How ‘The Colour Purple’ explores Black ladies and home violence

Whereas seeing “The Colour Purple” earlier this month, I observed the viewers members gasped on the thwack sound when younger Celie is first struck throughout the face after getting married and coming into Albert “Mister” Johnson’s dwelling.

It was a momentary gasp, however nonetheless was one of many early moments that confirmed what Celie would endure for many years to return. However years after Alice Walker’s e-book was revealed in 1982, the primary movie got here out in 1985, and the theater productions, listening to these gasps — regardless that many people knew what was coming — confirmed how unbelievable it will probably nonetheless really feel to see these flashes of violence proper earlier than us.

However there are particular politics that include movies that discover Black communities and tales of violence and trauma. There’s the same old query of why can’t extra movies and exhibits discover Black pleasure. There’s additionally the debates over the graphic nature of scenes exhibiting violence, sexual assault, the realities of historic enslavement, and different anguishes Black folks expertise. After which there’s the sobering actuality that there are such a lot of tales we nonetheless have no idea and maybe won’t ever learn about Black historical past.

When the primary “Colour Purple” movie got here out in 1985 starring Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery and Danny Glover, it was met with heavy criticism by distinguished Black advocacy organizations, together with the native NAACP Hollywood and Beverly Hills chapter. The movie confronted criticism for a way Black males had been portrayed and that it will be doubtlessly devastating for Black folks.

We noticed variations of those debates with the 2009 movie “Treasured,” the 2010 movie “For Coloured Ladies” and the 2013 movie “12 Years a Slave.” All the movies in their very own proper impressed discussions about these depictions and what it means when artwork imitates life too near dwelling and our respective relationships with how we perceive our willingness to interact with the intersection of trauma and popular culture. Anytime films or exhibits like this are launched it additionally means holding area for people who decline to look at — irrespective of how necessary they could change into in Black popular culture historical past — for the sake of 1’s peace and psychological well being, particularly if there’s discomfort with speaking concerning the subjects.

A latest Occasions story talked about how the brand new “Colour Purple” is designed to not essentially overwhelm viewers concerning the traumas of Celie, performed first by Phylicia Pearl Mpasi after which by Fantasia Barrino. The movie segues into joyful bursts of music, choreography and moments of levity, because the Broadway musical did. However in between this, the movie has to even be consistent with the e-book, the place Celie suffers bodily and emotional abuse over many years.

At their core, all iterations of “The Colour Purple,” together with the brand new movie model co-starring Taraji P. Henson, left, as Shug Avery and Fantasia Barrino as Celie, current an necessary story concerning the resilience of Black ladies.

(Warner Bros. Footage)

I used to be touched by the songs and performances, however the brand new “The Colour Purple” movie — for all of its pleasure — ought to nonetheless be allowed to be an necessary cultural reflection on how we speak about varied sorts of violence towards Black ladies. Whereas it has endured for many years on the web page, on the display screen and on the stage for its depth, the way in which intimate accomplice violence is talked about, studied and analyzed has slowly modified too. Eleven years after the e-book was revealed, the general public well being neighborhood began to contemplate home violence a public well being concern. The knowledge from a federal report from 1995-1996 had been the primary to doc the incidence and prevalence of intimate accomplice violence, sexual violence and stalking. The newest knowledge obtainable from the Nationwide Intimate Accomplice and Sexual Violence Survey from 2016-2017 discovered that almost 54% of Black ladies mentioned that that they had skilled sexual violence, bodily violence, and/or stalking by an intimate accomplice throughout their lifetimes.

That’s a sobering statistic and infrequently acknowledged actuality that illustrate why it’s troublesome to have fruitful conversations concerning the dynamics that Black ladies face with home violence. The e-book, theater and movie depictions of “The Colour Purple” at their cores current an necessary story concerning the resilience of Black ladies. Resilience is a muscle that takes time to develop individually and communally. However resilience additionally requires reckoning with actuality. The fact right here is that we nonetheless battle to talk about intimate accomplice violence, together with what it seems to be like, who it will probably occur to and assuming that extracting oneself from an abusive relationship is a straightforward process. So as to respect Celie’s path to freedom, it’s important to bear witness and sit with the uncomfortable and complicated truths concerning the hurt she endured whether or not studying it or watching it. The opposite actuality is resilience just isn’t at all times sufficient for Black ladies to beat the challenges of social, systemic and institutional misogynoir.

The experiences of Black ladies who survive home violence can’t solely be framed by way of hope but additionally the burden of the truth that their experiences are neglected. What’s extra, to understand the 1985 movie and the 2023 one, is to additionally respect the work the Black actors and actresses did to carry Walker’s work to life. It’s not solely about gifted performances but additionally the willingness and braveness of every forged member to immerse themselves within the darker elements of the fabric that mirror on the human heaviness of abuse and violence. We see that particularly for Barrino, who has performed Celie earlier than and can also be a survivor of sexual assault.

When Glover and Colman Domingo ship the “you’re Black, you’re poor, you’re ugly, you’re a girl “ line within the movies, it underscored all the emotional and psychological abuse that Celie handled in addition to the tangible manipulations that always hold Black ladies from leaving abusive relationships. That features not having the monetary means to go away and being instructed nobody on the earth would need them. The cruelty of that line, even after first showing within the e-book 41 years in the past, has a haunting resonance as a result of these techniques — isolation, monetary dependence, bodily violence — are nonetheless utilized by abusers at the moment to forestall ladies from leaving.

For all the music and pleasure within the new movie, we shouldn’t permit it to lose sight of the truth that whether or not we all know it or not, everyone knows or are in proximity to a Black girl like Celie even within the 12 months 2023. For each Celie who does “overcome these obstacles to freedom” with home violence, there’s a Black girl who dies making an attempt to do the identical. We can’t correctly mirror on the braveness of Celie’s story within the movie remake with out additionally having the braveness to speak about how modern-day home violence occurs and our position as a collective to forestall it or cease it earlier than it’s too late.