| The Pimping Of Black Death |
| Holly 'hood
and the Pimping of Black Death By Minister Paul Scott Over 20 years ago, the great African American philosopher "George Jefferson" had a dream that even though "fish don't fry in the kitchen and beans don't cook on the grill" one day, we as a people would be "movin' on up". While the ficticious "George and Weezy" talked about moving out of poverty and despair, the film makers today seem to be gravitating towards it. As a child I was always warned about "airing dirty laundry in public" because the neighbors would talk bad about us. The filmmakers of today show no such shame as they continuously display the worst stereotypical images of black people before the world. While this may be seen as "keeping it real" or just reflecting societal ills, there seems to be an inordinate amount of black blood being spilled on movie screens across the world in the form of so called "hood" movies. From Boys in the Hood and New Jack City to the present crop of hood flix, the image of black bodies laying in the street dripping with blood seems to fulfill some sick guilty pleasure in mainstream America. What is this fascination with watching the genocide of black people unfold on the big screen or is it the only thing "Black" that Hollywood is willing to give us? One of the most powerful scenes from the Spike Lee movie (Malcolm) X was when "Elijah Muhammad" shows "Malcolm" a glass of clear water and a glass of water that has been tainted with ink. He tells him if the people have no choice they will drink the tainted water but given a choice they will choose the clear water. When the question of the negativity of black film is brought to the attention of movie makers they break into an impromptu rendition of "Got to give the people what they want". They say that if they put out a "Rosewood" or a "Five Heartbeats", the Black community would not support the film. So they are forced to give us, over a 10 year period, a steady flow of movies featuring "O-dog" with a 40oz in one hand and a 9mm in the other "keeping it real" by calling his Baby's mama the B word. If one "Get on the Bus" fails to be a hit then all of the film writers use that as an excuse to not put out anything uplifting. I am not suggesting that the Rosa Parks story, "Chillin' On the Bus" would break box office records or that all "positive" movies are of the best quality, but neither are all hood flix. Look at how many shoot 'em up movies bomb at the box office and wind up at the budget theater or the video store a few weeks after release. The difference is that if you release ten hood movies, odds are at least one of them will get over, especially when they are only competing with other hood movies to gain the attention of the black consumer. As the saying goes, "if a blind man throws enough rocks, he will eventually hit something." The reason why these movies are so popular and heavily promoted is that white movie executives have no problem with the glorification of black death. Remember these are the same people who would throw a "picnic" to watch a Black man hanging from a tree. What would happen if John Singleton decided to make a movie about a modern day Nat Turner who went around killing white people in the name of Justice? What if the same amount of promotion that is being used on his new film "Baby Boy" would be used on that movie or if he hired Morris Chestnut to portray Nat Turner and the soundtrack featured Jay Z and DMX, only this time the subject matter would be something so Pro-Black and "militant" that it would make Chuck D of Public Enemy blush? Would the masses of angry, frustrated black folks who have been suffering under their white bosses and watching news stories about racial profiling all week pass by that movie to see another hood flick? I doubt it. However, the same people who have no problem watching black teenage boys kill each other would scream bloody murder at the thought of such a film. What is at issue here is not entertainment (or the lack there of) but principle. There has always been and will always be a market for black suffering as it helps to ease the white collective guilty conscience and is a constant reassurance to them that black folks love pain and misery. "If they enjoy living in the "ghetto" then surely they must have enjoyed slavery. How dare they want reparations!" Can you imagine Harriet Tubman trying to lead the enslaved Africans to freedom only to have them say "Naw, you go 'head. I'm gonna stay here and keep it real." It is dangerous to show black children the modern "effect" without showing them the historical "cause". If they do not understand the TRUTH about how Black folks ended up in "the hood" and the economic socio-political forces that are designed to keep us in "the ghetto" then they will see the hood films as an accurate portrayal of Black life and anyone who does not live in the hood is not representing Black culture. We cannot ignore the fact that life has a funny way of imitating art and the story lines of the hood films are being played out in too many black communities across America. Only the shooting victims in these real life dramas do not come back for a sequel. -- Min. Paul Scott is founder of the New Righteous Movement based in Durham, North Carolina. Copyright (c) 2001 Paul Scott. All Rights Reserved. |
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