For Coloured girls who have attempted suicide when the rainbow is enough is a choreopoem written by Ntozake Shange some 30 years ago. It has since been turned into a film directed by Tyler Perry. Some love it and most hate it. However it has been the most talked about film in the last month, and has called to mind many issues. The men hate it, the women love it and the words racist and racism have been bandied about quite a bit. Since when is it not within your right as a person with any cognitive ability to disagree with something? All of a sudden it is not ok for anyone to question Tyler Perrys work because we are being racist and empowering colonialism. Excuse me how am I embracing colonialism when he has put a bunch of stereotypes in a bag and sold it as the finest thing ever made? Yes the movie itself does bash men alot, in response to this I want to know where are the books about the good men, the facebook statuses, the phonecalls to your girlfriends rehashing the lovely dinner he made or the clothes he washed and put on the line? The men that are part of our families, our friends, the ones that we call to fix the broken things around the house and to cut the grass. Even the ex boyfriend who was a complete ass towards the end of your relationship at some point along the way he must have done something right, even it it was just the one time he made a cup of tea and a sandwich he still deserves a thank you. Why because not only did you benefit from that cup of tea, you learned from that experience which traits and habits you do not want in a man. For that some thanks should be involved.
This whole thing has highlighted to me that the black experience so caught up in being negative, oppression, rape, ghetto, downtrodden, broken, unfixable and undeserving. Is this all we can get, is this all we have, is this all we will ever be? 300 years after slavery? If this is how we see ourselves we cannot be upset with people our own black brothers and sisters who use skin lightening creams and lotions to bleach their skin to get lighter. Those people see what I see and its is all the negativity associated with blackness, they internalise this and they don't want to be black. Can I blame them no I cannot I have always pursued education as a means to making a better life for myself and in turn my family and children. If those people see being lighter as a means to creating a better life for themselves whether it is getting a job,moving to a new area, being considered for a promotion all I can say to my brothers and sisters use that 50+ spf along with the bleaching cream.
bless
This whole thing has highlighted to me that the black experience so caught up in being negative, oppression, rape, ghetto, downtrodden, broken, unfixable and undeserving. Is this all we can get, is this all we have, is this all we will ever be? 300 years after slavery? If this is how we see ourselves we cannot be upset with people our own black brothers and sisters who use skin lightening creams and lotions to bleach their skin to get lighter. Those people see what I see and its is all the negativity associated with blackness, they internalise this and they don't want to be black. Can I blame them no I cannot I have always pursued education as a means to making a better life for myself and in turn my family and children. If those people see being lighter as a means to creating a better life for themselves whether it is getting a job,moving to a new area, being considered for a promotion all I can say to my brothers and sisters use that 50+ spf along with the bleaching cream.
bless
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