Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
there's always been a black homosexual. It's usually the gay hair dresser in the beauty shop (poetic justice, baby boy, waiting to exhale)...any black movie where they go to get their hair done is going to have a gay dude walking round at somee point.
There's ALWAYS been a black homosexual. It's usually the gay hair dresser in the beauty shop (Poetic Justice, Baby Boy, Waiting To Exhale)...any black movie where they go to get their hair done is going to have a gay dude walking round at somee point.
Yup. Don't forget Soul Food. Don't remember Barbershop having one though (didn't see the sequel(s)).
As a side note, I studied creative writing and television in college and don't remember there being a lot of blacks in my upper level classes. The few black males in my TV classes wanted to produce rap videos. One specific black woman in my class wanted to be Tyler Perry 2.0 with more focus on church and single motherhood. It wasn't much better in my writing classes.
IDK, one issue could be that the music and sport industries are drawing in more people than the movie and television industry. How many little black boys are clamoring to be the next Will Smith or Spike Lee vs being the next Derrick Rose or Kanye West? How many little black girls would rather twerk on a music video than follow in the footsteps of even recent, well known black actresses like Gabrielle Union and Kerry Washington?
Also, I can imagine the TV and movie industry being seen as harder than the music and sport industries. There's a LOT of reading and writing involved, a lot of long hours. Then there's the issue of access. My private arts and media school wasn't crazy expensive, but it was pricey, abound $20K/year. Lots of students drop out due to lack of funding. Then there's the added cost of equipment: cameras, computers and computer software ($1500+ for a Macbook, over $100 for Final Draft and $200+ for Final Cut, for example), lighting, actors, the list goes on. if you want to hone your basketball skills, all you need is a ball and a hoop, or even just a backboard or basket. Want to hone your rapping skills, all you need is access to an audience (make some CDs on your computer and sell/pass them out), maybe some sound mixing equipment or decent software, etc.
It's not an easy issue to solve. I've seen a little of what goes on behind the scenes in terms of the creative side, production side, and even the marketing side (went out to Hollywood for a class, met w/ some bigwigs, not many of them minorities). Now we have a generation coming up that didn't grow up watching The Cosby Show, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Living Single, In Living Color, The Fresh Prince, Moesha,, or any black movie not made by Tyler Perry, so they don't have examples to follow. It's getting to the point where you really have to look to find some.
Well I have always wanted to write a book. At least since I was 15. But my parents wouldn't have totally supported a creative writing major, since it would have limited job prospects.
I think for many black kids growing up, parents are less likely to encourage their kids to pursue a creative career for something more practical. (My parents wanted me to study computer science in college because I have an "aptitude" for math)
Well Barbershop was a barbershop not a hair salon but in Beauty Shop (the spin off) I think there was a random scene with a gay guy selling bags on the street corner (unless he was just really flamboyant).
But yeah I got my BA in communications & minored in creative writing; I was the ONLY black person in my upperlevel courses
Just found out there's a sequel to the Best Man coming out this year & a movie starring Paula Patton/Boris Kodjoe/Trey Songz/Derek Luke/ Terrance J so there's at least black rom-com's that have NOTHING to do with Tyler Perry
I was looking at my twitter feed and saw a hilarious tweet from Hill Harper recalling one of the most hilarious lines from the movie "Hav Plenty."
It was an indie romantic comedy based on a true story. And even though I generally hate romcoms, Idid like this one. Mostly because of its cynical tone.
And that got me thinking about my college (and high school) days, when every month there was a romantic comedy with a mainly black cast out. Love Jones, The Best Man, Love and Basketball, Boomerang, How Stella Got Her Groove Back. And 10 million more.
These movies were popular with fairly wide audiences. In high school, they weren't but I lived in a conservative southern town, so that was totally logical. By the time I got to college, basically everyone I knew (who grew up in the US at least) watched some if not all of these movies, whatever ethnicity they were. Whether they got sucked in by the soundtrack or the plot.
Many of these were billed as "buppie" romantic comedies, since the characters were middle class to affluent and college educated.
And the somehow, in the past 10 years or so, there haven't really been any movies like this any more. It is super rare to have a "black" movie that isn't Tyler Perry.
More troubling, finding a romantic comedy with a diverse cast, of any form. What happened? Where did the diversity go?
Now that the US is rapidly approaching majority minority status, we should really see more movies with all types of people in their normal lives. Interacting with each other. But other than action movies, like the Fast and Furious series, it is a shock to see a multicultural cast of any form.
What do you think?
only none TP joints I can think of if Jumping Broom and Stomp the Yard...Strugs...
Right I forgot about that one too. So it seems they are still being made. I honestly want to see a black very of TED with Dave Chappelle as the stuffed animal.
Gotta have a church choir scene and a female character that was sexually abused by a family member.....oh!! And now there's always a black homosexual to continue the effort to make that lifestyle more acceptable to black people.
That the DC-Atlanta culture black media tries to push to everyone else. Its like they want all black people to behave how the blacks in those places do.
Well Barbershop was a barbershop not a hair salon but in Beauty Shop (the spin off) I think there was a random scene with a gay guy selling bags on the street corner (unless he was just really flamboyant).
But yeah I got my BA in communications & minored in creative writing; I was the ONLY black person in my upperlevel courses
I was actually thinking of Beauty Shop with Queen Latifah I'd forgotten about these horrid movies..
You brought up the OTHER overdone stereotype though...the hood white girl who at some point in the movie ends up with cornrows and a ebonics lesson.
Did anyone watch Being Mary Jane on BET Tuesday?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
