Thread by @ChampagneSharks

This looks so bad and loaded with everything that makes modern online and pop identity politics insufferable. Why do this?

https://twitter.com/kennywhatever/status/1431284300909973511

What I don’t get though is why not just name it something else? Why do these new “creatives” refuse to make anything new but instead have to rely on borrowed emotional response of things already iconic and beloved for anything they make to get attention or relevance?

https://twitter.com/kennywhatever/status/1431286014526377991

Even worse i hear it’s not even a continuation of the old miniseries but instead is meta commentary on the old series and movement. So I’m sure it will mostly complain how the old series and original civil rights movie wasn’t intersectional enough and they are improving on both

It’s produced by Patrisse Cullors I read. Why not do a documentary on house hunting or something? Something you have a proven track record of success I ? I’d actually be interested in House Hunters BLM Edition.

Okay is it me or is this trailer really focused on gay and trans people? It’s fine to do a documentary about those things, I just don’t get why you have to turn a “documentary” about another documentary, Eyes on the Prize, into a different topic?

I mean that really does seem to be what they’re going for? Also a lot of talk of erasure so I’m guessing it will complain the original Eyes on the Prize erased queers and trans and therefore their work is a leap forward?

https://twitter.com/tryvlnt/status/1431292870674325508?s=21

If you want to make a documentary about that topic by all means go ahead. I just don’t get why they have to take the existing EotP IP and try to retroactively make it fit your current narrative instead of making a new IP? It’s like they’re afraid to let their work stand on own

This seems to clearly be an exercise in criticizing the past as a way to make their own movement look like both an extension of and improvement of the glorious celebrated past. It’s a corrective and self-promotional exercise disguised as a celebration and educational one

I’m all for them doing a civil rights documentary that includes more women and gay and trans people (although with better quality and academic rigor than this). My thing is, just don’t call it Eyes on the Prize. Give it its own name. Especially if original creator is dead

https://twitter.com/negrosubversive/status/1431298806461644800

Started the new Eyes on the Prize…stylistically so far it’s a mashup between a Jordan Peele ripoff like Them, an episode of Insecure, and a Lena Waithe movie like Queen and Slim. Why is this creepy woman with the mask there like it’s a horror movie?

It’s all style and platitudes and back patting and emotion…zero actual information. Also it seems to be implying the biggest accomplishment Eyes did was to inspire these new Black Excellence people to become saviors. It’s very narcissistic and self-aggrandizing

Can anyone recommend a good historian or activist or thinker who would be a good guest to have on to discuss the original and new Eyes on the Prize? This is really bad. I need to do an episode on it

I’m going out stop and save it for the eventual episode. This is too much for a Twitter thread

Okay few more things. This thing is going to age HORRIBLY because it’s trying too hard to be trendy in aesthetics. It’s somehow ALREADY borderline dated. Like they remixed the timeless spiritual theme of the original Eyes into that genre of music I call Issa Rae insecure songs

I’m going to show a few more things then I’m going to stop for my sanity but it says so much, what I’m going to show in the next few tweets

So look 1987 when they ask Henry Hampton about Eyes on the Prize. Notice he says nothing about himself and how civil rights icons influenced him and doesn’t aggrandize himself at all. He’s saying he exists to point attention to THEM. The past icons are the point he’s a messenger

Compare it to this next segment when they talk to the modern activists about Eyes on the Prize and rather than using themselves to call attention to past icons and documentary they subtly make it about themselves…how it inspired THEM, how they are the heirs to legacy

Again, this is aesthetically going to age so badly. visuals are way too trendy. They pepper Mamie Till’s words with indulgent film student visuals, trying to look like Lovecraft Country or Barry Jenkins’ type of look then as usual the new activists make it about them at the end

Why did they put a woman who looks like a Black version of the girl from The Ring in here and these Jordan Peele Barry Jenkins horror movie misery porn visuals? And what kind of new age March Pray Love empty platitudes and woo are the activists babbling? It’s all new age woo

So after 5 mins they gave up the pretense of this being a documentary about a documentary and they also aren’t trying to pretend to be a sequel to Eyes either by giving hard history . They’re just now all talking about themselves and how great they are and sound therapy speak lol

So notice who they bring out now. Brittany Ferrell. She protested at Ferguson and was one of the protest crashers who helped coopt the Mike Brown protests alongside Deray and hijacked it from the Ferguson locals. Notice no actual hard information, she’s just doing therapy session

So who is Brittany Ferrell? She is one of the people who protest crashed Ferguson and helped hijack it from local activists like Darren Seals. Seals called them out for using Ferguson as a come up and chasing the cameras to the next police killing while leaving Ferguson with zip

When he called out people like Deray and Brittany and the rest for sabotaging their protest and leaving them with nothing this is how she responded. Threatened him, accused him of jealousy of her clout, bashed Black men + said she’s more terrified of black people run racist cops

Darren Seals was a local working class activist who was there from the beginning before Deray and Brittany arrived and was one of the original activists who had the movement stolen from up under them. Anyway he ended up getting shot and set on fire while these people came up

Now what did Ferrell do while down in Ferguson? She made multiple crowdfunding grifts while down there with her future wife that she met at protests. Then she in THE MIDDLE OF THE MIKE BROWN PROTEST she staged a publicity stunt gay marriage and changed narrative to LGBTQ issues

She also got Soros money a bunch of times too to go down there as a Ferguson protester. Then she is a major documentary made by her painting herself as leader of Ferguson uprising. Why is she a part of this documentary?

I know I said I would stop but this thing is enraging me too much with each passing minute. Fuck it lol

That they sullied a great historical documentary by slapping the name of it on this travesty so that they could benefit form the borrowed emotional response and prestige of the original is sickening. It has no right to share the Eyes on the Prize name at all

So i’m 37 minutes in and they totally stopped talking about the original Eyes after 5 minutes although they still use clips from it to pad the time and get to an hour. The only informative parts that are real history in this whole thing are the clips form the original

All they have done for 32 of the last 37 minutes is to just talk themselves up, do new age woo March Pray Love pseudospiritual platitudes, and use clips from the original Eyes.

they’ve just started talking about the trans struggle but out the blue. They’re just going through bullet pt. agenda but they don’t even care to make it flow organically. They just keep switching gears at breakneck pace to the next agenda item even if there’s no linear narrative

They brought out next Patrisse Cullors’ (who produced this narcissistic mess) wife she bought all those houses for to speak. She just gave her own wife a prime spot and look what she talks about. Erasure of women and queer folk from@the movement. Ferrell follows up with more

It’s very telling what is important to these people. They won’t stop talking about erasure, centering voices, who gets to lead, getting credit and camel. But their low key really talking about themselves being centered but pretending to be concerned about trans and women of past

So this trans person brings up Francis Thompson, a formerly enslaved trans person who did important things. This is fine but she lives in 1800s and not part of 20th century civil rights movement. Why is it in here in an Eyes on the Prize doc? They just want to throw it in lol

So now they’re just talking about Black LGBTQ history but they haven’t tied it into a coherent narrative with anything else this is supposed to be about, especially Eyes on the Prize. Also no information is really shared here, just more therapy Eat Pray Love self-realization talk

So it goes on a few more minutes about Black LGBTQ and what being queer means to the participants in this. Lots of clips from Paris is Burning in this segment despite it being ostensibly a documentary about Eyes on the Prize

Now I would love a documentary on Black queerness. I love Paris is Burning for example and we need something as good that’s new. But it should be what an Eyes on the Prize installment is about. Even the James Baldwin clip they used was him talking about Blackness not queer issues

So at 38 minutes after going on about Black LGBTQ for a while including how Black trans and Black women really did all the work and queer people were erased maliciously, now they are at next segment…how Black men are violent murderers and rapists of women lol

They literally started this hour talking about Emmett Smith who died because of the stereotype of Black men as violent rapey brutes and a white woman who weaponized that. Only to now confirm yeah they actually are rapey brutes, just of Black women.

Look at this insane clip about how rapey and murderous to (Black) women Black men are. Again, why is this in an Eyes on the Prize installment?

Oops I mean Emmett Till

https://twitter.com/champagnesharks/status/1431874893415698433

The Black men are the biggest threat to Black women stuff is where I reached my breaking point. There are 20 more minutes but I can’t do it. But to contentualize why Tarana Burke had to preface all that stuff with talk of supporting Black men is because she’s been called out b4

She used her platform only to constantly bash Black men accused of sexual impropriety but conspicuously would avoid talking about people like Weinstein. After being called out about it over and over she said it’s not her job to go after White men

She said it’s time for Black men to stop getting away with rape (when in US history it’s been normal for Black men to get away with rape is beyond me given Black men accused of rape are the most exonerated prisoners there are) so that’s her focus.

Meanwhile she said this re:Tara Reade and Joe Biden. Gave a whole long thing about how it’s not right to go after white man Biden for his accusations

I honestly think it’s the opposite. I think they want to make Blackness synonymous with being queer. Like Blackness actually IS queerness, rather than a message like queer people are an important part of the Black community, which I *do* think is a good message

https://twitter.com/Jupiter_Dior/status/1431878891409342466

Anyway the 40 minute mark broke me and I’m stopping because I’m sure it only gets worse and my head will explode. I also don’t think we’ll do a podcast episode on it. I’ll let this thread be my only statement on this travesty. Please share it widely

Last thing I’ll say: I’m assuming this is part of Patrisse Cullors overall deal with Warner. she produced this and it’s on HBO Max. So she l used the years of clout she got off the extrajudicial murders of mainly straight Black men to ruin Eyes and add a BM rapist narrative to it

#eyesontheprize #hallowedground

The other thing that makes these people so narcissistic is in the original Eyes, it was filmed over 20 years after the events when they were in danger of being forgotten. These people made a documentary celebrating THEMSELVES only 5 YEARS after they protested (and won nothing)

So unsurprisingly I checked the makers bio and she identifies as queer. Everyone else I looked up in this seems to as well except 1 or 2 who I just can’t find out their orientation. Again, I’m for Black queers telling their story. Just don’t hijack existing IP and do a good job

In addition to being disrespectful by changing the focus of EotP and having bad antiblack messaging and wokewashed black stereotypes, it’s simply awful, awful craft. Even if they made it it’s own thing it would still be bad

So this person @dannyzzmn DMed me from a locked account to accuse me of being a QAnon conspiracy guy for saying Ferrell and others were paid protesters who got Soros money. I gave them article links from non-right wing sources and they linked to a snopes type site then blocked

They probably knew if they didn’t hurry and block like a coward, I was going to have a rebuttal that was inconvenient, because in the short exchange we had they were not that well informed just going off emotion and black men hatred so I’ll respond to @dannyzzmn on the thread

One thing these people do that we talk about in the podcast is what we call “technicality lies”. It’s lying by saying something technically true. For example when Patrisse Cullors says in response to corruption claims that she never got big salary from BLM it’s technically true

If you do research though you’ll realize that BLM paid a lot of consultancy orgs or third party nonprofits that in turn paid Cullors’ consultancy firms and nonprofits big money. So technically she’s not lying but she’s using the truth to be misleading and evade spirit of the ?

So same goes for the George Soros quote. The Open Society does not pay protesters DIRECTLY. This is true. But two organizations they did give money to, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) and Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) did in turn pay protesters

This is not even speculation on my part that they were paid. Research the hashtag #cutthecheck. Ferrell and many others were openly agitating to get paid for their protesting and feeling they weren’t being given what they promised. Google her name and #cutthecheck

And the reason I bring up Soros is not out of some bad faith antisemitic globalist angle like when reactionaries do but because I want to establish that they are beholden to white liberal politics from the beginning. People know Soros supports mainstream Dem causes greatly

Now is it true most of the investigative reporting you’re going to see on this is going to be done by right wing sites unfortunately? Yes, because the liberal mainstream media is in the tank for these people and hires their friends to write about them. But the data is all there

…for anyone who wants to find it. Here for example is Brittany Ferrell taking about #cutthecheck and not being paid for protesting on Facebook