Posted by Min. Paul Scott The Art of Pimpin' Pickaninnies Min. Paul Scott "Cuz, if you don't resist, I mean consciously, you'll fool your subconsciousness into accepting it" -Arrested Development There was a time when Shaquana Tomeka Brown would never have tolerated disrespect from anyone. Mama raised her to be too Black, too strong for that. She was known to give beat downs to her white classmates when they ridiculed her thick lips and kinky hair or when one of them tried to grab a quick feel when she walked by . But that was before she got on that midnight train from Georgia headed to Holly'hood. She was searching for fame and fortune but wound up getting turned out by Sweet Daddy Big Money Grip. At first, she resisted the daily mental and physical abuse but one day she just stopped fighting it and became the whore that white America always told her she was..... Although the movie Hustle and Flow has received great reviews, there is an important question that must be raised. Has the self respect of Black folks sunk so low that we will embrace a movie about a 30 something year old pimp becoming a rapper like it is the Second Coming? Now before anyone asks, no, I haven't seen the movie and do not plan on seeing it. I'm not even going to get the $5 bootleg from Tyrone, the local street corner movie executive. I just can't see the aesthetic value of a flick about a pimp who has a change of heart, becomes a rapper and pens the deep philosophical lines "Whup that trick! Whup that trick!" Now I know that some of ya'll are going to come with that worn out, played out sermon about how we should support Black movies because if we do...it will give thousands of Black people jobs/end hunger in Africa/keep Lil Kim out of jail..etc, etc and so forth. But the irony is, although the movie is being promoted as a "John Singleton Blackbuster," the film was actually written and directed by a white dude, Chris Brewer. (Read the fine print if you don't believe me.) So why would a white dude have an interest in the gospel of the ghetto ? There has always been a fascination by white America with Black sexuality from the white folks that used to cut off Black men's genitals and sell them for souvenirs to the white business men who drive around tha hood looking for a piece of brown sugar. But today they legitimize their erotic fantasies by having mental orgasms in the comfort of movie theaters as they live vicariously through the Black Mandingo on the screen subduing his latest conquest. While it is assumed that "Black" movies are made for Black audiences, what the industry really wants is that almighty crossover dollar. To them, the Black dollar is a cheap $5 crackhead trick, while the white dollar is a $500 dollar a night, high class hooker. They see the Black community as a chance to make an easy buck; a bunch of feeble-minded pickaninnees who will stand in line for hours to see a black and white movie shot with a cheap camcorder as long as it has a crunk soundtrack. They also know that if they want to get a bunch of Black folks to load up the church van after Sunday service, all they have to do is to put one "Thank ya Jesus!!!!" line in the movie and half a verse from an ole negro spiritual. That's all it takes to get Black folks jumpin for joy and testifyin' at a movie premiere. (Remember that old Sista that knocked your popcorn over when she started shoutin' during Diary of a Mad Black Woman?) So they know how to get the black dollar but their question is will it play in Peoria? After the first wave of Black folks bumrushes opening weekend, will middle aged liberal white folks be walking around a month later bragging to their Black friends that after watching Hustle and Flow they now have a unique understanding of the Black experience? And how they hadn't gotten such a warm fuzzy feeling from a movie since the first time they saw Roots? The Holly'hood executives are on a quest to make "Ho" a household word in suburban "hoods" across America. Although the Pimp image has been marketed to Lil Saquan Johnson for years, the marketing miracle will be when Lil Bobby Rutabaga is walking around the house with a greasy perm and a Big Gulp sized Pimp Cup singing "Pimpin' aint easy...anything goes when it comes to ho's" while smackin little Suzie on the booty. We must not allow the industry' s propaganda machine, made up of million dollar hype men, professional pimp apologists and embedded journalists bamboozle us into confusing the issue. The issue is not the cinematic quality of the film nor whether the star of the film lives happily -ever -after when after seeing the error of his pimp slappin' ways, he becomes the award winning author of children's bedtime stories like "The Joys and Pains of Being a Pimp." The issue is how long are we going to let the worst parts of Black behavior be paraded before the world like a ghetto freak show. What happened to Black folks who used to speak out against negative images. Somewhere along the line Black folks just stopped caring and figured it was better to go along to get along. It's time for us to start giving a darn again ! If we let this film go without protest we will be cursed with a whole year of sequels and copy cat movies about the reluctant pimp such as "I Know Why the Caged Pimp Sings" while our Black filmmakers with positive messages struggle to eat. There is a lot we can learn from Hip Hop, as a rapper will check another Brotha for even the slightest diss on a CD. Yet, we let Holly'hood diss an entire race without even one raised Black Fist of protest. Unlike other ethnic groups, we are too slow to react to disrespect. We are the only race or ethnic group in the universe that has to have a tank parked in our living room before we admit that we are under attack! We have to once again protect our most valuable resources: our pride and our self-respect. We can never let those things be sold to the highest bidder. In the immortal words of the great funk philosopher George Clinton "Mind your wants cause there's someone who wants your mind." Min. Paul Scott represents the Messianic Afrikan Nation in Durham NC. He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 email: minpaulscott@yahoo.com website: http://members.blackplanet.com/THE-MYD
on 7/15/2005, 9:50 pm
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