by Glenn Burkins, QcityMetro.com
While in Charlotte, NC for the CIAA tournament, actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner said Blacks in Hollywood have an obligation to avoid roles that cast African Americans as unflattering stereotypes.
Warner said he often rejects roles that he feels would be demeaning. And while treading lightly, he also said he is no fan of actor/producer Tyler Perry, who has made a fortune playing the irascible Madea.
Warner, who got his first big break playing the role of Theo in the long-running hit “The Cosby Show,” made his remarks Saturday during a stop at Johnson C. Smith University, where he met with a small group of drama students.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4RrrSdG1Os
“The issues when it comes to black product is, any black film or television carries the unfair burden of representing all black people,” he said. “Mainstream shows don’t have that burden.”
Negative black stereotypes, he said, can be damaging to the psyche, especially for black youth.
Responding to critics who said “The Cosby Show” did not paint a true picture of African Americans, Warner acknowledged some validity to those claims but said no show or movie can capture the full range of black America.
“During the height of ‘Cosby,’” he said, “I was getting tens of thousands of letters from people who were saying, ‘Thank you for the show, because we are the Huxtables. My dad is a doctor, my mom is a lawyer,’ or vice versa.”
Warner told the students that finding work in Hollywood can be daunting, even for experienced actors.
“There’s a lot of work that I don’t get,” he said. “Last pilot season, I’ve gone out for 11 pilots. I’ve screen tested three or four times, and I’m always in the top three… I tell young actors all the time, you have to have a tough skin in this industry. Ninety percent of this business is rejection.”
He currently is starring opposite Sherri Shepherd in the Lifetime Network comedy series “Sherri.”
Between work, Warner said he keeps himself busy with a budding music career. He plays bass in a jazz/funk/spoken word band called Miles Long.
While the information discussed by Malcolm-Jamal Warner does represent some validity, we have to take this a step further to understand why this representation occurs. Warner talks about the “unfair burden of representing all black people” within black cinema which can certainly be seen but the issue to really address is where did this all come from? Why do we entertain it? There is a form of exploitation of blackness that occurs and has been occurring for decades. This type of representation makes money and the crowds come in by the hundreds of thousands to millions. But is it just about money? “During several interviews to promote their first feature film, Menace II Society, Albert and Allen Hughes often expressed utter distain toward he claim that their film was simply a replay of 1970s blaxploitation. In retrospect, the blaxploitation era has become notorious for its greatly exaggerated and typically burlesque configurations of blackness (Watkins, pg 5).” What is blaxploitation? I believe it is exactly what Warner is referring to. Films that Tyler Perry created are perfect examples of this overstated misrepresentation. Blaxploitation received its title during the early to mid 1970s due to the fact that there were several films which tried to appeal to new changes that had occurred and a shift in black influence. With all that being considered, what is worth noting is the biggest supporters of these types of films are black people. If this is as disturbing and misleading as it appears to be, why is it supported by the very people it is representing? Back to Tyler Perry films, most of the audience is black and embraces the films. The issue continues with the black movie producers who create these films. “In truth, many black filmmakers promote their films by remarking that when they are behind the cameras, viewers receive a more authentic portrayal of black life. This view subscribes to the notion that African American-based representations of black life are ‘realistic’ rather than ideological. This assertion, however, is misleading to the extent that it obscures the constructedness of black film production –(Watkins, pg 33) .” While this may not be the case in every situation, we begin to see that the problem with misrepresentation does not have a simple solution. Everyone in the entertainment industry, whether they are black, white or otherwise are doing what it takes to entertain. Often times, that can translate into over exaggerated productions.
Watkins, S. Craig. Producing Ghetto Pictures and The Ghettocentric Imagination. Representing : Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema. University of Chicago Press. 1998