Newspaper Page Text
Make me smile, make me cry, make me feel
By JohnJason L. Cecil
African Americans occupy varied niches
in the world of entertainment. We have
played all of the “step-and-fetch-it” roles,
and the servant roles we possibly could,
even in scenarios that just did not seem
possible! I mean, really, Tarzan could talk
to apes but he could not speak to one Afri
can for all of those years? But yet our
ancestors were supposed to call him the
king of the Jungle? You have got to be
kidding. Nevertheless, progression has
been attained and we must admit that our
African-American thespians have become
personas that have exuded power, pres
tige, charisma, and strength. Characters
now have come a long way in substance
from African-Americans’ first acting en
deavors.
Over the years in the acting industry, we
have seen varying degrees of strength in
the roles that African-Americans have been
posited. Shaft was a strong brother.
Equally as strong or stronger was Florida
Evans (played by Spelman graduate Esther
Rolle). Billy Dee Williams was the quint
essential “sensitive” lover in “Lady Sings
the Blues,” and he is still the mack with a
can of “Colt 45” in his hand. I do believe
that Levar Burton was much stronger as
Kunta Kinte than he is as Jordy LaForge,
but that is just my opinion. The list goes on
and on. We have Blair Underwood with
“L.A. Law,” Sidney Poitier in “Raisin in
the Sun,” and my personal favorite, the guy
in the “Kit Kat Bar” commercial who dances
with the accordion. Hey, even though he is
not African-American, it takes a certain
measure of fortitude to dance in cowboy
boots with the pants legs tucked in with an
accordion. Especially singing about a
damned candy bar!
. . . the one thing that has
sustained us for as long
as we have been in this
land besides an undying
faith in God. . . is the
power of laughter.
Most recently, a new slew of African-
American screen professionals have made
sure that the relegation of parts of servitude
and decrepitness does not fall into their
script books, by acting in roles that demand
and command respect. We have the lovely
and talented Lynn Whitfield who conveyed
the story of Josephine Baker with the deter
mination and dignity of a seasoned veteran,
along with a phenomenon named Denzel
Washington who has played everything
from a miscegenating lover boy in “Missis
sippi Masala” to what will probably be the
most electrifying role of his career as El
Hajj Malik El -Shabazz in Spike Lee’s
“X.” Charles Dutton made us laugh and
think as “Roc,” and I was pleasantly sur
prised with the acting successes of the sis
ters of “Living Single.” Queen Latifah, Kim
Fields, Kim Coles, and Erika Alexander
have great chemistry and through the show,
they tackle social and personal issues with
a high degree of tastefully tasteless com
edy. Also, with the contribution of direc
tors like John Singleton, Bill Duke, Spike
Lee, and the Hudlin Brothers, we get the
black experience from diverse and intrigu
ing perspectives.
We have to include the one thing that has
sustained us for as long as we have been in
this land besides an undying faith in God,
and that is, the power of laughter. After
400 years of oppression, we have to laugh
at something or we will all end up pulling
Jefferey Dahmers. This ability we have of
making light of even the darkest situations,
has been exploited by others and ourselves
both negatively and positively. We must
reminisce on the Sambo dolls with the big
lips, the black face and the bugged eyes, not
to mention the white actors in blackface
with the lips outlined in white. Then we go
to the likes of Skillet and Leroy, Wanda
(who played Aunt Esther in “Sanford and
Son”), and Redd Foxx , whose mode of
self-deprecating, raunchy humor paved the
way for the likes of Richard Pryor, Paul
Mooney, and Eddie Murphy. Comedians
like them and the new wave of comedians
like Martin Lawrence, Chris Tucker, Joe
Torrey, and Adele Givens give us the power
to laugh at our problems and see that some
people are more f up than we are!
As it stands, inroads have been made in
the entertainment industry as far as how
our people are portrayed, and now we play
a wide array of roles from the thug to the
doctor. Some say it is positive, while oth
ers contend that we have not made big
progress at all. Sometimes our acting and
performing elite butt heads over the valid
ity of a certain excursion. A perfect ex
ample is Bill Cosby’s opinion of Russell
Simmons’ “Def Comedy Jam” which is ba
sically that the comedians on the show are
“cooning.” Of course, that is a matter of
opinion. Mine is that we have made head
way, and whether or not we need anymore
headway is up to the producers, actors, and
constituents. Either way, I’m enjoying it.
The Death of Militancy
Leaning left
(from page 10)
tions of preferential treatment.
This ceiling is the point at which
corporations shift the emphasis
from color to competency.”
Hence, what is truly needed is a
redirection of affirmative action
programs in this country. They
must not remain consumed with
the equality of outcomes, but in
stead give full attention to the
equality of opportunity. That
would mean adopting a policy of
race neutrality, absent of white
skin preference or minority pref
erential treatment. In fact, the
commonly held notion of
meritocracy would be a great place
to start.
Far more important than
quibbles over affirmative action
or governmental dependency are
the issues of education and a re
vived black work ethic. These
two ideas lie central in the phi
losophy of the black neo-cons. As
we strive so diligently to define
ourselves as a community, we must
not lose sight of the responsibility
we all have as individuals. One of
my professors explains to me that
blacks have already initiated our
ethnogenesis or the process of re
defining what exactly it means to
be black in America. I can only
wonder if African-American cul
ture will be defined to include all
blacks or just the “authentic” ones,
(you know how it goes, those black
folk who live in all-white neigh
borhoods, who marry outside the
race, who are bisexual or homo
sexual, who represent a majority
white constituency, who prefer to
be a person as opposed to a black
- oil i> » i «•«»•> J
person, who are opposed to affir
mative action, or who happened to
have voted for Ronald Reagan are
only “biologically” black, not “au
thentically” black) My only hope
is that blacks will heed the advise
that Ralph Ellison gives us in In
visible Man. “We create the race
by creating ourselves and then to
our great astonishment we will
have created something far more
important: we will have created a
culture.”
B.C. W.A.
(From page 10)
brothers off the streets and use
them to hijack Capital Hill and the
major defense bases in the coun
try? First, we would have to over
take our own who are running our
communities — the ones in con
trol of our higher learning institu
tions and our businesses, and who
are taking away our fortunes and
feeding us scraps. For our leaders
to be so educated and out for the
good of the people as they pro
pose to be, they should know that
in order to advance, we must first
grow intellectually Aren’t our
leaders finding and making money
and developing effective programs
all over the nation to educate and
help our downtrodden, so we do
not have to beg from the govern
ment? Or is that even their goal?
Are our leaders using us to boost
themselves up financially and tear
us down just to get in good with
HIM? Do we even have real lead
ers in the communities and in our
businesses? So, I ask you --
What is the condition of the na
tion?
By Lance W. Shipman
Malcolm X. Ida B. Wells.
Fannie Lou Hamer. Bobby Seale.
Marcus Garvey. Louis Farrakhan.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Huey P.
Newton. Elaine Brown. W.E.B.
DuBois. Public Enemy. Assata
Shakur. Paul Robeson. Ask the
average student of the Black col
lege circuit who they consider to
be one of the more militant fig
ures in history and the answers
you get are sure to run the gamut.
And of course, as Black History
Month rolls along kente cloth,
black power fists, and the cultural
crop make their way from class
rooms, to BET, to fast food bever
age cups. But when March comes,
whether in 1995 or 2145, the ef
fects of our culturalism often
dwindles with the winds of win
ter. Those of us fortunate enough
to be exposed to history classes of
any substance often reduce our
leaders of yesteryear to icons and
phrases. We draw from our lim
ited bank of knowledge to win lei
surely debates or to prove our
"deepness" to those whom we wish
to impress. In our arrogance, we
even denounce past leaders for
their pacifism or their departure
from ideas which we deem mili
tant. But where is our militancy?
Ultimately, we must define what
it actually means to be militant.
When we break through the fa
cade of ethnocentric fashion and
fiery speeches which at their best
excite the emotions for an hour, it
becomes obvious that the plight of
African people worldwide has in
creased ten-fold in urgency.
Though it is critically important
to reclaim our culture through sem
blance and continuous dialogue,
these characteristics do not a mili
tant make. As the emerging gen
eration seeks cultural redemption,
we must be careful to become sub
stantive rather than symbolic and
efficient rather than emotional
when addressing the problems we
now face. For all the X hats we
once wore, what agenda have we
adopted? For all of our aggres
sive verbal attacks at the ills of
American society, for what sub
stantial gains in the lives of Black
America can we claim responsi
bility? The nature of militancy is
not only to confront societal ills
but to develop strategies towards
their erasure. Kwame Toure
painted the picture of our confu
sion in analyzing our idolization
of Dr. King. According to Toure,
since many people go to church
and feel and know the spirit of
Jesus having never read the Bible,
we also believe that hearing "I
Have a Dream" among other
speeches allows one to know Dr.
King. Yet to feel Dr. King through
his speeches and to know him for
his sometimes radical philosophies
are polar experiences. At the core
of Dr. King's social Christian doc
trine was activisim albeit in the
form of civil disobedience.
Malcolm X, before and after the
Nation of Islam, embraced an
agenda of economic independence.
W.E.B. DuBois entertained an
agenda of socio-political and eco
nomic nationalism via Pan-
Africanism. Almost all of the
aforementioned leaders adopted
some course of action. Yet as we
become more and more verbally
active, our solidarity of action is
as brittle as the pages of a Garvey
manuscript.
As Black History Month begins
to wind down, our inspections at
the struggles of our people should
point to the most salient force in
the winds of the social change—
our activism. As we emulate the
Nkrumahs, Kenyattas, Azikiwes,
Barakas, and Newtons of our past,
we must be certain to create paths
of action to mirror our orations.
In the words of Angela Davis, "In
the act of resistance the rudiments
of freedom are already present."
When we break through the facade of
ethnocentric fashion and fiery speeches
which at their best excite the emotions
for an hour, it becomes obvious that the
plight of African people worldwide has
increased ten-fold in urgency