I thought this was an interesting read.

As she has made her way around the Oscar circuit Viola Davis has impressed the Bagger – and everyone else who has heard her – by speaking eloquently about subjects that many shy away from: race, class and sexism, in Hollywood and in the real world. Even as she campaigns hard in the best actress race, Ms. Davis continues to speak her mind.

In a recent interview with Tavis Smiley, Ms. Davis and her co-star Octavia Spencer responded to Mr. Smiley’s qualms about their Oscar-nominated turns playing domestic workers. He referred to Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar victory, the first for an African-American actress, for playing a maid in “Gone With the Wind” and wondered why filmmakers or audiences can’t get past that image. (In the opinion pages this weekend, Brent Staples noted that advertising got there long before the dramatic arts.)

“I want you to win,” Mr. Smiley said, “but I’m ambivalent about what you’re winning for.”

Ms. Davis was direct. “That very mind-set that you have and that a lot of African-Americans have is absolutely destroying the black artist,” she said.

“The black artist cannot live in a revisionist place,” she added. “The black artist can only tell the truth about humanity, and humanity is messy. People are messy. Caucasian actors know that.”

Ms. Spencer pointed out that Anthony Hopkins won for playing a cannibal and Charlize Theron for portraying a serial killer — that white actors were never taken to task for their choices in playing troubling roles. “I don’t have a problem with nominating these two earnest, hard-working women,” Ms. Spencer said of “The Help” characters. “We’ve never seen this story told from their perspective.”

Ms. Davis worried that the focus on representation in African-American roles robbed them of their ability to be relatable.

“We as African-American artists are more concerned with image and message and not execution,” she said, “which is why every time you see your images they’ve been watered down to the point where they are not realistic at all.”

“My whole thing is, do I always have be noble?” she continued. “As an artist, you’ve got to see the mess.”

It’s not necessarily a new debate, but “The Help” has reignited passions (here and here, for instance). Where do you stand? Let us know in the comments

http://carpetbagger.blogs...ck-actors/

Damn tell it to him Viola!!!!

What does he mean when he says that they played the characters well but "let's move on" and tell some other stories about the complexity of black people"? It's like he just dismissed her point and what she was telling him. I think I'm a bit appalled by his opinion....unfortunately, as Viola he said, he isn't the only one who shares that same exact view point.

[Edited 2/15/12 4:45am]

missfee said:

Damn tell it to him Viola!!!!

What does he mean when he says that they played the characters well but "let's move on" and tell some other stories about the complexity of black people"? It's like he just dismissed her point and what she was telling him. I think I'm a bit appalled by his opinion....unfortunately, as Viola he said, he isn't the only one who shares that same exact view point.

[Edited 2/15/12 4:45am]

I'm getting pretty sick of Tavis and all of his grandstanding the past few years. His views has become so singular that if a black person does not meet his criteria requirements for The African American Experience, it's as if he cancels them out and anyone else outside of his tubular points of view and reference don't matter at all & should not have a voice. I'm really about this close to wanting to tell him to kiss my black ass.

She defended herself well, and her point about the need for more than 'noble' or 'positive' roles is a good one. (And I realise there's a lot of baggage comes with Tavis and his 'leadership' posturing!)

On the wider point, though, I do think ultimately there is a case to answer about these kinds of movies - not necessarily by individual actors, who just have to take the best gig going, but by the movie industry more broadly, and the audience that relishes watching the 'safe', benevolent image of itself such films present onscreen.

Ottensen said:

missfee said:

Damn tell it to him Viola!!!!

What does he mean when he says that they played the characters well but "let's move on" and tell some other stories about the complexity of black people"? It's like he just dismissed her point and what she was telling him. I think I'm a bit appalled by his opinion....unfortunately, as Viola said, he isn't the only one who shares that same exact view point.

[Edited 2/15/12 4:45am]

I'm getting pretty sick of Tavis and all of his grandstanding the past few years. His views has become so singular that if a black person does not meet his criteria requirements for The African American Experience, it's as if he cancels them out and anyone else outside of his tubular points of view and reference don't matter at all & should not have a voice. I'm really about this close to wanting to tell him to kiss my black ass.

After watching this he CAN kiss my black ass. I'm truly appalled at just because he praised the two actresses for their performances in the movie that they should be all gung ho about his point of view or something. When she told him point blank her opinion, then he gets all sensitive. It irritated me quickly how he kept repeating "how can you say that what I just said is destroying the black artist when I said that I hope you win the academy award for your perfomance"?.... Of course she isn't referring to that statement dumbass...she clearly saw through that comment when he said it.

To each its own, I didn't see the movie and have no plans to. "Destroy the Black community..." that's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard, she need not repeat that comment again.

My grandmother and her daughters with the exception of one did "daywork"; I have stories from these women that would make your hair curl on its own. I don't need Hollywood rose colored tinted version of our story to explain our history. As quitely as its kept, if we didn't lie (mainly through silence) so much in our community about our experiences/history, we could discern fact from Hollywood fiction. The motto use to be in the Black community, each generation is suppose to better then previous. "Daywork" for my mother and her sisters was a temporary necessity in order to work towards higher ambitions. As a daughter I've done better and my daugher has done better than me. It would be a sorry sight and a step backwards if my kid told me she was going to work cleaning the homes and tending the children of white people. Period.

I be damn, 74 years after Hollywood Mammy we are still stuck playing the fuckin' maid? We have not move forward hell, I can't say we've gone backwards.... we are still the "help." Mr. Tavis may have feeling of ambivalence but I don't.

======================

[Edited 2/15/12 6:34am]

I have to say i felt the same way as Tavis did before I saw the movie. But after I saw it. The way the characters were portrayed and the way the fabulous Viola Davis (Who I met and is a kind humble spirit) & Octavia played them was epic. Me being an actor myself. I totally understood Viola's point that the black artist cannot live in a revisionist place...

Honestly...............F these step and fetch it movies.

NEXT.

Ottensen said:

missfee said:

Damn tell it to him Viola!!!!

What does he mean when he says that they played the characters well but "let's move on" and tell some other stories about the complexity of black people"? It's like he just dismissed her point and what she was telling him. I think I'm a bit appalled by his opinion....unfortunately, as Viola he said, he isn't the only one who shares that same exact view point.

[Edited 2/15/12 4:45am]

I'm getting pretty sick of Tavis and all of his grandstanding the past few years. His views has become so singular that if a black person does not meet his criteria requirements for The African American Experience, it's as if he cancels them out and anyone else outside of his tubular points of view and reference don't matter at all & should not have a voice. I'm really about this close to wanting to tell him to kiss my black ass.

I, for one am glad these type stories are being told in the ‘raw’ so-to-speak. These were real events in many peoples' lives during a time of segregation, and I'm glad the movie, didn't sugarcoat any of the black or white actors’/actresses’ roles in the movie. I was hesitant to see the movie as well, but when I saw it, I loved it.

How does Tavis expect these 'real' stories to be told if the actors don't reflect the actual, real-life experiences many African-American people, experienced living daily during that era? Especially during a time period of segregation/jim crow laws, where many doors of opportunites for better employment positions, were not offered or open to African-Americans, giving them the chance to compete with the rest of society for better employment opportunities?

The film was 'raw' and 'real', and stayed true to the 'attitudes' and ‘emotions’ of that time period, regardless of how ugly, raw and real those attitudes were, because it exposed racial prejudice in that era as it was—no sugarcoating. I think it's important that many young African-Americans today, see these type films, so they can appreciate what others had to fight for, for future generations, and so that they can always remember to stand up and fight for fairness and equality, and never allow anyone to 'limit' their capablitlies, dreams, opportunities.

The movie showed how racial prejudice, on a grand scale, including the jim crow/segregation laws, affected so many peoples’ lives, limited specific liberties, and how often times, racial prejudice was the contributing and determining factor, in how many people chose to treat others, they believed ‘different’ from them.

I do agree, however, that Hollywood still has a lot of catching up to do in looking beyond those type roles, when Black actors/Black actresses are nominated for acting roles, as there are many other character roles they play very well, that are ‘oscar-worthy’.

[Edited 2/15/12 9:15am]

2elijah said:

Ottensen said:

I'm getting pretty sick of Tavis and all of his grandstanding the past few years. His views has become so singular that if a black person does not meet his criteria requirements for The African American Experience, it's as if he cancels them out and anyone else outside of his tubular points of view and reference don't matter at all & should not have a voice. I'm really about this close to wanting to tell him to kiss my black ass.

I, for one am glad these type stories are being told in the ‘raw’ so-to-speak. These were real events in many peoples' lives during a time of segregation, and I'm glad the movie, didn't sugarcoat any of the black or white actors’/actresses’ roles in the movie. I was hesitant to see the movie as well, but when I saw it, I loved it.

How does Tavis expect these 'real' stories to be told if the actors don't reflect the actual, real-life experiences many African-American people, experienced living daily during that era? Especially during a time period of segregation/jim crow laws, where many doors of opportunites for better employment positions, were not offered or open to African-Americans, giving them the chance to compete with the rest of society for better employment opportunities?

The film was 'raw' and 'real', and stayed true to the 'attitudes' and ‘emotions’ of that time period, regardless of how ugly, raw and real those attitudes were, because it exposed racial prejudice as it was—no sugarcoating. I think it's important that many young African-Americans today, see these type films, so they can appreciate what others had to fight for, for future generations.

The movie showed how racial prejudice, on a grand scale, including the jim crow/segregation laws, affected so many peoples’ lives, limited specific liberties, and how often times, racial prejudice was a contributing and determining factor, in how many people chose to treat others, they believed ‘different’ from them.

I do agree, however, that Hollywood still has a lot of catching up to do in looking beyond those type roles, when Black actors/Black actresses are nominated for acting roles, as there are many other character roles they play very well, that are ‘oscar-worthy’.

[Edited 2/15/12 9:09am]

2elijah said:

Ottensen said:

I'm getting pretty sick of Tavis and all of his grandstanding the past few years. His views has become so singular that if a black person does not meet his criteria requirements for The African American Experience, it's as if he cancels them out and anyone else outside of his tubular points of view and reference don't matter at all & should not have a voice. I'm really about this close to wanting to tell him to kiss my black ass.

I, for one am glad these type stories are being told in the ‘raw’ so-to-speak.

The next time u see one of these flicks told real and raw will be the 1st time.

I dig where Tavis is coming from.

I take issue when I go see a non-black movie that features a black actor(s) but no black actresses. And these movies usually feature caucasian or latino actresses as the black actor's love interest. Other than Beyonce, is Hollywood saying that there are no black actresses available to play in these roles? I find that very hard to believe.

Tavis Smiley (and any of these so-called "black activists"), do me a favor and SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Graycap23 said:

2elijah said:

I, for one am glad these type stories are being told in the ‘raw’ so-to-speak.

The next time u see one of these flicks told real and raw will be the 1st time.

I prefer that movies like this don't sugarcoat the attitudes of the era it was/is in. This way people get to feel or try to understand what it was like for the individuals, that lived during that time period, according to how well the actors/actresses in those roles project that experience to their audience.

TD3 said:

To each its own, I didn't see the movie and have no plans to. "Destroy the Black community..." that's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard, she need not repeat that comment again.

My grandmother and her daughters with the exception of one did "daywork"; I have stories from these women that would make your hair curl on its own. I don't need Hollywood rose colored tinted version of our story to explain our history. As quitely as its kept, if we didn't lie (mainly through silence) so much in our community about our experiences/history, we could discern fact from Hollywood fiction. The motto use to be in the Black community, each generation is suppose to better then previous. "Daywork" for my mother and her sisters was a temporary necessity in order to work towards higher ambitions. As a daughter I've done better and my daugher has done better than me. It would be a sorry sight and a step backwards if my kid told me she was going to work cleaning the homes and tending the children of white people. Period.

I be damn, 74 years after Hollywood Mammy we are still stuck playing the fuckin' maid? We have not move forward hell, I can't say we've gone backwards.... we are still the "help." Mr. Tavis may have feeling of ambivalence but I don't.

======================

[Edited 2/15/12 6:34am]

Well, I just want to say that in all fairness after I saw the film, it didn't simply resonate as Hollywood rose color tinting our story, in fact there were some moments that were infuriating, actually. Beyond that it also stands as a story with multiple points of view and reference points of experience... touching lightly on feminism as well, and in the poetic words of Sojourner Truth, " Ain't I a woman, too?". So it did appeal to me, I must admit. I guess I just also fail to see how you can make a movie about civil rights era Mississippi because of the apartheid state that it was, and not confront the ugly realities of what our parents/family/friends lives in that era truly were at that time.

I was just thinking of 2 of our most accomplished in art & humanities; Morgan Freeman & Oprah Winfrey, natives of Mississippi state- who are very honest about the limitations of life back then. I believe Oprah has relayed publicly that as a small child in 1954 apartheid Mississippi (a state that had a human rights record so bad it rivaled the bloodiest dictatorships around the world) the first and only thing she was taught as a small child from her grandmother (a domestic worker) is that she had to pay close attention to what she was being taught by Grandma, for her most important aim in life was "find some good white folk" <in order to have security,my emphasis>...Oprah later went on to say that " Yeah, Grandma, and I did find me some good white folk, but they work for me ... off topic, but...

That being said, in a biography of our nation's first female millionaire, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker, grand daughter A'lelia Bundles recounts how in Madam's time, there actually to be police sweeps throughout the deep south neighborhood where her grandmother (then known by her birth name of Sarah Breedlove) lived in Louisiana---a state which was practically the evil triplet to its fair and hateful sisters Mississippi & Alabama...police sweeps were used to determine how busy black housewives or part time workers were in order to force them into labor as domestic help if they were found lacking. Black women were literally being checked by authorities to see how busy they were in their homes or work and had to provide proof of work payment or have the washing on their clothesline work measured if they wanted to avoid state enforced domestic service. This sh** was real and in many cases there was no escape from those jobs. I don't think it's fair to want to revise revise what the job situation was back then was even though we don't like to see it. I find healing in owning it, truthfully, and however painfully it hurts, on both sides of the color line.

Mind you, btw- Madam Walker/Breedlove, while able to escape life as a washerwoman- faced even more challenges once she attempted to assimilate with the great educators, activists, artists of the black community after her success. The high faluttin' and higher educated didn't want to be associated with maids and domestics of those of blue collar stations and treated her as such. My point essentially is that if Tavis wants to see the great historic figures of African American history portrayed in Hollywood, I just hope to gawd that if his argument is about whitewashing he won't expect anybody to whitewash that. The world of highly accomplished elite blacks in our cultural history was not without its' own ugliness.

Sorry this was so long... this all does bother me simply because sometimes I just see this issue as another way for any attention drawn to historic blue collars and domestics to be eschewed and reviled by the Black Intelligencia ( as it was in the time of my parents and their ancestors). If I didn't think the film approached the topic of Civil Rights in a honest, humanistic & sometimes ugly way (vs. the Beaulah-Biscuit Baking,-Gopsel Humming- Hattie McD days of old) I wouldn't feel so strongly in my support of Davis and Spencer

p.s. I also would like to point out that it's not even that this was the best piece of cinema to ever hit a movie screen in Hollywood history, only to say that it's just pretty damned good, and not what we stereotypically would expect from this genre of film

Ms. Spencer pointed out that Anthony Hopkins won for playing a cannibal and Charlize Theron for portraying a serial killer — that white actors were never taken to task for their choices in playing troubling roles. “I don’t have a problem with nominating these two earnest, hard-working women,” Ms. Spencer said of “The Help” characters. “We’ve never seen this story told from their perspective.”

I like this point that she is making. The best roles for any actor are those where they play complicated people living less than ideal lives. Even when an actor plays royalty, the best scripts show the flaws of that monarch and that the castle they live in is nothing more than a gilded cage.

Graycap23 said:

Honestly...............F these step and fetch it movies.

NEXT.

Okay, well it's abundantly clear you didn't see this movie at all.

I'll repeat I have no motivation in seeing this movie, for the reasons I've already stated. As far those times.. those were my times. I don't need Hollywood are anyone else to tell my story with people sittin' up in my house who were there. I damn sure don't need Hollywood to tell my daugher anything, I would trust them to to tell anything straight up. I don't do well with these types of films, I haven't forgotten nor forgiven a damn thing. As quitely as its kept the shit hasn't changed its just transformed, I leave it at that.

=========================

[Edited 2/15/12 13:23pm]

Ottensen said:

TD3 said:

To each its own, I didn't see the movie and have no plans to. "Destroy the Black community..." that's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard, she need not repeat that comment again.

My grandmother and her daughters with the exception of one did "daywork"; I have stories from these women that would make your hair curl on its own. I don't need Hollywood rose colored tinted version of our story to explain our history. As quitely as its kept, if we didn't lie (mainly through silence) so much in our community about our experiences/history, we could discern fact from Hollywood fiction. The motto use to be in the Black community, each generation is suppose to better then previous. "Daywork" for my mother and her sisters was a temporary necessity in order to work towards higher ambitions. As a daughter I've done better and my daugher has done better than me. It would be a sorry sight and a step backwards if my kid told me she was going to work cleaning the homes and tending the children of white people. Period.

I be damn, 74 years after Hollywood Mammy we are still stuck playing the fuckin' maid? We have not move forward hell, I can't say we've gone backwards.... we are still the "help." Mr. Tavis may have feeling of ambivalence but I don't.

======================

[Edited 2/15/12 6:34am]

Well, I just want to say that in all fairness after I saw the film, it didn't simply resonate as Hollywood rose color tinting our story, in fact there were some moments that were infuriating, actually. Beyond that it also stands as a story with multiple points of view and reference points of experience... touching lightly on feminism as well, and in the poetic words of Sojourner Truth, " Ain't I a woman, too?". So it did appeal to me, I must admit. I guess I just also fail to see how you can make a movie about civil rights era Mississippi because of the apartheid state that it was, and not confront the ugly realities of what our parents/family/friends lives in that era truly were at that time.

I was just thinking of 2 of our most accomplished in art & humanities; Morgan Freeman & Oprah Winfrey, natives of Mississippi state- who are very honest about the limitations of life back then. I believe Oprah has relayed publicly that as a small child in 1954 apartheid Mississippi (a state that had a human rights record so bad it rivaled the bloodiest dictatorships around the world) the first and only thing she was taught as a small child from her grandmother (a domestic worker) is that she had to pay close attention to what she was being taught by Grandma, for her most important aim in life was "find some good white folk" <in order to have security,my emphasis>...Oprah later went on to say that " Yeah, Grandma, and I did find me some good white folk, but they work for me ... off topic, but...

That being said, in a biography of our nation's first female millionaire, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker, grand daughter A'lelia Bundles recounts how in Madam's time, there actually to be police sweeps throughout the deep south neighborhood where her grandmother (then known by her birth name of Sarah Breedlove) lived in Louisiana---a state which was practically the evil triplet to its fair and hateful sisters Mississippi & Alabama...police sweeps were used to determine how busy black housewives or part time workers were in order to force them into labor as domestic help if they were found lacking. Black women were literally being checked by authorities to see how busy they were in their homes or work and had to provide proof of work payment or have the washing on their clothesline work measured if they wanted to avoid state enforced domestic service. This sh** was real and in many cases there was no escape from those jobs. I don't think it's fair to want to revise revise what the job situation was back then was even though we don't like to see it. I find healing in owning it, truthfully, and however painfully it hurts, on both sides of the color line.

Mind you, btw- Madam Walker/Breedlove, while able to escape life as a washerwoman- faced even more challenges once she attempted to assimilate with the great educators, activists, artists of the black community after her success. The high faluttin' and higher educated didn't want to be associated with maids and domestics of those of blue collar stations and treated her as such. My point essentially is that if Tavis wants to see the great historic figures of African American history portrayed in Hollywood, I just hope to gawd that if his argument is about whitewashing he won't expect anybody to whitewash that. The world of highly accomplished elite blacks in our cultural history was not without its' own ugliness.

Sorry this was so long... this all does bother me simply because sometimes I just see this issue as another way for any attention drawn to historic blue collars and domestics to be eschewed and reviled by the Black Intelligencia ( as it was in the time of my parents and their ancestors). If I didn't think the film approached the topic of Civil Rights in a honest, humanistic & sometimes ugly way (vs. the Beaulah-Biscuit Baking,-Gopsel Humming- Hattie McD days of old) I wouldn't feel so strongly in my support of Davis and Spencer

p.s. I also would like to point out that it's not even that this was the best piece of cinema to ever hit a movie screen in Hollywood history, only to say that it's just pretty damned good, and not what we stereotypically would expect from this genre of film

Highlighted part of your post. I didn't know about that. Thanks for sharing. Still so much to read regarding the past. Reminds me of Douglas Blackmon's book: 'Slavery by Another Name', which finally was a documentary aired on PBS this week, narrated by Laurence Fishburne. (check local listings for air dates). It was one of those 'must watch' documentaries, that exposed the illegal slavery that took place in America during the post-civil war period well into the late 1950s.

Vagrancy was considered a crime and if you were an African-American male/female walking alone in the streets in places like Alabama, in those days, especially wiith no identification, you could be kidnapped illegally by farm/plantation owners and forced to work as domestics or farm workers or arrested on trumped-up charges by police/sheriffs, then sent to prison, and leased out as slave labor to steel mills/coal mines or worse yet, lynched/murdered. These real experiences, no matter how ugly, need to be told and exposed as it really happened..no sugarcoating.

Ottensen said:

Graycap23 said:

Honestly...............F these step and fetch it movies.

NEXT.

Okay, well it's abundantly clear you didn't see this movie at all.

Really? I can quote the flick.

Graycap23 said:

Ottensen said:

Okay, well it's abundantly clear you didn't see this movie at all.

Really? I can quote the flick.

So what aspects about the film did you find to be in Steppin Fetchit mold? I'm not trying to be facetious, I 'm really interesting in hearing your POV.

Ottensen said:

Graycap23 said:

Really? I can quote the flick.

So what aspects about the film did you find to be in Steppin Fetchit mold? I'm not trying to be facetious, I 'm really interesting in hearing your POV.

I don't like these old ass, damn near slave, subservant flicks.

I was forced 2 watch due 2 the wife's overwhelming need 2 see the movie.

Graycap23 said:

Ottensen said:

So what aspects about the film did you find to be in Steppin Fetchit mold? I'm not trying to be facetious, I 'm really interesting in hearing your POV.

I don't like these old ass, damn near slave, subservant flicks.

I was forced 2 watch due 2 the wife's overwhelming need 2 see the movie.

It's a movie about smart, proud black women. Nothing 'Stepin Fetchit' about it.

sextonseven said:

Graycap23 said:

I don't like these old ass, damn near slave, subservant flicks.

I was forced 2 watch due 2 the wife's overwhelming need 2 see the movie.

It's a movie about smart, proud black women. Nothing 'Stepin Fetchit' about it.

Graycap23 said:

Ottensen said:

So what aspects about the film did you find to be in Steppin Fetchit mold? I'm not trying to be facetious, I 'm really interesting in hearing your POV.

I don't like these old ass, damn near slave, subservant flicks.

I was forced 2 watch due 2 the wife's overwhelming need 2 see the movie.

OMG

Ok Gray I see where both you and Tavis are coming from but lets be real. If there is a film about domestic workers/maids working for southern white folk in the 50s then who will play the role of that worker? Viola is right in that the story, messy as it is, must be told.

Tavis is also right in feeling ambivalent because Hollywood would be hard pressed to cast a Denzel or Idris as Hannibal the Cannibal and contrariwise casting Charlize Theron as a maid for a well to do black family.

We should not be concerned with the title of the character but the dignity with which said character is played.

Also, lets not pretend like roles for black actors are falling out of the sky. Even when they do, black actors are still criticized. Remember the controversy over Halle Berry's role in Monster Ball or how everybody's jaw dropped when Jennifer Hudson won and Oscar for her role as Effie White in DreamGirls but then turned around and took a forgettable role as Carrie Bradshaw's assistant in Sex And The City?

At the end of the day, black actors work when they can and do the best job they can. Not everyone can be Denzel and Angela and even their days are numbered.

I don't know. I can understand where they're both coming from. Some may say well it's just a movie...some argue that it's not something that's fiction (and it's not) and it needs to be told (Viola) while others can counter with lets find another topic to talk about which I think is the point Tavis was making. I've heard folks say they see a certain trend in Hollywood when it comes to black actors...The Color Purple, Monster's Ball, Training Day, Precious but there's also been more standard stuff. Jennifer Hudson won for playing a singer, a problematic singer but a singer nonetheless, uh Morgan Freeman a helpful boxer, Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles. If I was in charge of voting I would have added, subtracted, and tweeked names but hey it's not my ceremony. It's not our ceremony. If Smiley is dissatisfied he should produce his own show. When you don't own anything you don't have any say. It's like the scene in Do The Right Thing when Buggin Out is asking Sal why there isn't any "brothers on the wall." Well, it's an Italian restaurant. Who the hell do you think is gonna be on the wall? Start owning shit and you can do whatever and I mean WHATEVER you want.

[Edited 2/15/12 15:28pm]

Graycap23 said:

Honestly...............F these step and fetch it movies.

NEXT.

musicjunky318 said:

I don't know. I can understand where they're both coming from. Some may say well it's just a movie...some argue that it's not something that's fiction (and it's not) and it needs to be told (Viola) while others can counter with lets find another topic to talk about which I think is the point Tavis was making. I've heard folks say they see a certain trend in Hollywood when it comes to black actors...The Color Purple, Monster's Ball, Training Day, Precious but there's also been more standard stuff. Jennifer Hudson won for playing a singer, a problematic singer but a singer nonetheless, uh Morgan Freeman a helpful boxer, Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles. If I was in charge of voting I would have added, subtracted, and tweeked names but hey it's not my ceremony. It's not our ceremony. If Smiley is dissatisfied he should produce his own show. When you don't own anything you don't have any say. It's like the scene in Do The Right Thing when Buggin Out is asking Sal why there isn't any "brothers on the wall." Well, it's an Italian restaurant. Who the hell do you think is gonna be on the wall? Start owning shit and you can do whatever and I mean WHATEVER you want.

[Edited 2/15/12 15:28pm]

That scene always bothered me. Yeah it was an Italian pizzeria but it was in a black/latino neighborhood. Sal opened shop in that neighborhood because there were too many pizzerias in his own area. Consumerism deserves some respect. There should have been at least one brutha on the wall.

sextonseven said:

Graycap23 said:

I don't like these old ass, damn near slave, subservant flicks.

I was forced 2 watch due 2 the wife's overwhelming need 2 see the movie.

It's a movie about smart, proud black women. Nothing 'Stepin Fetchit' about it.

But every "proud black women" in The Help had to use a separate bathroom that had no fan OR a/c at all.

HotGritz said:

musicjunky318 said:

I don't know. I can understand where they're both coming from. Some may say well it's just a movie...some argue that it's not something that's fiction (and it's not) and it needs to be told (Viola) while others can counter with lets find another topic to talk about which I think is the point Tavis was making. I've heard folks say they see a certain trend in Hollywood when it comes to black actors...The Color Purple, Monster's Ball, Training Day, Precious but there's also been more standard stuff. Jennifer Hudson won for playing a singer, a problematic singer but a singer nonetheless, uh Morgan Freeman a helpful boxer, Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles. If I was in charge of voting I would have added, subtracted, and tweeked names but hey it's not my ceremony. It's not our ceremony. If Smiley is dissatisfied he should produce his own show. When you don't own anything you don't have any say. It's like the scene in Do The Right Thing when Buggin Out is asking Sal why there isn't any "brothers on the wall." Well, it's an Italian restaurant. Who the hell do you think is gonna be on the wall? Start owning shit and you can do whatever and I mean WHATEVER you want.

[Edited 2/15/12 15:28pm]

That scene always bothered me. Yeah it was an Italian pizzeria but it was in a black/latino neighborhood. Sal opened shop in that neighborhood because there were too many pizzerias in his own area. Consumerism deserves some respect. There should have been at least one brutha on the wall.

LOL Consumerism and respect don't correlate with one another. Never have, never will. It doesn't matter where it was put. It could have been on a side-street in Japan. At the end of the day it's Italian-owned.