THE BUTLER CELEBRATES CIVIL RIGHTS PROGRESS
Released during the week of the 50th year anniversary of the March on Washington, The Butler provides a feel-good historical summary of civil rights developments for nearly a century. The Butler (played by Forest Whitaker) is Cecil Gaines, who is born on a cotton plantation in Georgia in the 1920s, sees his dad shot dead by a white supervisor, is taken by the matriarch Annabeth Westfall (played by Vanessa Redgrave) as a “house nigger,” flees, works for a rich black family, is hired as a White House butler during the Eisenhower administration, marries Gloria (played by Oprah Winfrey), and has a couple of sons, one of which dies in Vietnam. (Although screenwriter Danny Strong based his script on a Washington Post article about a black man who served as a butler for eight presidents from the 1950s to the 1980s, the film is not a biopic.) Instructed never to react to anything said in the Oval Office, Gaines is in the room when Eisenhower (played by Robin Williams) contemplates action against Arkansas Governor Faubus, hears an admission by John Kennedy (played by James Marsden) that “white citizen council” excesses changed his mind, witnesses the agony of Lyndon Johnson (played by Liev Schreiber) over Vietnam, is asked by Richard Nixon (played by John Cusack) to commiserate over his ultimate resignation, discovers that Nancy Reagan (played by Jane Fonda) is the boss over her husband (played by Alan Rickman), who resists imposing sanctions on apartheid South Africa. And the Butler is there when Barack Obama (played by Orlando Eric Street) arrives as president. The action star of the film is one of his sons, Louis (played by David Oyelowo), who is the family activist, participating in a lunchcounter sit-in, a freedom ride, gets arrested several times, and even joins the Black Panthers. Despite his conservative dad, Louis continues his activism until one day the Butler joins an anti-apartheid rally and is arrested along with his son. Director Lee Daniels appeals primarily to white Americans so that they can pat themselves on the back for progress in race relations.
But a Pew Research Center poll released soon after the film reveals something very different. Although 48% of whites believe that “a lot” of progress has been made in the last 50 years, and 32% of blacks agree, when the question is whether “a lot” more progress is needed, the figures are 79 percent for blacks but only 44 percent for whites. A similar gap exists when the races rate current fairness in dealing with police, the courts, on the job, in restaurants and stores, in public schools, in getting health case, and especially when voting in elections. MH