Michael Reagan Misses the Point on 'The Butler'

Lee Daniels' The Butler was greeted by Hollywood and America as a remarkable film about a man who rose from the bottom to the pinnacle of what the American Dream is suppose to look like. Lee Daniels' presents a man to his audience that resonates with much of America, a man who struggled, as many Black American's continue to struggle, in a world that is still dominated in many ways by the race that once held their own captive and still some how Cecil Gaines made his way off the plantation and into the status of a working middle class family man.

If one could only stop to realize the significance of this film and story they would understand that it is simply more than a story based on the life of a real White House Butler. This story is not just about the character or the person, it is about every Black man, women and child that came out of the attrition of the early 20th century Black poverty and became someone. This is the story of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dreams becoming a realty.

The Butler is greater than the supposed accusation of a racist past-President, it is not about the validity of the Black Panthers, or about the real Butler. The Butler is much bigger than that, it is a history of the 20th Century Black Persons journey. The trials, the errors, the dreams and the accomplishments.

Michael Reagan, you simply missed the point. Surely the decisions of President Ronald Reagan were not made off-handed and I am sure the man had many black friends, but surely you see the correlation of what backing the South African Apartheid said to all African Americans around the country. The Apartheid was a racist regime, which kept a racial group down simply because of the color of their skin and you cannot tell me that was not wrong, especially not now in hindsight. I understand protecting your family, but own up to the truth that the political decision to do so was racially discriminatory. Backing a regime that believes one racist is superior to that of another is wrong ethically and morally, surely there is something to gain from hindsight.