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Read other letters about this article
I saw "Diary", and I plan on seeing "Family Reunion" too.
The bottomline is: if Hollywood can continue to turn out in mass rotten-to-the-core "general market" (i.e. "white") movies, then why can Blacks and other ethnic groups make mediocre to just "so-damn-bad-they're-art" movies? As long as they make money, since that's all Hollywood (and the rest of America) is interested in.
"Diary" was certainly not the best movie I've ever seen, but it was funny and provided the escapism I was looking for. It also provied me with the rare chance to sit in the same theater with my fundamentalist Christian girfriends (and also a Jewish girlfriend)who aren't open to seeing the more "provacative" movies out there.
Tyler Perry hit a goldmine. And whether anybody wants to publicly admit it (so I will): Amos 'n Andy were funny as hell! Racist, but comic genius. For black people to sit around and denigrate that and other chitlin-circuit entertainment is hypocritical and embracing a cultural denial that borders on ethnic mental illness. Every black comic working today stole their act straight off the chitlin circuit. Black people-we laugh at ourselves and our current and past situations for emotional relief, plain and simple.
As for Mr. Perry's sexual orientation-well if you ain't trying to screw or marry him, who cares? What's the relevance? "What would the black church think?" Oh, I dn't know, the same thing they think about all of the closet gay choir directors and those two ladies that have lived together and come to service now for the last thirty years. The Black Church (just like the "white" church and synagogues) continue to stick their head in the sand over the issue of any sexuality, hetero or homo. If you're looking for clarity and compassion on sex, stay out of the Church, Synagogue and Mosque.
There was a time when there was nothin' but so-called chitlin-circuit entertainment for black people. The road is wide and long now, and if you just can't bear the thought of a loud black man in drag, then exercise your options.
Mr. Perry has a built-in audience. No one has the right to deny them what makes them laugh or cry.
And one last thought to my fellow "negros": isn't it time that we got over the whole "this is so embarassing in front of the white folk! What will they think of us" angst that we've carried around since the early days of integration? WE OVERCAME! We can put out shit and roses with the rest of them. Pick on something else, something valid.
