My girlfriend has been working on Disn.ey's firs.t b.lack princ.ess. I was aware of how difficult it was for Disney to make that movie because it had to be approved by so many sects of black people. She shared with me some of the ridiculous (she didn't call them ridiculous) measures Disney took to make a movie, that will probably still make folks upset and feel unrepresented. The writers were actually sending scripts to various black folks to get their opinions and made script changes based on what those opinions were. So the creative vision of the film got destroyed by opinions.
The movie had been Madd.y the Fr.og Prin.cess, but folks started complaining about her name being Maddy and not pretty like the other Di.sney Princess'. Her name was Madelaine and she is from N.O. Then an uproar on why she had to be a frog princess. They changed the name to Tia.na and of course complaints began that the name was very ethnic.
Sorta like the CNN special- which I didn't watch, but am near vomit level at the number of useless complaints concerning it. CNN failed to get the consensus of various black sects and people were displeased. Folks were complaining about that "Our Kind of People" book because it didn't represent black people well. Folks complained about the Cosby show because of blah blah blah, folks complained about the Good Times because of blah blah blah. We just complain.
How about not consuming the product and spending your money on what you like. It's like this madness with the fast food ban in L.A. If people want to be fat and greasy on the inside and out, let them. Why should the gov't be so paternalistic?
I look forward to the day when black folks can just be. Be without attempting to prove they do or don't exist within a stereotype. Then one day everyone else will realize we aren't of one thought, don't need a leader and our entertainment options won't have to fit into a formula before receiving a green light.
I could go on, but life is too short to spend time complaining and being annoyed.
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7 comments:
Amen to that!! I also didn't watch the Black in America series. I live it and see it daily living in Chicago.
Your last sentence summed it all. I too am tired of the whole black in america thing. yea yea yea. whatever. I'm still going to do me, black or not.
ok I did watch Black in America and did not like it. I think there could have been a way to include more groups of black folk in the special than they did..it felt like the same "type" of black person over and over. That's just me.
Wow, regarding the Disney movie. If they named her Tiffany it wouldn't be ethnic enough either. *sigh*
I read a bogger who analyzed Jennifer Hudson's role in the Sex and the City movie to no end and all the wrongs with it. While at the movies, I didn't see one thing wrong with the movie.
It will never end.
I actually watched it as well and I, unlike many others I've heard, like it. While it covered many of the topics typically covered, it did a good job of it and presented some innovative and progressive approaches to mitigating the identified problems. Unfortunately, it appears that the same "type" of black folks are being talked about because the same "type" of woes are occurring. I agree with you Arms, I think it's time to stop complaining.
Sorry to write a novella on your comments...I'm just browsing. I like the blog.
Thanks for stopping by Aretha. Go on and write that novella- I like to read.
It's Christina. I so agree with what you said in this post! When Moesha first came on, I wondered about her name. Then I had to get over my own Euro-centrism about names and realized I know a bunch of AA women whose names run the gamut. I for one will be there opening weekend and I plan to buy a bunch of her stuff.
And maybe being "Black in America" does have a lot of negatives, but where were the positives? There aren't any contrasting lives?
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