On Sunday while doing press backstage at the Golden Globes for winning Best Screenplay for Django Unchained, the iconic filmmaker made white people uncomfortable backstage when he refused to whitewash the N-word for the press. During a Q&A session, he was asked if he ever thought about not using the word "nigger" in his hit movie, and here is what QT said:
"No, not really, because it's... If somebody is out there actually saying it when it comes to the word nigger, that the fact that I was using it in the movie more than it was used in the Antebellum South in Missippii in 1858, then feel free to make that case. But no one is actually making that case. So in other words, they're actually saying that I should soften it, they're saying I should lie, they're saying I should whitewash, they're saying I should massage and I never do that when it comes to my characters."
According to E! News, the minute QT said nigger out loud in a room full of white people, it got so quiet you could hear a pin drop. After QT exited the stage, Don Cheatle came out afterwards and broke the awkwardness by saying, "Please no 'nigger questions'. Black people questions are all right."
I personally had no problem with QT using nigger in Django or in front of a bunch of uncomfortable reporters, because his quote was absolutely right. Nigger is what people were called in those days, and in some circles of the south are still called. I feel that black people who are complaining about the use of the word in the film haven't truly dealt with the repercussions of slavery, and white people haven't accepted the fact that slavery was far worse than the holocaust. Instead of people focusing on the fact that nigger was used in the film over a hundred times, what black families should be doing is using Django as a platform to open a healthy dialogue about the true history of slavery, since they aren't learning in school. Calling it "The N-Word" whitewashes the fact that this word is powerful and makes people uncomfortable, and I hate the fact that it's been watered down to a fucking letter because some white reporter couldn't bring themselves to say the actual word a few years back. Until black people can move on from this and white people can acknowledge the damage racism and slavery has caused in the United States, we will not move on from this.
Check out QT dropping the nigger bomb at the 0:35 mark below...
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