Im Bloggin’ Baby! All Dee All Day!!!

Growing up my Mom used to always tell me that the things I listened to and watched would somehow seep into my system and little by little start to form the person I would become. I never believed her. Never once did I think that Mystikal or Jay Z’s subject matter would make me into a bad person. Menace II Society, Heat or Boyz N The Hood never made me want to be in a gang or rob banks. So I never understood what she meant… UNTIL NOW. Movies and music seem to give us an outlet, sometimes it makes us feel as if we can relate to what the artist/director is trying to deliver. So, when people flock to see Tyler Perry constantly portray black men in such a terrible light it makes me wonder, do people really see what he is doing? Or do people even care? I made my feelings known through my facebook status update and was greeted with disdain. Forgive my ignorance but I never knew Tyler Perry was that relevant to have so many people come to his defense. One comment suggested that his movies are “something a black woman could relate to”. To steal from Vince Vaughn in The Wedding Crashers – “Erroneous, erroneous on all counts”. That statement couldn’t be more ludicrous. Black women aren’t the only race of women to suffer through lying, cheating and intolerable men. And black men aren’t all liars and playboys who cant keep it in their pants. This whole mantra of “we as black women can do bad all by ourselves” is becoming a bit played out. Is it possible that Tyler Perry cares not at all about the plight of black women but yet he makes this “genre” of movies for his financial gain? I find that totally plausible. I once met with a A&R for a record label and he said “Dee, if you want to make money, you have to make music for women”. Its a theory used by every record label/production company/studio around. Women purchase things more so then men, so that’s why products are marketed to them more often. Your favorite artist would much rather put out a “hard” track but his label pulls him in and says “where the track for the ladies? We cant market this as your single. We need something for the women”. I see the same type plan being used by Tyler Perry except his market is black women.

Now is he a bad person? In my eyes – YES. Why, because the product he puts out may give hope to one section of our race but totally demoralizes the other. Some may agree, other may disagree. I am not here to argue my opinion because it is just that. But, in no way, shape or form would I ever support/condone the slander of any race/gender, let alone my own. Yes, I know that his latest project is from a play nearly 20 years old, BLAH BLAH BLAH. But he still had the option of taking on the project to remake it into a movie and he did. His body of work is all I’m asking people to look at.

So, if I could tell Mr Perry one thing, I’d tell him – Mr Perry, thank you for making our race into a punchline and for that I wanted to say – I LOATHE YOU.