Chance The Rapper Critiques Depiction of Racism in New Netflix Movie Bright

Directed by Suicide Squad's David Ayer and written by Chronicle‘s Max Landis, Bright is rumoured to be the most expensive Netflix movie yet. The film takes place in a world where humanoid creatures live side by side with humans, and follows a human cop (Will Smith) and his partner to recover a deadly weapon.

On Twitter, Chance expressed reservations over a scene in which an orc is lynched. He interpreted this as a transparent and “shallow” metaphor for racism:

“I always feel a lil cheated when I see allegorical racism in movies cause that racism usually stems from human emotion or tolerance but not by law or systems the way it is in real life,” Chance explained. “The characters in #Bright live in a timeline where racism is gone… cause we hate ork now.”

I found the way they tried to illustrate americas racism through the mythical creatures to be a little shallow. #Brightmovie

— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 27, 2017

I always feel a lil cheated when I see allegorical racism in movies cause that racism usually stems from human emotion or tolerance but not by law or systems the way it is in real life. The characters in #Bright live in a timeline where racism is gone... cause we hate ork now ?

— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 27, 2017

Asked by a fan if he thinks he could have misinterpreted the scene as a metaphor for racism, Chance replied: “I tried to look at it that way but a few minutes into the movie they make wills character say “Fairy Lives don’t Matter.”