Sunday, December 19, 2010

I'm so happy-it's about time!

I know...that title is probably dramatic but I have to say that for the first time in a very long time I am truly happy with where I am in my life! I have great friends around me, yeah, I had to get rid of a few and distance myself from a few as well, but I truly believe that all of those former first row players had to be traded out for my new #1 player-my man! I had been single for almost 4 years before I came across him and after a tug-of-war of sorts, I finally gave in and am sooo happy that I did-he has been an awesome addition to my life and I can't imagine it without him!

I have also settled in nicely with school and business responsibilities; I have finally, I believe, found the balance that I need to accomplish both, grades are great and we are starting to come into our own business-wise, and I am very ready to start up my other business venture as well, so stay tuned!

I am very optimistic about the coming year now that I have finally settled in and things are more organized. Things are on the up and up and I couldn't be happier!!!

Monday, November 8, 2010

For Colored Folk Who Have To Find Something To Complain About , Even When It's True..

*sigh* I woke up this morning to find several bitter emails, facebook statuses and tweets about the new Tyler Perry film "For Colored Girls;" I'm so over it! This movie is an adaptation people...did Tyler put his spin on it? Of course he did, this is 2010 and things are different than they were in the 70's when Ntozake Shange penned the original play. Bottom line is, if people either stayed in the movie long enough (because people did leave I've been told, on several occasions) or paid close enough attention, the movie is not about demonizing black men, it discusses the lackluster behavior and self-esteem issues of women. Do the men kick boulders? Absolutely! But the theme of the movie was centered around the women-why do we, as women, tolerate abuse, to ourselves and our children? Why do we stay with chronic cheaters? Why do we invite strangers into our life and/or household? Why are we are okay with being promiscuous? These were the issues...

People are salty at Tyler for making movies strictly for "colored girls" and that's fine; at the end of the day, when it comes to movies with substance, I'm not checkin out a Tyler Perry flick, bottom line, because that's not what he does. He has expressed numerous times that he writes from experience, listening to mom and grandma and aunties banter back and forth, and that is evident in 90% of his films, with the exception of "Precious," which he didn't write, and this latest one. I'm not sure that he is capable of writing anything with serious content in it, just to be honest, and that is ok with me. We're not checkin for Oscar award-winning performances from Ice Cube-all he writes is tomfoolery, if you wanna be technical, outside of the few "family" movies he wrote, he's writing from experiences that he had or heard about, and that is ok, but we're not criticizing him...

Do all of Perry's films portray men as dogs? Not all of them, hell, Angela was the one that burned her husband in "Why Did I Get Married?" and ol girl was the one cheating on Tyler in the 2nd one, and though I didn't particularly care for the movie Idris was a good father in "Daddy's Girls." But even if all of them did so what? Reality is, some men do suck-did I hate Ealy for what he did to the kids? Yes, but I also sympathized with the character because he came back from fighting for our country and was slapped in the face when he returned when he realized that no one cared about what he did, no one wanted to give him a job, and no one provided proper health care for him-he was clearly unstable, and this is a story that we all know about, because it's true; I am not condoning his behavior, at all, but I hated Elise's character more because she allowed him to beat her and her kids and allowed the situation to escalate in the manner that it did so she sucked more than him in my opinion (I need her to pick a new role-I mean honestly, how many downtrodden, down on your luck, abused characters can she play? Geesh!).

Don't get me wrong, I love my people, but I just feel like we always have to be in an uproar about something...do white folks scream and holler every time serial killers in movies look like them? Absolutely not! Why? Because statistics show that's what they look like-flat out! Everyone knows a chick like the ones portrayed in the movie, EVERY ONE, and that is the point of the movie, these are stories that occur way too often-what are we going to do to break the cycle? That's what it's about-uplifting women, promoting self-esteem and self-love. After our private screening we talked about all of that, we didn't bash black men or blame them for our condition, or anything of that nature-we expressed our love and appreciation for the women who were there, told them how fly they were, how much they were worth, because who knows when the last time was that they heard that?

This is more of a "I hate Tyler Perry" thing in my opinion...so u think he's gay? Fine. You think he hates men? That's cool too. Spike Lee and other directors write about "the black experience" and no one complains about that, but because Tyler's experience was different he can't write about that? And I have to reiterate that this choreopoem was not written by him people, it's an adaptation that he just updated a little, and according to reports she thinks he did a great job! It was taboo in the 70s because it was a hard truth and no one wanted to address it-here we are approaching 2011 and we still don't want to address it-that's unfortunate!

We need to focus on repair, rehabilitation, and accountability people, not solely on the male's part but on the woman's as well. We need to treat each other better, as a people and as human beings-period. You never fully realize what and how your actions affect someone until it's too late, and some people never come to the realization at all. If the ladies are hurting-fix it! Don't stay paralyzed-identify and address it, seek counseling and God to repair yourself, not a dick (we're all grown-just keepin it real) or drugs or any other harmful vices that are out there-we are hurting ourselves and those that love us on a daily basis.

As a community we are raising doctors, lawyers, politicians, athletes, drug dealers, hoes, abusers, and strippers-this is a fact, no matter how bad it looks; we should spend more time trying to grow as individuals and families, mentor and love and raise our children in a more affluent manner instead of whining about a possibly-undercover-gay-man-who-is-writing-black-male-bashing-movies-for-colored-girls-because-he-secretly-wants-to-be-a-colored-girl (rolling my eyes). If everyone is sick of the same old stories that are telling the truth about our men and women get up and do something about it, until then, we will continue to see ourselves portrayed in movies that are telling the truth, again!