"Awoke from my slumber to let you all know that I will be blogging about the two most disgraceful films in theaters right now, The Blindside and Precious. I'm sorry, "based on a true story" or not, I am tired of seeing unrealistic depictions of African-Americans in cinema and in the news. We have a black family in the White House - THAT is our norm. Stop with this antiquated method of taking what a few us of go through and projecting it onto the entire race of people. I relate to neither story. Come up with a more inventive storyline PLEASE and STOP socially exploiting people."
The Black man in a constant state of infancy.
It's been said that the two roles given to Black actors in mainstream cinema have been reduced to the matronly, asexual female and the unevolved, "yet-to-realize-his-full-potential" male role. To these I add the role of the “bumbling buffoon” as projected in the recently released film The Blindside and the helpless, lonely woman, “woh is me” role as portrayed in Precious.
This is an unprecedented time in Black history, in American history really, and for the BIG players in cinema to be rehashing the same ol' sob stories of the past is tedious.
It is true that certain melodramatic storylines strike a common cord and resonate within people, but the job of an entertainer, one in a creative industry such as cinema, is to... dare I say it? Be creative.
There needs to be a variety of stories told that are relevant to the current atmosphere of the society.
Hear ye, hear ye! I do declare now and hence forth that all images of African-American people in the media shall be positive, uplifting and nothing less. So help me, God! -- Yeah. #Unrealistic.
But I do expect for there to be variety.
“It's one thing to present a VARIETY of true-to-life films, but for the MAINSTREAM to continually force-feed disparaging (no matter the "happy-ending") images of one group of people is tiresome.”
It’s almost as if the story doesn’t ring true unless it is legitimized by the use of the lowest societal denominator. It’s become a regurgitated and now antiquated process:
We need to sell movie tickets… how do we do that? --> Let’s make a sob story... who makes the best sob stories? --> Helpless people… and who are the most helpless of them all? --> Black people!
It’s exploitation. (Yes, even if Tyler produces it/ Oprah endorses it.)
Think about this. A great number of people in this country don’t interact with black people on the regular. Outside of the Obama’s, imagine if the only image you saw of a Black woman was Precious and of a Black man was Blindside dude?
How tragic.
“People think the Obama's are an anomaly, and they are not. We are brilliant.”
“Take the time to learn the ins and outs of the culture before you present them on the big screen to millions. We all don't need saviors. That is an image of the past. Let's move into the present and future. Let's move into the light.”
With a buying power of more than $900 billion, African-Americans have a say in what is produced or not. Action speaks louder than words, but dollars speak even louder. Don't waste your money on non-progressive flicks like The Blindside or Precious.
Bottomline, best movies out right now, Disney's The Princess and The Frog and Invictus.
Go see that with your $900 billion.
Disney's The Princess and The Frog
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