Cedric Wilson, Contributor
When Stanley Kramer made the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in 1967, he intended it to be a giant mirror in which America would collectively see itself. For beneath the imposing economic and military superstructure of the world's most powerful country, there was the ugliness of racial hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
Therefore, it came as no surprise that even before the movie was released Kramer and members of the cast received death threats. Undoubtedly, the threat of violence is reminiscent of the horror and rage that the witch exhibited in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - it is never palatable, neither in a fairy tale nor in real life, to be told by the mirror that "you are not the most beautiful of them all".
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner explores the tension that a wealthy white family, who proclaim themselves to be liberal faces when they realise that their daughter (and, apparently, only child) is about to get married to black man. The dilemma that the white parents encounter is that the man interested in their daughter has all the attributes that they would want in a son-in-law - he is a man with panache; a professional with international acclaim; he is handsome and witty.
Speaks to prejudices
But black. It is in this sense the movie is universally appealing because it speaks to prejudices wherever they exist. Black Uhuru, the first Jamaican band to receive a Grammy, saw parallels in the movie with the social realities in the Jamaican society and raised a song of protest - Guess who's coming to dinner - Natty Dreadlocks. For in truth, a part of the Jamaican society, at the time, saw the rastaman through the lens of prejudice. And regardless of the attributes of the man wearing the locks, he was deemed as a lesser mortal.
After some four decades since Guess Who's Coming to Dinner ignited debate and social controversy, the drama is once again being re-enacted on the stage of American politics. In the context of Barack Obama's bid for the presidency, there is something uncanny about the movie that even makes director Stanley Kramer looks almost prophetic.
In the movie, the love affair between the young couple, Dr John Prentice and his white girlfriend, Joey Drayton, started in Hawaii. It is interesting to note that Obama was born in Hawaii and, in a sense, that was where his love affair with the American dream begun.
Captivating
The idea of a man with lofty goals and a vision that transcends the ordinary is captivating. But it is fine if it is contained within halls of music and the arena of sports. However, when that idea is personified in a man who aspires to wed himself to the Oval Office it raises issues. In the words of Matt Drayton, the distraught father in the movie, "You're two wonderful people who happen to fall in love and happen to have a pigmentation problem."
Yet, the 'pigmentation problem' which the US faces today is not fundamentally an issue with the younger generation. It is the baggage of an older generation that grew up during an era in which certain basic rights were denied on the racial grounds. More than any other group it is young, less conscious of colour and more anxious to see change that has propelled Obama to snatch the Democratic Party nomination from the most formidable of all contenders - Hillary Clinton.
The Drayton family was shocked by the idea of the marriage, but it was their black maid who was most vehemently opposed to the marriage. Her disagreement had nothing to do with her fears that the couple would be persecuted by the society. It came from a deep scar in her psyche, as she puts it, "I don't care to see a member of my race getting ahead of himself." There is a constituency of blacks, albeit a relative small one, who believe that the nomination would not happen and the presidency will not happen for Obama - "after all, it's not called the White House for nutten."
Another character worthy of mention in the movie is Father Ryan, a white Catholic minister with a large capacity for alcohol - scotch and soda was his preference. Father Ryan saw beyond John Prentice's colour and recognised him entirely on the basis of his manhood and his achievement. Recently, another Catholic minister, Father Phleger, in sermon at Obama's former church, mocked Hillary Clinton.
In essence, he pontificated to the wild amusement of a packed congregation that Clinton was stunned by Obama's performance for the Democratic Party nomination because she implicitly accepted a creed of 'white entitlement'. Mark you, there is a conspiracy theory which suggests that Father Phleger was paid by Clinton backers to deliver that sermon in a last-ditch effort to harm the Obama campaign. But maybe he is simply a reverend from the older generation who has gone beyond colour and was a little bit drunk on the 'spirit'. We will never know.
Obama's symbolism
When all is said and done by way of parallels, dinner might have been the Democratic party's nomination for which Obama has now become the first African American to do so. Symbolically, the wedding will be the presidency.
Incidentally, there was another Hillary in the movie that was opposed to the love affair. She was deliberately assigned a minor role in the movie. Perhaps the same could have been said about Hillary Clinton, but she changed her tune and endorsed Obama for the job of presidency four days after he was confirmed as the nominee. The question of whether she will only be given a minor role is still up in the air. Remember, all the world is a movie and history is the director.
Cedric Wilson is an economist who specialises in market regulations. He may be contacted at conoswil@hotmail.com. Feedback may also be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.
