Here’s a short, but very wise segment from journalist and social commentator Roland S. Martin about the hypocrisy of African Americans when it comes to supporting African American film and entertainment.
Martin is referring to two indie features starring predominately African American casts that are slowly rolling out in theaters now — MOOZLUM starring Nia Long and is about a young Black Muslim entering college during 9/11 and I WILL FOLLOW, a drama about a woman grieving after the death of her husband.
He preaches the truth, but if apathy continues, then the market place has spoken and African American cinema will die a slow death. This, of course, applies to Asian American cinema as well. Is it necessary to find our Tyler Perry to turn the tide or at the very least, carve a sliver of space in the lexicon, where Asian media images can somewhat thrive?
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Asian Tyler Perry? What kind of major films do people want to watch with strong Asian leads/role models?
Sounded more like a promo for I WILL FOLLOW than real commentary. The Tyler Perry success story is way more complicated than just him “building his audience from the ground up.” He wasn’t the only person touring the country with the kinds of plays he did. He just had the notion to make movies directed at the same audience. I tend to doubt his model can be duplicated. I guess what Roland wanted to say is that ‘Should some other African American entertainment producers luck into a string of hits, they should take their money and build a studio and put out films and shows as demeaning as what are already in the system.”
Also, the supposed hypocrisy among African Americans in complaining about quality but then going to see junk isn’t really true. It may have seemed that way in the past because only a certain class had access to the lines of communication. Now, just scan Twitter and you’ll see how many people actually do love the things he terms as junk, like reality shows.
And of course, it isn’t just Black people keeping “junk” on the air. Those shows couldn’t get high ratings without people of other ethnicities tuning in.
So CNN is giving a eulogy for “African American cinema?” What a laugh!
Black cinema is in no more trouble than black sports figures.
But what can Asian Americans learn from all this? Here’s my take:
First, Tyler Perry is NOBODY’S role model, not as a person, nor a filmmaker. Asian Americans need to think twice before referencing him for ideas on how to improve/magnify their profile in film.
Buffonery is ALL you’ll learn from Perry. Sure, he built a local audience first, but is that really something Asian Americans didn’t already know?
You’ve already had your Long Duk Dong’s and Charlie Chans. Like Madea they reached a broad audience, but not all success is good success.
Stereotype sells. Be a shameless clown lampooning black people and the world will shower you with cash, because there’s a HUGE ready-made audience for that kind of crap.
THAT’S the lesson to be taken away from Tyler Perry.
Secondly, Perry’s “success” came as a direct result of kissing enough white behinds at Lionsgate that they essentially have made him their pet monkey, with all the benefits of same.
He gets “serious” acting gigs (Star Trek, and now Alex Cross) that he CLEARLY doesn’t deserve, and rather than call it ridiculous the media instead cheers him on.
Black people rail against Perry all the time, but he’s got VERY deep pockets supporting him, and a compliant media making sure these objections are shot down, or just not heard altogether. That has a lot more weight than a large though disorganized outraged black audience.
Financially Perry’s movies are supported by black women who want validation of their churchgoing fetish (unless you’ve been in the black churches and seen how black women have taken them over and how they DESPERATELY crave some sort of recognition of this you’ll never understand why Perry is so precious to them) and white people who drool like Pavlovian dogs at the sight of a black man in drag.
Again, would an Asian American version of THAT do Asian Americans any good?
I think not!
I haven’t watched the video clip and don’t have to. I’ve seen Roland Martin on TV and his comments are laughably uninformed and usually so wrong-headed that he never addresses issues, he merely talks around them. If you’ve seen him doing his token outrage black guy routing once, you’ve seen it a million times.
Clearly that’s why CNN likes to have him on –objections that never attack the heart of the matter will please TV producers and not offend the largely white viewership.
He’s a “safe” angry black man.
And Roland Martin is HARDLY in any position to be b*tching and moaning about the tastes of black audiences anyways. If he wants to p*ss and moan that black people didn’t turn out in appreciable numbers for Miracle at St Anna, then I would agree –but I’ll bet you any amount of money he never mentions that in the clip.
I would also ask where the hell was Roland at to support that film when Spike Lee was trying to promote it? Better yet, where was that big-headed moron at when Lee was trying for YEARS to get financing?
African American cinema is actually alive and well, but the wrong people are in charge of it. We need more Antione Fuqua’s, F Gary Grays and producer who know how to put together packages that give a platform to young, black acting talent and not horsecrap like “Takers” and the like that uses black musicians masquerading as actors –GOD, I HATE THAT!!!!!
Black moviemakers have to mirror what black musicmakers did in the 60′s –create works that strike a chord in popular culture. The art house crapola that Martin pathetically mourns doesn’t matter to anyone but for the small circle of folks who made it.
There are perhaps many lessons –both positive and negative– for Asian Americans to learn from the misadventures of African Americans in Hollyweird.
Sadly, the pompous and ignorant Roland Martin doesn’t know any of them.