Black Balled: The Lack of the Written Word on the Silver Screen From the Black Point of View

Hello my lovelies!

The Cheetah Diva is going in a different direction with the blog today. Several months ago, I discussed being a black paranormal writer in a color struck world.  I'll admit to having a flair for the dramatic (almost drag queenish in nature), but I'd like to revisit a viewpoint that I touched on when I wrote that particular blog.

I was on Facebook this evening discussing royalties with my friend and favorite romance author Cheris Hodges.  Actually, I was following the discussion but you get what I'm saying. Anyhoo, after joking about how bigger my royalty check was - seriously, it was enough for bus fare one way, a Snicker and a cheap Fanta soda, I got mad about the situation as a whole.

In my original blog, I touched upon the controversy of "Django Unchained," and how Spike Lee had a stick up his ass about it.  Okay that's fine and dandy, dick drip, but look at all of these movies showing at the multiplex and only two of them feature black actors in main roles, like "Ride Along" with Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, who seems to be the new "It" girl in Hollyweird and while I aint mad at him, I don't think he's that funny...and he's short.  Being a shortcake, I have irrational issues with short dudes. 

I said they're irrational, so don't go all postal in emails to me. I'm keeping it real.

The other one is a movie produced last year - "12 Years A Slave" but they rerun movies like this after an Oscar win because I think it's been proven that movies that are Oscar-nominated make more money because people who may not have thought the movie was worth their time the first time out may go and see it now. (ADDENDUM: I finally saw it, and didn't really like it. It was well done, but I wasn't feeling it)

If I had to think about it, the last huge black productions involved us getting whipped, raped, beaten, butlering, mammying, catching AIDS, catching hell or getting extremely lost and confused in an M. Knight Shalamar movie (giving major shade to Will Smith for that shit). There were three notable exceptions to this: "The Best Man 2" and "42" but I have issues with these productions as well; not that they weren't needed or weren't good, but one took 14 years, and how many different ways do you need to know  that Jackie Robinson was treated like shit? You'd think in this new age where we have a black president, we would see a more upwardly mobile representation on the screen, but nope...we ended up with "The Butler" and "The Help." A few years back, we had "The Blind Side."  Don't misunderstand - I'm a big fan of what makes me entertained is a good thing all around, and we don't necessarily need to see "positive" roles in every movie (it would get boring), but it seems like we almost NEVER see anything positive lately.  This is a dramatic departure to how I feel about entertainment as a whole, but now that I'm an author, I'm looking at it from an entirely different perspective.

The other exception was "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," but it never showed up in a multiplex near me, and let me tell you, I was very not happy about not being able to see my future baby daddy, Idris Elba on the screen. 

While I'm picking a scab, my other future baby daddy Dwayne Johnson is not white. Why is he always paired up in movies with these incredibly neon-white children and how come no one else has noticed this?  Oh yeah...it's not a money maker to make a movie with The Rock and Michael B. Jordan as his son.  My bad...what was I thinking?

Look, I'm all for entertainment and if I'm entertained, I'm good, but dammit there are limits.  I'm really tired of these movies that portray us as downtrodden, put upon, serving, bending, breaking, suffering or whatever. I seriously don't get it.  It's not that I don't want the historical issues of slavery and servitude to not be shown because I think it's important, but as a people, we are so much more than this. When we get a romantic comedy, it turns out to have "the black friend" who is either a sex freak/ex-con, or the friend who sacrifices everything so the main character can get to the finish line.  So over this.  I love comedy; I love to laugh and we can laugh without being the slimy best friend, the drug dealer, the ryde or die chick, the fat dude, or any other ridiculous stereotype we're still seeing on the screen.  We are sexy, vibrant, love hard, love long, have lots of fun living life and have a great sense of humor while we're doing it.

This is why black producers piss me off.  We have a wealth of writing talent in our romance writers who have works that could migrate to the big screen, but Spike is actually interested in rehashing "School Dayz" 25 years later, Steve is from across the Pond so I don't think he's vested in Black American cinema and, get this - Fred Williamson is actually doing a Kickstarter campaign to make "Original Gangsters 2."

No shit.

For real.

Who saw the first one? Who'll admit to seeing the first one?  And aint half them muthafuckas dead? Tyler Perry needs to call The Hammer and hire him for a Madea movie.  He obviously needs the work.

"I can't wait 'til Original Gangsters 2 come out!" said no one ever...

I say all of this for a reason (yes I told you...dramatic with a drag queen flair); you have all of these wonderful black authors who have great works in their arsenal, but why can't their works be adapted to the big screen or even the small screen?  Octavia Butler's works are so far outside of the box that it would make your head spin, but she died without any of her works adapted.  How about Brenda Jackson, Cheris Hodges, Bridget Midway - well, okay...all of the Hot M.A.M.A.s  (Multicultural Authors of the Mid Atlantic), Beverly Jenkins, and the like?  These authors are constantly on best sellers lists, have legions of fans supporting them but they can't make it out of the Black Author Underground.  You'd think Spike would take his thumb out his ass and actually adapt one but no, he'd rather do "Summer of Sam" or that dark skin/light skin shit.  I actually read where someone said, "I went to an HBCU because of School Dayz!" Really?  Uh, okay...

Half the romantic movies on Hallmark aren't even close to being as good as these ladies' works but I swear those movies are churned out like Duggar babies. We have major networks like TVOne, BET and even that channel owned by Oprah Winfrey. Why can't they adapt some of these works?  Come on now...it's not right. There's some great material, but none of them are looking at that. I don't playa hate on non-black authors who get their works adapted, but we're out here too. Don't discount us.  We matter.

The 90's gave rise to the "New Jack Swing," where we had the promise of all of these black directors and producers ushering in a Renaissance of black cinema.  All it gave us was the era of hood movies and by the end of the decade, the promise became deferred.  What the hell ever happened to Matty Rich and John Singleton anyway?

It's a sin and a shame that our black writers are relegated to the "black section" of the library, only to be trotted out during February.  This is why I don't market myself as a black paranormal writer.  I'm not ashamed of being black and while I love writing and will probably spend the rest of my life writing what I do, I don't want anything I ever write to be filed in the "black section" of the bookstore because of my skin color. The "black establishment" isn't supporting black writers as a whole so I don't feel like having the extra added pressure of being grouped with them.  The reality of the situation is this is in-my-face reality in terms of publishing and I'm not supposed to get my hopes up.  Look, I'm not looking to quit my job and move to Bali...well, yeah I am but  it's a pipe dream and I live in the realm called reality.  Unfortunately, when I retire I'll probably end up working at Walmart part time and supplementing my diet with sardines and ramen noodles.

Eh?  I'll still be fabulous tho! In my cheetah-lined Wallyworld smock!

Okay, that depressed me beyond reason.

Anyhoo, I'm done ranting for the night and while you're looking for some great reads, stop by the beautiful Divas of Hot M.A.M.A and show your support to these wonderful authors.  You'll find them at

http://hotsouthernwriters.blogspot.com/

I would say, "tell them I sent you!" but except for Cheris, they really don't know me.  I'm just a fan and an admirer.

Ciao for now!

nnb