After watching Ethnic Notions, I've been thinking more about how African Americans are portrayed in our media today. I had always thought that if more people of color owned parts of the entertainment business, that we would be happier with the images depicted of us on television. With this in mind, I immediately thought of the feud between the directors Spike Lee and Tyler Perry. Spike Lee criticizes Tyler Perry for his movies that display "Coonery Buffoonery" in an interview. I seriously recommend that you watch him speak here: Spike Lee talks about Tyler Perry.
Although, Lee was harsh (and has gotten a lot of backlash for his criticism), I agree. In this age of Obama, the message should be progress, not the same old stereotypes and its always especially sad when they are perpetuated by those who are members of the Black community. I am a huge fan of Spike Lee because of his representation of black people in his movies. He is really careful about the issues he films as well as the characters in his film. The characters in his movie reflect regular African American people, instead of the typical stereotypical depictions we often find in our movies. I also really appreciate his documentaries on New Orleans.
Also, I really liked how Spike Lee said that part of the issue was the consumer/the audience. He says that "we vote with our wallets" and when we support these movies we support the stereotypes. Since majority of Tyler Perry fans are African American, African Americans are the ones supporting these stereotypes. I believe if we starting thinking like Lee, we might realize how much power we actually have in controlling the depictions of people of color on television.
Lastly, I think its important to take Spike Lee's criticism as an opportunity to better ourselves. I know a lot of people defended Tyler Perry because they thought Spike Lee should be a little bit more supportive of another African American director. In the clip, Spike Lee says "we could do better". That's important, because although Tyler Perry does have some good message and positive moments in his movies, he could still do much better. His character of Madea can be funny of course, but she still embodies the stereotypes we saw in Ethnic Notions. Shes always really loud, angry, a-sexual black woman. Tyler Perry defended his character saying, well these people exist and Hollywood should know that. Well I think Hollywood does know that, considering historically movies have excluded African Americans or portrayed them in such demeaning ways. I don't think I'm so upset by the existence of these characters as I am with the lack of variety and the lack of characters that portray blacks in a positive way.
Well Ayanna, I have seen this criticism Spike Lee has against Tyler Perry. He compares Perry's work to that of a modern minstrel show. It is definitely true that there are representation of stereotypes years past. Yet I tend to look at Tyler Perry's films with two pairs of eye; the comedic elements represent the stereotypes and the more overtly serious story accurately portrays African Americans. Just take a look at "Madea goes to Jail", the main story was not Madea's story, but the serious relationship between Derek Luke and Keshia Knight Pulliam's characters.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to note that Spike Lee is not immune to using "stereotypical" African American characters. He has done this in films such as "Do The Right Thing" and "Jungle Fever." A lot of the characters in the films were drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, church loving, and irrational human beings. So Tyler Perry in many ways is emulating Spike Lee in that he is portraying people that truly exist. Could we do better? Yes, but we have to keep in mind that every stereotype has some grain of truth (no matter how big or how small) and we should look at BOTH Tyler Perry's and Spike Lee's films to gain some measure of insight on what it means to be an African American and what the state is in the Black Community
This is an interesting discussion about representation of minority groups in mainstream entertainment.
ReplyDeleteOften, because minority appearances in mainstream medi are so few and far between, there is intense pressure on the media producer/author to make sure to only show the minority group in a positive light (because Lawdy knows there are already a plethora of negative portrayals out there). HOwever, that can seem to crimp the syle of a creative person; they want to create the story that they want to create. Additionally, since the stereotypical portrayals of the minority group are OUT there already, many media producers like to USE those in their work to defuse and/or disempower them, while some include them in their works because that is what the audience is used to seeing and it makes their work more acceptable by a larger slice of the public.
I agree with you to some extent Pino. You are right that Spike Lee isn't completely immune to using stereotypical characters in his films. However, I think there is a difference between the drug addict in Jungle Fever played by Samuel L. Jackson and then Madea.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I remember of Jungle Fever, the character who is a drug addict is also the brother of Wesley Snipes character, who is a very successful, educated, and financially stable man. I think the purpose of the crackhead brother is to display what drugs were doing to the black community. If you stayed on the right track like Wesley's Snipes character, you'll be like him. If you start abusing drugs you'll end up like the brother. I actually just read a NY Times article about the movie when it had first came out and Spike Lee's intention was to get the audience to think:
"Which is more important? whether a black man should love a white woman, or what drugs are doing to the black community?"
I feel like the stereotype Lee may have displayed was more to get the audience thinking, not get the audience laughing. Some aspects of Madea is purely to get the audience laughing and when Tyler Perry defended his character Madea, he basically said people like her exist and we need to know that. My point is that I think we already know that some people of color may fit her stereotype. I think we need to progress to show other depictions of African Americans that we may have not seen before or that often. Madea, in many ways, embodies the demeaning and negative scripts associated with black women and Tyler Perry has gotten rich and famous for it. There are other ways to make black characters funny than producing the same typical scripts/stereotypes.
I think any artist is responsible for their art and its message. I know there is a lot of pressure on the produce/author to portray the minority group in a positive light, but i think that pressure is necessary and important. Because when we perpetuate the same scripts/stereotypes it only really hurts that particular community. Therefore I am particularly careful of black entertainers such as Tyler Perry, because he ultimately, has the power to shift the way blacks are portrayed in the media.
I see the point you made about the two viewpoints on "Jungle Fever" and I do agree with it. Yet I still view that Madea is not necessarily a hurtful stereotype and rather that she is somewhat an insight into our culture. At the same time, Tyler Perry does not need to overuse the character, which he is not anymore. And besides, his new movie "For Colored Girls" is a more serious more powerful view of African-American women. So ultimately he does have the power to shift the way Blacks are portrayed, something I Spike Lee has lost over the years.
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