How I Can Relate To "Bamboozled"

Bamboozled is a film about stereotypes, especially African American stereotypes. I must admit, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, although I found it irritating. It was irritating because this is a very racist film; it exploits racism in order to make the point that racism is wrong. Being a huge fan of exploitation films, I can totally understand this. It was done in a very experimental fashion, and I was surprised by the way all these elements came together. This film also spoke to me on a more personal level than most of the other films I’ve reviewed or analyzed on this blog; that is because personally am very against using the “N” word. This is something I feel no person should say, black or white. Using the word in current times is very ignorant in my eyes. Believe it or not it was actually hip hop that got me so aware of the word. I went to a high school where all people black, white, Latin, etc. all used the “N” word and there was racism from time to time. Hip hop unifies people of all races. I am a white Italian American and I am involved in a hip hop group with all types of people of all different backgrounds. We refuse to use the “N” word in our music. We also feel that all the mainstream hip hop artist excessively using the “N” word are only hurting hip hop by spreading racism around the word. It was quite easy for me to identify with the character of 1/16^th Black who was portrayed but MC Serch of 3^rd Bass. It was also interesting to see other hip hop icons like Canibus and Mos Def portraying their view of racism and stereotypes in the film as well. I feel this is a film that many people need to see, and the plot could easy be written around a different race with the same events. In that sense, to me, Bamboozled is universal.