“Hollywood goes too far!” In a famous skit on The Dave Chapelle Show, comedian/writer, Paul Mooney, took on Hollywood by illustrating how absurd and unwittingly racist the industry can be. In the style of the movie review show, Siskel and Ebert, Mooney (who is black) set himself as the third wheel. . . the black movie reviewer whose job it was to set the record straight
The movie being reviewed that week was The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise. The other reviewers (who happened to be two white females) praised the scenery, beauty and passion of the movie as well as the moving story and exceptional acting.
When it was Mooney’s turn to comment, he simply shook his head. With a slow deliberate voice he said something like this: Hollywood goes too far. They do. They go too far. Tom Cruise as the last Samurai? Please…Recently we had Brad Pitt in The Mexican, Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans, What’s next? Tom Hanks as the last N-word in Hollywood?
Now that’s be funny. But what’s going on in Hollywood right now is not funny. In fact, it’s down right insidious in the most racist way.
Angelina Jolie is playing a real-life black woman in the movie, A Mighty Heart. It is the true story of slain journalist Daniel Pearl and his widow, Mariane Pearl, who is bi-racial.
What? Is there a shortage of black actresses? What? Halle Berry and Alicia Keys are too busy to play the role of a competent black wife of a Jewish reporter? Before you think that I am over reacting, there is a lot of this “race-switching” going on in Hollywood right now and Jesse and Al are nowhere to be found.
In the movie World Trade Center starring Nicolas Cage, the hero who pulled Cage’s character out a pile of rubble in the movie was white. In reality, the man was Jason Thomas, a black ex-marine and proud of his accomplishments. Why the race switch? Denzel wasn’t available?
A Mighty Heart and World Trade Center depict two positive stories of Americans of African descent that have been whitewashed by Hollywood.
But the problem is worldwide.
Remember Joran van der Sloot? The guy who was accused of killing Natalee Holloway in Aruba? In a movie that aired in the Netherlands, a black actor played his part even though Joran van der Sloot is white and is still a murder suspect.
What is going on and why aren’t people talking about this?
Is there a media assault on the image of black women in general and a specific attack on the positive images of Americans of African descent in the media today?
(A blogger by the name of Pearl Jr.contacted me on this issue. I'm trying to find a way to make her piece available to you.)
Join me from noon to 2:00 pm today on News Radio 620 WTMJ as we illuminate this topic.
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