Of all of my family and friends I am the least militant about how Black people are perceived and viewed.  I have some pride though, and it is that pride that has me doing something that I rarely do, chastise a Black man in a public forum.

Sure when I run into idiots on websites I call them idiots, yes even if I know that they are Black.

Sure you’ve read more than once about my issues with President Obama, who is also a Black man.

Yet,

The Black man is special and sacred to me in a way I can never truly convey.  Partly?  I am raising what will soon be a Black man.  Mostly?  The journey of the American born Black man is different than any other journey on earth, and the only possible rival to the hardships thrust upon them, if you ask me…is the Black woman.

It is that love of the Black man that fuels the occasional critiscism that comes out.  I expect better because I know better, I expect more because I deserve more, and it troubles me that when the opportunity comes for Black men and women to be viewed and judged by our images in the media….the examples are lacking in quality and quantity.

My more militant contemporaries would (DO) tell me that I am not being supportive enough.  I simply disagree, strongly.

The idea that to allow coonery to run unchecked as the alleged norm of Black society is to invite continued discrimination and mistreatment on a level that we should never have to accept.

We may not be able to change the hearts and minds of those who think that Madea is what all us Black women look and act like, but if you change the images, you change the perception.

You have to wonder why it is so difficult for most of non Black America to accept the intelligence of our President.  Could it possibly be that most Americans don’t meet the Baraks?  Could it be that what they know of Black America comes from The Flavor of Love 2?  If all you’ve ever seen of examples of Black America was Roots on VHS, and Basketball Wives LA then how do you accept that Barak Obama is closer to the normal rather than closer to the exception?

Since the creation of the first silent picture, perceptions of Blacks in America has been distorted and warped by non Blacks who were in position to make movies.

It was 1895 that Lumiere was credited with making the first motion picture camera…it was 1915 that Birth of a Nation was released in theaters.  The movie was met with criticism, yet it did not stop the KKK from using the White actors in blackface as a fear tactic and recruiting tool.

Since then – and arguably before – Blacks in America have had to battle the mindset of an America that looks at George Jefferson and wonders why the Black man they work next to is not loud, short, balding and not calling the honkey.

Have there been positive portrayals of Black men in TV and movies?  CLARO!  (that’s Spanish for of course)

Actor Dennis Haysbert in the role of David Palmer from the show 24

One of my portrayals of a Black man on screen was David Palmer from the show 24.  We meet him as a sitting Senator and Presidential candidate.  We watch him get elected President.  We watch him get assassinated as a ‘private’ citizen.  What was great about the Palmer character was that he was brilliant and flawed and complete. He was not one dimensional, and he was not a fairy tale.  There are certainly other good role models for Blacks on television, but Palmer is one of the best.

What would one of the worst be?

Mr. Brown from various Tyler Perry productions

You can get with this or you can get with that hunh?

David Palmer is doing insurance commercials and TBS paid Tyler Perry an ungodly sum of money for the ability to syndicate the step and fetch show…ummmm I mean Meet the Browns.

That is the problem that I have with entertainment, and that is one of the reasons I stopped watching much television in my house.  Sorry…you don’t get to tell me that the only characters that look like me can act like Mr. Brown, or Keisha from Single Ladies and expect me to be thankful.  I’m not, nor will I be silent when there are alternatives.

This is no longer 1971 when Blacks were reliant upon Norman Lear to hire Black actors.  We are prominent enough that we can command multi million dollars contract, we are powerful enough to make Oprah a billionaire, and if your name is Tyler Perry?

You are the highest paid man in Hollywood, you own your own studio and production company, you hire more Black actors and craft persons than anyone else in the business.  LionsGate also sends someone over to lick your asshole clean after you take a shit.  Hell, if he asked LionsGate would send someone over to the house to pull the shit out of Perry’s ass with their bare hands that’s how much they owe their existence to Perry’s success.

Yet…Tyler keeps making Madea movies.  Yet Perry keeps casting Janet Jackson as a leading lady.  Yet Perry makes Why Did I Get Married (TWO!) Yet Perry casts Kim Kardashian in his next feature based on his chitlin circuit plays…The Marriage Counselor.

There is one man in Hollywood who has it within his power to alter the images that America sees about Blacks, instead he gives us Angela:

It is one thing when you have no ability to control the images others see of you, but Perry does.  Perry perhaps more than anyone else in motion picture history does.  Denzel may have the Oscars…but Perry has the ability to produce product.

Taye Diggs may have a great smile and a six pack, but Perry has the capital to put his money where his mouth is and create vehicles for Blacks that are of quality, and can begin to alter the perceptions of others.

Terrence Howard may have played a pimp, but Tyler has the ability to pimp.

Instead we get Madea:

Now some of you may laugh at that scene, because you may have seen something similar while waiting for your Big Mac and Diet Coke….but it’s really not cute.  From the old Black woman in the beat up Cadillac to the young girl with the annoying voice there is nothing there attractive about the portrayal of these two Black women….nothing.

When I heard that Tyler Perry was the highest paid man in Hollywood I mourned the idea that the best opportunity in my life thus far to change the trajectory of the Black American on film has gone and shall not return.

You see, I don’t hate that Tyler Perry has become successful.  I don’t hate that he went from homeless to owning his own community in Atlanta.

What I hate is that now the Perry is in the position to make things happen, for HIS work that HE owns he wants to churn out Why Did I Get Married Too, and Madea’s Big Happy Family, and The Marriage Counselor.

For Rob Cohen he will set aside the minstrel show and be Alex Cross.

I understand that Madea paid the bills when he was hungry…but Tyler you are eating…and well these days.

It is one thing to eek out a living as you are powerless, but when you are the power? You have a greater responsibility.

That responsibility is ignored though except to destroy literary classics like For Colored Girls, and have women looking at their men sideways every time they catch a chest cold.

Oh and for the record?  Yes I always go and see my GYN when I have a cough that I can not get rid of  ::: eye roll:::

I recall a debate I got into with a young Black man as I expressed my exasperation at  Tyler Perry’s buffoonery.  I was accused of attacking the Black man and not being supportive.

Quite the contrary would be the truth.

I am asking a Black person with more power and influence than I have to step up, so that the power, pride and influence can be contagious.

Can I give him props for making sure that Cecily Tyson and Louis Gossett Jr get a job once a year?  Sure.

I am also allowed, and  it is damned near a responsibility! to demand better of my fellow man.

I still frequent Twitter, yet it is my Twitter ‘audience’ that reminds me just how much damage not having good role models for our Black children truly is, and how many parents just don’t seem to hug their children.

On any given Twitter night while real life occurs there is a debate about if you would smash a chick who’s bra and panties don’t match.

Or the Republican candidate debate is ignored in favor of the BET Hip Hop Awards…..or Reed Between the Lines, or on a night like tonight Basketball Wives: LA with Laura running about screaming White is right as she kisses her ex fiances ass because moving from the mansion to the two bedroom apparently is not what is hot in the streets these days.

Our daughters are watching men like Michael Jai White – who while he is easy on the eyes….is Married to Angela in Perry’s movies.  In reality  Angela would have gone the way of Nicole Brown-Simpson with her antics, yet we, and those who don’t KNOW us but WATCH Perry’s movies think that Black women treat Black men in that manner.

DO they?  Somewhere I am sure it occurs but I virtually guarantee you that it is not the common theme in most households.

In The Family That Preys, Sanaa Latham (also quite easy on the eyes) berates and abuses her down to earth  blue collar husband because the White business owner slips her the salami once a week on Wednesday’s and tosses her a few hundred dollars here and there.

Perry has the opportunity to develop quality sitcoms that don’t take the easy joke yet I have to look at Mr Brown in clothes that are too old and too small with baby powder caked on his knees to indicate that he is ashy.  Apparently because he is not bright enough to understand that you put the lotion on your skin and not drink it.

I am angered by the decisions Tyler Perry has made since his elevation to power.  Angered because now that he is at a point that he no longer HAS to make this shit to get a paycheck he STILL DOES.

Is it him just trying to make more money?  I don’t know.  I can not tell you his reasons.  I can tell you that he told Spike Lee to kiss his ass.

Spike may not be breaking the box office lately but I will put Do The Right Thing up against Madea Goes to Jail every day of the week, and explain to you why one movie full of stereotypes improves the image of Black people in America, and the other does not.

Three guesses which one I would pick…the first two do not count.