NAACP And It's President Ben Jealous Still Wasting Time Talking About The Obvious Instead Of Doing Anything Practical To Help Black America
Every time they issue this "Hollywood" report, I have the same response, a really big Homer Simpson - DOH? A black man ran for the highest office in the land for nearly two years and actually damn won and mainstream television failed to have one person of color as a lead news journalist. And the NAACP is wasting time issuing a report on what anyone could figure out with a few clicks of the remote.
Further, aren't they paying damn attention? Hollywood is the middle of an economic mess. Other than more cheap reality shows, talks shows, and "So Can You Make A Damn Fool Out Of Yourself" type programming, Hollywood ain't about to create any new shows that anyone wants to see. WE have ENOUGH black folks embarrassing us on reality television and I am hope that CNN will give me a early Xmas gift and cancel the hell out of DL Hughley's dumb ass show.
The NAACP needs to stop wasting time with pointless reports like this. Watching Will Smith promoting 7 pounds on Oprah yesterday, (he was quite delightful by the way), I was struck once again that Mr. Smith is in another movie where he is the only black lead. Will Smith is Mr. Box Office, but he either has no interest or no power to increase the number of black faces working in front or behind the camera in his films.
And if black folks want change in Hollywood we have to support black projects. How many black people saw Spike Lee's last film, The Miracle at St. Anna? How many people saw The Secret Life of Bees, which starred four African American women and a black woman director? How many black folks are still buying DVD bootlegs from BoBo on da' corner? Even though I can understand why, fewer black folks went to see Tyler Perry's latest, The Family That Prays. Good thing he doesn't like to pay his folks the union wage, so his films always turn a profit. And where in the hell as the independent black filmmaker gone?
4 comments:
The movies you mentioned, Miracle at St. Anna and The Secret Life of Bees, were EXCELLENT movies - but we didn't support them. My husband and I went to see Miracle at St. Anna during its second weekend, and the theater showed it in the smallest viewing room they had. I don't think there were even 20 people in the room - and most of the folks in there were white.
The Secret Life of Bees faired a little better as far as the number of viewers.
Prof. Tracey, it seems like we SAY we want more representation, more positive films that don't present us in a stereotypical fashion, but when we get them, what do we do? Nothing!
agreed on all points!
Professor Tracey its the same old same old not only with the NAACP but Black folk who claim they want an end to the negative. My belief is that by not supporting the positive you support the negative. I typed this in the comments on one of my blog posts yesterday:
"I think it will change even more when we support the good things we say we want to hear and see.
It does nothing for us to "boycott" music we were never buying in the first place.
But when you purchase the "good" and that company profits from it then what happens? Every other business follows suit.
Britney Spears made JIVE records a lot of money. Then came Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Samantha Mumba, and every other singing and dancing teeny pop star.
So until record companies make money off of positive there will ALWAYS be negative no matter how much people scream that it is bad and wrong.
Its not complicated. Those who complain about the negative simply need to put their money where their mouth is.
Until they do so, they are just wasting their breath."
So yeah, I'm tired of wasting my time watching folks waste their breath.
Beyond Black support, we must remember that Hollywood only gives "certain" movies a limited number of screens for viewing.
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