When is the world going to get sick of movies about black guys who "don't fit in" with "white society"?
It seems like every comedy and action movie starring a black actor since Trading Places has had a comedic theme along the lines of:
"Wouldn't it be absurd to imagine an inner-city black guy as a [Blank]?"
The poor black guy running the corporation. The smart-ass black guy trash-talking the police captain. The black guy from the ghetto getting some major damsel-in-distress ass in King Arthur's Court.
When is this shit gonna stop?
Are audiences ever going to tire of Hollywood laughing at the stereotype of the poor, underachieving black minority who Hollywood believes can never amount to anything in reality, so therefore looks completely fucking ridiculous when he's put in any kind of position of power?
Here's just a few examples from recent years:
- Black Knight stars Martin Lawrence as Jamal, a black guy who "breaks the rules" by being his usual black self while the stuffy, white Sir Lancelot-types walk around with proverbial swords up their asses.
- Down to Earth has Chris Rock as a reincarnated rich, white guy. This is basically Trading Places with the Eddie Murphy character as a corpse. Or like Heaven Can Wait, if Warren Beatty was born on 125th Street.
- Bad Company also stars Chris Rock, this time as the street-talking black guy who can't help but "keep it real" as he and the white boys from the CIA fight crime. Rock applies those wacky, unconventional "everyday black guy tactics" to situations when we anal-retentive white guys would be overly concerned with our appearance. As far as I'm concerned, there's really nothing as funny as seeing a black guy "stir shit up" at the CIA.
I bet these movies appeal as much to the KKK as they do to black audiences. It's sad that so many people can't imagine a black person performing any kind of noble activity without an assumption of irony.
It's time to stop treating black people in American society as a repressed underclass. With all the examples proving this myth wrong, the neurotic fantasies that come out of Hollywood come across as embarrassing propaganda. The difference being, of course, that propaganda seeks to change attitudes. The Hollywood garbage relies on existing prejudices.
