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Soft Unquiet

Soft & Quiet is not easy viewing and leaves a disturbing aftertaste. As a person of color living in America you have to think about what part of the story is plausible and where things turn hyperbolic to generate shock and awe. There is a turning point in the story where a small event leads to rapid escalation. In the case of this story the trigger is deep racial prejudice but it could be something else too - a very random person can unwittingly step on a minefield when they are dealing with someone who feels angry, hopeless, victimized, powerless and so on. The reasons for why they feel the way they do have nothing to do with the individual that triggers them but if things get out of hand it it does in the movie, that person may even pay with their life. 

The women who want to create a club to vent their grievances against multi-culturalism being thrust upon them are pathetic and ridiculous in their understanding of what ails them. That part of the movie is comical even. Particularly interesting is the leader of the pack, Emily who is not above verbally castrating her genetically perfect white husband for failing to get her pregnant. She taunts him ruthlessly until he does her bidding just to prove his manhood - this is her ideal of the perfect marriage that results in strong creating families and she is desperate to get started with hers. With a brother who is incarcerated for rape, you have to wonder if she herself is the product of a "perfect" marriage that brought forth such stellar offspring into the world. As the ladies say in their club meeting it is all about the mothers instilling the right values early on as their must have doubtless done. 

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