This is not an article about the 17-year-old rape allegations against Nate Parker. This is not an article about the black women who went on record expressing discomfort with him, and those who went on record supporting him.
This is about the torrent of social media backlash black women have faced for supposedly singlehandedly sinking Nate Parker’s Nat Turner biopic, Birth of a Nation.
I’m not sure how we, as black women, always end up here — at fault when things go wrong for black folks — but there is just no way that we are responsible for Nate Parker’s film flopping at the box office this weekend. And here’s why;
1. The majority of people who went to see the film were women, and they gave it high marks.
Per Deadline.com;
“One rival female studio executive told Deadline, “It’s very hard to watch this film as a woman,” and yet Birth of a Nation showed a majority of females attending at 61%, and awarding the title an A.”
Clearly the women who spoke publicly about their discomfort with Parker didn’t stop others from supporting and enjoying the film.
2. The majority of people who went to see the film were black.
Per The Washington Post;
“The movie did better with black audiences; 60 percent of ticket-buyers were African-American, and the company remains hopeful for a word-of-mouth surge.”
Black folks showed up.
3. Nate Parker’s challenge was never with black audiences, but with white. 12 Years a Slave gained broad success because it became a crossover hit, appealing to both black and white audiences. Birth of a Nation didn’t make the leap (or it hasn’t so far);
Per Deadline.com;
“For weeks now many saw this critically acclaimed antebellum slave revolt Sundance Film Festival title opening in the single digits, and many in exhibition and distribution point to director/star/producer Nate Parker and co-writer Jean Celestin’s media maelstrom as preventing Birth of a Nation from crossing over beyond its core African American demo (who turned up close to 60% this weekend).”
And while we focus so much attention on black women who spoke out against Parker, do we forget that white folks were watching while a black man who (in the eyes of many) gang raped a white woman in college repeatedly expressed no remorse for it, and then appealed to them to pay money to see him murder a bunch of white people on screen? Um, yeah. Black audiences were never going to be Nate Parker’s ultimate challenge.
4. Birth of a Nation follows a pattern of films that are critically acclaimed at the Sundance Film Festival but fail to generate “real world” buzz. While Parker’s film broke acquisition records at Sundance and gained a standing ovation, the festival is notoriously bad at predicting what will become a mainstream hit.
From Buzzfeed;
“Again and again, the most hyped movies out of Sundance have failed to reach their lofty financial expectations once they leave the safe confines of Park City, Utah. Yes, Little Miss Sunshine was an unqualified sensation, but far more often the festival turns out films like Hamlet 2, Happy, Texas, and Son of Rambow that can’t even earn back their purchase price. The Birth of a Nation has already out-grossed all of those films, and yet it still has a long road to go before it can earn back Searchlight’s $17.5 million.”
5. Nate Parker has fared better than controversial actors like Woody Allen and Mel Gibson whose scandals have affected their box office opening, in large part because black fan bases are so loyal.
From Buzzfeed;
“Parker’s last film as an actor, 2014’s romance Beyond the Lights (co-starring Mbatha-Raw), earned $14.6 million domestically, an amount that The Birth of a Nation will almost certainly surpass through the life of its box office run.
Compare that outcome to what happened to Woody Allen’s box office after his daughter Dylan wrote an open letter to Hollywood in 2014 about her allegation that Allen molested her when she was seven. Or consider the precipitous decline of Gibson’s career after his infamous 2006 arrest in which he allegedly said, “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” and the 2011 release of recordings of Gibson spewing misogynistic and racist epithets at his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. In each case, the commercial viability of Allen and Gibson’s subsequent films dropped significantly, at least in part due to the fallout from their respective scandals.”
6. A mainstream publication — Variety — was the first to publicize the rape allegations against Parker and, in the wake of the scandal resurfacing, many non-black film reviewers downgraded their review of the film. Prior to that Birth of a Nation enjoyed unanimously positive reviews. The idea that black women started a campaign against Parker is completely inaccurate.
7. The Academy of Motion Pictures, responsible for determining Oscar nominees, has distanced itself from Birth of a Nation — not just because of Parker’s past — but as backlash against the #oscarssowhite campaign.
“The motion picture academy screening of Nate Parker’s slave revolt historical drama, which opened to a flat $7.1 million at the box office, was about at one-quarter capacity Sunday, with Oscar voters and their guests filling about 250 of the academy’s Samuel L. Goldwyn Theater’s 1,000 seats.
The low turnout wasn’t particularly surprising. Throughout the week, many academy members told The Times they had no plans on seeing “Birth” on Sunday — or any time in the future. The reasons offered ranged from distaste over the details of Parker’s 1999 rape case, disdain for how Parker answered questions about his past while promoting the movie, and a general fatigue with movies about slavery. (Remember: Many academy members never bothered to see 2014 best picture winner “12 Years a Slave,” though some still voted for it anyway.)
Sunday’s shunning of “Birth” also signals the lingering resentment many academy members feel over January’s #OscarSoWhite controversy, when voters were criticized for nominating an all-white slate of acting nominees for a second consecutive year. The academy’s immediate pledge to diversify and broaden its membership angered many voters who believed the timing of the response implied that their balloting had racist undertones….
“Basically, the movie was anointed out of Sundance with the media telling us that if we didn’t vote for it, we would be again be considered racist,” one academy member, a producer, says. “And all the hype seemed less about the quality of the movie itself, but the story behind it and the subject matter. I’m not buying it. And I’m not seeing it, either.”
Adds another Oscar voter, a member of the writers branch: “This guy ruined a woman’s life and then complains how hard it’s been for him. [Forget] him. There’s no way I’m going to support that.””
8. And since we’re talking about black women, Oprah Winfrey reached out to Parker in February expressing enthusiastic love for the film. When Variety broke the news of Parker’s past in August, Winfrey wanted to help Parker manage the backlash. He declined her help. Per The Hollywood Reporter;
“Winfrey, along with her friend and CBS This Morning anchor Gayle King, was one of the first people to see Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation outside of a festival setting. The women were so enthusiastic that they sent the filmmaker a Feb. 1 Instagram video congratulating him. In August, when news reports began to focus on the 1999 rape charges involving Parker and his Birth of a Nation collaborator, Jean Celestin, Winfrey initially seemed ready to help. (Parker and Celestin were Penn State roommates at the time of the fateful encounter that led to the trial. Parker was acquitted; Celestin’s conviction was thrown out on appeal.)
Sources say Winfrey suggested Parker address the matter in an appearance with King on her CBS program. But Parker declined.”
Birth of a Nation emerges at a time when American race relations are particularly heated, and many are rethinking long-held beliefs about consent and sexual assault. Instead of understanding the film’s performance in this complicated landscape, the black community has opted to turn to a familiar scapegoat. And that is perhaps what’s most disappointing of all.