"Precious," the movie, which is based on "Push," the novel, irritates some African-Americans who say the harsh portrayal of one teenager’s life demeans the black community, says Joan Whitlow, in an opinion piece on NJ.com.
When it comes to "Precious," I hear people asking: Why do they only push the films that perpetuate the same old stereotypes? Given what’s going on in real life, including the family in the White House, anyone who thinks "Precious" represents all there is to black living is somebody who wants to believe that’s all there is. Those somebodies don’t need the movie or the book to color their thinking.
The fictional Precious learned to read and write and went from silent victim to an active advocate for herself. In one of the best scenes, Precious steals her case file from her social worker. Because she has gone from illiterate to reading at nearly an 8th-grade level, she is able to read her file and find out what is being planned and plotted for and against her, so she can plot and plan for herself.
Irene Daniels, executive director of the Newark Literacy Project, which runs programs for adults and children at the Newark Public Library, fears the potent message about literacy transforming a life is lost on many of the people who see the film. A National Center for Education Statistics study said that in 2003, between 13.5% and 20.8% of New Jerseyans could not read a simple piece of English prose.
Back in 1998, another federal government study that broke literacy rates down by municipalities said 52% of Newark residents were at the lowest level of literacy. That’s frightening. Is that accurate? Would more up-to-date numbers show better or worse? What I know is that Daniels’ program is serving many young people who have high school diplomas. A lot of them, she said, go to Essex County College — I call that Newark’s 13th grade — and struggle because they never mastered reading and writing in 12 years of school. Read more of this piece.