The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Movie uses satire to address racial stereotypes
Debate speech in Atlanta inspired film’s director to embrace ethnic identity.
In 2003, Kobi Libii was visiting Atlanta for the first time to compete in a debate tournament at Ebenezer Baptist Church. It was a moment that deeply influenced his career.
The Indiana native said he stood at the podium where Martin Luther King Jr. preached four decades earlier and delivered his debate speech. The experience made him realize he could use his voice to fully embrace and celebrate his ethnic identity.
Two decades after Libii’s debate speech, he has written, produced and directed his first feature film, “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” now in theaters nationwide.
A romantic comedy mixed with satire, the film follows a young artist who gets recruited by a secret organization whose mission is to help make white people’s lives easier. It also explores the concept that failing to address race relations in order to protect white people from discomfort doesn’t benefit anyone.
The movie, which stars Justice Smith,
David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan, Aisha Hinds and Nicole Byer, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Libii, whose father is Black and mother is white, said he used humor and social commentary on racial stereotypes, combined with warm color palettes and dissolving visual effects, to reimagine his own life throughout the film’s 105-minute run time.
“It’s a film about my relationship to whiteness,” said Libii, 44, adding that it addressed his attempts at appeasing the maternal side of his family. “Even though my experience with the world is Black via the privilege that comes with looking (light) the way that I do, I wanted to acknowledge it as part of the main character’s and my own proximity to one side of my heritage.”
The film’s provocative title comes from a term coined by filmmaker Spike Lee to describe Black characters in movies and books who are treated as secondary, and exist only to please and serve white characters.
Smith, a queer actor who plays Aren, spent a month with Libii helping to mold the main character’s feelings about his own biracial origins. Smith was raised by a Black father and an Italian/French-Canadian mother.
“Kobi and I grew up very similarly,” said Smith, who grew up in Orange County, California. “I knew this character and his journey of making yourself small to fit in, and having to liberate yourself from this expectation of being put in your place.”
Libii and Smith say they hope the film persuades Black moviegoers to not carry shame or guilt in being their full, authentic selves.
Libii also believes the movie arrives at an opportune moment, as school districts across the U.S. continue to ban books and corporations eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
“I wish this story wasn’t as timely as it is,” he said.