Speak Out!
Reinforcing Stereotypes or Encouraging the Community?
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 21:54 | CommunityAn article in Entertainment Weekly asks, "How do you solve a problem like Madea?" in addressing what it references as "black America's secret culture war."
''People feel the images [in his movies] are very stereotypical, and black people are frustrated because they feel we should be more evolved. But there are very few black images in Hollywood, so black people are going to his movies. That's the dichotomy. Tyler Perry is making money.''At a time when Barack Obama is presenting the world with a bold new image of black America, Perry is being slammed for filling his films with regressive, down-market archetypes.''These characters are simply tools to make people laugh,'' Perry says. ''And I know for a fact that they have helped, inspired, and encouraged millions of people.''''If anything, he's trying to make us think about family values.'' Nor is every African-American cultural critic up in arms over Perry's caricatures. ''Comedy and stereotypes go hand in hand,'' notes Nelson George.
How do you feel about the way Blacks are portrayed in Perry's movies?
Never Mind Success...Go For Greatness
Comments
Tyler Perry is doing
Tyler Perry is doing something that Europeans in America will not and don't do show a growth of both male and female blacks. i find his movies funny and most of the things he shows happens in the black family, i have a Madea on my mother and my fathers side of the family.
i always have to ask a question when blacks complain about what blacks are being portrayed as in black movies: where were they and are they when in white movies we are portrayed as criminal and stupid and all the other negative types?
Is it possible that some of these critics MUST deny everything black so they can be disassociated from what being black is? or maybe in truth they ran away from the community so long ago that they don't know the real things that happen among black families?
I was not feeling Perry until I found myself defending him
It is interesting that you also have such discussions about the image of the multimedia. In South Africa the African filmmaker is likely to silence you if you explain to him the impact of his engagement with his art. FILM IS POWERFUL, FILM IS DANGEROUS. The view of creating stereotypes is legit because film has been used to prejudice us. The need to rectify the African image globally includes being aware of the tools used to 'bedevil' and 'degrade' us, and using it to reverse its own impact, in my language Zulu we say 'Iva likhishwa ngelinye' (You take out a thorn using another thorn) such is the building of African pride, media, religion, institutions have been used to damage our esteem, we ought to be at least be aware of this.
I feel Mr Perry is doing what he can to stay afloat and tell the stories he needs to tell in an industry that is anti-African advancement (film industry and specifically Hollywood) I have come to learn a lot from African American filmmakers like Spike Lee, John Singleton and even people like Samuel Jackson, I believe they need support in the role they are in, but we also need to take responsibility and instill self confidence in our children and let them know they are born of Kings and Queens, we need to remind them that the sun smiles at them everyday because they are Princes and Princesses with a duty to protect mankind and flourish in the school of life. We need to help our children study media like they do a book, engage the mind, don't just let pictures and sound enter unfiltered in your head.
South African is failing terribly at this because we are not telling our stories yet, due to our financial situation, which we are working hard to change, but more and more African filmmakers are aware of this. My recent engagement with film director Owen 'Alik Shahadah (500 Years Later, The Idea, Motherland) has affirmed in me that a new breed of African filmmakers is imaging, a breed aware of the power of this media. (Psss...African ladies in South Africa looooove Tyler Perry films it is unbelievable!!) Okuhle kodwa kini nonke(All greatness be to you all -Zulu)
Knowing The Difference
Tyler Perry's movies are about laughter and entertainment. If we get entertainment and reality mixed up, then what does that say about the mind set of Black America? Why is it that we are offended by every blow of the wind? We take people's negative words and wear them as a permanent garment.
Whatever happened to self-esteem, knowing who you are, taking rejection and wrestling it to the ground? This is what I do when people talk about me or reject me. I look in the mirror and I automatically see the goodness of God. I say to myself "this is real love". God took his time in making me. He placed me in a great country, the USA, despite its flaw, the USA vs. other countries is good! He gave me life and I'm happy with me! So why should I let someone else define who I’ am? Is that not too much power given to someone else to control? Where do the roads end here?
Will black America 200 more years be singing this same old negro spiritual, "no body loves me", come on guys this is becoming redundant and superficial. We blame everyone else for our low self esteem. He said this about me. Look at how they are portraying me! Apparently there is a deeper element of a disconnection with self then Black America is willing to admit. Just like everyone can’t be your role model, everyone can’t define you unless you allow them to…
Tyler is doing what Tyler is gifted to do, make people laugh at reality. Just like someone in an earlier posting says, these things happen in all of the cultures. This is a fact- not hearsay. I run with white people, Asian, Latinos in my social life and on campus life, there is no difference in our everyday struggles. The same everyday struggles blacks deal with, everyone else is having the same problems.
I was talking with one of my white friends one night and she was telling me all about her growing up and the struggles she encounters and it didn’t sound any different from my struggles.
Black America, if you want to see that someone else shares your struggles, get a friend of a different culture and engage yourself in a conversation and watch you see the mirror/or similarities of yourself in that person… This is why I choose to live in a neighborhood with people of different races. You learn more by doing this. You become comfortable in socializing with other people who don’t look like you. Your mindset goes beyond the color of one’s skin. The negativity and stereotyping of what the races are all about becomes unimportant. You began to look at that individual for who they are and not what people say that hey are.
I wish above all things that we would stop blaming everyone else for our shortcomings. This is not right nor should it continue for another 200yrs… The TV, RADIO, ETC... Is not our problem…WE ARE OUR BIGGEST ENEMY, who takes pleasures in blaming everyone else …BUT US!
How do you feel about the way Blacks...
Tyler Perry has represented, to me, every aspect of the black community. It ranges from those who are on drugs "Madea Goes To Jail" and those who have made it to the top "Why Did I Get Married". Although the characters in the movie are black, this is not just about black people. All races have been and are going through the same struggles in all of his movies.
We sometimes have a tendency to "hide" from reality or make it seem as if only "one" group of people are going through this in life. Tyler just brings it out in his movies with black actors who do a tremendous job portraying their characters. So, no, I am not offended by his movies (except when Madea is supposedly speaking in tongues---that I can't get with).