It's not that it's a great movie, it's that he's compelling in a weak film, and he naturally embodies a full, conflicting humanity that has still been so hard for his white world to completely comprehend.
And if I can add to the southern rappers with profound thoughts...
At the end of his song "A Girl," David Banner's talking about the image he projects and he says he doesn't want people to think that southern black people are just white Ts. "Yeah, we are that," he says, "but we college students too. We hustlas, and we business owners, too."
When I heard that part of Obama's speech about Cooper, what was going through my mind, was that the overview of history was interesting and fit within the speech, it really didn't have much to do with Cooper. Your commentary brings it into a new light. It really wasn't about Cooper. It was about everyone being part of the larger society.
We are a generation no more nor less complicated than others (my father is a hard core nationalist and thinks integration was the worst thing that happened to Black communities but he loves Frank Sinatra and The Fountainhead is his favorite book) however there is more room for us to display that complexity. We are Black ansd live thoroughly in that heritage but do not live in bubbles.
In October, you wrote: "Time spent worrying about some fools who you can't control, is time away from improving your chosen craft."
The mian point of the post was thinking about the fool of the moment, but what stuck with me was the drive to get back to worthwhile work.
There's a kind of liberalism that is so completely about equality that it can't really see the work that creates. It really does want to redistribute wealth, and it really doesn't want to think about how that wealth gets made. Economic statements from churches can be like that, and political theorist John Rawls is all about that.
The President-elect is not going to go there, because he's going somewhere else. The cars and planes Mrs. Cooper saw arrive hold his attention--and that line caught my ear as it did yours. He understood Facebook and went hunting for the next edition, and the folks who are working on making it. He sees the workers and their work. He's more interested in their strength than their weakness.
The strength Will Smith walks across the movie screen.
Will Smith said it best on the Colbert Report: America loves black people with funny ears.
Great post, but can I make a request that we devoted readers of TNC stop telling him how awesome he is all the time? Not that he's not awesome, just that it makes reading the comments a bit icky-feeling sometimes.
"You're right about the model. But he's a much, much, much better actor than Cruise."
No, I don't think this is right. Will Smith is good, and has shown he's capable of being great. But Cruise has also showed himself capable of being great. The dude was in "Born on the 4th of July" and "Rain Man" before The Fresh Prince even moved to Bel-Air. Have you ever seen "Magnolia?" Granted, Tom Cruise has become a bit of a freak, but I don't think Will Smith is a 'much better' actor.
"That's the thing about that story--it's not that Obama white-washed Cooper and ignored race, it's that he weaved race into the larger story of her as a human being and an American. She was not just a victim of racial oppression--and yet she was that too."
So true. To me, this was the best part of his victory speech (most of it I found sort of blah for Obama). But the end was amazing. Using one person anecdotally to weave the rich history of America, including but not only, the history of race was great. You said it better than I could have.
My first time on this post. Great insight. I can't wait to check back for future posts! BTW, did anyone catch Will Smith on Oprah yesterday? Dude was profound!
I think the big difference between Will Smith and Tom Cruise (I mean, restricting the discussion to acting) is that Cruise seems to require a nice meaty role to be good. He was phenomenal in Magnolia, which is to his credit, but there was a lot to work with. Smith can make something out of nothing, turning otherwise bad movies (Hitch, I Am Legend) into watchable flicks. Cruise doesn't seem to do that.
Dan, I love reading your comments! You are the man! Completely awesome!
Seriously, though, where would TNC's self worth come from if readers he's never met didn't constantly tell him how great he is?
Great post. But it reminds, where is the follow up post you promised about TVOTR's new album, Dear Science? Did I miss it?
Will Smith on Oprah on Obama:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/06/will-smiths-obama-happine_n_142003.html
I now this went to mixed reviews but I liked Ali, myself.
Stax,
Yeah, I think you missed it. He's had about four or five Dear Science posts since the first one.
Thanks Stacy. Off to the archives for me!
He'd give q Booker T. Washington/Malcolm X lecture on the importance of black business one moment, and then head down to the Charles Theater to see the latest French flick, the next. He was always complicated, but the times called for a particular part of him.
^^^^
We need to stop thinking of this as complicated.
It's rather normal actually.
I'm just gonna post that whole andre verse, cuz I've always loved it. He spits hot fire. The way that song (Humble Mumble) builds is just awesome.
I met a critic
I made her shit her draws
She said she tought Hip Hop was only guns and alcohol
I said "Oh hell naw!" but yet it's that too
You can't discrimahate because you done read a book or 2
What if I looked at you in a microscope saw all the dirty organisms
Living in your closet would I stop and would I pause it "whoo"
To put that bitch in slower motion, got the potion and the antidote
And a quote for collision the decision
Is do you want to live or wanna exist
The game changes everyday so obsolete is the fist and marches
Speeches only reaches those who already know about it
This is how we go about it
Discrimihate. If I wanted to try really hard, I could say your post there is about resisting discrimihating, keeping the world open. You bring where you've been, but you're not limited to that. It's verses like this that folks who discrimihate on hip-hop, folks who say it's all guns n bitches miss.
i gotta agree with west indian. we are complex people. i love me some U2 but I also love me some Jay-z. It's life.
The contrast to McCain's speech struck me as well. While I give credit to McCain for classiness, the refrain in his speech was very much - the president is African-American. Shouldn't African-Americans feel great about that?
For Obama, the point was that the struggle for racial equality and justice is inextricably intertwined with struggles for women's rights, international anti-fascism, and for economic fairness. He emphasized the particular historical location and meaning of his triumph, but he also made it an American victory and a human victory. It was beautiful.
Absolutely, I thought the same thing!
Thank you for this post!
"You're right about the model. But he's a much, much, much better actor than Cruise."
Will's not even really an actor. You saw Hancock. The whole movie was him scrunching up his nose. Cruise has been good in a lot of things. Take Jerry Maguire.
Fantastic article, but what's with all the typos?
humble as a mumble in the jungle
// I guess it's about how cool it is to get a little more free.//
And that's a feeling that knows no racial bounds.
Cheers and good on ya!
Will Smith makes me smile. Plus he's big, light brown, and delicious. I don't even mind the ears anymore.
I liked I, Robot and Hitch. Six Degrees of Separation proved he can act - when he wants to.
Tom Cruise is too self-regarding to be a good actor. He's irritating to boot.
Obama's speech about Cooper was delightful. He truly is a smart man. Folks will yack on about black women, and forget we comprise that demographic called "women" too. He didn't.
RE: "Not that he's not awesome, just that it makes reading the comments a bit icky-feeling sometimes."
I don't how reading about how great Ta-Nehisi is would be icky. Self-evident, of course. But some warmth in a blog keeps the trolls at bay.
I agree with the ickiness of the constant commenting on the awesomeness of TNC. Agreed that TNC is an interesting person with a nice style of blogging. props to him, etc. But people, it is a bit junior high school. "OMG!! I just love your sweater! It is such an awesome color! It just looks so cute on you! OMG!!"
Surely the fact that people come onto the blog and make thoughtful comments is proof enough to TNC that everyone thinks he is super-awesome-excellently-fantastic.
or does your ego appreciate these things, TNC? Maybe we could reserve these comments for special birthday presents or something?
I can't stand Will Smith. The braggadocio annoys me. He is an adequate to good actor, esp. if he's doing something he believes in. I didn't see "Will Smith" when I watched The Pursuit of Happyness. He almost pulled off the extremely difficult role in I Am Legend, but the dog upstaged him a tiny bit. He's probably taken the wrong career plan to ever land an Oscar, but who knows.
Have no fear, bramble, Will will star in his very own Oscar-baiting spinoff on Crash yet. And give that crap the weak performance it will deserve.
I think Will Smith is about the most charming man alive, and seeing him recite the preamble of the Constitution with Oprah added to that.
Between him and Obama, I think it's clear-- Big Ears are Cool!
Will Smith is a Scientologist. He is dead to me.