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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 24, 2013)
Page 16 ®’* KJnrtlanh (Obstruer In Loving Memory William Ernest Penson William Ernest Penson, a track star at Jefferson High School and a member of the championship team of 1962, died April 17, 2013 from complications of lung disease. He was 70. His look was peaceful as he left our presence to be present with the Lord. He was bom April 15, 1943. He had a knack for spreading laughter no matter what life brought his way or what path he took. He leaves behind m any memories, mostly in Colorado, Arizona and Portland where he returned to reside for over two decades. He was preceded in death by his parents, Dor o th y M ae and Jo h n L ee Penson; and siblings, Nettie Marie Penson-Westbrook, and John Lee Penson Jr. He is survived by his oldest s is te r B a rb a ra P en so n - McDade o f Denver; children, Tamara Kay Penson-Tolbert, W illia m S h aw n P en so n , Corwin Deon Jack-Penson, all of Vancouver, twins Deborah Jane Penson-Sampson and Gregory Wayne Penson, both of Portland, and William Derek Penson of Philadelphia; 10 grand children, 3 great-grandchildren, a host of nieces, nephews, and cousins; an honorary daughter Nadine Bolden of Portland; and a host of friends and acquaintances. Remembrances may be made in care of Bank of America. A memorial celebration will be held Friday, April 26 at 2 p.m. at Celebration Tabernacle, 8131 N. Denver, with Pastor Mondaine officiating. Please join us! Excellent Care Funeral Services One Stop Funeral Center Now-Open... Get the best package in Portland for burial. Everything you need all in one building. • Consultation • P ro v id ed H earst • Large Sanctuary • M in iste r and B alcony upon req u est • Em balm ing • Parking Available • C rem atio n • L im ousine S ervice • V iew ing S ervice • L arge K itchen Location: 126 NE Alberta St. On the corner of Mallory and Alberta 2 blocks West of MLK, Jr., Blvd Call now (971) 888-4024 April 24,2013 yirts V EM IDI EN1EDTAINMENÎ « continued A enng frontpage 11 ever occurred and given us the experience of wishing for it. Further, his film not only de- picts something never before imagined on screen; it conveys some things about how oppres- sion works. A lurking question that troubles many people about slavery is why the black slaves didn't simply rise up and kill the whites; Tarentino puts that ques- bon (stated ironically) in the mouth of a vicious slaveholder and then devises a freedman superhero to d° 2 USt ' h a t But the film also demonstrates the real answ er to the slaveholder's ironic question: that the system of oppression func- tioned so as to ensure that such a freedman superhero (or even a larcapacityfortellingstorieswith immediacy, our movies recount the history of slavery from a cer- tain historical remove. We tend to soften the inhumanity, for ex- ample, with prominent white he- roes (as in “Lincoln.” which I did admire very much, or “Amazing Grace, about the movement against slavery in England). As important as these stories are, they don t confront us with the 8w V “n SI ° PP“ '. A „ With Django Unchained, Tarentino has used his admira- bon of and facility with such dis- counted genres as spaghetti west- eras and blaxploitation films to lure multiracial audiences (and in places like Portland, largely white audiences) to invest nearly three hours looking at aspects of our relatively recent past that we have declined or even refused to face. As he has himself pointed out, one cannot make a film as lurid as slavery was in reality. Slaves are whipped; chewed to death by dogs while bystanders watch; made to walk, chained, on bare bloody feet for days; and kept in burning holes to die of thirst. Watching the film, I found my self reflecting on where I might have fit into the diabolical social h ierarch ies enforced am ong modest uprising) would never slaves based on their physical happen. The mechanics of that attr'J>u<es- system are depicted with uncom- Would I have been one of an mon insight; a hierarchy of white army of house slaves, working enforcers maintained and benefit- above all else to blend into the ted from the system in varying machinery? Would I have been a degrees. virtual farm implement, toiling in Even more remarkably, we also the fields but subject to sexual see a player who has not been exploitation at a moment's whim? portrayed with this kind of perspi- Would I have lived in relative cuity: the head house Negro comfort and been dressed as an Stephen, played by Samuel L. Jack- elaborate sexual toy, only t° have son. The w hite v ileness in children ripped from me and later “Django Unchained” is more fa- 1° offu wheLn my beauty miliar’ and is certainly chilling - faded This is how humans being but Jackson's character is a rev- treated as property lived a mere elation. Far from a sympathetic 150 years ago, and it's brutal. Uncle Tom, his ruthless collabo- Also, in giving us a black hero rator can also be an essential in- who provokes audiences to cheer gredient of oppression. H eister- as he mows down white oppres- rifying; he also rings true. sors (who are the ancestors of I disagree with those who see many of us), Tarentino may well in King Schultz (the character for have subliminally provoked us to which Christoph Waltz won his notice that no such vengeance second Academy Award) just another version of the necessary white hero in a story about black oppression. Schultz is a German and he is not out to fight slavery. This is not his fight; he is out to make money. He winces at slavery's brutality because it is not his bru tality; he is not part of this system in the way an American necessar ily would be. His motivation to collaborate is less heroic, more practical and more believable. He is not a stand-in for white Ameri- cans. He is necessary to the plot (he buys and then frees Django) but the essential fight belongs to Django. As Tarentino has matured as a filmmaker, he has begun to turn his penchantforfilmingviolentrevenge stories to more ambitious purposes In “Inglorious Bastards ” he cre- ated a clearly fictional revenge fan- tasy against the Nazis, which was dangerous enough - but that story js „ot our American story in the same way this is. Here we are the subject of the vengeance we root for that vengeance. In this movie w e-th at is, Americans who benefit from our history of brutal slavery- The mechanics o f that system are depicted with uncommon insight; a hierarchy o f white enforcers maintained and benefitedfrom the system in varying degrees. w . are the bad guys, The first time I saw “Django Unchained,” I was profoundly shaken by what I had seen. That seems to me an appropriate response to American slavery. I'm glad to haveexperienceditthroughthelens of this filmmaker; and to have sat in a theater ofmostly white Americans who experienced it too, even if they may have not reflected on it as deeply as I did. One hundred and fifty years ago the worst and most unacceptable parts of slavery actually happened, To pretend that it didn’t just got harder DarleenOrtegaisajudgeonthe Oregon Court o f Appeals and the first woman ofcolorto serve in that capacity. A movie reviewerfor over adecade.hercolumnappearsregu- larly in the Portland Observer. You can fin d her m ovie blog at opinionatedjudge.blocspot.com.