The Washington Post - 24.02.2020

C2 eZ re the washington post.monday, february 24 , 2020

for martin, a principal in Wal-

dorf, m d., who was raised in Loui-

siana, the story’s Southern setting

created a cast of characters he

could identify with growing up.

martin fell in love with Celie and

watched how she quietly sat back

and studied people. She taught

him that sometimes the strongest

people are the quietest.

He planned to go see the movie

in the theater Sunday and expect-

ed it to again touch all his emo-

tions. “But as a person who likes

to laugh, some stuff was funny as

hell,” martin said.

Ellisha “Teapot” mcKinney, 49,

of Northeast Washington said she

watches “The Color Purple” e very

year on television and thinks she

has seen it at least 400 times. She

was glad to have the opportunity

to see it once more in the theater

on Sunday.

“It’s such a powerful story of

love between family and sisters

and mother and children,” she

said. The reunion scenes are the

most emotional she says. “I cry

every single time. I start getting

choked up when Celie yells for

Nettie. And I am definitely crying,

straight-up and-down-for-real

tears, when she is hugging her

children.”

With each viewing, mcKinney

said, she notices small details that

she realizes helped carry the story

such as the brightly colored cos-

tumes and changing hairstyles of

the women that reflect the time

periods in the film.

And for mcKinney, who works

as a vocal clinician, the film’s use

of music — from jazz to blues to

gospel — was another powerful

way of steering the narrative.

How many movies that came

out in 1985 are still relevant and

being shown? mcKinney wonders.

“The characters are all relat-

able. We’re still fighting in clubs.

There is still adultery. People are

still going to juke joints. We still

have issues with our parents. Peo-

ple are still being shunned for

being different. People are still

being bullied. Black women are

still not being heard or counted,

in society or in the workplace,”

she said. “This film will outlive us

all and will continue to inspire

generations long after us.”

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them. We q uote them like they are

members of our family.”

The film also revealed how

people in pain themselves inflict

pain on others. And that pain

often originates in the home.

When the film was released, what

seemed to be overlooked by those

protesting the movie was how

Danny Glover’s abusive character

mister was actually still a weak

little boy desperately trying to

please his father by emulating his

abusive, archaic and misogynistic

behavior and ideologies. The few

scenes between Glover and old

mister, played by the late Adolph

Caesar, were pivotal. They o ffered

a glimpse of the source of mister’s

treatment of Celie and how such

behavior — unless recognized and

changed — can be passed down

through generations, just as mis-

ter tried to do with his own son

Harpo.

Wendell martin, 52, said the

film wasn’t the kind of movie he

would sit around in the barber

shop and talk about with the

brothers. But it was impactful

and memorable. “It was a won-

derful movie about hope,” he said.

musicals — because it inspires

those who have felt invisible,

powerless or marginalized, film

historians say.

But for many African Ameri-

cans, the film also celebrates that

quiet, strategic strength so many

use to survive.

“It speaks to that resilience.

That narrative of no matter how

many things come at you, you are

still able to pick yourself up. That

feeling is universal and timeless,”

said montré missouri, director of

Howard University’s master of

fine arts in film program.

Spielberg’s directorial vision,

missouri said, and his ability to

extract complicated performanc-

es out of relatively novice actors

made the film a classic. “His di-

rection brought so much humani-

ty to black life.”

But the memorable storytell-

ing begins with Walker’s charac-

ters. “It’s the humanity of those

characters... that’s why we quote

them, because they were real to

us,” missouri said. “Those people

lived with us. The characters stay

with you. We h ave so much empa-

thy for them. We identify with

C

omedian and nationally

syndicated radio show host

rickey Smiley was also a

teenager when the film was re-

leased. Smiley, 51, said the film’s

characters and theme don’t age.

“You learn something new every

time you watch it,” he said. “There

were a lot of lessons to be learned.

But for me, the main lessons were

restraint and discretion.”

Smiley said watching Celie suf-

fer abuse without lashing out and

instead waiting patiently until

things turned around was poi-

gnant. Smiley calls the movie Hol-

lywood’s “ I Won’t Complain” f ilm,

referring to the popular gospel

song that celebrates God’s sus-

taining power through life’s h ard-

ships. “It makes folks in church

feel some kind of way and want to

take off running. That’s what this

film does,” Smiley said. “You

watch it and once it gets to your

favorite scene, you want to take

off and start hollering.”

The movie, focused on the tra-

vails of Celie, who was physically

and sexually abused by men most

of her life, has had staying power

— even spawning two Broadway

a story of survival, strength, love

of self and others, family, and

forgiveness. multiple, interwoven

story lines, complicated charac-

ters and unforgettable dialogue

were all based on the poetic novel

by Alice Walker, who had earned a

Pulitzer Prize for fiction before

director Steven Spielberg, pro-

ducer Quincy Jones and others

cinematized her work.

The movie was immediately

popular, staying in U.S. theaters

for 21 weeks and grossing more

than $142 million worldwide, but

it wasn’t without controversy.

Some chapters of the NAACP

called for a boycott of the film

when it opened because its lead-

ers thought the movie depicted

black men negatively. Still, “The

Color Purple” garnered 11 Acade-

my Award nominations, includ-

ing first-time nominations for its

stars.

I watched the oscars that night

on television only to see the film

shut out of every category, while

the robert redford-meryl Streep

romance “out of Africa,” which

also nabbed 11 oscar nominations

that year, won the most trophies.

“The cultural impact is undeni-
able,” said Latesha Williams, co-
founder of the card game Black
Card revoked, which asks ques-
tions about African American
popular culture and incorporates
nearly a half-dozen queries about
“The Color Purple.” I n the game,
the film is tied with the 1995 Ice
Cube comedy “friday” for most
movie references.
“The film is in every black
person’s collection,” said Wil-
liams, 36. “People get that being
African American comes with its
circumstances — good, bad, beau-
tiful, painful, ugly and amazing.
And this film captured all of that,
at times with humor.”

W

hen “The Color Purple”
was released in theaters
in 1985, about eight of my
friends and I hopped a local bus to
a neighborhood theater in Pitts-
burgh.
The show was sold out, and we
had to split up to find seats. I sat
in the second row, with my neck
craning up for nearly three hours
staring at the screen. Two of my
buddies sat on the sticky floor in
the back of the theater.
I was just 15 then, and it was
my first time seeing so many
black people on the big screen. I
was mesmerized watching
Whoopi Goldberg’s Golden
Globe-winning performance as
Celie as she aged from 20-some-
thing to an elderly woman. Her
movements dramatically
slowed, her hair grayed, but her
brown face was just as smooth.
That transformation reminded
me of my grandmother and the
circle of ladies she met with
weekly to quilt, gossip and laugh
out loud.
I remember snickering as I
watched oprah Winfrey’s debut
film performance as Sofia, Ce-
lie’s s tepdaughter-in-law. my im-
maturity and youth caused me to
laugh during a scene where the
wind blew up her skirt, exposing
her legs and underwear. Sofia
had just been knocked uncon-
scious by an armed white man
because she had responded “Hell
no” t o miss millie, a white wom-
an who had suggested Sofia
work as her maid. The pain,
brutality and degradation were
lost on me then.
After the movie, I recall how
unusually quiet my friends and I
were on the bus ride home that
evening. We h ad never seen a film
so disturbing, fascinating and
amazing all at the same time.
more than a decade later, I saw
it again through more mature
eyes. The film registered to me as

movie from C1

For many, fi lm has an enduring, bone-deep resonance

sunset boulevard/corbis/getty images

Akosua Busia as Nettie and Desreta Jackson as young Celie in “The Color Purple.” The film, based on Alice Walker’s novel of the same

name, follows a Southern black woman across four decades and celebrates the quiet strength so many African Americans use to survive.

BY PAUL FARHI

The Wall Street Journal’s C hina
staff is urging the newspaper to
apologize for a headline that
prompted the Chinese govern-
ment to expel three of its journal-
ists last week.
The email from the Journal’s
China bureau to the top officers of
the paper’s parent companies, in
effect, sides with the Chinese, who
have demanded an apology and
retaliated w ith t he expulsions last
week.
The headline in question —
“China Is the real Sick man of
Asia” — appeared on an opinion
column written by academic and
foreign affairs specialist Walter
russell mead in the Journal on
feb. 3. The column was a com-
mentary on the health of China’s
financial markets, rather than a
reference to the coronavirus out-
break there.
Chinese officials and ordinary
citizens have protested that “sick
man” i s a racist phrase once used
by Westerners to denigrate China
during and immediately after the
era in which colonial powers
dominated and exploited the na-
tion.
The protests led the govern-
ment on Wednesday to revoke the
press credentials of three Journal
reporters, giving them five days to
leave the country in the largest
such action against Western jour-
nalists since 1989.
The Journal has expressed “re-
gret” over the headline but has
not apologized or amended it.
“We... ask you to consider
correcting the headline and apol-
ogizing to our readers, sources,
colleagues and anyone else who
was offended by it,” s aid an email
sent on behalf of Journal employ-
ees by Jonathan Cheng, the Jour-
nal’s bureau chief in Beijing, to
William Lewis, the Journal’s pub-
lisher and chief executive of Dow
Jones & Co., and Lewis’s boss,
robert Thomson, the chief execu-
tive of News Corp.
The email added, “This is not
about editorial independence or
the sanctity of the divide between
news and opinion. It is not about

the content of Dr. mead’s article.

It is about the mistaken choice of

a headline that was deeply offen-

sive to many people, not just in

China.

“We find the argument that no

offense was intended to be uncon-

vincing: Someone should have

known that it would cause wide-

spread offense. If they didn’t

know that, they made a bad mis-

take, and should correct it and

apologize.”

The email, sent Thursday, was

signed by 53 members of the Jour-

nal’s China staff and “other col-

leagues involved in our coverage,”

it said. Cheng was not among its

signatories but sent a separate

email endorsing the staff’s stance.

In a separate email, also ob-

tained by The Washington Post,

Cheng told the two senior execu-

tives that their “proper handling

of this matter is essential to the

future of our presence in China.”

Journal spokesman Steve Sev-

eringhaus indicated Saturday

that the Journal’s p osition has not

changed.

“We understand the extreme

challenges our employees and

their f amilies are facing in China,”

he said in a statement. “... The

experience of working through

coronavirus and the expulsion of

close colleagues is in credibly diffi-

cult, and we have encouraged

open conversations about their

concerns so that we can offer

support.”

He a dded, “Dow Jones will con-

tinue to push for the unfair action

against [the paper’s journalists]

to be reversed and for their visas

to be reinstated.”

China has periodically pun-

ished Western journalists by de-

nying them entry to the country

or by not renewing their visas. But

expulsions are rare. Until acting

against the Journal this week, the

government hadn’t kicked out a

credentialed journalist since

1998, according to the foreign

Correspondents’ Club of China.

The government’s action

brought a rebuke from Secretary

of State mike Pompeo, who said in

a statement, “mature, r esponsible

countries understand that a free

press reports facts and expresses

opinions. The correct response is

to present counter arguments,

not restrict speech.” Pompeo him-

self recently booted a reporter

from NPr off his media plane in

apparent r etaliation f or questions

he didn’t like in an earlier inter-

view with another NPr journalist.

The staff-written email said the

Journal has been attacked for

weeks for the headline by Chinese

state media and by ordinary peo-

ple its reporters have met. The

state-run Global Times, for exam-

ple, called the headline “racist” o n

Wednesday and demanded that

the Journal apologize, as did a

spokesperson f or the Chinese for-

eign ministry.

I n a statement issued hours

after the expulsions were an-

nounced, Lewis, the Journal’s

publisher, expressed regret but

did not offer a formal apology. “It

was not our intention to cause

offense with the headline on the

piece,” he said. “However, this has

clearly caused upset and concern

amongst the Chinese people,

which we regret.”

Lewis said in his statement that

“the need for quality, t rusted news

reporting from China is greater

than ever” and that the decision

“to target our News department

journalists greatly hinders that

effort.”

The Journal is owned by News

Corp., whose executive chairman

and principal shareholder is me-

dia baron rupert murdoch.

The controversy comes amid

steadily rising tensions between

the United States and China over

media issues.

China moved against the Jour-

nal reporters a day after the

Trump administration designat-

ed five major Chinese news orga-

nizations with U.S. operations as

official government entities, ef-

fectively labeling them propagan-

da outlets for Beijing. The desig-

nation under the foreign mis-

sions Act means the organiza-

tions will be treated as though

they are diplomatic outposts of

the Chinese government and sub-

ject to the same constraints.

The outlets include the official

Xinhua News Agency; China

Global Te levision Network; China

radio International; the People’s

Daily, the mouthpiece of the Com-

munist Party of China; and the

China Daily newspaper.

The latter entity produces Eng-

lish-language advertorial sec-

tions promoting China called

“China Watch” t hat are carried in

American newspapers, including

The Washington Post, the New

York Times and the Wall Street

Journal.

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Wall Street Journal’s China staff protests the newspaper’s ‘sick man’ headline

andy Wong/associated Press

Beijing’s Tiananmen gate stands deserted Feb. 16 amid the coronavirus outbreak. Last week, China announced it had revoked the press

credentials of three Wall Street Journal reporters over a headline for an opinion column that the government said used a racist phrase.

The

Reliable

Source

Helena Andrews-Dyer and Emily Heil

have moved on to new assignments at

The Post. A search is underway for a

new Reliable Source columnist. The

column will return.