Tyler Perry: Redefining Black Hollywood, or Perpetuating the Minstrel Show?

After decades of Hollywhite's portrayals and depictions of African Americans in film, television, stage-plays and other forms of popular entertainment; the emergence of Tyler Perry is redefining the “New Black” Hollywood. Perry is directly confronting the power structure of the corporate movie enterprises, scriptwriters, and production houses that have grown gluttonous and fat from the debased sensationalized non-sense that has been the “status quo” when it comes to producing movies in which “Black experiences” are created for popular culture. Black characters that have often only been afforded a few options, characters and roles that often situate blacks as uninspiring, ghetto, violent and over-sexualized stereotypes find comfort in having a space and a place in which dynamic, imaginative, complex and evolutionary stories, characters and messages can be packaged to audiences that will go a significant distance in reframing the cultural programming and perception of mainstream America.

Unfortunately the best of the “good ole ghost” of Willie Lynch’s past…you know…. the one with the crab claws, no courage and is afraid to leave the plantation?...Well the Ideal of what he represented is alive and well. Many critics have accused Perry of having no real talent. Crab Claw media and critics assert that Perry is simply perpetuating the Minstrel show; validating and reinforcing decade old notions and images of the Black emasculating Matriarch, glorifying the ghetto culture and the buffoon spectacle that has characterized so much of what is one dimensional and perceptually negative about African American historical identity. These crabs claim that; Perry’s movies will not reach outside the “comedic” realm of the black audience, and “chittlin” circuit as many whites simply don’t get the characters and stories in his movies and stage plays. The collective crabs also justify their criticisms by accusing Black people of having a double standard; asserting that if whites create these stories and characters…. that Black people would be all up in “indignant” arms….as they hurl cries of racism here and sexism there.

Let me explain something to you crabs…especially the Black crabs. First of all, every time HollyWhite attempts to tell these “soul stories”, they get them WRONG…..abysmally WRONG. They don’t consult African American scriptwriters, they don’t have intimate knowledge and understanding of the very complex, unique but shared experiences of Black people. This is particularly important when you are telling a soul story in which all the diverse identities of Black people, their thoughts and their experiences are present at once…..you know…like in real life. I know you crabs are like magnets and find it simpler to cling to one monolithic construction of black identity. But the joyous fact is that the Black family, the Black community, the Black man and the Black woman do inhabit real life spaces in the representations that Perry brings to light. There are Madea’s in our families. There are uncle Joe’s, there are wise Aunts, 90-year old Great Grandmothers, attorneys, blue collar workers, single mothers, children that seek to make it out if poverty pursuing careers in sports, the institution of the Black church, Black judges, front yard cookouts, court dates, rich people, poor people, good men, caring fathers, assholes, abusive mothers, absent fathers, loving mothers. We do get married, Black men do drive buses and limousines, good girls like “Rudy” do grow up and become drug addicts, we do ski, we do have CLASS…I mean I can go on and on. He has given a life, a role and….. an authentic voice to each one of these characters I have stated.

Tell me crabs, what exactly is your problem. Are you a prisoner of your one track mind? Is all you see when you see a Tyler Perry movie Madea…..or is that all you want to see? Tyler Perry does an EXELLENT job of showing all our complexities, struggles, triumphs and sorrows. He does more to paint a complete picture of Black life, in fact of American life then HollyWhite could ever do.

The fact is….. that many of the roles that "critics" have a problem with--- are the one and only roles that Black people portray in mainstream (white) films--- written, produced and funded by white people all the time, only you don’t get all the characters in one movie: You get reproduced static images, a token image…..and you have no problem of associating those negative images with perpetuating the minstrel show...so get of his back.

Oh yeah, this is my favorite….the one black high school kid in town, or the one black homegirl who dresses like a punk rocker, is race neutral (or so they would try to portray) and the time tested and true…..All American Black drug addict, bank robber, thug and cross-dressing homosexual. We have to get to the point where we stop idealizing one Black person who has power---- the responsibility of fighting the entire system. There is no such thing as the monolithic hero for all things that fight the “Man” and Black oppression: We have done it to Oprah, we are doing it to Obama, Tyler Perry, Condoleezza Rice…I mean the list goes on and on.

For the crabs who look for the difference between what Tyler Perry does and what Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy, the Wayans Bros, and others that some would define as" Minstrel" bring to the table …..IS……. that...Tyler Perry consistently gives you diverse representations, not just one static image of spectacle, emasculation, and matriarchal mammies. The Family That Preys, Daddy’s Little Girls, Why Did I Get Married, and Meet the Browns were good substantive films that told the stories we want to tell, not the stories that HollyWhite wants to see. And as it relates to the others, I can’t even say what they do is negative because they evolved into different people, telling different stories and (with the exception of Eddie Murphy, who cant seem to get enough of portraying obese Black women) these actors and film makers are not stuck pushing the same thing.

I absolutely Love and adore Martin and watch the re-runs of his show all the time. In Living Color created a space for a “Wanda” to subsequently portray Ray and win an Academy award 12 years later, for “Twon” to later portray a down to earth father of a mainstream American family on ABC--- for Jennifer Lopez to later be Tejano icon Selena, a fairytale Maid in Manhattan, and still stay Jenny from the Block.

You don’t hear white people complaining about how Jim Carey is perpetuating the “dumb white stoner” stereotype in every movie. Its comedy and they know it…we know it! They take it for what it is. Every movie doesn’t need to have a political message, doesn’t need to tell you to do something and doesn’t need to piss you off! Leave that to the Spike Lee's, as he does that and does it Damn well.

We all know Sheneneh, Jerome, Hustle Man, Bra-man, and Otis. We have encountered those individuals in our communities. That is what makes the Black experience so rich, so vivid, and so unique. As you read through the different blogs I have posted here, you are likely to experience 8 different women wrapped up into one. Tyler Perry has opened the first Black owned studios and production company in Atlanta, in which he named one of his film sets after our beloved Cicely Tyson. Thank GODDDD, 140 years after the abolition of slavery, Mrs. Tyson has finally been emancipated, received her Freedom Papers and no longer has to play the movie role of every black slave from women’s history.

Tyler Perry is creating opportunities for new actors and actresses, allows them to develop themselves, and also provides jobs for those whom he employs at his studios. That is the type of “real” stimulus we need to bring to our communities and the Black economy. So we need to look at the complete picture here.

I think we need to have a Crab Bake n Boil! Yummmmm
Justice Speaks!