Black War Cinema and the Representation Paradox

“For all of their insistence on cultural revolution, progressives are not yet ready to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.”

The Problem

Modern progressive discourse betrays an odd paradox. Academics and cultural commentators condemn Western institutions for being irredeemably racist. At the same time, they laud non-white persons for succeeding within those same institutions whose very essence allegedly offends their dignity.

If mathematics is racist, one wonders why films such as Hidden Figures, which highlight the contributions of black mathematicians working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, keep getting made. After all, according to A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction, a toolkit released by Californian teachers’ groups and promoted by the United States  Department of Education, “[s]tudents [being] required to ‘show their work’ in standardized, prescribed ways” is a mindset that “perpetuate white supremacy.” For that matter, no less than the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture has declared “emphasis on the scientific method,” a quality presumably required of all mathematicians, to be an avatar of whiteness.

Likewise, why celebrate the biracial Meghan Markle’s marriage into the British royal family when said family sits atop a European empire that ruthlessly exploited her African ancestors? Does the generational trauma spawned by Albion’s crimes not linger on despite the glamorous wedding? Why bother auditioning minority musicians for orchestras if tonal theory, which includes concepts like pitch, rhythm, and harmony, fails to register their musical prowess? In a 2019 essay titled “It’s Time to Let Classical Music Die,” composer Nebal Maysaud writes that “people of color can never truly be pioneers of Western classical music” because “Western classical music is not about culture. It’s about whiteness. It’s a combination of European traditions which serve the specious belief that whiteness has a culture—one that is superior to all others.”