Black men have mostly proven themselves to not be the best at portraying black
female issues well on film. To me, it seems like Tyler is using this to draw on the black female audience that is his main demographic. I’m not sure if Tyler actually has real respect and passion for this work of literature. With Mr. Perry’s track record being as it is; I probably won’t see this in theaters when it is released. I won’t even comment on Beyonce and her “acting” SMH.

i’m just gonna hafta flat out disagree with you on Tyler. “Why Did I Get Married” was great and i liked “Daddy’s Little Girls” too.

now, i’m no big “let’s all go to the church and moan” fan as far as Perry is concerned, but i take exception with Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” because in the song “God is Love”, Marvin keeps implying that God is a MAN! and “What’s Going On” is the greatest artist rendering in any form of all time!

also, see what typing what passion does to a writer? look at you there in paragraph 5. i’m sure you meant to write “not” instead of “no”.

hostility is contagious!

let’s go to the gym!

You disagree that Tyler Perry’s work is not good, but how can you disagree with my argument that he’s a bad fit for For Colored Girls if you’re not familiar with the play? This is what I don’t get.

I kept in the racial self-loathing, as a fan you know how I do lol. Anyway I’ll answer your questions quickly and put it to bed:

wonder where all this hostility was when Spielberg made “The Color Purple”?

- People WERE hostile about it, and purists insist that the movie was horrible compared to the original book. Truth be told, a lot of the race, class, and sexual subtext of the book was not conveyed in the movie at all. I didnt complain at the time because I was only six years old.

why isn’t Perry given credit for being a good filmmaker (which he is)?
-We can argue this all day, but he simply is no a good filmmaker. Unless good = dollar generating that is. His characters are flat, the humor is dry, the acting is weak, the storylines are trite – come on, I went over this in the above piece. If you feel otherwise, we can agree to disagree but don’t bother trying to convince me he has artistic talent. Even he knows he is doing what sells and has openly admitted as much.

who ELSE was gonna make this movie?
- As I said before theres a long list of directors who would be great. Nzinga Stewart was originally going to do it but Perry used his pull to get her bumped off of the project after she partnered up with Lionsgate, the production company that also houses his studio. The fact that youre asking that questions demonstrates a big part of the Perry problem – why do we, and then Hollywood, act like there are no other black filmmakers out there?

why isn’t Perry given credit for being a good filmmaker (which he is)?

who ELSE was gonna make this movie?

as for the self plug, “Love 40, baby…”

now which Black flick is THAT from?

also, glad you had enough integrity to leave in the racial self-loathing. i think it adds a certain elan to all MY art and i wouldn’t have appreciated it if you, Thembi, (sees! i can spells!) took it upon yourself to manipulate my art!

I’m responding to your comments because you both, in different ways, made the same set of mistakes in responding to this article. Shola, thanks so much for the praise, and I *do* in fact intend to come to the west coast soon. I really do appreciate you taking the time to consider the thinking behind this piece. RK, I’m not sure where you get off leaving a comment talking about “get it together Tembi(sp?)” when you actually write for a black news site and I’m sure you can articulate yourself better than that. I’d usually delete racial rhetoric but I’d like to make a point.

What you have in common, aside from dropping links to your own work (a strategy that I’m not particularly feeling but I’ll let slide for today since I am commenting on them) is that neither of you said word one about For Colored Girls. THAT is what this piece is about. I could write on and on about how Tyler Perrys work is bad for black folks, how we shouldn’t watch it, how he should be banned and strung up on a pole and beaten with a bag of nickels. But I didn’t. This piece is about the fact that Perry’s ART lacks depth and is poorly executed, and he is no match for the high art that is Shange’s piece. At his best, Perrys work is entertaining but it’s not artistic and everyone, including Perry, knows that. There is an issue of incompatibility here; I’d feel the same way if the Wayans Brothers or Farrelly Brothers were about to direct the piece and put John Witherspoon and Jim Carrey in it. I’d also be mad about seeing a great stoic actor like Morgan Freeman as the new cast member on Saturday Night Live. Some things just don’t fit, and deciding its about who is smart or who is middle class doesn’t change that fact. Can you tell me how Perry is a FIT for this project? Because unless you can, you’re just debating the merits of Perry’s existence, which I simply have no desire to do.

So to you both, your defenses of Perry in general, while I agree with some parts but mostly disagree, are totally irrelevant. I don’t particularly present myself as part of the black intelligentsia, but when it comes down to it, I read For Colored Girls as a teenager. It’s high art but accessible to someone who hasn’t even finished high school! People may like TP and Beyonce movies, and they may make money, but when it comes down to it I’ll answer you both: no, Id rather not have the FCG movie made at all if the movie that is made turns out to be an insulting piece of garbage.

i hate Blacks (except the ones in the family and even THEY get the side eye!)

here’s some of my defenses of Tyler AND Beyonce.

read and weep! (or don’t read, but still weep!)

http://newsone.com/entertainment/opinion-smart-black-people-vs-tyler-perry/

http://newsone.com/entertainment/opinion-10-biggest-black-snubs-at-the-oscars/