Black Sells... Reactions to CNN Presents: Black in America

::Applauds Spike Lee::

In one of my earlier post entitled, "Us Against Us," I criticized Vogue Magazine for it's tasteless depiction of basketball player LaBron James as a brutish ape figure. It doesn't take much imagination to visualize the imagery and see King Kong. While I was, and am still upset with this creative decision on the part of Condé Nast Publications, publishers of Vogue, James is not exonerated. The reality is that didn't. LaBron James--idol to little Black boys the world over--has decided that this imagery is acceptable.. or at least for the right price. This is a very consistent trend in media. The unfortunate truth is that dramatizations of the plight of Black America sells. It's entertaining, engaging and serves to maintain, at least the image, that Blacks —all Blacks —behave this way. So many would love to believe that Mo'Nique (in her role as Jamiqua in the 2004 Movie, Soul Plane) as an apt representation of Black women or common story line of incarcerated absentee fathers. I feel it necessary to disclose that I feel Soul Plane was perhaps the worst movie ever made and should have been a wake up cal for a lot of people. The reality is that Blacks are just as responsible for the images we allow our faces, and voice to create through television, music, and cinema and the mostly White "gatekeepers" that green light these projects and provide much of the creative directors.

It is so much harder to be a Black entertainer than any other race. We're not privileged to carry on like Lindsay Lohan or Brittany Spears because there's this implied responsibility. We expect our stars to represent us. Seriously. Most Black teens have no idea who their local municipal officials are, and could care less what their opinions are, but they look to Oprah, and the likes and Michael Vick for direction and an example. There is this expectation that their work should uplift the race..

I had the opportunity to hear Sheldon "Spike" Lee speak, in Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel, on the campus of Morehouse College in 2003 about the challenges of being a film maker in a White dominated industry. He opened my eyes. This was my first time hearing the term “gatekeepers." We see so much color in popular culture, be it music, film, vernacular, etc., but few realize that these people are not as powerful as we think. Albeit, many of them are rich... for a season, but persons of color are grossly underrepresented in positions of true authority. Positions with the ability to set trends define and determine relevance, to allocate financing, and to give the final “yah or née” on projects.

I was a late bloomer when it comes to Mr. Lee's projects. I read sociological studies on his movies long before I ever saw any of them. I thought of Spike as a powerhouse, a multimillions... a gatekeeper. I had no idea the amount of leg work he had to do to get financing for his projects. He makes films "people don't want to see." We don't want to see socially aware Blacks on the big screen. We, as in Black people, don't want to see these images.

I remember growing up watching The Cosby Show and A Different World and hearing the undercurrent from Blacks about how unrealistic these shows were. Imagine that.. the idea of a Black doctor marrying a Black attorney. What were they thinking? …The idea of a Black couple having five children and not being on welfare and living in poverty? …Images of multiple generations of married couples? …Never having an episode of picking a child up from the police station or an eviction scare. Unrealistic, huh? Sounds a lot like my family. We have taken ownership of the wrong struggle. Rather than educating ourselves and fighting institutionalized racism, we are trying to hold onto welfare and food stamps as though these institutions are inherently ours.

I appreciate how vocal Lee has been in bringing to light the disproportion of Blacks in true positions of influence. In a culture where YouTube.com and American Idol has made every teenager believe that fame is 13 weeks and a season finale away, we need to aspire to be directors, attorneys, executive producers, etc. and not just pretty faces waiting on directions.

We need to take back our faces, and our voices, and our music, and our bodies and start to produce and support work that positively and equitably depicts people of color. It's so hard wanting more for people than they want for themselves.

..::Reading - Uplift The Race, The Construction Of School Daze by: SPIKE LEE with LISA JONES::..