The racist Mr. Carter Chambers

Here's something I'm not proud of: I saw The Bucket List over the holidays.

For those that haven't seen this movie, count yourself lucky that the limited exposure you will get in this blog post is all you need subject yourself to. I am assuming, however, that you saw the trailers & commercials for the flick when it came out, and therefore know everything you need to know about the plot.

What I want to talk to you about today is what I can only describe as the racist tendencies of Carter Chambers, the character played by Morgan Freeman.

His out-and-out racism is never stated in the movie, mind you. It might be hinted at in the script, but copies are either hard to come by, or I haven't bothered trying. Here's a sample of what the script might look like.

Interior, Hotel Room, Hong Kong. CARTER enters after a long night of hating other races.

CARTER: I'm ready to go home now.

Why am I so convinced that Carter is a racist? Because when Jack Nicholson's character hires out a whore to seduce him in Hong Kong, that whore is a mixed race (black/white) girl with an English accent. She's intelligent and engaging, and tempts Carter to the point where he barely manages to stammer out that he's married and can't partake in any whoring. (He's not supposed to know it's whoring, but he figures it out.)

Why is this racist? Consider this:

1. Estimate the number of ethnically Chinese whores in Hong Kong, or who could be quickly imported from neighboring Guangzhou or Shenzhen.

2. Estimate the number of mixed race black/white whores in Hong Kong with English accents.

Jack Nicholson's character must have gone to extraordinary lengths to procure this specific whore. Since he knows Carter well by this point in the movie, he must have figured that this was the one whore who was perfectly suited to pierce Carter's defenses. Why would Carter not be enticed by an ethnically Chinese whore? The only reason I can come up with is that he is, in fact, a racist.

Not that I blame Carter for his preference. Consider Thandie Newton and Beonce Knowles, who are ridiculously hot. And my previous post about the Jones girls. But still, to deny equal employment opportunities to a Chinese whore... that's not only racism, that's employment discrimination.

So look, save your movie-going dollars for movies that don't promote racist agendas. Stay away from The Bucket List.

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