An Oppressed Hollywood

In a recent conversation with my colleagues after class one evening we all came to the consensus that there is a need for more "African-American themed" movies that shows African-Americans in a positive light instead of us always being showed in oppressed situations. Many of my colleagues felt that individuals such as Tyler Perry should step up and make these movies that we want to see. As I sit back and think about the conversation, I have to ask, "What have we done to prove ourselves in Hollywood?" Now by no means am I taking away from the achievements that African-American actors/actresses have made, but I'm speaking in more general terms. When a film with a predominantly African-American cast comes out we (black people) either fully support or we don't. With every failed African-American movie in the box office, this pushes us back further at showing who we truly are as a people. I'm tired of hearing "Tyler Perry has plenty of money; he can afford to make better movies other than Madea". I'm sure Tyler Perry does have the money to do as he pleases, but he also makes films that are true to what he believes, just like many other directors in Hollywood.  Hollywood has been dominated by whites from the start; they even went as far as painting their faces black in order to portray a black character. This says a lot in the need to not only support African-American films, but this also requires us to support those films that don’t go mainstream and are being shown at film festivals all over the world.  We have to stop being too good to watch “low budget” movies and uplift the talent that we have. Until we start supporting the African American movies that hit the big screens we can't argue when a film about an oppressed African-American succeeds and wins numerous awards. 

-Britt Daise

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