T’challa could never be my king, and yes I will scream that from the mountain tops. If ol’ buddy from “Us” was wearing a Morehouse sweater while embodying the epitome of a useless beta male, this article would have a few more choice words, but I’ll let the Howard alumni handle that.
Hollywood is letting me down family. Don’t ever confuse these black men with the best of us because they lack more courage and integrity than the rest of us. The only sense of justice they have comes from female leads and if they accept, it’s begrudgingly. Did I mention how incredibly dumb they are? Who can miss their extreme weakness mentally and physically? How are you going to bring a foreign military officer back to the technological heart of your hidden kingdom and think nothing is going to happen later on? How do you get hit with a bat (in between the crack of a door), and become immobilized for the whole movie? So black men are hiding behind kids for protection now? Didn’t Killmonger beat T'challa fair and square without outside help? Redos for weaklings ain’t the Wakanda way. I’m sorry, I can’t stand it tomorrow or today.
We all know no black man will be admirable on a Madea set, but what has Sam really done to be the next Captain America except be black and stay alive? I do appreciate Marvel for the kind gesture, but I just wish our heroes were... better.
Maybe we need more Creeds where black guys literally fight the ones responsible for killing off our fathers? Sure, our family wouldn’t be able to help us win, but at least we would have some diversity in our corner. To date, I can’t think of a fictional movie with someone that looks like me better than Django. Maybe more Caucasians should make more black movies because our community seems to be too bias and too bitter. Too many African-American male directors are provoking angry black women by reminding them of the no-good baby daddy they may or may not have. Too many melanated female producers are focusing on one narrative that it is becoming tired and sad.
Can I say it?
There are plenty of black men that love black women and lead them in a healthy and non-abusive way... and more than enough to imagine they exist on screen.
Believe it or not there are times when he doesn’t need her, or anyone else for that matter, to tell him what the right thing to do is, but appreciates her help in implementing the solution.
This is almost never the case on cameras, as black men are essentially cowards in Hollywood. There are no visionaries only those who choose to react to an issue they largely created or those who skillfully ignore the world’s screams for them to do something productive. In many cases, their female counterparts prefer for them to simply get out of the way because they are too incompetent to make any real decisions.
I’m not impressed. Though I go to these movies none of these performances inspire me to be great. I much rather see a Leo or Brad Pitt film than a Mahershala one any day. It’s not because of their talent but because I already know how he will be portrayed... gay, gangster or grunt worker. I sat back in amazement as he threw everything away to be a glorified booty call on House of Cards, doing anything he could to stay in the favor of a semi-attractive white woman. None of these are my experiences so I’m going to go with cool, witty, and confident Brad and just imagine he was black. Sue me.
I wish I had Eddie Murphy in his heyday, we no longer have the quality of Fresh Prince, Martin, and A Different World. Our talented writers are more preoccupied with re-enforcing stereotypical Fboys, so anyone half-way noble looks corny and unattractive.
Lame.
For those who watch Game of Thrones and other gripping tales of power, skill, and nobility it’s not even a comparison. None. All we get are retired drug-kingpins trying to clean up their life for a dysfunctional family, but the streets keep calling them back to their old ways... and blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda.
We need the equivalent of Obama at the box office. The movie doesn’t have to be about racial issues or be a black history biography, it really doesn’t. I just want it to be dope. I just want it to be well thought out, make sense, and just so happen to have a black man I can respect and relate to at the helm. Does he have to be a cop? Can he be an intergalactic bounty hunter? Does he have to be a dad with not enough money to pay for his son's hospital bills? Can he be a high powered lawyer that gets waist-deep in a complex corporate and government financial cover-up? Where is the imagination?
Yes there are tons of deadbeat, no good, lying, two-timing, illiterate, submissive, indecisive, absentee, follower, frail, low-income, predatory, addict, felonious, and otherwise unsavory black men out there but why are we paying to see them over and over again in a fantasy world when we already deal with them in real life?
Now it wouldn’t be right if I stopped patronizing these films, because the black delegation will surely crucify me for not supporting black movies. So I’ll still go, but let the record state... I won’t like it.