I don't believe that bw/wm portrayals put down Black Men. The only problem I can see with portrayals of bw/wm in fiction is that there are so many more of them than portrayals of bm/ww. I agree that is a problem, but not because there's anything wrong with bw/wm, only because we need more exposure of ww/bm.
I refuse to see Star Trek
- Thread starter malikom
- Start date
It's not so much as a problem, but the freakin roles they take and the characters within the stories. For example, Caddilac (excuse my spelling) Records went AGAINST what really happen to show a bw sexing-up a wm.
Sexual Life was another movie that had a bw fiancee CHEATING on her black fiancee to a WM who LOSES HER VIRGINITITY to him. But the black guy, when he finds out, marries her anyways. Now what type of bullshit is this??? That shit would be the taboo of taboos when you see the opposite.
Black men are not being recruited in these movies as we are used too. Most of the black men today are sidekicks, bafoons, old, or married, or their character is so flat, that the audience will forget him.
Black women are being put on a higher pedistol than black men.
Where's Jamie Foxx's new summer flick??? Wesley Snipes???
Hell British film makers treat their black actors better, escpecially when it comes to relationships.
JamalSpunky
Well-Known Member
JamalSpunky
Well-Known Member
Absolutely. A film will likley go out of its way to play down a sexual relationship that occurred between a real-life BM and a real life WW, but for this film they made the whole thing up about Etta James and te Chess guy. Made. It. Up. Why? Because Beyonce was playing Etta and the male star was white? Or simply because the male star was white and therefore sex on screen is a guarantee? Maybe both.
Yeah,, I saw that film too. I don't think the character (played by Kerry Washington) lost her virginity to the man but that was one explicit sex scene. And I said to myself would they ever do that in a film if the female was white, her groom was white and her lover before the wedding was black? And as you pointed out the black groom was getting a blow job by this bachelor party stripper/whore and he could not even concentrate on that. He was only thinking about his wedding and whether he should go through with it. He could have slept with the white hooker but f course they just talked all night.
Absolutely. A conversation was going on about this at another site. There is not really any black actor under 35 that has made an impression that would make you think he has a future as a leading man. There have been some candidates who unfortunately have not been given the material. And of course Hollywood is most comfortable with black amles with character actor looks rather than leading man looks. Then there are guys like Sam jackson who is getting cast for a role as a cop in an upcoming film even though in the book the character is at least 20 years younger. Instead of developing young black amle talent the studios will keep handing out stuff to the older black males even if they aren't any longer the box office draws that they used to be. This is totally opposite of how they deal with white male actors.
jaylon
Member
ha.ha...lol...
JamalSpunky
Well-Known Member
Actually in those low budget black flicks I was referring to her love interests were mostly if not always black.
You make alot of good points especially your last one.
I think it is kind of equal in general because alot of the
bm ww interracial is on t.v. and alot of the bw wm interracial
is on the big screen. Hollywood just can't seem to balance itself
out right, because they want to do everything they can to not
let their mainstream actresses of all races with black men on
the big screen. Like I said before in hollywood it is a white man's
world they want everything especially the women to themselves.
I'll use porn again because like I said porn's racism is like the non hidden
version of hollywood's racism. In porn you are apparently allowed to
say you don't want to work with black men, but not allowed to say
you don't want to work with white men, because if you look at some
of the amatuer pornstars that go pro, as soon as they go pro they
immediatedly start doing white guys, that is odd that their entire amatuer
career has been with black guys and the reason why they are famous
in the first place but as soon as they turn pro they do white guys, but
you'll never see the reverse. That is how hollywood is just look at eva mendes, made a name for herself with onscreen love interest like Denzel,
Will Smith and if anybody remember also with Mike Epps in that one movie
she did with Ice Cube. But after her biggest movie in Hitch she became
a white man's lover in movies only. Jessica Alba after she mad a name
for herself in Honey it has been nothing but white love interest after that.
You are obviously not allowed to be a big star if you have mostly or only
black love interest. I don't buy into that black female backlash because
it is obvious with things being equal in general it is not as bad as they want to make it out to be. If black actors are afraid of
black female backlash they are afraid of ghost. And hollywood is using
their fear against them.
Brittney
Well-Known Member
hellspawn72
Member
That has been discussed on this forum as well. IMO, black females make up a smaller minority of women, much less minority women, in Hollywood. And since any black themed movies probably only generate so much revenue, they must as actresses spread themselves around. So a black woman basically doesn't have much of a choice for her career that at some point she'll have to work with a white male or other non-black male as well. But yeah, the problem is that the studios and casting companies will arbitrarily place her opposite a white male (now the guy's australian for some reason) and give her far greater latitude in how "progressive" their relationship gets. I'm convinced that has alot to do with audience reactions in which people are more comfortable seeing this pairing in sexual situations than a bm/ww couple.
Oh yeah, and I breezed by that Tisha C.-Martin movie on Lifetime. I never watch LT. But anyways, I think she was terminally sick with cancer or something and fell in love with the guy, who happened to be white. Since I blew by it, I didn't know there was a sex scene. Of course, I'm secure enough that that doesn't bother me in the slightest. It's just that again, a black male dying in that situation, they wouldn't go so far between he and a white female. We all know that. Plus, it seems like Hollywood's crucifying of IR relationships that the two parties break up in the end or one of them dies where we know ultimately it won't last.
I've been looking into this whole "color" thing for the past few years between the movies, tv and the internet. And it comes down to this. ANYTHING black is bad. Especially involving a black male. I think I discussed this a little a while back, but anyways real quickly. People don't like blacks mixing with others, period. That's why the black guy in the movies generally never has even a girlfriend. And the audience doesn't much care for black on black relationships either. So Hollywood has to split us up. The black dudes go it alone. Hell, even in movies where the brotha obviously has chemistry with a white or other female, they don't go there. And, he's usually relegated to the "side kick" role anyways.
As for the black female, well, by american beauty standards, she's not hot at all. First, it's white females, then latinas, then asians, then fairskinned native ams. etc, finally sistahs. Apparently, no non-black males in america are attracted to black women enough to warrant sistahs even getting a significant other. But for shock value, they are placed with wm either from liberal California or from the country of Australia for some reason. And as you've seen, they're able to make more explicit sex scenes because most of the audience isn't threatened that this will sprout more of this type of IR in real life. Plus, Hollywood is so powerful that alot of complaints from minorities go without response because they use their complex and massive broadcast system to strategically air this material in more of the liberal parts of the country.(All unscientific reasoning here, just warning)
All that being said, with respect to Zoe, regardless of what role she plays in any movie, she has latitude because she is defined by Hollywood as a latina. This allows thems to promote her as less african and thus hot to all those horny white boys out there. These are their rules. That's how Hollywood does it. This practice helps them to explain away the promoting of IR dating in general or the "kiss" in Star Trek. I'm not surprised that role didn't go to an establish black american female like Meagon Good for instance. People would have been way more bothered by that kiss and H-town would not have been able to explain it away. This should ultimately explain why black women like Meagon Good and others like her don't get these roles. And if it's up to the general audience, won't be getting any meaty roles anytime soon.
Meagan Good is fun to look at for a little. After that, i'd rather not watch her scrunch up her face for a whole hour and a half.
Yeah, we get it..she has pretty lips......but why the fuck do we have to look at the reflection of the sun every minute she's on the screen. I swear she uses a whole stick of lipgloss everytime she goes out.
Yeah, we get it..she has pretty lips......but why the fuck do we have to look at the reflection of the sun every minute she's on the screen. I swear she uses a whole stick of lipgloss everytime she goes out.
bushdweller
New Member
Hey guys don't worry. There will always be roles for black men as GAY characters. Hollywood and tv loves gay black males.
Good points everyone. Now if you can only connect the dots to how all this propaganda impacts your prospects in the real world... But that would be going too far
Good points everyone. Now if you can only connect the dots to how all this propaganda impacts your prospects in the real world... But that would be going too far
NCBradin
New Member
This film has won my heart today! Couldn't believe it with my own eyes. It has got me sitting down all the way watching from the very beginning. All I can says that the storyline is VERY good. I'm liking this guy who playing captain kirk! J.J. Abrams did do very good job to this franchise and we'll see another film from this very soon! 
There's no pointing for you not refusing to see Star Trek! I'm telling you, it's SO damn good!!
There's no pointing for you not refusing to see Star Trek! I'm telling you, it's SO damn good!!
hellspawn72
Member
This film has won my heart today! Couldn't believe it with my own eyes. It has got me sitting down all the way watching from the very beginning. All I can says that the storyline is VERY good. I'm liking this guy who playing captain kirk! J.J. Abrams did do very good job to this franchise and we'll see another film from this very soon!
There's no pointing for you not refusing to see Star Trek! I'm telling you, it's SO damn good!!
Well, of course the storyline is very good. It would have to be in order to tell this specific story of James Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise in its earlier years. In addition, like many other big summer productions, they've probably been working on the script for more than a couple of years now, tweaking it in order to get it just right for the majority audience. I agree completely that the storyline SHOULD BE the central reasoning for why it's perceived to be great and why a large audience should attend and watch. But that's not the focus of this thread.
The principle author (Malik) began the thread with his disagreement of the IR kiss and it snowballed from there. But the focus has been on the very racial makeup of the crew, and Hollywood's consistent intent to manipulate movie castings for a specific racial end. I.E. white males are main characters being served by pretty much every ethnicity of females and all other males, mainly black males, constantly playing second fiddle. That's a small part of my refusal to watch. The rest is, as I've stated, this is nothing new for me. I've seen every Star Trek, tv and movies, and the racial makeup remains the same all the time. You'd think for a future show, they'd be a little more progressive by now. Call it what you will, but I have every right as a viewer to expect to see those who look like me being represented onscreen in a good light. And after living through years where Hollywood manufactures reasons to not have black males in pictures at all, I've earned to right to exercise a mentality of not watching. So enjoy your Star Trek, but I've seen 'em all and this new stuff is just not for me.
karmacoma.
Well-Known Member
Damn you've been knockin' 'em out of the park with your posts
karmacoma.
Well-Known Member
One of the girls on Girlfriends had a flaming gay cousin, that's what I was thinking of
And all the Tyler Perry movies have a gay sensibility if not the actual characters...part of the reason they do so well (Perry is this generation's gay black man whom the black community doesn't want to admit is gay...like Luther Vandross before him and Johnny Mathis before that)
And of course let's not forget Miss Jay on ANTM, both gay icon and minstrel show in one package
Tyler Perry movies only have a gay sensibility in that they are made by a guy who seems closeted. They don't have any gay characters, and they're closer to borderline homophobic than at all pro-gay.
Miss Jay is as negative an "icon" for gay people as he is for Black people. You wouldn't choose him as a positive example for Black Men, don't think the gay people want him representing them either.
It's interesting to note that Girlfriends had a gay character. I can't bring myself to sit through even the opening music of that show, I'm afraid, so I was unaware of that. Even having never seen the character in question, I'm willing to wager that he was probably played for laughs, and never had a real relationship once on the show.
I guess I'm nitpicking, but I think there's a difference between portraying Black Gay Men and portraying Black Men as Gay stereotypes. Of course, the first isn't really emasculating at all, and the second very much is, so perhaps that was Bush's point: that, given the opportunity, Hollywood & tv will always emasculate a Black Man.
I agree with that, I'm just quibbling (probably unnecessarily, and probably annoyingly, lol) about the how -- particularly because I think it would be good if amongst the positive portrayals of Gay people in the media there were more positive portrayals of Black Gay people, but instead we get healthy, well adjusted White Gay people and Flamboyant, stupid hybrids of Black & Gay stereotypes which aren't helping anyone, except those people who hate Black Men & Gay people equally, and want a chance to hate both in one package.