Views On Mo'Nique's Oscar Win

+1, voting with your $'s is the best way to effect change. I too have never and will never see either, the only reason I know about The color purple is by reading critiques by those whose opinions I trust, in this case Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinsons review in his book "The Assassination of the Black Male Image"

 

I've never seen TCP, so I had no idea it was anti-BM. I agree with you. I'll see neither as I'll never pay money to see a Tyler Perry movie. Let's not forget a new anti-BM stereotype: the weak/effeminate BM who is bullied or bossed around by the butch sistagal.

 

Love to see younger brothers who "get it"! Tyler Perry is the new Al Jolson in my book.

 

He's the opposite of Oscar Micheaux. Too many Black people are too stupid to realize what TP is doing. He's just another stooge who caters to the gullible BW audience.

 

Andrae, not Andrea. I think he'd get very perturbed with being labeled as a girl.

I'm guessing you haven't seen I am Legend, of which the part was originally for a WM. Will Smith did an outstanding job. Sidney Poitier has been in a number of fantastic films. If you're specifically talking about action films, one of my favorites, Spawn springs to mind, too. Morgan Freeman's had great range in his acting career. Is it enough? Absolutely not. Never was my argument, but black actors and actresses and the roles they play are not entirely regarded as "trash." That's a distorted perception that's just going to make you miserable.

So you're criticizing a film/novel you've never seen/read? Alice Walker's point was not how terrible black men are, and she praises black men in her writing. You don't get to be poet laureate by talking about how wicked and wayward black men are. That makes me sad to think that would turn you off from reading one of the greatest writers of our time, karmacoma.

As for Precious, it's a timely, relevant film. Arguably, kind of like Eraserhead is a man's film, Precious is a woman's film. And while it may not directly be relevant to your life, I think being aware that human beings can thrive on simple human kindness is worth taking note of in the movie.

 

I'm not criticizing it. I'm saying I refuse to see it. I had this same discussion about Precious. I know enough about both films to know I'm not interested in either. Evil black Glover beats the shit out of Whoopi. Booo, he's awful. Am I missing anything?

Good for her, if so. But I doubt it.

LOL Are you sure?

If you say so.

There you go. Call me when Iron Man 2 comes out.

 

Funnily enough I am intrigued by his movies and will probably see at least one just to see what all the noise is about. One of the less coonish ones like this "Why Did I Get Married Too."

 

Thanks for quoting me Loki I appreciate being paid attention to. Bonsaiikitten I agree bm have been given good roles like you said movies like Spawn Blade and I am Legend were pretty good. My main issue as Loki restated is the lack of depth and the lack of time or fantasy pieces where bm are either subserviant or no existant. Help me out here can you name some films where the bm was the object of desire and archetype for young women to aspire to marry or plain have sex with. Most bm roles have us asexual beings who don't long for love and family.

 

The first one was pretty good even though I found myself annoyed at jill scotts character.

 

this movie has certainly hit a nerve...i saw the movie and didn't like it...some of you already read my take on gabby in the movie...yes, the movie portrays bw in a negative light...this is not just a stereotype...you hangout in any major city in the summertime and as soon as the sun goes down the yelling begins...i live in a predominately black/hispanic neighborhood in denver which is not a large city at all...every night i hear it...i see women dragging around three too many babies all the time...no daddy in sight...living on welfare...kids getting free lunch at school...clothes that they have outgrown...daddy comes by to bust a nut once in awhile with his tricked out car and stereo blasting but no money to take care of babies...

the saddest thing about this movie is how close it is to the truth...does that mean it portrays all black people...absolutely not...but for the ignorant it confirms that the way they view black people is right on the mark

i have never seen a tyler perry movie...not interested!!

i would love to see more uplifting movies portraying black people...to be honest, when movies like this come out it is embarrassing...if there was balance then a movie like this would make sense...without a wide spectrum of stories about black people it loses it's value

.02

 

Funny thing About Alice Walker...

Was just checking out another board. Here's what a poster there had to say about Ms. Walker:

By the way.... the chick in the picture above is Alice Walker. Alice wrote the Color Purple. She is also the female who came up with the word "WOMANIST". Alice is also a lesbian, just like most of the leaders of the feminist/womanist groups. Oh, homegurl likes to call herself a Bisexual but let's just cut to the chase, she is a man hating lesbian(former sex partner of Tracy Chapman, whose music I love).

(Look it up - don't just believe me.)

Until females like Alice are removed from their position of power over Black females, this mess will continue because those lesbian/feminist/womanist gals don't want Black females to be married. They don't want Black men to be good men. They want division and "The State" has given them the platform to do it.

But the average Black female will never understand that because they feel that them there gals are working for their benefit. So this mess will go on and on until the mass of the Black male population is nicely married away to non black females. Then their kids will have learned not to have anything to do with the super feminist BF. In short time (10 years max). The sistahood will begin to die away.

In the mean time, try to find a woman who you can reason with. Fighting the "Sistahood" is impossible because there is no logic involved.

LONG LIVE THE SISTAHOOD!

LOL now you see why I don't read Alice Walker books.

 

oh oh! me me!!
Not Easily Broken is one, that other movie w beyoncee and that blond chick (never saw it). There is another movie w my Morris, but Im blanking out on the name.

Hmmmmm..... there are quite a few more but Im blanking out on names...
I rarely see any movies w any romance in them

 

Once again, numerous posters have said that such movies as Precious can draw attention to certain problems and if such attention can effect change, we can all agree that would be a good thing. The problem is the huge historical track record of overwhelmingly negative portrayals and stereotypes, on multiple levels of BM, BW and Black people in general in all forms of media, undoubtedly, Precious also falls into this category. To sum up, Spike Lee recently said that present day, there is not one, NOT ONE, Black person in America who can green light a movie for a major production company, this is a big part of the problem and why such stereotypes persist.

 

Obsessed is the movie you are talking about here I think, not sure I would count this as a positive portrayal of a Black man, while he is educated and successful, he is also shown to be subservient and weak when interacting with his wife and the blond obsessed stalker. Of course the BW, Beyonce, must be the one to save the day in the end of the movie.

 

Like I said, I didnt see it.. I thought both females wanted him though.

 

Spawn? Seriously? The movie based on the comic book by a white guy about a black man who turns into a white man and spends every day watching his widow getting boinked by another man? Seriously?

 

There are hundreds of high quality comic books by Black Men featuring Black Men, and none of them have ever been made into a movie.

 

You're missing a lot.

Damn italics isn't working, so please bear in mind I'm aware I'm screwing up how it should be written. A Patch of Blue (which is probably my favorite), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Jungle Fever, Save the Last Dance, The Rat Pack, and In the Mix.

I liked your post because I've never heard a BM express that he feels BM are asexualized by media. Hypersexualized, yes, but that's interesting, and when I think of it, accurate in some ways. It's given me something to think about.

Well, that poster is also wrong (disambiguation, see: "full of shit"). Alice Walker is bisexual. She did admit to an affair with Chapman. Why is this woman insisting Walker's a lesbian? Alice Walker has been married to a man, for about 11 years; they divorced in 1976. Walker was already a highly revered writer by this time, and was in an IR.

I think the poster in question is an angry heterosexual BW who is exactly the kind of woman BM and WW complain on here, and you're using her to defend a point when normally you'd be up in arms for her criticizing BM who date WW.

Unfortunate, and Spike's right. I'm not saying there doesn't need to be change, but I'm saying Monique deserved her Oscar and nothing you say will diminish that, nor did the whole thing need to be written where Precious became a Rhodes scholar and Mary was saccharin sweet and supportive. It was a story that stood on its own feet.

Also, can't remember what series of short stories it's from, but I do remember it was originally published in 1976 and Alice Walker's portayal of some of the black men in there ranged from positive to milquetoast.

So your ideal film is an action film, has a black protagonist who simply conquers any problem in his way with the greatest of ease, and has no character flaws. Sounds flawless. What about the other films I mentioned? (He was still black after death in the movie, for the record.)

 

He's asexualized and emasculated.

Damn Skippy!

 

Once again we must agree to disagree here. Clearly our different life experiences and world views lead us to very different conclusions regarding this movie. The objection for many of us simply put, is due to the overwhelming negative historical and present day portrayals, such movies as Precious, even when based in limited reality and shedding light on tough sociological issues, furthers the perception of the sole African American experience as one that is low, base, dysfunctional, broken, poverty-stricken, ect. Images and words are very powerful, and can have a huge impact on the collective psyche of people both within and without the African American community, thus making the tangible results of such portrayals VERY real to those of us who have to overcome them on a daily basis. Such an onslaught of negative imagery just about everywhere one looks is why those like myself and others rail against these kind of films, even when they may contain important issues. These are very important, very real, issues that have been researched and debated for ages.

In Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson's book "The Assassination of the Black Male Image" he does a brilliant job of detailing the root causes, historical genesis, and ongoing examples of the concerted, insidious, and institutional image destruction of the Black man by past and present media forms, both within and without of the Black community.

His conclusion as to how to combat this reality, is nothing short of sheer brilliance in my opinion, from page 169;

- "The first step in the racial stereotype self-clensing process is to be aware of what you say and do.
- The second step is to become a talking, walking, thinking, and most importantly acting anti-stereotype and role model around family, friends, in organizations, in your place of business, and at school.
- The third step is to get involved in church, civic, political, PTA, fraternities, sororities, associations, rites-of-passage, and mentoring programs and anywhere else where you can set a positive example of excellence and achievement.

These are only suggestions. But if we take one or more of them they will go a long way toward countering the self-hateful, self-destructive, and ultimately self-defeating images many Americans have of Black men and many Black people have of themselves."

This is exactly how I live my life everyday, and why I cannot and will not support movies like Precious.