Lately there’s been a lot of focus on the independent movie PRECIOUS which has been asking a central question; why so much focus on negativity in the black experience? And why is everyone so accepting of these films?
Now, once upon a time I worked in child services in a very large city. In fact, the nature of my job was such that if a child abuse case hit the news, they were in front of me or my co-workers for conference in a matter of weeks. So it’s not like I haven’t seen abuse in African-American culture, I surely have. But I also saw it in other cultures as well.
Movies nowadays don’t seem to reflect that at all, and that’s horrible. Films with one or two African-Americans rarely focus on dysfunction. In fact, that guy is usually an integral part of the story and caper. (Unless you’re talking Transformers. Really, Michael Bay? Thank God for Aint it cool News or I’d have been angry in theaters last summer). And yes, it’s usually a guy. But at least the storyline isn’t sad and dank 100% of the time.
But in this century, if the film features an all African-American cast, someone’s getting beaten or yelled at. And someone’s in drag and a fat suit. Hello Martin Lawrence. Hello Eddie Murphy. And of course, no one does it better than the king. Tyler Perry.
Mr. Perry’s entrepreneurial spirit is to be commended. He made an empire out of nothing, and did so legally. And I respect that. Somewhat.
However, having attempted to sit through more than one of his movies, I can’t dig it. For the uninitiated, let me tell you how a Tyler Perry movie works. So consider this a spoiler alert for every movie he ever makes.
Some chick is being mentally or physically abused or abusing herself due to low self-esteem. She’s hiding it. Someone finds out. Cue inner strength/beat him back talk. Cue overweight drag scene. Cue church scene. Cue her having to turn around at the suggestion of a new man in her life. AHA! If only he’d been here at the beginning of the movie! Because obviously all she needed was a dude to pull her out of misery. *insert eye roll*
Mr. Perry’s movies are wildly popular. His audience is African-American women. But his message of “empowerment” seems rooted in one central villain. Not the abusive male. But the black woman herself. A couple of years ago I sat through his film “Why did I get married?” It was wonderfully acted, although a bit of a Big Chill rip-off. I noticed something horrible at the end of that movie. At the end for each relationship to work, the women had to change something about themselves. And the men changed nothing. NOTHING. Um, it’s two people in a relationship. Aren’t we all supposed to be growing?
Well, not if your expectation is that African-American men can’t grow and African-American women must support that. To me, this belittles both.
So, back to Precious. I’ve no doubt this movie is fabulously acted. But where’s the balance in Hollywood? Where are the films which feature black people being… people? Look, I know black folks get abused. Like everyone else. But films nowadays are part of the lowered expectations of people in particular about black women. So when a black pop star gets beaten, people say it must be her fault, because that brother is a “good man”. When a black woman is single, she must have an “attitude”. When a black women is raped, she must have been “fast” anyway. These are all things I’ve heard out of the mouths of black women. Because without positive images and expectations, people sometimes cling to media to get a sense of the broader world.
So now there seems to be a trend towards more and more abuse in film concerning black people. Should these movies NOT be made? I believe in free speech. If people are willing to pay for it, they should be made. But am I to believe there are no scripts floating around Hollywood in development hell with POSITIVE black images? That no one has written anything where the blackness or abuse of a family isn’t the central plot point?
What does it say about Hollywood that the most functional fictional black family on film this year will be in a cartoon? (Don’t get me started on how Princess Tiana is a frog for most of that movie either.) Thank God we have a real family in the White House that’s just functional and American. Too bad Hollywood hasn’t noticed.
What if every movie that featured Latinos focused on illegal immigration? Not a strictly Latino issue. But people would come to think of it that way.
What if every movie about a Jewish lead featured someone like Bernie Madoff? Not as Jewish issue. But people would think of it that way.
I could go on and on. To have that negativity be the sole representation on film would be ridiculous. Lawbreakers and abusers are part of the American experience, but they aren’t the whole of it. In the end, people are just people.
So Mr. Perry has produced Precious ( as has Oprah Winfrey); and I’m sure it’ll do well at awards time. I’m also positive that this kind of abuse is happening to some child right now in America as I type. With 100% certainty I can tell you that child doesn’t have to be black.
The black experience is a human one. We have President Obama. We have Lena Horne. Bill Cosby. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X. Cornell West. Chuck D. Maya Angelou. Judith Jamison. Nancy Wilson. Mae Jamison. Nichelle Nichols.
Would that more of their stories were embraced. Sometimes I look at movies like Hollywood Shuffle and I think: Robert Townsend wasn’t just a genius. He was a truthteller way ahead of his time. The shuffle continues 22 years later. I wonder when we’ll pick up our feet and just walk.