Hotep Movie Moments... Black Romantic Comedies

     You get a budget of approximately $11 in food stamps, a liter of Hennessey and a pack of Newport 100s…
What kind of movie do you make?

     You don’t get to go summer blockbuster because those require a star commanding $20m or more a flick.  You don’t get to license a cutesy franchise because of your budget above.  You want people to come see your movie, and you want them to come in groups so you need a “date night movie.”

Solution?  Black Romantic Comedies!

     Here at Hotep Movie Moments, we have come to notice a few things about these movies and will spend a few minutes today discussing them.

1 – They always have the same people.
How may different ways can Morris Chestnut fall in love with Taraji P Henson contained inside of 97 minutes of pseudo hilarity?  It is kind of like the black church plays circuit in that you KNOW what you’re going to get and who you’re going to get it from, but you are made to feel obligated to throw money at it anyway.

And speaking of those same people…

2 – WHY. DON’T. THESE. PEOPLE. AGE?!!?
50 year-olds playing 30-somethings, portraying 20-somethings’ relationshit issues.  Should we begin to question just what blend of illuminati is in the water out there or do we ask who sold their soul to what religion’s devil that they’ve been doing this since they were 30-somethings playing high schoolers?
I can’t be the only one who is questioning this.

3 – There’s nothing healthy about the Black Life they portray.
I’ll let Huey take this one.

Beyond that, on what planet is it acceptable that the amount of theatrics and cooning be portrayed as “normal” behavior?  What seems to get missed is that that is how “they” view Brothas and Sistas, and then a police shooting happens and blamed on the victim.
Why would they see value in us if we READILY support things that don’t show the value in us?

4 – How many ways can a man wear a dress?
Geraldine, Big Mama, Madea, Holiday Heart…  I could continue, but I think you get it.  Complimentary to the second part of #3 above, “they” can’t stand to see a strong black male character, so they downplay them with a dress, or create the Pet Negro™ or Black Friend©, or worse still the Safe Negro™.  We’ve discussed the Pet Negro and Black Friend, but let’s talk about the Safe Negro.
The Safe Negro™ comes in two forms.  One is the corporate guy who is trying to move up in his position at work and plays their game so well that he never establishes his own.  The other is the one they stick in a dress and therefore any strength is blunted by how seriously they cannot be taken.

5 – They set us up for failure.
We get it…  She is a “strong Black woman who don’t need no man.”  She is independent, professional, strong-willed and therefore single because Black men are afraid of her.
This does not lend itself to an approved Ankh-Right family dynamic of “him and her and her (and maybe her too),” wherein everyone contributes to the household of their abilities and the man leads.  These movies are neither romantic, funny or realistic.

6 – They promote colorism.
Watch.  The light-skinned woman gets cheated on by the dark-skinned protagonist (Clifton Powell), then Michael Ealy or Boris Kodjoe comes in and saves her from him and sometimes herself while hilarity FULLY ensues.  No love for the melanin-rich dark brothas until they’re soft shoeing or putting on a dress.
Just because they let us think the dynamic has changed doesn’t mean they aren’t still playing the house against the field.  Stop taking the bait.

     We must fight back.
Like with Black businesses that want the support of Black people but are habitually bad businesspeople and only want our business on the strength of being black like us.
Stay Woke, not all of them are Black like us!