Uncle Tom (film)

Uncle Tom: An Oral History of the American Black Conservative is a 2020 American political documentary film directed by Justin Malone, written by Ryder Ansell, Larry Elder, Justin Malone, and Larry Elder as executive producer.[1] The documentary features interviews with notable people such as: Larry Elder, Robert L. Woodson, Stephen Broden, Jesse Lee Peterson, Herman Cain, Carol M. Swain, Allen West, Chad O. Jackson and Candace Owens, as well as archive footage of people like Ben Carson, Shelby Steele, and Thomas Sowell.[2][3][4]

Uncle Tom
Official movie poster featuring Larry Elder
Directed byJustin Malone
Produced byRyder Ansell
Written by
Music byDamon Criswell
CinematographyJustin Malone
Edited byJustin Malone
Production
company
Malone Pictures
Release date
  • June 19, 2020 (2020-06-19) (US)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Contents

The documentary collects interviews with a number of black conservative thinkers in the United States who question how the black population have been treated by the political establishment as well as consequences of the policies introduced specifically by the Democratic party.[2] The war on poverty legislation launched in the 1960s is in particular questioned and criticized, and is summarized by Elder with:

"And what the welfare state has done, in my opinion, is incentivize Black women to marry the government, and allow men to abandon their financial and moral responsibilities to their families. We’ve gone from 25% of Black kids born outside wedlock in 1965, to nearly 70% now. You cannot attribute that to Jim Crow and racism. It has to do with bad government policy."

— Larry Elder, [2]

One of the main issues the documentary problematizes is the lack of respectful disagreement in black community, as well as why black thinkers like Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, and Shelby Steele are in large ignored or marginalized, and remain unknown to large parts of the black population despite decades-long bodies of work in academia, writing books and columns and speeches.[5]

The film title references Uncle Tom, the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which today is used as a derogatory term for black people, as demonstrated in the documentary by how black conservatives experience being called terms like "race traitor", "house negro", sellout, "boot licker", coon, "Uncle Ruckus", and "Uncle Tom" by political adversaries.[2][6]

In the documentary, Larry Elder describes "Uncle Tom" as:

"An Uncle Tom is somebody who has sold out by embracing the white man, by becoming a Republican, by rejecting the idea that you’re a victim, by supporting things like hard work, accountability, and low taxes, by refusing to think of yourself as a black person first as opposed to as an American who is black."

— Larry Elder (19 June 2020). Uncle Tom (Motion picture). 3 minutes in.

Critical reception

Despite covering perspectives particularly relevant to the political environment preceding the 2020 United States presidential election, the documentary was largely ignored by major outlets demonstrated by the lack of reviews within the first six weeks of its release.[7] As of October 2020, the film has a "No consensus yet" among critics on Rotten Tomatoes with a 96% audience score.[8]

See also

References
  1. "Record opening for new Documentary Film - Uncle Tom". PR Newswire. 2020. Archived from the original on 24 June 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  2. Kass, John (2020). "Column: What frightens the American left: Larry Elder's new documentary 'Uncle Tom'". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  3. Bond, Paul (2020). "'Uncle Tom' Documentary Explores What It's Like to Be a Minority Within a Minority Group, a Black Conservative". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 21 March 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  4. "Who stars in Uncle Tom?". 2020. Archived from the original on 25 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  5. Elder, Larry (2020). "ELDER: 'Uncle Tom,' the movie". Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on 5 July 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  6. Michael Ayetrwa,Joel Patrick,Brandon Tatum,Patricia Watson,Jesse Lee Peterson,King Facen,Rob Smith,Viswanag Burra (19 June 2020). Uncle Tom (Motion picture). 2 minutes in. "race traitor", "house negro", sellout, "boot licker", "Uncle Ruckus","Uncle Tom", coon
  7. Basham, Megan (2020). "A lonely road for black conservatives". World. Archived from the original on 30 September 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  8. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/uncle_tom
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