I agree. I think that there should be more movies with the main characters a
married black couple. Hollywood has it looking like the only black couples
out there is the Huxtables.

On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 1:31 PM, Keith Johnson <keithbjohn...@comcast.net>wrote:

>
>
> See, I hear that, but I disagree with this "little by little" method. You
> mention Tyler perry, well he's become a multi-millionaire by doing "black"
> movies. Granted, the vast majority of his audience is black people, but
> that's alright by me. I guess I'm just tired of my people's stories and
> perceptions and presentations all being filtered and reworked to please
> another group's desires and likes.  I grew up in a home with two black
> parents, my wife is a black woman, I know lots of black couples who are in
> love and doing it well. You're really telling me I should just be grateful
> and patient because someone sees fit to only tell half the story, that I
> shouldn't find it offensive that in a country where most black people marry
> black people, the story is shifted just so whites will show up?
> Sorry, that bothers me. and it really bothers me because the cliche is
> still the same: black woman gets handed off to men of other races, as has
> been done for centuries. Do you think white Americans would have been okay
> had all the early Disney cartoons put Snow White, Cinderella, etc., with
> non-white men? Nope.
>
> At the end of the day, though, it's back to FUBU: For Us, By Us.  I guess
> until more black people pool money and resources and continue to make our
> own projects, we can't expect truly diverse presentation of our life on the
> big--or small--screen.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Omari Confer" <clockwork...@gmail.com>
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 1:51:26 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] EXCLUSIVE: Disney's The Princess and the Frog
>  Directors Address Racial Concerns
>
>
>
> Keith,
>
> Love the comments on the subject. As I was reading your post I was itching
> to respond. By the end I just have to clap and give you a pat on the back
> saying.....its ok man.
>
> Here is another perspective.
>
> It is altruistic to think that an all black romantic cast will play to all
> audiences.
>
> Black movies consist of the following:
>
> 'Comin up' stories/Hood to Good
> Black Love mixed with comedy
>
> (This excludes Spike Lee movies of course)
>
> So creating a movie with two black leads clearly fits within this paradigm,
> thus seemingly excluding white audiences. Be honest.....most white audiences
> see an all black or partly black cast and they think either hood movie or a
> tyler perry flick.
>
> The transition to truly racially fluid entertainment has to be gradual. The
> key demographic, just by numbers alone has been all white and is
> transitioning to a blended look.
>
> Not only should we be happy that there is a black princess but we should
> rejoice. This means that the math and the money was right enough to make it
> happen...translation- Executives with big bucks accept that black characters
> have universal appeal and can be human..not just black.
>
> This is progress........Rome was not built overnight.
>
> c w m
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 1:04 AM, Keith Johnson 
> <keithbjohn...@comcast.net>wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> They can explain all they want, but the truth of this is the "Hitch"
>> effect: H'wood refusing to back a big romance with a man and woman of
>> clearly African-American roots.  Will Smith himself said the folks behind
>> "Hitch" didn't want a black female lead, as they feared it wouldn't draw
>> whites. A white female lead--not a goal in my book to be sought--was of
>> course right out.
>>
>> So it is here. It makes no sense that for the first African-American
>> female lead, the male is not also African-American--or at least "African".
>> Why couldn't he be a rich brother from New Orleans? Why can't his family be
>> wealthy? Why can't he be an African prince of purely African heritage?  All
>> this talk of diversity is interesting, as it only comes up when blacks are
>> involved. i don't recall Snow White, Cinderalla, Belle, Mu Lan, or any of
>> the other Disney heroines being paired with a guy of an obviously different
>> racial background. Oh: let me correct myself. Disney did pair one lady with
>> a guy from another race. It was the story of Pochahantas and her love for a
>> European.
>>
>> It troubles me, not because I'm against diversity, multi-culturalism, or
>> marriages between people of different ethnicities. It troubles me simply
>> because once again, when other cultures--especially whites--are allowed to
>> love their own on screen, we're being told that black-on-black love just
>> won't play at the cinemaplex. And saddest of all is that we are so happy
>> just ot have *one* black person on screen, we'll just take this as a sign of
>> progress. I got into a long debate with a black female friend on this, and
>> her summary statement was, "You're right, it's unfortunate both leads aren't
>> African Amerians. But you have to be realistic, keith, this is a good first
>> step, and we can't force Disney to meet our needs." Besides, she said, her
>> young daughter is so happy to have a princess look like her on screen.
>>
>> I asked, how were her two sons feeling about the movie, and she said, they
>> were disappointed and confused the male lead wasn't just like them, but
>> better something than nothing.
>>
>> sigh...
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "brent wodehouse" <brent_wodeho...@thefence.us>
>> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
>> Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 2:09:09 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
>> Subject: [scifinoir2] EXCLUSIVE: Disney's The Princess and the Frog
>> Directors Address Racial Concerns
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.movieline.com/2009/07/disneys-the-princess-and-the-frog-directors-address-charges-of-racism.php
>>
>> Comic-Con 09
>>
>> EXCLUSIVE: Disney's The Princess and the Frog Directors Address Racial
>> Concerns
>>
>> Written by Seth Abramovitch | 24 Jul 2009
>>
>> Disney’s The Princess and the Frog marks the studio’s long-overdue return
>> to hand-drawn animation, and those hands belong to Ron Clements and John
>> Musker - two animation veterans responsible for later-era classics like
>> The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. From the beginning, Disney proudly
>> trumpeted that Frog would feature their first African-American princess
>> with Tiana, a gesture that would go a small way towards righting the
>> wrongs of all the yarn-spinning uncles, jive-talking crows and Neverland
>> savages that came before her.
>>
>> But as scenes trickled out, there were murmurs of concern. Princess Tiana
>> would be paired with Prince Naveen - a royal of seemingly South American
>> lineage, voiced by Brazilian-born actor Bruno Campos - raising eyebrows
>> and ire among a segment of the African-American blogosphere. Then we were
>> introduced to Mama Odie - a blind, swamp-dwelling voodoo witch doctor.
>> Dated caricature? Lovable sidekick? Both?
>>
>> Movieline had an opportunity to talk to Clements and Musker today at a
>> series of Disney Animation roundtable interviews at Comic-Con. Both are
>> chipper, unassuming men with a cute tendency of finishing each other’s
>> sentences. Telling us the film is close to finished - just digital
>> coloring is all that’s left in the animation process - we then broached
>> concerns over its minority representations. Here is what they said:
>>
>> MOVIELINE: Have you heard any of the race-related criticisms about The
>> Princess and the Frog, that Disney’s first African-American princess has
>> not been paired with an African-American prince, and that Mama Odie comes
>> across like a stereotype? How do you react to that?
>>
>> RON CLEMENTS: The first thing is that all the criticism of the movie has
>> been from people who have not seen the movie, who don’t know the context
>> of the movie, who don’t know the story. From the very beginning, when the
>> project was first announced, there have been these issues. From the very
>> beginning I think we wanted to be certainly as sensitive as possible with
>> what we were doing. I mean, really early on it was clear that this was a
>> major, major thing.
>>
>> So we did a lot of consulting, and our co-writer on the film Rob Edwards
>> was African-American, and we talked to many African-Americans. We took
>> them through the story, we showed them things, and we’ve since previewed
>> the movie. The reaction we’ve gotten from everyone who’s actually seen the
>> movie, and knows the story, has been very, very positive, and that’s been
>> very encouraging to us. We’ve gotten notes and we’ve addressed some
>> things, but I say overall people who know the context of the movie -
>>
>> JOHN MUSKER: And that includes multiracial audiences - African-American
>> and otherwise. And in fact the numbers coming out of our preview are high
>> across the board - it didn’t matter.
>>
>> MOVIELINE: You have Oprah Winfrey’s stamp of approval.
>>
>> RC: Oprah’s a character, and she does a great job. Terrence Howard did a
>> great job. So it’s been kind of tough for us, and the Internet is at a
>> place where it wasn’t necessarily a few years ago. Speculation tends to
>> run rampant, but the only thing I can say is that if people have concerns,
>> just see the movie and I think a lot of the concerns will go away.
>>
>> The issue with the Prince, the Prince is not African-American, and he’s
>> not white. He’s played by a Brazilian actor and he’s definitely a person
>> of color. Again, it’s the context of the movie, and the context of the
>> story - that’s very important in terms of how the story works, and how
>> things sort of work out…
>>
>> When people will see the movie, the reasons for things will be more clear.
>> Not that there won’t be issues. I’m sure many people will have issues, but
>> we feel good about the movie, and I think we feel that it works for all
>> audiences the way we hoped it would. Because certainly you don’t want to
>> do this kind of movie and have it divide people. You want to bring people
>> together. That’s always been the intention.
>>
>>
>
>
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