Burn Hollywood Burn

Burn Hollywood Burn

Labels: Black Hollywood

First they killed, Cochise, then they shot Cornbread, now Omar from The Wire was assassinated, what's a playa to do? I figured with the African-American representation being so low at the Oscars (again), that I would offer my two cents about Black Hollywood.

When I say Black Hollywood, I'm not talking about Will Smith, Denzel, Eddie Murphy, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, Halle Berry or Martin Lawrence. Only because their presence in Hollywood transcends race, many of their roles are interchangeable with white folks, Beverly Hills Cop was written for Mel Gibson.

I'm talking about Taye Diggs, Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Sanaa Lathan Black Hollywood. The portion of Hollywood that offers limited opportunities and even more limited resources for films written, directed or starring a predominantly Black cast. You know the movies we laugh when we see the trailer and then get to the theater the first week only to find that the movie sucks!

Your boy Tyler Perry (Mr. Black Hollywood) has a new film on the horizon starring Rick Fox?!? C'mon people! Taye Diggs, Omar Epps, Richard T. Harris, Boris Kudjoe, Terrance Howard, Harold Perrineau, Duane Martin, Mekhi Phifer, Wood Harris, Idris Elba, LL Cool J, Sean Nelson, Isiah Washington, Katt Williams, Tracy Morgan, Mike Epps, Cole from "Martin", and Nipsey Russell were all busy? Or, does Tyler Perry get to keep his budget down by giving the role to Rick Fox? Hence, he profit is larger because you know Negros are going to flock to see it.

Here's my problem with BET, well one of them. All of that talent I just named and we haven't even talked about the actresses and directors and we can't get more out of them than Hell Date, Baldwin Hills and Keyshia Cole? We have natural resources within our community that are more than capable of providing quality television for the viewing public.

When Bob Johnson sold out, I mean when he sold BET, he sold the right to control programming to a media conglomerate (Viacom) that has no interest whatsoever in programming that demonstrates our character, talent, collective insight and historical worth. For Christ's sake, we've had three season of Flavor of Love! But, Black people don't support Black Television anyway. That's more than likely the thinking, Girlfriends was cancelled at the conclusion of the Writer's Strike and a stink was raised, but if more than 1.9 million people were watching, they could have continued their run. So, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Outside of Law & Order, I really don't watch much on TV without a strong Black presence. Never seen Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy sucks, Sex & The City was garbage, and please don't get me started on Friends and Seinfeld (Michael Richards was a star).

Black actresses have it even worse, they've gone the way of jobs in the US, being outsourced to other races. I mean, Eva Mendez got the lead in Hitch and Out of Time. I like Eva Mendez and all, but I could've seen Nia Long, Vivica Fox, Kerry Washington, Regina King, Angela Bassett (maybe not after the Halle comments), Tamala Jones, Gabrielle Union in something with a big budget. I'm not against interracial dating (really I'm not), but we're talking equity in Hollywood here, so I would love to see a Black woman opposite Will Smith in his next blockbuster.

I can't wait to see how many people watch A Raisin in the Sun tonight, being that it's running opposite against Flavor of Love 3...