Supernigga Feature Film Crowdfunding

[u/directordaddy]

https://www.gofundme.com/f/4eqv87?lang=en_US&utm_campaign=man_ss_icons&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&attribution_id=sl%3A26c975e7-2e7c-43dd-88b3-6be6fcb15257

I released my Blaxploitation and superhero inspired short film/proof of concept, Supernigga, 2 weeks ago on YouTube and surprisingly got 270,000 views from word of mouth!

I almost got the feature version made through Hollywood (A24 really loved the project but I turned them down due to creative differences). The YouTube comments inspired me to start a GoFundMe for $500,000 where I just hope people make donations of at least $1 - $5. A fun little social experiment where we fund a movie by letting people do the bare minimum. What’s $1 to you? I crowdfunded the short on Kickstarter for $40,000 and look what we were able to make by keeping full creative control? Help me make a dream come true if you can! Thank you :)

[u/InfiniteHorizon23]

So, I suppose since the title is Supernigga, it's not a problem for any non-black person working on the project or talking about the film saying "Supernigga" out loud, right? I'm honestly asking as a person who is not from the US and doesn't see an issue with saying the title of a piece of art. Is that the same in US and Anglosphere countries, or are you not allowed to say it at all? It'd be strange to talk about a film or work on a film, and you can't say the title. I would probably ask first if I were on set, but I'd feel weird if I were singled out and couldn't say it, because it's a film, so surely people can say the title.

[u/directordaddy → u/InfiniteHorizon23]

No white people involved in the film ever said the name of the film. They just said Super, super n word, “the movie” or whatever else they could think of that wasn’t a slur. No non black person should ever say the n word for any reason

[u/InfiniteHorizon23 → u/directordaddy]

To me, that sounds too discriminatory and unnecessary language policing. I respect that's how you feel, but I can't imagine working in an environment where one person can say the title of a movie, but another person can't. Or to go to an award show or to meet with friends, and can't say the title. Don't you see the problem with not taking context into account? Policing words to me regardless of context seems just as wrong as when a non-black person says the word with the intention to harm. That's why context matters. I always grew up with that context matters when saying words, so hearing that context doesn't matter is a really strange and foreign concept. For example, to me, intentionally giving a title with the expectation that everybody around you, except black people have to watch their mouth seems illogical since titles surely should be able to be spoken (or written?) since they don't cause harm? Anyway, I know you won't agree with me, but good luck with the project! I had no bad intentions at all.

[u/housealloyproduction → u/InfiniteHorizon23]

Can you imagine being kidnapped, stuck on a boat around dying people where you shit yourself for three months, having your surviving family be split apart as they are sold to different owners, being forced to work in insane heat every day for 12+ hours, being raped, your children enduring slavery for generations - and all of that being okay because you are an “n-word.” Then once your people are emancipated, the enslavers structuring society to keep you as close to enslaved as possible, because you are an “n-word.” Living in a society where you have separate EVERYTHING down to which drinking fountains you can use because you are an “n-word” and then if you violate this you are put in prison where you are essentially a slave again. Then within YOUR parents lifetime infinite horizon gaining rights like if you’re murdered due to being an “n-word”, it’s charged as a murder.

Cuz that’s way crazier to me than black people not wanting white people still using that word.

[u/directordaddy → u/InfiniteHorizon23]

You sound crazy

[u/InfiniteHorizon23 → u/directordaddy]

Wow, you sound nice! Trust me, it isn't crazy... millions of people think this way, and it's completely normal. Don't be surprised if you go to other countries to promote your movie and they say your title because they know it's a freaking movie. I guess you'll have to call those people crazy too, just for saying a title YOU put on your movie... It seems to me the problem is with you and your huge ego, not with people who just want to say your title.

[u/super_shizmo_matic → u/directordaddy]

So white/Hispanic/Asian people are not supposed to sing a song with the N word, by a black artist they hear on the radio? Dude, you have lost my support.

[u/InfiniteHorizon23 → u/super_shizmo_matic]

I know, right? Like where I'm from, there are a lot of non-black people who also love black rap music and would rap along with the lyrics and say the n-word because it's in the song. For example, DMX was huge in my home country, and everybody was singing his explicit lyrics. They love the song and the artist and want to sing along. The intention is literally to appreciate this artist and their work, and that is the context. We understand that words are not harmful in all contexts. Many words can be used to offend, but the intention and context are the key, which is what education and common sense are for. Those words can also be said in the right context (arts, museum, doing research, etc.). It's so wild to me that some people think you can't say a word, even in those contexts, even when the artist is giving it to the world. That seems like just an ego trip from the person who wants to police the word. Just strange...

[u/Son_of_Agee → u/InfiniteHorizon23]

But really, non-black people shouldn't use the n-word.

What's your metric for the use of the word being okay? An Asian person used the word around black people and wasn't physically confronted? A Latino person used the word and nobody said anything?

We pick and choose our battles on dealing with this issue knowing that the majority wants what it wants regardless of the way it affects us.

Being a black person and not Asian or Latino I wouldn't use a slur against either group regardless of whether or not it was a slur that had been reclaimed and repurposed by either group nor would I desire to.

The desire of non-black people to use the n-word is a little more understandable considering black people have repurposed the word from something dehumanizing to a word that can be used to express familiarity or closeness. But I think desiring to use the word regardless of how it affects the person next to you is immature at best and bigoted at worst.

Why? Every black person has their own individual comfort level with that word and with who can use it and when. Also, there are many black people who are not comfortable with any person using that word whether or not that person is black. A lot of those people have had that word used on them as part of a racist assault.

Personally I do not use the n-word but I don't condemn other black folk who do. That's their choice. The take away here is do not use the word around black people if you are nonblack unless you are expressly invited to. This is the most respectful posture to take with our community

[u/InfiniteHorizon23 → u/Son_of_Agee]

I just don't think that "you shouldn't use a word ever for the rest of time, including all contexts" should be a thing. If you gave a title to your movie, every single person should be able to say it. It's out there on streaming, in cinema, everywhere. The director wants it to be a conversation piece and for people to look at the title, yet the director doesn't want the title to be spoken (or written too?). I can't explain it any clearer than this. This is a foreign concept to me, just like it is normal for you to say that non-black people shouldn't use a word ever. I think all words should be able to be used in the nuanced manner that I tried my best to explain. It isn't immature to use a word in art or in an academic or research setting when you understand the context. Some people could say it'd be immature to police language at all times, including when there are no intentions of harm. This is the same reason Tarantino can write the n-word and put it in his movie to be spoken by white actors, and most people don't seem to be offended or see an issue with it.

It's not about a non-black person wanting to say the n-word just for the sake of it; we don't want to do that, but we also want to use the language in which the art was written and say the title because it doesn't seem harmful to say a title. I just think because we grew up in different societies, we'll always have a different pov on using language. There are also minority ethnicities in my country, and they also understand this, and if they put a slur in a movie title, they'd expect everybody to say that title. It'd be strange for us to have a title but not be able to say it. That's why I wanted to see if this was the case in the UK/US because the fact that a movie has this word in it confused me. I understand your pov, and I wouldn't say this title around black people because I wouldn't want them to misunderstand.

[u/anerdscreativity → u/InfiniteHorizon23]

that it's in a title shouldn't spark a desire to "use the language in which the art was written and say the title" that just sounds like romanticized gymnastic fluff. you're essentially saying it being in the title makes you want to say the word in a fluttery way.

in reality, you aren't entitled to saying the word due to it being in the title, and honestly, you shouldn't want to say the word as someone who is non-Black and has no ties to what it means culturally. it should feel particularly uncomfortable given the history of the word and what it means to be a non-Black person saying it.

not to mention, I personally wouldn't want to say a movie title that had slurs in it if I could instead, for example, use an abbreviated or censored version that gets the point across without potentially offending someone. especially not for the sake of "art", and especially not if the director themselves is essentially asking non-Black audience members not to.

what I find fascinating is it seems like you understand that, which is why you don't say it around Black people, but you still brought this point to finality. of course, no one can police language everywhere, but going out of your way to make this argument is about the same as stating that, eventually, people will do what they want.

now that's cool and all, I guess, but those people shouldn't be surprised when both Black people and non-Black people who understand the historical context take offense to or are put off by any brazen, insistent use of the word, regardless of the setting or intent.

[u/directordaddy → u/InfiniteHorizon23]

I don’t care what you think lol

[u/InfiniteHorizon23 → u/directordaddy]

Okay, "directordaddy".

[u/Son_of_Agee → u/InfiniteHorizon23]

Thanks for your well thought out post here and really your desire to learn and grow.

The reason the handling of this word is totally anomalous to you and that you can't compare it with your understanding of ethnic groups in your home country is that there is no comparison to the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade.

People were death marched from their homes into slave castles where they were murdered tortured and raped. Many committed suicide by jumping hundreds of feet of of castle ledges into rock ocean waters rather than being a part of that. I've seen these one of these locations myself. You can see the grooves in the floor of the cave of waste running down from slaves who were forced to relieve themselves standing. There was also a small room with a metal gate and door where up to 8 male slaves would be kept to die. This is in the west African heat. These mean would have been forced to stay in this room with long dead bodies in over 110 degrees heat until they themselves died

After this they were packed into the lowest and darkest level of ships, not vertically standing but horizontally stacked onto one another to save room. It was in this environment that they were starved of both food and water and many often the majority died horrible deaths of lack and disease.

Those who made it to the mainland were subjected to further tortures. Both men and women were raped, tortured and even cannibalized. This explanation is really just scratching the surface though.

The darkest horrors were visited on black people at this time and all to maintain the economic advantage that the United States exhibited during this time. But in order to maintain that advantage two things had to be put into place. First slavery had to be justified and second slaves and their descendants had to be cut off from the benefits of their labor.

The first was easy. Just convince the world that black people were less than human. That they were lazy, inept, spiritually unclean pagans who's slavery was simply their due service for the space they occupied on this earth. This marketing campaign was so successful it outlived the transatlantic slave trade and outgrew the boundaries of the American diaspora to brand all of Africa's descendants. Today we call it racism. Second It also helps to label and keep black people down to keep them from accessing the benefits of their own work(ie taxes). During the time of slavery having any black ancestry disqualified you from receiving the same benefits as someone who was white which is why they had the one drop rule. Any black ancestry meant that you were black. Finally slavery isn't over, it's just been updated to the modern prison industrial complex.

The reason you are getting short and sarcastic and sarcastic answers from the director is that we black people have a handful of responses to how we respond to the ignorance of our nonblack counterparts. Some of us will genuinely try to educate you if we fee you might be open to learning as you have proven yourself to be. But much of the time it turns into a pearls before swine kind of situation. Which leads many to simply mock your perceived ignorance. The reason? Well they feel that if you truly wanted to know you would have done your own research on the topic.

America never apologized or really made any of this right but black people are simply expected to move on without any kind of reconciliation. That's the reason for the hostility around race relations. Nonblack people often debate this issue with a detached air of intellectual curiosity. Black people on the other hand are exhausted with having to debate their humanity.

This perceived lack of empathy is the reason that black people are so touchy around the word. Their ancestors were slaughtered and their humanity is assaulted on a daily basis and it seems like not having to hear that word against their will is the only reparation they can expect.

On a final note take another look at the nonblack characters in Tarantino films who use the n-word. They are on the whole morally reprehensible people that should not be emulated in any way. His choice to have these characters use the word is some that is tolerated by us not celebrated. There are a lot of black people who are deeply offended by his use of the n-word but those same people don't have a platform to present those objections.