Posted on 06/11/2003 10:12:00 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
“8 Mile” is a good movie. It’s not good because it has great actions sequences, strong character development, interesting foreshadowing, unusual manipulation of the themes or for anything else movie critics often base their opinions on.
I enjoyed it because I was expecting it to be another overdone, expensive, Hollywood production; refreshingly, it was not. Also, it brought to light a couple important issues about Democratic politics—possibly inadvertently, as director Curtis Hanson isn’t exactly a card-carrying conservative.
There could have been very dramatic sequences with car chases, nauseating violence or a heart-wrenching love story; yet there were none of these things. Instead, it’s a simple story about a poor white guy trying to escape the dissoluteness of the ghetto, doing so using the seemingly only talent he was born with—an ability to rap creatively and in a lyrically—smooth manner. In so doing, the story provides a keen insight into what being impoverished is all about—and it’s not what you hear America’s most prominent liberals harp about day-in and day-out.
Liberals will lead you to believe that a ghetto is a ghetto because it’s comprised of black people, and because racism so devastatingly pervades our society, such a dense population of black people inevitably creates these imploding destitute neighborhoods.
White people live in ghettos too, and racism isn’t the cause of their poverty. Marshall Mathers, a.k.a. Eminem—playing the role of Jimmy Smith, or Bunny Rabbit in “8 Mile”—portrays the white ghetto dweller.
Detroit is an archetypal solidification of what 30 years of Democratic urban politics actually does to a city. 8 Mile Road runs along the entire northern boundary of Detroit, separating urban and suburban, dangerous areas and safe streets.
8 Mile Road is actually the figurative division line that’s depicted in the movie—on one side, there is the black neighborhood, and on the other, the masses that have made the exodus, escaping an innercity system that doesn’t work.
To walk from the outside towards the inside, the scenery dramatically changes from a functioning community to a dreary district noticeably void of any hope. When asked to explain this startling division line, Detroit congressman John Conyers bluntly answers, “Racism.”
“But the white/black divide of Eight Mile is really a myth—a convenient crutch,” writes Henry Payne in The Detroit News. “Southfield, the prosperous suburb immediately northwest of Detroit is 54 percent African American. Dearborn is 30 percent Arab. Detroit’s bordering townships are racial melting pots of Arabs, Poles, blacks and Jews, hardly the WASPish communities Conyers’ remark would lead you to believe.”
New businesses are rarely started in innercity Detroit; the tax rates are high and riots provide a risk that the police are unable to effectively combat. A generation of welfare addicts has become increasingly insidious. The workforce has an unbelievable 47 percent illiteracy rate. There is only one movie theatre, the Phoenix, on 8 Mile Road (where someone was shot on the opening night viewing of the movie). There is not one large retail store—no Wal-Mart, Sears or anything. Seventy percent of children are born into single-parent households.
No Detroit public officials attended the film’s premier at The Phoenix because they felt the film overly bastardized the depraved scenery of Detroit. These politicians would rather not talk about the policies that have ravaged their city, instead seeking to merely “look ahead” with continued bad strategy.
Eminem shows that bad politics doesn’t infect in accordance with race. Democratic aims of artificial alleviation impair urbanites of all skin colors. The other rappers he challenges in the freestyle battles also think that race is more important than class. They call him “Elvis,” “honkey,” “a Nazi” and other slurs to infer that the world of hip-hop is no place for a white boy. There are references to the KKK, Vanilla Ice, Willie Nelson and just about everything else that drives home the point that he is white and they are black.
Thankfully, Eminem lets us know that race does not matter. He is a fellow resident in the ghetto, regardless of the shade of his skin. He knows what its like to be poor, and he knows how to rap.
In his final battle, after incurring the massive onslaught of racial demagoguery, he retorts back against the other finalist.
He says playfully, “But I know something about/you went to Clairebrook, that’s a private school.”
He goes on to challenge his opponent’s ghetto credentials, “What’s the matter dogg, you embarrassed?/This guy’s a gangsta?/You’re real name’s Clarence/And Clarence lives at home with both parents/And Clarence’s parents have a real good marriage.”
Eminem knows that living in the slums of Detroit is about being poor, usually coming from a broken home and not necessarily black—“I’m a piece of white trash/I say it proudly.”
And so Eminem fulfilled the American Dream—he escaped the destitution of the ghetto, utilizing the talents he was blessed with to make a better life for himself and for his family.
Now if only Detroit’s political leadership could pick up on that strategy.
Eminem is a little too far out to be a conservative, but maybe he's a libertarian??
The "free-styling" scenes were excellent.
The movie is not beyond criticism but I was impressed by the portrayal of personal integrity & drive as a positive thing amongst the overwhelming negative influences.
Now everybody from the 313
Put your **deleted cursing** hands up and follow me
Everybody from the 313
Put your **deleted cursing** hands up
Look Look
Now while he stands tough
Notice that this man did not have his hands up
This free worlds got you gassed up
Now who's afraid of the big bad wolf
1, 2, 3 and to the 4
1 pac , 2 pac, 3 pac, 4
4 pac, 3 pac, 2 pac, 1
You're pac, he's pac, no pacs, none
This guy aint no **deleted masked cursing** MC,
I know everything he's got to say against me,
I am white, I am a **deleted masked cursing** bum, I do live in a trailer with my mom,
My boy Future is an Uncle Tom.
I do got a dumb friend named Cheddar Bomb who shoots
himself in the leg with his own gun,
I did get jumped by all 6 of you chumps
And Wink did **deleted cursing** my girl,
I'm still standin here screamin **deleted masked cursing** THE FREE WORLD!"
Don't ever try to judge me dude
You don't know what the **deleted masked cursing** i've been through
But i know something about you
You went to Crankbrook, that's a private school
What's the matter dawg? You embarrassed?
This guy's a gangster, his real name's Clarence
And Clarence lives at home with both parents
And Clarence's parents have a real good marriage
This guy don't wanna battle, He's shook
'Cause there no such thing as half-way crooks
He's scared to death
He's scared to look in his **deleted cursing** yearbook, **deleted masked cursing** Crankbrook
**deleted masked cursing** the beat, i go acapella
**deleted masked cursing** a papa doc, **deleted masked cursing** a clock, **deleted masked cursing** a trailer, **deleted masked cursing** everybody
**deleted masked cursing** y'all if you doubt me
I'm a piece of **deleted masked cursing** white trash, i say it proudly
And **deleted masked cursing** this battle, I don't wanna win, I'm outty,
Here, tell this people something they dont know about me.
LOL... We freepers tend to forget that the majority of Americans [unlike most of us] do NOT eat, sleep and breath politics. The vast majority of alienated street people couldn't care less about politics.
We have to get these "street people" to realize what the democreeps are doing to them - luring them into a lazy, entitlement mentality by playing the race and class cards. A movie like "8 Mile" is a draw for just those people.
What do you think?
You really hit it, and this may be a question that should be discussed in depth on this forum.
One friend is 100% pro-gun. He loves hunting and fishing. He HATES unions with a passion. He despises lawyers. He hates bureaucrats and runs them off his property if they can't show a warrant or an applicable law that allows them access. Yet he votes for lunatic left wing socialist democrats. Always. I can't figure him out.
being a musician myself i really liked that about the movie, too many of my freinds are like his friends in the movie, talking about all the things they're going to do once they get that record deal. first i try to explain they should do music because they love it, second a record deal dont mean poo. plenty of folks who get signed still work day jobs, or they get dropped before their record hits, or they get no promotion and end up in the cut out bin. this movie did a great job of exposing the idiot musician attitude, i noticed that of course but never looked at it from a political perspective, good article.
Southfield came into its own after the 1967 riots in Detroit. I lived in Ann Arbor from 1978 to 1983 and had a girlfriend at that time who was born in 1960 and graduated from Southfield-Lathrup High in 1978. The student body was almost completely white (if not completely so). Lots of Jews, and also Catholics and WASPs. The school had a huge pool and a TV studio. Most of the graduates went on to college, many at Michigan or other great schools. I visited her folks' house in Southfield many times. Modest but nice in a quiet, safe, beautifully kept neighborhood. At this time (1982-3) Southfield was the greatest (and one of the first) "exurbs." There were numerous tall, shiny new office parks, malls, nice stores, clean and safe gas stations, etc. Hometown of the American Dream - suburban version.
When last I passed through there (last July) it had changed quite a bit. It was definitely on its way down. Empty offices and storefronts. Skanky and dangerous-looking gas stations. Deteriorating streets. Trashy and unkempt.
Southfield is prosperous in the way that South Africa is prosperous. The current residents are slowly consuming the legacy of those who came before. It still looks good in comparison to its worse-off neighbors, but nobody with any real money is investing there for the long term.
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