Wednesday, August 10, 2011
“And the Winner is … ”
My 18 year old son somehow convinced me to watch the move
“Predators” the other night. Although I found this science fiction movie to be
action packed with some decent special effects, for my taste, there was way too
much testosterone gone bad! In any
event, as Joseph and I continued to watch the story unfold, my son said to me
“I bet you anything Mom that the African American dude gets killed first” “No Way” I replied. I was astounded by this
assumption because I think that Mahershalalhashbaz Ali as Mombasa, is not only
awesome for the part, but he is damn good lookin’ to boot! Well I was right, it
was an American Mexican who was killed first, Dan Trejo... so there!
Whoops, not more than a few minutes latter BAM,
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali was skewed like a shish-kabob!
So here I thought I was the only one who found out about this hidden little movie industry
secret. As soon as I went to work I tracked down an African American
friend/mentor, (I’ll call her MW) whom I admire. I anxiously told her of my
new found revelation...well, Joseph's revelation! "New…hmmm, I don’t
think so" as she chuckled. She told me that the Black actors who are
not box office wonders, usually get killed first or soon there after. Well thanks MW, there goes my new found
theory! But in all seriousness, I am glad that I learned just one more fact
that validates how racism is so embedded in our societal culture. It has
become second nature in refuting the possibility that this level of exclusion still occurs, and
is a constant reminder of how much more work we need to actually do!!
If you are a Black actor but you are not a big headliner
like Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Laurence Fishburne, Morgan Freeman, and
Samuel L. Jackson to name a few, there are three elementary questions one
should asked themselves before watching a movie, during and up until the movie
credits.
1. Does the Black actor die first?
2. If not, how soon does he/she die?
3. Can a Black person ever make it to the credits?
