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First of all, let me say that I am SO TIRED of debating about Tyler Perry in any way shape or form. Tyler, you win. I'm throwing in the towel and mothballing my annual attempt to calculate how many years you send black America backward with the release of your latest movie. This latest round of promotional posters for 'Madea's Big Happy Family,' this one of you as 'The Black Swan' in particular, finally broke my will to complain. I know when I'm beat. You're like The Borg in 'Star Trek Next Generation' -- "Resistance is futile!"
However, recently Cathy Hughes evoked the name of Perry when handing out a blisterin, seething criticism of the Oscar Award-winning performances of Halle Berry and Mo'Nique. For those who don't know, Hughes is the founder of TV One and Radio One, two of the only black-controlled media companies in America. She was captured on the red carpet before the TV One Upfront showcase last week being asked about black people in the movie industry, and went off on a tear about black women's portrayals in movies. Hughes literally spat her disdain for Mo'Nique's Oscar win for her portrayal of Mary in the movie 'Precious.' She also went in on Halle for getting the golden statue for 'Monster's Ball.'
Hughes minces no words in her disgust: "We got two Academy Awards for showing black women lower than dirt."Some thought is was a bit rich for Cathy Hughes. Can the owner of Radio One be critical of the characters played by Monique and Halle Berry in light of the cast of characters Hughes' radio stations broadcast 24/7? On popular black media commentary site, Shadow and Act, one user responded to Hughes' accusations:
c'mon Cathy we know TV One is rather tame but Radio One sure ain't, so get off your high horse. (blkchik on the blog Shadow and Act)
After all if we're concerned about black women's images, shouldn't that begin with a memo from Hughes to the programming directors at all of those urban radio stations she owns? Yes, TV One is a great antidote to the negative images of blacks served up on BET, but Hughes' urban radio stations are still serving up BET-like images for our ears. Yet, while Cathy Hughes might be tossing boulders at black Hollywood's "glass houses," she has a point.
Sure, Halle Berry and Monique won their awards because they played roles that Hollywood is incredibly comfortable with: black women yelling, screaming and suffering without makeup. But, it's not just white Hollywood. We're all incredibly comfortable with miserable black women. I call it pain porn. The universally loved message is clear: "Black women, it sucks to be YOU!" I can see a black woman as successful and attractive as Hughes taking great issue with that.To be fair, black actresses don't get to choose which acting roles the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honors. Did Hughes forget that Halle Berry also produced and starred in 'Introducing Dorothy Dandridge'? She got passed over for her role in 'Frankie and Alice.' And let's not forget the greatest Oscar robbery in history -- looking over Angela Bassett in 'What's Love Got to Do With It.' Sure Bassett's character suffered, but she ultimately triumphed and became a rock star!
Sure, white actors win awards for suffering as well. Charlize Theron won for playing a woman condemned to death row in 2003's 'Monster.' Her win was immediately followed by Hillary Swank's portrayal of Maggie, a promising boxer who ends up paralyzed before she's assisted in suicide by her trainer, played by Clint Eastwood in 'Million Dollar Baby.' Those are hardly "feel good" roles, but they are balanced out by Helen Mirren's Oscar for playing a monarch in 2006 and Sandra Bullock's win in 2010 for playing a saintly suburban housewife who rescues a black orphan in 'The Blind Side.' White actresses can win for being saints and sinners and everything in between.
If you throw in Jennifer Hudson's portrayal of Effie White in 'Dream Girls,' a black woman hasn't won an Oscar for not yelling and screaming since Whoopi Goldberg's win in 1990 for playing psychic Oda Mae Brown in the movie 'Ghost.'
Where Hughes completely undermines the validity of her points about Oscar nominations is with her effusive praise for Tyler Perry. How did Tyler Perry land in the middle of a discussion about black actresses? Apparently Hughes can over look the coonery and buffoonery mixed with melodrama in the extreme that are Perry's heavy-handed trademarks. His insertion into a discussion about Oscar-winning roles is just random, except for the fact that none of the wailing black actresses of 'For Colored Girls' were nominated this year. That's quite mysterious, as it's full of the kind of black women the Academy seems to love.
However, if anybody is in a position to do something other than complain about black images in film, wouldn't it be a media mogul like Hughes? Last fall I took a filmmaking course and loved it. I even produced a short. I got tired of waiting on Hollywood to create images I wanted to see and created my own. Where's your movie full of positive black women like Michelle Obama, Cathy, as you mention in the video above?
This year we don't have to worry about African Americans winning acting awards for characters that offend our sensibilities because black folks were completely shut out of acting awards at this year's Oscars. Ultimately, the problem isn't Mo'Nique or Halle Berry, or even Tyler Perry. The problem is that there are so few African Americans onscreen and even fewer controlling what films get made on the business end, that we have very little say in who gets nominated. (The small crop of successful black actresses working can't possibly keep up the pace of new sob story roles needed for a nomination every year.)
Would Cathy be steaming over Mo'Nique's win for 'Precious,' if we knew the following year a sister would have just as great a chance of winning for playing a queen, a boxer or a housewife? Probably not. But unless Hughes adds movie producer to her impressive list of media leadership roles, the lack of uplifting, Oscar-worthy roles for black women will probably continue.
Comments: (111)
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By: AllBahianGirl on 2/12/2011 10:58PM
@Britt - Now in all fairness to Hattie McDaniels what choice did she have but to play a slave in "Gone With The Wind"? When Walter White of the NAACP criticized Hattie McDaniel for playing a slave in "Gone With the Wind" she told Mr.White what part am I supposed to play Rhett Butler's wife?
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By: Dianne on 2/12/2011 10:59AM
Sorry, but I just lost it with some glitch in my computer and I am not going to try and repeat myself until having read every last one of the posts to this column. But,
...when I saw the name Cathy Hughes, I am here to remind you there is another radio personality known as Kathy Hughes whom a Washington,D.C. writer named Suskind pointed out mama's boy W.Bush ran to for advice on how to control the media. Apparently he is still controlling it in everyway he can disadvantage Obama because it is really Poppy Bush who rules the roost; no matter how much Michael Steele runs around to Rachel Maddow and tells her how important the Republican Party is.
Not after last weekend's Super Bowl.
There is nothing wrong with women as Black Actors telling the tale of what the lives of some women have been but I'll probably get to that later from start to finish, since that is what makes them great actors. People tend to forget that Helen Mirren was not playing the Queen because Elisabeth II was being particularly admirable within the time frame of that story-line. She was losing her public (I really like the writer of this revelation, Peter Morgan, who also wrote the Last King of Scotland, in case anyone is going to say that Forest Whitaker should not have played a despicable African dictator?).
But just between you and me, I am dubious, despite the good intention of the concept, that Sandra Bullock should have gone that route in blond hair since she really should have had her Oscar when she played Nelle Harper Lee (recognize the name? from, with Brock Peters,Gregory Peck, in: To Tell a Mocking Bird)as simply the friend of Truman Capote in, Infamous.
And she knows it, but all have to make their living, in a system which now finds new directors by having them compete to interpret variations of the same theme. When the young man, that she fictiously guides through his education because it is a true-story, becomes as accomplished as Forest Whitaker who has fought long and hard,let me know.
I have nothing against the young actor for whom she performed this stereotypical role at this particular point in history but remember this is an art form based on illusion and the sprinkling of so much faery dust which is so much gold.
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By: poodle on 2/12/2011 1:16PM
I think it's a shame that Ms Hughes couldn't pull these women aside and let them know her personal feelings. Why do we as black people have to public put one another down. There a saying "If you don't have anything good to say, then we should out comments to ourself." Or at least, not put it out there like the way Ms Hughes and so many others do. We need to learn to respect ourselves, so they the world will stop looking at us (Blacks)as the most degrading people that God created.
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By: Jimmie Floyd on 2/23/2011 2:42PM
Lets face it, white people are not going to see Black movies unless a popular white star is in the movie. They spend the most money while we chase after bootlegg versions of the movies. Hollywood is never going to change, because the white man is going to keep the white stars at the top. Carmen Jones, Stormy weather, A cabin in the sky, the Color purple, A Raisin In The sun, Boys In Da Hood, the Medger evers story, The Temptations, the Little Richard Story, Sounder, Sharka Zulu, are just a few movies, that should have won an acadamy award. We as Black and brown people need to design our own award made of 14 carrot gold and put it on the pedestal as a challenge to the Oscar, and give it high merrit. This award will go to who we think was the best movie and best actor or actress for the year. We have enough Black Billionairs and millionairs in entertainment to get the ball rolling. We have to stop depending on white America for our needs, and be independant. The White stars will certainly want to win our award too, you better believe it.
I have no problem with the BET or the NAACP award, but white peole don't take them seriously or do Black people. Lets stand up and be counted.
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By: Anja on 2/19/2011 2:34AM
I absolutely agree. We have the BET Awards and the NAACP Image awards. Many times, those programs are the only way that we get to honor our own talent because all but the media darlings like the Beyonces' and Keys' are shut out from mainstream honors.
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By: Dianne on 2/12/2011 11:15AM
@John Green on 2/12/2011 10:21AM
I have also seen Bill Cosby pay dues in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when he appeared too incognito and was taken for an ordinary unrecognized Black Man and ignored for service at the bar of a coffee house because he "dressed down". He was virtually unrecognizable to his white public when this happened between 1980-1982. I was on my way back to the country of East Wobegone, to pick crops, after one of the waitresses had picked up my check because she was a friend. I did not personally know Mr. Cosby at the time but I was familiar with the "scenario" and did not wish to aggravate the humiliation; so, I went to the ladies room instead. If my friend had been available at that point in the scene, I would have informed her of his identity.
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By: Frank Talk on 2/12/2011 11:04PM
No one did or said it better than Cicely Tyson. Sis. Tyson refused to play any anti-Kemetic roles. She will always be the most respected Black Actress by my standards.
As for ms. Hughes, kudos for criticizing and judging Black females. For some reason (read further), society has made them feel beyond reproach. But, Ms. Hughes has left out two things: there are Blackfemales out there "as low" and morals free as MoNique's role, and she (Hughes)should lead by example.
Stop being scared to call out Semitic Hollywood for it's slave-made wealth portrayals of Blacks, and have some Black "Shock Jocks" hired at Radio One to "balance" the Bill O'Reilly's, Jay Sekulows, Bachmann's, Chris Wallace's, Gabriels, Hannity's, Glen Beck's, and the political benefactors of Slavocracy, lynchings, unemployment.
Lastly, directly challenge/counter the European Doctrine of "reversing" the balance of nature/GOD by placing females in positions of "power," only to upheave and destroy the Black Messiah/Gay J. Edgar Hoover fears. The Willie Lynch theorem clearly says the fear of Blackfemales is non existent, for if you give her power and money (HOprah, etc...), they will pose no threat to the system of Slavocracy and "soppression (suppression & oppression)" we have demonicly devised around the Western run world. Until we demand and point-out that every white and Semitic asset is a result of free, Black labor, will our children get a direct sense of "some body got to explain why I ain't got sh*t," (Tupar Amaru Shakur, Troublesome '96), and realize we need Expalantion. Reparations. Resegregation. Pan-Afrikanism.
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By: greenfield1234 on 2/12/2011 1:07PM
@script supervisor. In addition, Bill Cosby, some 15-20 years ago, or perhaps a bit longer, in-fact, made a SERIOUS financial (bid) attempt, to purchase one of the major TV networks, with some investment partners. Himself, being the lead investor. I don't recall exactly which network, whether ABC, CBS or NBC. But, he did make a serious attempt to do so. Perhaps, someone else may remember this effort, as I am sure that it is documented, as was publicized within mainstream-media outlets during that time period.
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By: GuessWho on 2/12/2011 11:35AM
I liked the movie Precious but I agree with Ms Hughes. It is a shame that both Halle and Monique won oscars for their roles. I thought Whoopi Goldberg did a great job in the Color Purple but she wasn't nominated but she won best supporting actress for Ghost...Go figure...
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By: valerie on 2/12/2011 1:08PM
I also thought Whoopi did a great job, However, the NAACP picketed the Oscars that year, so the Color Purple was shut out. Their critisism was on the same lines as Ms. Hughes.
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