I always hate when people refer to our people as slaves. Our ancestors were PEOPLE. Before the Harriet Tubman film Harriet came out, someone on Facebook referred to it as a “slave movie” and I was taken aback and responded “how unfortunate for you that you view Harriet Tubman as a slave and not a freedom fighter.”
Yes I get that Hollywood favors a particular portrayal of us during that horrific era. But we can’t let these people determine how we see the people who are part of our DNA. Trust me if you really study our people, you will find so much to be proud of. I take immense pride in the fact that Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and so many others were not satisfied to just have their own freedom; they didn’t go around saying ‘well I’m free; I wish you luck.’ Their attitude was ‘if we aren’t all free, I cannot rest.’
How I wish we still worked like that. Because it was the lectures, the dipping back in and taking people to freedom, hiding folks who escaped on their own, the willingness to pick up arms and fight, and more that contributed to our ancestors finally obtaining legal freedom.
And on those drug stories, I do get it but please remember some of us come from the hood. You may not, but I do. So when those stories are told and presented well, some of us also feel seen, not exploited.
Now I do object to the many Black people in film and TV who do not come from a “hood” background but want to be “gangster” instead of showing their truth or another truth because I want to see your life and those lives too. How are we going to see more pictures of us when people don’t think their reality won’t sell or believe that that is not the “Black” story?
My biggest gripe, however, is the chocolate-dipped stories where we take other people’s narratives and just change the names, leaving it devoid of our experiences, our souls.
As for me, if there is one period of us I want to see more of, it’s Reconstruction. I want filmmakers to show how Black people built towns, populated schools, just took the world by storm. How we rose up like we always knew we could and would.
We need to use film to show all aspects of us and that includes reclaiming Hollywood’s criminal portrayal of our PEOPLE as subservient and stupid to justify enslaving them. Whatever films we make, we need to ensure that our characters’ humanity shines through regardless of what era we place them in.
I was over on LinkedIn when I encountered a post that said “We are tired of slave movies ….. And drug shows.” And it triggered me. {From my Substack: https://rondaracha.substack.com/p/a-word-on-slave-and-drug-stories