I might say some stupid shit here. This is the Porg might say some stupid shit warning. Please be kind. It's Easter, but I wanna sort out my thoughts on Remmick before I start my Miles Canton in everything campaign and my Li jun Li and Yao do a romantic comedy campaign because I have decided those four characters are my favorites.
So. I'm white. Irish Italian Hispanic German Caucasian- and i got some stuff to say about *that* guy.
I think I finally figured out what made me sad about Sinners (giving myself the weekend to turn this around in my head like a cat with yarn). And it's the realization that Sammie's connection to his culture was so much richer than what Remmick had which is the root of the dichotomy between "I lied to you" (musical #1) and "the rocky road to dublin" (musical #2).
And the absolute brilliance of that is that I as a white person am probably exactly where Coogler wanted me to be in that because you're like "oh shit playing the villian with how you consume art and culture" and the part that made me cry was the sympathy.
Like grace got it. Grace got it and the narrative treats the monster with sympathy too - when he deserves none. "The soul gets stuck and you can't commune with your ancestors" and when you see the warmth that comes from that level of community. Even smoke asks "can we turn him back" and the answer is like "no you can't you have to kill him"
Then you find out just who Remmick is- and the brilliance is that it doesn't linger on it. The dude was probably a huge dick. It doesn't mean that what the British did to people in Ireland *didn't fucking suck*. Coogler talks about it too. There's a big reason why Ireland is so staunch for Palestine. They know what it's like to be a fucking colony that got fucked over by the British.
But for a lot of white Americans who claim Irish ancestry no matter how close or far...you're stuck. Cause white Americans *aren't Irish* we're stuck. Every single European who jumped over to America or were pushed or w/e chose assimilation and colonization. They keep the "weird stuff" for ren Faire or pasta for Italian day or w/e but we're not seeped in it. We don't go out and *live* in it. It's like a school fair "my heritage" project.
(This resulted in a slightly hilarious conversation with my Latino coworkers. "White people vampires! Omg it's true we kinda can be...well no not *you* tho Porg...👀😬)
So I think what made me cry was the raw beauty of musical #1 and the recognition that #2 was *bad* because trying to force everybody to be the same to recapture something *you* lost because you can't heal the pain that comes from not having *that* intense connection to an ancestral past. My uncle did the work to try and become Irish citizens on my mom's side (i guess we're that close) through your own actions and choices.
Let's not forget that the Irish who came to America by in large decided that rather than align themselves with the oppressed (which would have been a big fucking help) ...most cops in movies around the 1900s have Irish names for a reason. The Irish assimilated willingly along with the Italians and the Polish and the rest of the people facing a nativist backlash from protestant folks who had already started the colonization process.
(California's governor Gavin "I'm gonna podcast with Charlie Kirk" Newsom is pretty proud of the fact that his great great something came over to California...and was an Irish cop for instance.)
So digesting this, I'm upset and angry and sad because my ancestors, instead of choosing allyship, chose to abandon *their* culture in favor of power. And I think that the great thing about this movie's antagonist is that he knows he did this, he knows he fucked up, but he can't and won't admit it and that is the crux of whiteness. It's not an identity, it's not a culture, it's a power structure that just leaves you feeling empty like a vampire.
He had his home stripped from him! Nobody's denying that! He had bad shit happen! But when faced with oppression rather than chose to tear the system down he chose to oppress. And most humans do. The guy openly admits at the end that the church came in and forced the lord's prayer on him which could have happened in the 1100s since the lords prayer was first introduced i think in 460something don't get mad at me pls Jesus I'm sorry I'm not good with my catholic history)
"But those words still give me comfort".
Anyway great fucking villain. Fucking amazing way to die. Definitely gave me the feels (Coogler knows how to hit me where it hurts) mad at my great grandpa and my grandmother (we're so Irish my cousin told me "don't tell grandma you've got 0.8 English DNA" when we did that DNA test shit even tho it's bound to fucking happen.) Fuck the English, Free Palestine and Ryan Coogler mixing the most *fire remix* of The Rocky Road to Dublin that basically ruined the mixed by Irish people remixes feels really apt.
Because that's y'know. How culture should be consumed. You learn. You respect. If you do *anything* you do it respectfully and leave it fucking better than you found it with the permission of all concerned because most people don't and rarely if ever have. When people do though?
What shines through is magic. The kind of stuff that makes me wonder if we set ourselves up to fail because if we did it right like, we'd be so good as a species the universe might implode and God would come down and be like "wow. Hello."
God this movie.
Okay that's off my chest. Now I can go back to trying to figure out who i want Miles Canton to play in the MCU.
UPDATE: looking back over this I realize 3 things. 1) i think this was important to say it because I'm no longer chewing on it, twisting it around, puzzling at it. 2) i was reading an interview someone friends of friends i know did with Delroy Lindo did about Freedom in the movie and the conversations this film needed to inspire and I'm on track.
3). I would also like Li and Yao in the MCU. I am spiriting them and Miles away to the MCU. Who will they play yet *I DONT KNOW* give me five minutes. I'm on a hyper fucking venom kick so I want to put them somewhere in the spider-verse but I'm not picky. X-Men. SHIELD agents.