Roland Ruiz with Patty Arquette on the set of Boyhood (image via his Facebook page)Jose here. A recent article on Latino Rebels in which the author claims that Richard Linklater’s Boyhood contains the worst kind of racism has caused a bit of a stir. Grisel Y. Acosta uses the infamous gardener subplot, in which Patricia Arquette’s character unexpectedly turns around the life of the only non-white character (played by Ronald Ruiz) featured in the film, as his basis to explain that the film is racist both by omission (where are all the other Hispanic characters in a film set in Texas?) and also by depicting “the horrific ‘save me White person’ trope” that has been prevalent in American filmmaking since, well, always.
It’s a shame that the article turned up the week when Oscar voting ends, because now it will be dismissed as having an “agenda”, or being part of a “smear campaign”, when the truth is that, beyond silly movie awards, the piece only directs us to a conversation we should have been having since the movie came out.
As a Hispanic immigrant living in the United States, there is not a single week that goes by where someone hasn’t congratulated me for "bothering" to learn English “...and writing it so well”, assumed I was Mexican or Puerto Rican, or when I’m asked by a peer if I went to college, or have a random person ask me if I’m a doorman or a cab driver. I have learned to live with people’s assumptions because of my ethnicity, and I often brush them off, because race is not something that's easy to discuss in this country...
Before going further, let me say that out of all this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Picture, Boyhood is by far my favorite, and the one that would get my vote; but it’d be nonsensical to pretend it’s a flawless film (and besides what’s the point of having “holy cows” we can’t question?) When I first saw Boyhood back in the summer of last year, that scene stuck out horribly and bothered me more than I wanted to accept:
The one thing I did not like at all about BOYHOOD was that sub-sub-plot with Patty Arquette and the plumber. THE BLIND SIDE much?
— Jose Solís (@josekicksass) July 10, 2014
It didn’t, however, stop me from thinking the film had many merits, although I found it curious that few, if any, articles brought up the condescending nature of this subplot. Being a huge fan of Mr. Linklater’s work, I came up with my own justification: while Boyhood itself is not racist, perhaps the boy in question is. Think about it, the film is clearly Mason’s (Ellar Coltrane) story and as such, we can safely assume that everything is seen from his perspective. But is he a reliable narrator when it comes to political correctness and tolerance? As a Caucasian, heterosexual male, growing up in one of the most conservative states in America, wouldn’t it make sense that Mason would grow up to be racist?
His liberal father (Ethan Hawke) sends him out to place Obama signs on strangers’ lawns, which could bode for him at some point rebelling against his father’s political beliefs and turn more towards the gun-toting, Bible-loving parents of his stepmother. Even his father suggests that he can keep the rifle he’s given for his birthday, as long as his mother doesn’t find out, which suggests that Mason harbors tastes he knows his parents wouldn't necessarily approve of. Added to this, it must be said that Mason is kind of a jerk. He’s offended deeply when he realizes his girlfriend doesn’t want to be with him anymore, often sees his mother as a figure who nags all the time, and throughout the film he’s prone to throw tantrums whenever he doesn’t get what he wants. Considering this, it would make sense then that the narrow minded Mason would only notice a Hispanic person when he’s serving him (first as a gardener and then as a waiter/manager) or thanking his mother for having rescued him from a life without education.
My point with this isn’t to badmouth the film - again, I think it’s a rather brilliant achievement - and Richard Linklater has in the past (in Fast Food Nation) already highlighted the struggles of Hispanic immigrants, but instead to ask people who are complaining about Mr. Acosta’s article, why are they so offended because someone claims a film they love contains a racist element? Why are so-called liberals so often afraid of embracing art that contains characters whose beliefs don't align with their own? More than that, would it be truly terrible that Mr. Linklater’s film was in fact about a racist in the making?
In these times when political correctness is considered such a virtue, shouldn’t we be welcoming depictions of intolerance that don’t necessarily end with racists learning their lessons or being absolved for their sins? When I watched Boyhood, after my initial distaste for the gardener subplot, I was in fact glad that it was there, so that parents who watch the film with their children would explain to them that, contrary to what young Mason sees, Hispanic people are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, and as proved in Obama’s reelection, Hispanic people have also become a powerful political force. Hispanic people are more than service providers waiting for white saviors to turn their lives around (don’t even get me started on the holy caregiver in Cake), but while we wait for the movies to catch up with this fact, and acknowledge the importance of telling stories about minorities, we shouldn’t pretend that these issues are nonexistent. After all, visibility should be everything.