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Hustlin' and Ho'in for Holly'hood: The Art of Pimpin' Pickaninnies Min. Paul Scott
"Cuz, if you don't resist, I mean consciously,
you'll fool your sub consciousness 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'
ain't 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."
Minister Paul Scott represents
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