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I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free: On Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes And The Help

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There is…a myth about America to which we are clinging which has nothing to do with the lives we lead…this collision between one’s image of oneself and what one actually is is always very painful and there are two things you can do about it, you can meet the collision head-on and try and become what you really are or you can retreat and try to remain what you thought you were, which is a fantasy, in which you will certainly perish.

-James Baldwin, (Nobody Knows My Name, 1961)

 

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You know something very bizarre is going on in Hollywood when the movie “Rise of Planet of the Apes” tells more about the black experience in America than “The Help.”

I went to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes because it’s summer, the time for escapist movies, and right now there is a lot I want to escape from. I’m tired of hearing about the Tea Party and debt ceilings; Christine O’Donnell, pampered and indulged by Fox News, just walked off Piers Morgan’s talk show because he had the nerve to ask her as a politician about her views on gay marriage and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: the Bush insanity is making a comeback. I go back and forth between being outraged and disappointed with Obama and feeling genuinely sorry for him. Having not run for president as a black person, he can’t play the “discrimination” card against John Boehner & Co. now when he needs it most. (Whether he has the most powerful position in the world or works at McDonald’s, Obama’s black in America, which means he has to deal with at least one racist white person at his job.)

An hour into Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and on the verge of tears, I felt questions of politics and race more present than ever, and thought, “What the hell is going on in this movie?” So much for escapism.

One thing that was definitely going on was the beauty of Andy Serkis’ peformance as the chimpanzee Caesar. (Regrettably, it is almost impossible to discuss the film without giving away some plot details.) Caesar’s mother is killed after she goes on a destructive rampage in the laboratory where she has been used for drug testing. It is later discovered that she was trying to protect the baby no one knew she had. Caesar, as he is later named, has absorbed traces of the drug given to his mother to reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s. The drug, it is soon discovered, also has the effect of increasing mental ability. When the research is terminated, all the chimps are put down, but one of the scientists, Will Rodman, played by James Franco, sneaks Caesar home from the lab and raises him. Caesar goes from an adorable baby to a soulful, intelligent adult. When, during a misunderstanding, Caesar attacks a neighbor fighting with Will’s father, he is sent to a court-ordered sanctuary and forced to stay there, separated from everyone he knows and loves. It becomes clear that the sanctuary is a brutal place, and the apes there reflect long-term oppression and neglect: rage, depression, sickness, in-fighting, hysteria, and heartbreak. Rodman is forced to leave Caesar, and is tricked into thinking the sanctuary is a safe place. The apes are kept in dark, damp cages out of sight, where they are treated cruelly, taunted by a white overseer.

So many things are happening in these scenes: the primates in their cages and the attempts to the communicate through the bars despite their differences (Caesar befriends a circus orangutan), recalls enslaved Africans trying to communicate with each other whilst speaking different languages during the Middle Passage. At one point, Caesar has a hose turned on him as punishment for rebelling, recalling images of brutality from the civil rights movement. The man who runs the Sanctuary tells Rodman to make sure to call before he comes, meaning he wants time to prepare for his visit and hide the signs of abuse. Rise of the Planet of the Apes then becomes a movie about those thrown away in our society, about institutional care for the mentally ill, or elder care when patients are left to waste, only to be “cleaned up” for their families on visiting days. In the yard, when all the apes are briefly allowed to leave their cages, Caesar is forced to defend himself from another inmate. The viewer experiences the horror of being incarcerated, of having to survive within the prison system. Because there is no condescension in Serkis’ performance, nor in the writing or directing, the scenes have the power to overwhelm one emotionally. When the apes orchestrate their break from the “sanctuary” there is a soulful look between Caesar and the orangutan, a deep, mature, knowing exchange that made me want to sit up and shout, “Now that was definitely a black look!”

At one point in the movie, when the testing of the drug is reinstated, a new chimp named Koba is brought in, who has clearly been through hell. His face alone can move one to tears, or terror. I loved the movie at this point for showing us that face, because every black person in America has at least one family member with a face like that, whether we admit it or not. It’s the cousin in prison, or the relative driven mad by racism or poverty. It’s the face of an angry slave, a face that has been whipped and tortured. It’s a dangerous face, a face that you keep incarcerated, or your boot pressed down against, because if that face ever gets up, it’s going to have something for your ass. (There’s no face like this, by the way, in The Help.)

On one of the promotional posters I saw, an ape is holding up his fist, Black Panther Party-style, and the tagline reads, “Evolution Becomes Revolution.” Could it be that when Hollywood finally decides to tell the truth about black lives, it’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes? And, if so, how fucking shady is that? Perhaps no one would come to see a bunch of black people rioting and throwing metal spears at police cars (spears made from the broken fence of the local zoo where the primates liberate others from captivity), but they’ll watch these apes. And with one very cruel exception, the apes are surprisingly non-violent. They kick ass, but only when they feel they have to: and there are many instances where the film could have poured on the sadism, but the apes make their point, and let the people go. They don’t want revenge for revenge’s sake, but self-determination.

(One person they don’t let go, however, is the greedy, unscrupulous black man who finances and runs the lab. David Oyelowo may have the singular distinction of being the longest-surviving black man in a horror film. I wasn’t sure what to make of his casting, but it does provide an interesting curly-cue, having the evil capitalist in the movie be black. (Shades of Condi Rice?) As more blacks seem to be craving a piece of the corporate, capitalist pie without apology, or scruples, Rise of the Planet of the Apes may be making the point that to the oppressed and the poor, the distinction between whites and blacks in power may not be so distinct anymore.)

I came out of Rise of the Planet of the Apes feeling larger and beautiful, which isn’t easy for a black man to admit, because the last thing you want anyone to compare you to, or to compare yourself to in a racist society, is an ape. I am aware that a white writer might seriously hesitate to write a piece comparing Caesar to a black man. But the real truth of the movie is an emotional one, transcending race and categorization. Rise of the Planet of the Apes could have been done in the “blaxploitation” tradition, a revenge fantasy for the oppressed, but it goes deeper than that. It speaks to anyone who has been brutalized, but even more significantly, underestimated. And if you’ve ever been raped, or bashed, or bullied, or called a faggot for being gay, or “caged” by being made “other”, you know what it means to want to escape from the cruelty of being unvalued, to find your own sense of self-definition and power.

When Rodman is reunited with Caesar in the forest and offers to bring him home, Caesar, who is now smart enough to talk, says, “Caesar is home” with the resonance and power of James Earl Jones. He starts out the child of a kidnapped mother that he never really knew (a mother captured by black hands in the movie’s preamble, referencing African tribes’ participation in the slave trade), and through intelligence and skill survives the prison his oppressors put him in. Creating a liberation experience from his incarceration (Nelson Mandela), he finds his courage and independence and becomes a leader.

Nina Simone sings, “I wish I knew how it would feel to be free. I wish I could break all the chains binding me.” It feels utterly bizarre to suggest people of color see Rise of the Planet of the Apes because of its healing power, but I will say that when Caesar’s black hand opens his cage for the first time, you feel the potential to be released from your own, and you rejoice.

Please continue to Part II.

Max Gordon is a writer and activist. He has been published in the anthologies Inside Separate Worlds: Life Stories of Young Blacks, Jews and Latinos (University of Michigan Press, 1991), Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of African-American Lesbian and Gay Fiction (Henry Holt, 1996) and Mixed Messages: An Anthology of Literature to Benefit Hospice and Cancer Causes. His work has also appeared on openDemocracy, Democratic Underground and Truthout, in Z Magazine, Gay Times, Sapience, and other progressive on-line and print magazines in the U.S. and internationally.

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Trump Claims ‘Tremendous Power’ to Run ‘Places’ Like DC and NYC

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President Donald Trump claimed the White House has legal authority to run parts of the country including Washington, D.C. and New York City, especially should he oppose its elected leaders. His remarks were another attack on the nation’s largest city, which his Transportation Secretary also targeted earlier on Tuesday.

Trump told reporters, “we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.”

“We could run D.C.” he alleged. “I mean, we’re looking at D.C. We don’t want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well.” Hey also claimed that the White House is currently “testing” running D.C.

Washington, D.C. and its 700,000 residents have an elected city council and mayor. While Congress maintains some control over the nation’s capital, a complete federal government takeover of a city would be unprecedented. Presidents have, at times, had to send in the National Guard, but never to permanently occupy and run a local government.

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Trump added that his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, “is working very closely with the mayor and they’re doing alright. I mean, in the sense that we would run it so good, it would be run so proper, we’d get the best person to run it.”

“The crime would be down to a minimal, would be much less, you know, we’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you. We want we want a capital that’s run flawlessly and it wouldn’t be hard for us to do it.”

If attempted, a federal takeover could raise serious concerns about voter disenfranchisement and further inflame opposition from advocates of D.C. statehood.

Trump also attacked Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s Democratic nominee for mayor, as “a man who’s not very capable, in my opinion, other than he’s got a good line of b—s—.”

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“I can tell you this,” Trump continued, I used to say, ‘We will not ever be a socialist country,’ right? Well, I’ll say it again. We’re not gonna have if a communist get elected to run New York, it can never be the same, but we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.”

Trump has previously threatened Mamdani “with arrest, denaturalization and removal from the country while repeatedly branding him a communist,” according to The Independent.

Watch the video below or at this link.


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‘Absolutely Mind Blowing’: Trump’s Ukraine Weapons Remark Draws Concern, Backlash

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President Donald Trump is claiming he does not know who ordered last week’s halt in critical U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine—a statement that immediately sparked backlash and renewed questions by critics over whether the Commander in Chief is in control of the U.S. military.

“Last week, the Pentagon paused some shipments of weapons to Ukraine,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins told President Trump (video below) after Tuesday’s White House Cabinet meeting. “Did you approve of that pause?”

The President, appearing to deflect or misunderstand the question, replied, “We wanted to put defensive weapons,” in Ukraine, “because Putin is not treating human beings right. He’s killing too many people. So we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine and I’ve approved that.”

“So who ordered the pause last week?” Collins pressed.

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “Why don’t you tell me?”

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After Trump delivered that remark, The Washington Post reported: “President Donald Trump’s decision to send more defensive weapons to Ukraine came after he privately expressed frustration with Pentagon officials for announcing a pause last week in the delivery of some critical weapons to Ukraine.”

The Post called it “a move that he felt wasn’t properly coordinated with the White House.”

Trump’s “I don’t know” remark comes amid a separate controversy in which he has repeatedly insisted that farmers need reliable workers and that ICE would not raid agricultural sites. He suggested the administration was developing a program allowing farmers to effectively sponsor undocumented laborers—only to have multiple senior officials publicly contradict or appear to override his plan, as recently as just hours ago.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, also on Tuesday, told reporters there will be “no amnesty” for undocumented immigrants working on farms, and, “mass deportations continue.”

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Critics are blasting the President for not knowing who paused the critical weapons shipment to Ukraine.

“When in charge, be in charge,” remarked veteran and veterans activist Paul Rieckhoff.

“This is absolutely mind blowing,” commented Jeanne Ava Plaumann, a journalist at the German newspaper Bild.

“I don’t know is always an alarming response when asked for accountability on major national security decisions,” noted Brett Bruen, president of a global public affairs agency.

Former U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, a Democrat, wrote: “Proving every day that he is mentally failing.”

Trump’s “I don’t know” remark also follows numerous instances of similar claims, which have led critics to question if—or declare that—the President is not in charge.

In May, during an Oval Office executive order signing ceremony, Trump posed multiple questions to attendees about what was in at least one of the orders.

“Are we doing something about the regulatory in here?” was one question Trump asked.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum responded, “You are, sir.”

Earlier in May, the 79-year old president was asked if he is obligated to “uphold the Constitution.” He infamously told NBC News’ Kristen Welker, “I don’t know.”

Also in May, in an Oval Office press gaggle, reporters asked, “Mr. President, is your administration sending migrants to Libya?”

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “You’ll have to ask Homeland Security.”

That same day, a reporter told Trump, “Your Treasury Secretary just told lawmakers that a tariff exemption for certain baby items like car seats is under consideration. Will you exempt some products that families rely on?”

“I don’t know,” was the President’s response.

Back in April, Trump told reporters, “Many, many people come from the Congo. I don’t know what that is, but they came from the Congo.”

The Atlantic’s James Surowiecki, back in March noted: “Trump also didn’t know that his administration had invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport Tren de Aragua members, even though he had supposedly signed the executive order invoking it. ‘I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it,’ he said.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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‘Cartoon Villains’: Ag Secretary Under Fire for Medicaid-to-Farm-Work Plan

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U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has declared that the Trump administration’s massive deportation plans will continue without any amnesty for migrant farm workers, and insisted that “able-bodied” American adults who access Medicaid for health care insurance should be the ones to replace deported migrant farm workers. Critics have pushed back.

“I can’t underscore enough,” Secretary Rollins said at a press conference at the USDA on Tuesday, ahead of a White House Cabinet meeting. “There will be no amnesty, the mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, and we move the workforce towards automation and 100% American participation.

She added that, “with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.”

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Secretary Rollins’ remarks do not take into account that nearly two-thirds (64%) of adults under 65 accessing Medicaid are already working, according to KFF. Another 28% are exempt due to illness, school, or care-giving responsibilities.

Her statistic of 34 million able-bodied adults on Medicaid is promoted by a right-wing think tank, the Foundation for Government Accountability, which advocates for reducing work restrictions on teenagers, and opposes expanding Medicaid.

Also, there is not large-scale farm work available in every state, nor, does it appear, that would many Americans want to perform that work, especially for low wages. Farm work rarely offers employer-paid health care. And farm work is often seasonal.

Critics blasted Secretary Rollins.

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“They’re like cartoon villains,” wrote Bloomberg Opinion columnist Patricia Lopez. “So send Medicaid recipients in as field hands? Also, what is meant by strategic mass deportations? Just Blue states?”

“Lol,” exclaimed Yahoo News reporter Jordan Werissmann, “we’ve gone from ‘the USAID program analysts will make shoes’ to ‘people will pick strawberries to keep their health care’.”

“I have talked to literally thousands of MAGAs and have not found a single one who will work on a farm. Not one,” wrote New York Times bestselling author Ramit Sethi. “This is simply anti-immigrant bigotry from Republicans.”

“Ah, yes,” remarked journalist Lydia Polgreen, “those high paying farm labor jobs that include health insurance!”

“Did not think the script for 2025 would feature villains co-written by Charles Dickens and Pol Pot,” added historian Mike Cosgrave.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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