"Hellurrrr and Good Morting!"Recently I heard that the PERMANENTLY pissed Spike Lee 'called Tyler down to the carpet' for 'settin' the race back' with his modern-day minstrel shows, wow......honestly, we should have seen this one coming.
It was only a matter of time before Spike had something to say..and LOUDLY as usual. Although it should be pointed out that Spike had his own potentially racially damaging inventions; "Mars Blackmon" and "Mookie", that back-in-the-day some found offensive,particularly noted poet Amiri Baraka....so there you go,can't please 'em all. Now, I personally am a HUGE admirer of Tyler Perry and yet, I had a problem with Madea and 'nem at one time myself.
As hilarious and soul-stirring as I found Tyler Perry's tailor-made brand of entertainment, I also thought it dumbed down for the low-brow.I took one look at the coming attractions for his sitcoms ;"House Of Payne"and "Meet The Browns".and my HBCU educated eyes took issue with what I saw as buffoonery and coonery; a definite 'no-no' in the black community akin to passing for White, mistreating your momma, selling out to the man and other race-related sins.
So what changed my mind?
I tuned into a marathon of "House Of Payne" to see what all the talk was about and I liked it! Now, I didn't LOVE it, but I finally got what all the hype was about. They were a realistic, upper-working class family dealing with many of the REAL issues Black families are dealing with. The Paynes aren't the Cosbys, but who is ? They are also not the Evans family from "Good Times" either, living with extreme poverty and somehow being happy about it...I mean what's really good about those times anyway...I'm sayin'. Perry is not on a solo mission to raise up the race (a cringe-worthy notion anyway, Black folks aren't a crowbar) He's here to entertain and share the wealth ( much like Spike Lee and Oprah, Tyler employs a LOT of Blacks)
Part of the genius behind Mister Madea is his ability to tap into ALL the aspects of what it is to be Black in America and make it funny, tragic, uplifting and oh yes, embarrassing .....Just like real life.
My two cents worth......
