BLACK THEMED

Ek'abo Ebi! (Welcome Family!)

Last Monday, I finally saw The Best Man Holiday.  As a big fan of The Best Man I must say that the second movie had me pulling out tissues, it was great! J Director Malcolm D. Lee of The Best Man, The Best Man Holiday and other well received movies, said the following regarding the new movie:

“. . . to call The Best Man Holiday a “race-themed” film is extremely limiting and downright ignorant and tiresome.  I think people are fed up with being categorized as separate and apart from what mainstream movies are categorized as. The notion that there’s a “black movie,” “urban movie,” or a “race-themed’ movie makes the film sound like it’s not for anyone but the people that look like the actors in the poster. It’s extremely limiting… I think it’s ignorant and it’s tiresome at this point. The movie was enjoyed by African-Americans, but it’s a movie that can be enjoyed by all races.”

Once again the term “othering” has reared its ugly head.  You remember that word, any action by which an individual or group becomes mentally classified in somebody’s mind as “not one of us”.  This movie has been placed in the category of movies for “black people” instead of being seen for what it really is.  An awesome story, about friends that share history and a connection that kept them linked through the years.  No matter what the race, we all share a common bond.  We are of the human race and as humans we are capable of experiencing the same, if not similar occurrences, events, or encounters throughout our lives.  We are born, we live our lives and then god calls us home.

Can we seriously sit here and say that because Malcolm lives in Harlem, New York and Alexei lives in Russia that they can’t break up with their girlfriends for the same reason? Can we actually say that Li Na in China and Afua in West Africa would never understand what it’s like to have a cheating boyfriend because they live in different parts of the world? Give me a break!

Unfortunately, if you’ve grown up with certain believes, it’s hard to break them.  “A place for everything and everything in its place.”  Categorizing is a habit. It’s sort of like all the drama that occurred with Ms. Deen early this year.  Many people were extremely offended by what she said, but I do believe that part of her attitude towards race is based on how she grew up.  If this was all you knew, and no one ever took the time to correct you, then you have no way of knowing that what you say may be offensive to others.  In her mind, race was placed in its own category.

There is a wall that will always separate us.  Within that wall you will always find issues with religion, culture, history, and so forth.  On top of this wall is race.  We look over it, we look past it, and we even look through it.  And yet people fail to realize that it’s one of the main reasons why we find it so hard to connect.   Why we sometimes find it difficult to relate to one another.

Drama, angst, betrayal, sex, and hilarity were prevalent in both Best Man movies. Each of us can think back to at least one time in our lives where we’ve experienced (or one of our friends has undergone) something similar to what happened in those movies.  Commonality is shared between us all whether we want to admit it or not. Food for thought fam!

Mari e laipe!

See you soon!

  

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Thanks for visiting ‘Amachi is Hope.’ If you were inspired or felt a connection with today’s blog (or any of my previous entries) please leave a comment. J