This makes me curious about the movie. I haven't seen it, but I am willing to. I love a good story about connection, but I struggle with portrayals of racism regardless of time period or societal standards of awareness. Knowing how African peoples were gawked at based on body type and skin color . . . well, I'm of partial African descent and I've experienced my share of that sort of radical exoticism. In any case, you make a poignant argument when you mention Rockwell and say, "Many in our world walk with scars, real or imagined. They feel displaced and unappreciated, maybe even despised."
We structure family so many ways, and while I'm not comparing yours to the circus aspect of this story, I think you know what it means to find true and deeply fulfilling connections by creating your own family versus the assumed standard.
Great post.
I agree that it must be very difficult to see portayals of that kind of senseless hate. I am triggered by war movies where I see the kind of person I would call brother be neglected or injured or killed while serving their country. I know it's not the same thing, but it's as close as an old white soldier can get.
I've struggled with my multiracial families. Part of me wants them to never know that the world doesn't love and cherish and value them like I do. I think that's why I've reached for period pieces as part of their education. There is tragically no way they won't find out that there are low brow idiots who think with their corrupted souls and would pre judge them. But, broaching the subject with examples from a past they weren't alive to suffer through... maybe I can open the door to this malevolence while still making it less of an urgent threat. That education comes as they get older, and we share the current state of America. Maybe as they watch their big bear of a father, with tears streaming into his beard while watching Red Tails or The Help, just as he does when watching The Lone Survior or 13 hours, and realize that he is as broken for his mistreated brothers and sisters of color as he is the soldier that forged his core... that while the world still sucks... people still suck... there are those who will stand up to evil and do what they can to help. That's my hope anyway.