Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Pulp Fiction... Gooks, Slopes, Niggers, Jules

... Catch a nigger by his toe.
Take your foot off the nigger...
...Cause storing dead niggers ain't my business.
This used to be one of my favorite films. I mean... I've seen it at least 30 times. I never flinched or thought twice about the use of the word nigger. In fact... my favorite scene was the third vignette, which centers around the storage of a dead nigger. The System of White Supremacy paralyzes non-whites' understanding; we end up experiencing and looking directly at Racist behavior, yet failing to recognize it.
What is the hardest thing of all? That which seems the easiest for your eyes to see, that which lies before your eyes. [Thanks to the Suspected Racist known as Michael Bradley.]
Hopefully this review will make it easier for Victims of White Supremacy too see the staggering amount of White Supremacy in Pulp Fiction.
Marsellus Wallace: You my nigga?
Butch Coolidge: It certainly appears so.

The White people who practice White Supremacy are
MASTER DECEIVERS. Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) provides a demonstration. He "appears" to consent to throwing a fight and losing in the fifth round. But Butch is a White man. He's not Marsellus' or anyone else's nigga. Seeing that news of a rigged fight has impacted the gambling odds, Butch places enormous wagers on himself. He doesn't just refuse 2 lose, he beats his non-white opponent to death. How does Butch feel about swindling and murdering a non-white person?

Butch: I don't feel the least bit bad about it.

But he killed a man. Surely there has to be some remorse?
Butch: Fuck 'em! If he was a better boxer he'd still be alive.

But that was someone's son. Surely he had family, friends...
Butch: Who gives a fuck! Enough about the poor unfortunate [nigger].
I assume White people have the same lack of regard for non-white life on and off camera. The business of White Supremacy requires a total absence of conscience as it relates to non-white life. Killing one or 30 million non-whites is no big deal; just another day at the office.

The White Supremacist nature of
Pulp Fiction intensifies throughout the film. The se
cond act begins with casual references to "gooks" and "slopes"; it ends with Marsellus Wallace [Ving Rhames] being bound, gagged and anally raped by a Suspected Racist enforcement official.

(Pause for Abner Louima and those who say this don't happen in real life.)

Paying strict attention to every WORD, helps illuminate the intentions and motivations of White Supremacist films, books and/or people. Pulp Fiction begins with Jules Winnfield [Samuel L. Jackson] asking a White man "Does Marsellus Wallace look like a bitch," and why he "[tried] to fuck him like a bitch". A little under two hours into the film... Marsellus Wallace is being fucked like a bitch. {I think I've already posted on the consistent emasculation and castration of black males.}I hear the objections from those who say, Marsellus avenged his abuse. He popped a cap in the White man, promised to get medieval! Allow me to retort. Number one, If Marsellus Wallace had not been rescued by a different White man, he would have continued to take a pounding in the rear. Number two, this is extraordinarily unrealistic. I'm unaware of any Victim of White Supremacy being able to murder or squint hard at an enforcement official without repercussions. Non-whites being bludgeoned and sexually assaulted by "police officers" is a black ink fact. Vengeance for these acts is at most a rowdy N.W.A. cd.
Scene Three.


Nobody who'll be missed.
Let those four words rest on your skull like an anvil as I share my views on the final act. The White man known as Vincent Vega [John Travolta] blows a non-white male's head off - accidentally. No need for gun safety when the barrel is pointed at a nigger (nobody who'll be missed). Again, no heavy hearts or tears for a non-white life extinguished. Actually, this scene is pretty humorous; I remember finding it amusing (IT WAS MY FAVORITE SCENE OF THE FILM.) The fun and suspense of covertly disposing of a dead nigger... don't get more jovial than that.

Now you really gotta be focused to catch everything that's being expressed in the third vignette. The writer and director of the film has hopped in front of the camera. When I have shared this with Victims of White Supremacy, they have not immediately appreciated the symbolism of having the single person most responsible for the creation that is
Pulp Fiction being center-stage for the dead nigger storage conflict.

And Quentin Tarantino isn't just grumpy about a
dead nigger in his Southern California garage. He fears Bonnie - his lawfully wedded wife - will return before the dead nigger has been dumped. Oh wait... Bonnie is non-white. It has been my experience that most people have not caught that Tarantino's wife is not White; consequently, most folks have not pondered on the meaning of a White man being married to a black female while referencing a black male as a nigger. You should think about it.Take a second.

Most of this scene revolves around the labor of cleaning up messy Marvin.


You're the mother fucker should be on brain detail. We fuckin' switchin'. I'm washin' windows, and you pickin' up this nigger's skull.
Not to worry. No living or dead niggers have yet to pose a problem White people can't handle. The dead nigger is efficiently whisked away for a proper burial at "Monster Joe's Truck and Tow" junkyard. Nobody who'll be missed.

Discarding of the
dead nigger known as Marvin was a brief conundrum. And Jules and Vincent did exactly what Victims of White Supremacy should do when life gives you a l'il more then you can handle. They request help. Specifically, they ask for "The Wolf".[Remus and Romulus... forgive my Isis Papers moment.]


I'm Winston Wolf, I solve problems.
Codified - to reduce to a collection of rules and regulations. Mr. Wolf illustrates how codification can efficiently obliterate the most precarious of predicaments. He has precise guidelines for how to clean and drive the vehicle, how to dispose of the of the bloodied clothes. He dictated exactly what should be done and in a manner that was easy to grasp. All statements and actions supported the objective of solving the problem without creating new problems. Impeccable demonstration. If only there were a Winston Wolf or 80, who were dedicated to solving the problem of White Supremacy.

Mr. Wolf - like any Refined Racist - is attentive to detail. When gathering information about Jules' and Vincent's dilemma, he makes sure to get the racial classifications of the folks involved. And earlier when a different White man is asked at gun point to describe
Marsellus Wallace, his first response: He's black (not White). And during the diner heist at the culmination of the film, a Suspected White Supremacist demands that the "Mexicans"(non-whites) exit the kitchen. Race/Racism is a perpetual - perhaps the primary - feature in this flick.

I've spoke with a lot of White people about this movie. Not a one of them told me I was "playin' the
Race Card" or misconstruing
Tarantino's work. However, none of them said that Pulp Fiction is a disturbing and honest representation of the System of White Supremacy which terrorizes non-whites, is all the more discomforting because it presents unjust acts of Racism as humorous and is celebrated as a cinematic masterpiece - ranked as the 5th best film ever made on Internet Movie Database with over 340,000 votes. White people also don't say that one could correlate the adoration of Pulp Fiction with White Supremacists' dedication to and gratification in the practice of mauling non-whites.

Perhaps I ain't talked to the right White folks yet. The next time you encounter a Suspected White Supremacist whom indicates an affinity for
Pulp Fiction, ask them a lot of questions. Then post their responses here.

8 comments:

Zach said...

I have never seen such a rant of nonsense. Use proper grammar, stop being ignorant and realize that Tarantino was making a statement of the times (LA riots, NWA, and white fear of inner-city black neighborhoods defined the early 90's), and for the love of fuck...don't put yellow text against a black background. I get almost as much of a headache from physically trying to read your words as I do from trying to understand what the hell your point is.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Zach.

Anonymous said...

I just discovered this post when, mid-way through rewatching Pulp Fiction, I paused to search for public discussion of the film's use of racial epithet and racialization. Your post was exactly what I was looking for: A sharp cinematic reading (and anti-racist critique) of this larger-than-life cultural text. As a (white, female) student of feminisms, queer, and critical race/postcolonial theories, as well as literature and other forms of cultural production, I want to counter the other two comments here by saying that this blog post is exactly what we need more of. Sure, Pulp Fiction is still a great film in some ways, but anyone who has ever critically examined race/white supremacy in the US should see how and where Tarantino's characters, aesthetics, and script is blatantly racist. Now the question is: what effect does this achieve and what (other than society's pervasive white supremacy) was Tarantino's purpose in using the n-word so frequently?

One critic, Todd Boyd, suggested that the word "has the ability to signify the ultimate level of hipness for white males who have historically used their perception of black masculinity as the embodiment of cool."

Other thoughts?

0malone1 said...

G Wiz, totally agree, but what can you expect from these porch monkey, pavement apes and their ebony ebonics

Anonymous said...

I dont agree with you at all, its the way gangsters talk, jimmie talking to jules about the storage, was the way they talked, they knew each other for a long time.. thats why jules didnt even flinch get mad or anything, even though jules is the one with the gun. I personally cant stand the word, its just a fucked up word, but in this movie it works, its shows the friendship between the two.

peepee said...

shutup you dumb nigger and go back to your own country and we'll see who's supreme

Anonymous said...

The defensiveness and obvious attention-seeking outbursts from some of the white folks here seems to confirm that you're onto something. Sure, maybe he didn't mean to be racist, and yet... Many times racist portrayals are unintentionally racist. And if you think you're doing something smart, critical, and insightful by re-enacting racist behaviors and tropes, then you'd sure as hell better have a very obvious counter-perspective in order to facilitate that insightful, critical, smart analysis of racism--otherwise you're just re-enacting racist stuff (i.e., being racist). Even if Tarantino thought that this was more commentary about race than racist garbage--he's not in the position to decide whether he's being racist.

Anonymous said...

thank you for the film review.