(Not so) Quick quick thoughts on V for Vendetta at Grand Lake Theater tonight to support Occupy Oakland
so i caught v for vendetta tonight at grand lake theater in oakland in support of their occupy oakland fundraiser. i also posted this on twitter (yes, tryin to get back on my twitter game): “Kinda weird to be here (read: hella white folx). How bourgie are we? V for vendetta at grand lake theater.”
after the movie i checked my timeline and received a response from one @dumamericandream: “I’m white I’m not bourgeois I live in Oakland why is it weird to you?”
given such disclosed information, i feel like i must respond in a manner that addresses being white, not “bourgeois”, and living in oakland. and yes, along with why it was weird. i apologize in advance for any irony (read: sarcasm), as that is my normal unfiltered speaking voice.
- the theatre. the theatre (as a structure and as an institution) was not made for people of color. built by and made about perhaps yes. so my uncomfortability with being in one stems from having not belonged to yet somehow being in.
- allen michaan (the theater’s curator) said before the screening that democracy died the day the supreme court ordered to stop the 2000 presidential election florida recount. and i would say that for marginalized people, democracy has never lived. it privileges the voice of the majority and uses 50%+1 logic to justify suppressing alternative thought. in america, “democracy” is the force that rules everyone, but participating in it has historically not been afforded to everyone that it affects.
- living in oakland. i live in oakland. but i’m not from oakland. quite frankly, from my quick glance around the theater, i didn’t see any native ohlone people (though i may have missed spotting one of the ~1,400 registered ohlone). so it is a little “weird” to me that we people who are not from oakland seek to occupy it.
- as far as being bourgie, i might be able to get away saying that the theater (as an institution again) is bourgeois. but even the royal shakespeare theater in mother england offers cheap tickets. by “bourgie” i meant to say, “what privilege we have that we do not have more pressing things we have to be doing such as taking care of our children or other relying person, what privilege we have that we can spend $10 and 2 hours watching this movie at 7:30 at night and not have to be working or resting in between work.” i meant to say something to this extent but twitter only allows 140 characters.
how bourgie of us to feel so inundated and be relegated to throwing money at a movement that requires us to move, and how bourgie of us to be so passive and sit and watch revolution happen on the movie screen.
