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The Defenders' Stacey Patton is thankful the Academy of Motion Pictures did not award "a slew of Oscars" to Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire. "Call me a hater. I don’t care," she says.

Patton writes:

I give big props to Mo’Nique and Gabourey Sidibe for their courage and skill playing such harrowing roles. As one of my writer friends pointed out, when you are a black artist navigating Hollywood, sometimes you enter the door that’s open. But while a parade of critics have heralded Precious for its triumph of social realism, it also crammed all the worst pathologies and stereotypes of urban poor black people into one film.

She continues:

Films like Precious might provoke moral outrage and get people talking about important issues like child abuse and rape. But do they really help us understand that kind of suffering as well as the social context and strictures that breed such violations of vulnerable people? Or do they simply reproduce stereotypes and cast blacks, the poor, and other people pushed to the margins as hapless victims with no future?

Read the full article here.