tuckerreed wrote:
1. the hollyweird industry is made up of liberal white men who have very stereotypical racist views about blacks and other minorities in film and society. The blacks who do films often sell out for the money, yet complain they cant get decent roles. the industry sells to the lowest common denomination as film is low brow culture and art and seeks to give the paying audience, namely white men 18-34 what they want, castrated stereotypes of black men, black women as hos and maids for white mens pleasures, white women as possessions of white men and all other women--esp latin women and asian women as their sex slaves.
latino men and asian men only fit the white liberal man, who makes up the hollyweird writing establishment as secondary stereotypes as wel--kung fu and gang bangers, pot heads and migrant workers.
This is true. Remember, for the longest time in this country, this stereotypes were black peoples lives. And I'm convinced some whites have not abandoned that mentality. I'm sure there are a few of them left out there who want blacks to leave out the back door even.
Now, I disagree that blacks "sell out" for roles, because what blacks have any real power in Hollywood? Many black producers and directors still must pitch ideas to the production heads, who are still largely white men And I'm sure those men are sitting in their seats chewing on selling these ideas to white middle america. Take "the Bernie Mac show" for instance. Bernie was interviewed awhile back on the success of his show on FOX and said that for renewal of the show, he went and talked with then-president Gail Berman about the direction of the show. Now, Mrs. Berman recognized that the show had given FOX solid ratings in the past, but lets be real in understanding that her decision to renew was based largely on Bernie's popularity and the show's expectation to remain largely ethno-centric. Any whole-sale changes would have signaled the end for the show. Because FOX, like the big 3, has a large number of affiliates throughout this country and the brass don't want that to change.
As for the lowest common demoninator argument, I totally agree that black men are portrayed only as sub-serviant to authority (usually a white male superior), a thug-immortal gangbanger or homosexual. White women seem to be the eye-candy and/or trophy wives to white men now. And asian women seem to be the sex slave fantasy. But I disagreee completely on the latin women. They seem to be the "intermediate" between ww and bw. At least the fair-skinned ones anyways. They are the hip and hot girlfriend, the competition for the white woman in the workplace or a tool for making latin men jealous (see CSI:Miami this past week). But lets face it, latinas get in where black women don't. And as for my sistahs, one black woman said a while back, "we are gradually getting weeded out of Hollywood." I disagree again, because you can't get weeded out of someplace where you never got in. Black women have never really been real legitimate sex symbols in Hollywood and probably never will be. I'm convinced that if Hollywood had its way, they would go back to the "Aint Jemima" stereotype in an instant.
2. people only recognize the mixture when they want. most white america doesnt want to be reminded of the white man sneaking in the slave quarters to take a black gal. and to keep black people who were mixed or half black/white people from gaining power on the plantation, the racist created the "one drop rule". the is no science behind the one drop rule, but in modern day america, it is now not the whites who follow the one drop rule but rather black people.
Not to much to argue with here. I'll keep it short by saying that a few hundred years ago, what we consider "RACE" was created by a scientist (white guy, of course) to categorize the 3 main groups of humans which populated Europe, then Asia and the African continent. And the rest is....well History. As a black man, I don't agree with the "one drop rule" or any of that business. My mama told me a while back that our ancestors from my grandfathers side were from France, so there you go. But if black people look at our ancestory in this country, it will become clear that we have latin, indian, asian and yes, white roots in our past. It's just unfortunate that we are still the culture who are made to feel guilty for our ethnicity.
In short, Hollywood should remind us as black people that there are always going to be people out there who don't like who and what we are. Is is far for Hollywood to treat black actors and actresses this way? No. But just do 'em this. When Denzel or Sam Jackson or Haley get into lead roles and there are presumably black writers writing for them, they must push the race agenda to force people to see how we are perceived. Can we all say the movie, "CRASH?"
