We Discuss: Who Owns Stories About Blackness?

Cannonball with Wesley Morris

The New York Times

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Arts

4.8 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2017

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s been a summer of outrage over the question of who can tell stories about black history and black pain. We reckon with this question by examining Kathryn Bigelow’s film "Detroit," Dana Schutz's painting “Open Casket” and the recently announced new project from the "Game of Thrones" showrunners, an HBO drama called "Confederate." Without promising any answers, we also ask: Do stories about the American black experience belong to all Americans? Are there any criteria by which white creators can successfully make work about blackness?

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jenna Wortham.
0:01.2	And I'm Wesley Morris.
0:02.8	We're two culture writers at the New York Times.
0:05.7	When I'm not busy reclaiming my time,
0:07.8	I'm mostly right about how humans relate to technology.
0:10.8	And I'm mostly right about how movies and popular culture
0:14.1	and such relate to humans.
0:16.0	This is still processing.
0:20.0	Ba-da-ba!
0:30.8	Welcome back to our show,
0:32.6	our pop culture confession booth.
0:34.6	Hello.
0:35.8	So it's on your bucket list this week.
0:37.6	Ha ha!
0:38.7	Well, okay.
0:39.6	I'm just gonna throw this out there
0:40.8	because I think a lot of people are having a similar problem.
0:44.3	Every house I've ever been to has this.
0:46.6	It's the what people call the utility drawer,
0:49.8	that drawer in your kitchen that has rubber bands,
0:53.4	in screws and braces and menus,
0:56.2	and a bunch of other stuff.
	...

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