An Open Letter to Tyler Perry on NPR

[HopeOverFear]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112760404

Dear Mr. Perry,

I appreciate your commitment to giving black folks jobs in front of and behind the camera. Your films are known for their humor, and they also have positive messages about self-worth, love and respect. For all of that, I thank you.
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However, my feelings about your work are conflicted. The images of black people we see in your movies and two TV shows, Meet The Browns and House Of Payne, are not always fair. Now, you are the only person who seems to be able to get black shows on TV. But both your shows are marked by old stereotypes of buffoonish, emasculated black men and crass, sassy black women. I'd like to support your work, I really would — because I'd like to see people who look like me on TV. But I can't let advertisers and networks think that these stereotypes are acceptable.

Your most famous character, Medea, is a trash-talking, pistol-waving grandmother played by none other than you. Through her, the country has laughed at one of the most important members of the black community: Mother Dear, the beloved matriarch. I just can't quite get with seeing Mother Dear played by a 6-foot-3 man with prosthetic breasts flopping in the wind. Our mothers and grandmothers deserve much more than that. Heck, our fathers and grandfathers deserve more.

Mr. Perry, you have told the Hollywood "old guard" to kiss your backside, and I appreciate that, brother. But many black folks have expressed some of the very same attitudes about your work that white critics have.

Now, white filmmakers get chance after chance in Hollywood to try new things, no matter how many times they fail. We, however, have been fed the same images of ourselves over and over and over because they sell. But these images sell because there is nothing else.

Mr. Perry, you are in a position now where, if you were willing, you could completely revolutionize the world of black film. You could singlehandedly develop the next crop of Tyler Perrys, Spike Lees and Julie Dashes if you want to.

You have built an empire on a foundation of love and Christianity, Mr. Perry, but that is also mired with the worst black pathologies and stereotypes. I beg of you, stop dismissing the critics as haters and realize that black people need new stories and new storytellers.

We don't need Medea anymore. I know you have more, because we are more and you are more. It's obvious that your fans will be loyal to you and support you no matter what. So do right by your people. I think you love us enough to do just that.

[firedupdem]

1. I've always felt somewhat conflicted with his work too. You want

to support him but some of this mess is too much. Every time a clip of one of his shows comes on, with the man dressed in too tight miss matched clothing dancing around I cringe! WTF? Can he not do better than that? I have never watched the show and don't want to. It may be funny as hell but that man jumping around dressed like that is ridiculous. uugh

[Fire1]

2. I'm sorry but Madea is my alter ego! LOL!! n/t

[AspenRose]

3. Perhaps he feels he wouldn't get the attention he's gotten so far if he altered

his characters. He knows they're based on stereotypes that everyone, black and white, are familiar with. He could pull a "Cosby Show" but how many white Hollywood producers, et.al. would give him the time of day? Or he could pull a "Spike Lee" and be branded as the "angry, controversial Black man in Hollywood."

I don't know, sometimes you just can't win. Madea is funny but wears thin after a while. I get sick of the stereotypes, myself.

[goclark]

4. I've heard his latest movie is doing extremely well

I admire him for trying to get his work in front of the public.

Wish that he was able to do some quality work for a major network.

Television is more segregated now than it was during the Jeffersons and Cosby.

At least then they were able to recognize the worth of African American material made for TV.

Now,I can't think of any shows on MSM -- only BET, TV1 etc.
Tyler has the top rated show and he has a good heart.
His work gives a message of FAMILY and support for Blacks IMO.

Yes Medea is "stereotype" but she represents the importance of family in the Black Community.

Until MSM steps up to the plate, that's all we have other than OPRAH. :shrug:

[SemperEadem]

5. I think a lot of his message can get through without it

being a freakin' day at church.

Not all black people are interested in hearing sermons in their movies. If I want a sermon, I'll find a church. Plenty of black people who know right from wrong who don't attend church. Plenty of black folks who attend church who are strung out in the streets, doing every flavor of wrong; plenty of black folks who don't attend church who are upright, honest and trustworthy. His movies would have us believe that there is only one mold and all of us are poured into and out of it.

I really wish his movies didn't pigeon hole the black experience into "only this certain kind of black person exists".