Just Wright - Are We Really That Different

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor Aireka Muse

creator of Until I Get to You

I’m frustrated. Irritated.

I saw Just Wright today and set out to write about the relationship between Queen Latifah and Common and got pissed off and sidetracked by a CNN video of a panelists (including Phylicia Rashad and Roland Martin) discussing the movie.

Why is it such a big deal that Black People have jobs?

Why is it such a big deal that an actually well made romantic comedy has two black leads in it?

It just infuriates me that Hollywood has pinned us up so far in a box that once we get a great movie with real non stereotypical shuckin and jivin characters were “defying the rules”. Guess what Hollywood, Black people come in all shapes and sizes, different parts of the country, even come from different social economic backgrounds. And guess what sometimes the big black girl wins! You know the chick with a job, a house, and a father that loves her!

I don’t know why I am surprised. As a black female screenwriter, I deal with this all the time. I once received coverage of a script where the reader said my dialogue wasn’t real because the educated lead character went from being professional to using words like “aint” with her friends. Recently, a hollywood producer was afraid to read my pilot about dysfunctional private school parents because he had a project with an African American writer about an African girl in boarding school. Because we're both black woman obviously the ideas have to be similar, right? There are thousands of Leslie Wright's walking this earth who deserve to see their stories. Tyler Perry is not the authority of the Black American experience. Mike Elliot has been doing this a lot longer then he has. So has Sanaa Hamri. There are thousands of Black industry professionals out there that deserve to be heard. And as shocking as it might seem, all of our stories are NOT the same.

The rant is coming from the fact that I enjoyed “Just Wright”. It was a feel good movie about black people that had nothing to do with race. It’s true sometimes we have a day where we don’t discuss how black we are, or how much race affects our every waking moment. Sometimes our race is just that, so deeply rooted in who we are that there isn’t a separation that even needs to be discussed. I’m thankful for “Just Wright” and hopefully this movie begins to open doors for other folks but CNN, as much as I thankful for the publicity, black people with jobs that fall in love is NOT news. As much as the WASHINGTON POST, NIGHTLINE, and all the other media outlets want you to believe the opposite, black people fall in love, get married and stay together, more often then not.

Towards the end Phylicia Rashad looks just as irritated with the conversation as I am. Just like the Queen she is, she brings the discussion to an end with:

" We were being human, we were being ourselves... People, and I mean people all over this planet, are much more alike then we can ever be different"

Maybe the only thing we need to do is stop making the possibility of having universally relatable films with African American leads a conundrum and the rest of the world will follow.

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All We Do is Eat, Fight, F*ck, Dance and Pray

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor Activist formerly Known as Undungu Goldstein

“Ay-yay-yay! Another damn movie about two black people falling in love over a game of basketball!“

I’m driving through Atlanta’s Westside when the billboard catches my eye. I can’t tell you how over “black movies” I am. You would think there are no other stories to tell when it comes to African American movies. I imagine some film exec has in his office a spinning wheel with very few themes listed on it. Let’s see, there’s; drug family, barber or beauty shop, thug with heart of gold, basketball player, baby mama drama, dance crew, comically-tragic criminal, love interest.

He spins the wheel. The needle lands on “dance crew”.

He spins again. This time the needle lands on “thug with a heart of gold”.

His third and final spin is the heart of the plot “baby mama drama”

He smiles. Another box office hit he thinks to himself. The story almost writes itself; a hip-hop dancing thug is torn between his love of dancing and the responsibility and pressures of being a young father. Ultimately he has to decide between selling drugs or going legit as a backup- dancer for a rap superstar. However in a last ditch effort to get out of the “game”, he gets caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time and is shot in his ankle pretty much ending his career as a dancer. In a Rocky-like, triumphant call of courage, he rebounds partially and becomes a choreographer at a local dance studio and reunites with his estranged baby-mama to raise his child.

Immediately the executive’s mind races, wondering which of rap’s current pop icons he can cast in the lead. The film’s soundtrack will be star-studded. The lead actor/rapper will surely record a Top 40 hit that will sell more tickets to the movie than anyone can imagine. Brands and products will flock to throw money at this project, which in many ways will resemble a 1.5-hour commercial.

It shouldn’t be this easy he thinks to himself. But hey, the system works- why f*ck with it.

What ever happened to the griots? I find it hard to believe that they do not exist any longer. These versions of “our stories” are much too generic to be authentic. These same recycled stories of black life are like hearing your uncle Junior tell that same story over and over again every year at the family reunion. You can tell the whole story without even thinking about it. You know the plot from the title. Where are the original stories or at least creative telling of stories about the African American experience? I think of the wonderful novels and writings from African American authors and black writers from through out the Diaspora like Octavia Butler, Edwidge Danticatt, Walter Moseley, Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, August Wilson and countless others and wonder what happened to our stories. Is it the fault of the film industry or the ticket buying audience? After all, if we didn’t buy it- they couldn’t sell it. At what point does the demand redefine the supply. Things that make you go hmmmm.

The film exec leans back in his Herman Miller Aeron chair, puts his Ferragamo shoes on his glass desk. He lights his cigar and smiles. ‘Money in the bank ‘ he thinks to himself, ‘Money in the bank’.

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