Will Smith is seeking emancipation; literally and figuratively after his latest movie project “Emancipation” failed to warm up to Hollywood insiders as well as the general public. Not surprisingly, the movie got snubbed by the Golden Globe awards, which is a clear signal that the Oscars will snub it as well. There is no mystery involved as everyone has concluded that the movie’s poor reception is due to Will Smith’s outrageous assault on Chris Rock at last year’s Oscars, after which he was banned from any involvement in the awards for 10 years.

I recently saw the movie and although Will Smith gave a great performance in his depiction of the true-life former slave “Whipped Peter”, the man depicted in the well-known photo that shows his back full of scars from being repeatedly whipped by his enslavers, I didn’t like the movie. In fact, I despise all movies that depict the slave era. I do realize that, especially in this era of white supremacy resurgence, these types of movies have to be made. One reason is to reverse Black apathy and another reason is to engage the conscience of whites who were once on the narrow path toward greater Sanity.

Never the less, Emancipation pushes the same old tropes. The main problem I have with slavery and discrimination-themed movies is that in order for them to be accepted by white society, they have to be religion-based. In other words, they have to depict the Black people having superior moral fortitude in the face of evil. With that said, my favorite scene in the movie was when Will Smith used a small metal cross to stab a slave hunter in his face. It shows that survival always supersedes faith and it was a welcoming departure from the norm.

I often wonder why faith became Black people’s default comforter when I already know the answer. The answer is that our Spirit is disconnected from the Great Spirit that is the Universe because we chose to incarnate into human form and experience life without knowing that our Soul is immortal. If we always knew that our Soul could reincarnate as many times as our Spirit wants and in any living creature throughout the universe that it wants, then we wouldn’t fear death and choose to live in bondage by faith for generations.

On another note, I did learn something from Emancipation, which proves its importance in an historical way. “Whipped Peter”, the man Will Smith played in Emancipation was actually a Haitian who was brought to Louisiana to work on Cotton farms and to build railroads. The only thing is that besides the historic photo of his scarred back, there is little else known about him. There is controversy about his involvement in the Civil war in 1863 because of another runaway slave named “Gordon” who shared a similar story. The movie also depicted Whipped Peter as having a wife and children but slave records of the plantation that he escaped from doesn’t show it.

Overall, Emancipation was an entertaining depiction of an iconic individual from America’s unsavory past; the past I always think of when I hear white supremacists saying they want to make America great again. It is a past when whites ruled with impunity and Blacks clung to Bibles believing that they must have done something wrong for God to inflict such suffering on them. The movie simply sweetens the bitterness of reality with ideas of love, courage, and perseverance.