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Losing Isaiah (1995)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
4/25
4/25:
Losing Isaiah will make somebody hate black people more than before.
In a potential career setback, Samuel L. Jackson has to play the bad guy by asking idiotic racial questions
like "Have you ever had your black pediatrician over to dinner, Mr. Lewin?," "When you and Isaiah read together,
do any of the books you read have African-American characters or pertain to African-American history or culture?,"
"Oh, I'm sure you do, but is there a black face in any of them?," and "You ever stop to think how Isaiah must feel
living in a world where he never sees anyone like himself?"
To tell you the truth, while watching Losing Isaiah, race never entered my mind for the longest time.
I didn't see a white family adopting a black child. Instead, I saw a family adopting a child who was abandoned
by his birth mother. It's simple as that. A lot of viewers are mistaken that this happened for real
and that the story played out as exactly. As a matter of fact, the situations are completely
different if you think of what happened to Baby Byron in Pennsylvania during the 90's.
There shouldn't have been a case in the first place. Adoption laws are pretty clear in all states. Anybody who
abandons a baby for at least six months is charged with a low-degree felony, if not misdemeanor, resulting
in a fine and/or prison time. Also, adopting a child after proof of abandonment and no contact from birth
mother and/or relatives has been furnished will sever any natural parental rights going forward.
In the movie, Isaiah was abandoned for two years with no contact from his birth mother. No matter she says in
terms of "but...I didn't know," it means nothing. Then, there is the history of substance abuse. She doesn't
have a steady job or a concrete living situation. What lawyer gave her is just for show. In other words, it's
not a stable life for Isaiah. The white family has the black mother beat in all departments by a wide margin.
Race has nothing to do with it. But it's Hollywood and they like to make up crap that won't stick in real
life. Let's backtrack this a bit and change one tiny variable while keeping the rest unchanged. What
if the adopting family was entirely black? Do you think there would've been a case in the first place? Of
course not. That's why the movie doesn't work because the argument holds no water whatsoever. If I were the
white mother, I would refuse to help the black mother with Isaiah and move on. Let her deal with the problems,
and remember...she asked for it.
All in all, Losing Isaiah shouldn't have been conceived from the get-go.