Lena ‘makes content for us’ but acts like she don’t like us... ranting and berating us every five seconds when I see her on Twitter. Which side you on sis? Think about all the BA stars we had in the 90s-2000s and here we have a ‘misfit’ clique of elitist resentful people gatekeeping that black creative space now. They’re all weirdos
there is definitely a hollywood black clique and its a shame that they are using their position to not support new black american actors coming up. Yes jodie is Jamaican, not too sure if she was born or raised in britain though. Since the roles was based in new orleans, lena could've gotten some one from Louisiana to act as queen and slim. From what I gather ppl are more willing to see Queen and slim than Harriet though. I saw Ari lennox IG live today and she said she is not quitting but I felt it for her. Her and summer walker are being pushed aside. They don't fit the "new black" group which is a damn shame. The older black hollywood gets why they should be more black american roles and positions than foreign blacks e.g. eddie murphy's film dolomite is my name. The entire cast is black americans bc that movie is black american movie. A foreign black would not have gotten the nuances in that film. Also a foreign black would not have been a good fit for regina king's role in watchmen who is an descendent of the tulsa massacre.
Queen and slim looks like a straight struggle movie. But people are sadly going to go see it on the strength alone it has 2 dark skin people as leads. We have gorgeous dark skin BA women right here in America, and always have. No need to go overseas.
I filmed another two minute clip on this exact thing that I let cook and didn’t upload yesterday... but I’m getting VERY TIRED of people acting like dark skinned Black American women don’t exist and we are all light skin or mixed so they ‘have’ to hire foreign black girls for dark skin representation. JUST NO!
Idk if you touched on this in another video but “Bigger Long” is an overtly, yet subconscious over sexualized and triggering name to give a black man who’s ironically the villain in a movie about chattel slavery 🤨😑. Shout out to Dr. Francis Cress Welsing, the fact that the white man kills the “Bigger Long” that hurt a black women ergo saving “us” from the black penis is beyond deep and disturbing.
Idk how the hell she though two people from The UK are going to be able to pull off that New Orleans style. The issue these people fail to realize is yes these people might be able to emote and cry on the spot, but they do not exude black Americanness.
When that Fred Hampton movie comes out I hope we all keep the same type of energy that we had for Harriet. Some of us tend to get that situational ethics thing going when gender comes into play.
Ari ‘s Tweets touched me . I agree with her , you would want the Soul Train Award as a R&B singer and song writer . Soul Train is an iconic BA culture show, which always supported talented BA’s. I truly hope she doesn’t quit music, though. Phife Dawg said in Award Tour , “ I never let a statue tell me how nice I am “. Those who get what he meant, know the vibes.
Why can’t they cast black Americans to play stories specifically about us? This shit is really starting to get under my skin and I don’t want to support the movie just because of that.
The fact that you’re right is super scary. Cool Kids don’t last long, though. Think about the people from high school: we grow out of them, get tired of them, they gain unwanted weight. Eventually, there will be a downfall because this whole cool kids club wasn’t built on sturdy ground but on fleeting fads and greed. All it takes is a few of us: you, me, your subscribers to keep creating - appropriately.
I am literally over this clique of foreign blacks being all over my movie screen, immediately you can tell the difference because most of them are lackluster actors. It’s like someone being absent mentally but physically present at their own screening. Another thing of note with a lot of the black Brit actors, they’re usually one if not two generations out of Nigeria. I in many places ran into these types of black Brits and they seem to all be on the same accord with the vitriol toward black Americans. As much as I like Peele and Coogler, I might have to pull back on supporting some of their future projects until we see more black American leads without the funny stuff or the tropes.
Didn't John Singleton have something to say about Hollywood and these "Artist" ain't really out here to create art for the people? Or something to that affect.
Did ya'll see the interview Daniel did when he said he went to Costo and the "hoods" in Cleveland to study for his character? What happened to the prestigious stage training they have? Who tf goes to Costo to learn bout black American culture?
You had me at "Steel eyes", Lena Waithe failed those women on The Chi set, and she objectively isn't a good writer. I don't understand how quickly she got given a whole show. I have my issue with Will Smith's Overbrook but Lena got her start thanks to Jada Pinket Smith, how dare she?. Tbh she's no better than Gina Rodriguez. They stay criticising black people but do not adress the systemic issue in cultural industries. High School Really Never Ends, there's just more financial stakes.
Whenever I say black lives matters and someone says well all lives matter, I say of course all lives matter but I'm black and I'm speaking about black lives people seems to ignore. Lena is a trifling mess. She cherry picks what she wants to represent.
That fred Hampton got me HoT. Y tf cant they cast somebody that isn't British for that. You got Brian Tyree Henry John David Washington And Chadwick Boseman, he damn near played every black history icon. Like wtf, Daniel should not be fred Hampton.
I remember watching a documentary on "Daughters Of The Dust," and director, Julie Dash, stressed how she wanted local folk from the Gullah community to be in the film. It was something that was extremely important for her. Lena could have done the same thing and tapped into the local talent in New Orleans. She's full of shit. When she chastised Black folk for not supporting "Crazy Rich Asians" and then proceeded to block us when we checked her on it, I knew she was trash; and this was on the heels of two Korean nail salon workers in Brooklyn attacking a Black woman with a damned broomstick. When Eva Duvernay had the audacity to say Black American actors come to the table with a certain level of, "Cultural residue," I lost all respect for her. She basically called us damaged goods. Daniel Kaluuya is a fucking clown. When Samuel L. Jackson made his comments here comes Daniel whining about not being Black enough. Did we say THAT? no one is questioning your Blackness. We're questioning your ability to bring nuance to the stories of a specific group of people in this country; and this group is Black-americans. I didn't go see "Get Out," "Us," "Harriet," and I don't plan on seeing "Queen & Slim." These people are not getting a dime of my money. Let's be honest: Black americans aren't "spicy" Black like Black folk from the continent/Caribbean. Hollywood and these Black directors have the same mentality as Eva Duvernay. Spike Lee was on that bullshit as well, talking about how, "Professional," and, "Well-trained" these Black-brit actors are. So I guess Denzel is a fucking fluke, right? He's just some untalented hack that got lucky? I know Black american actors feel the same way as Samuel L. Jackson but are too scared to say shit because the, We-all-black-brigade will show up. They'll wake up soon enough when they see themselves getting shut out of roles (which is already happening) and losing them coins.
That was a good fucking point. Black people are quick to point out how we are not all a monolith, but on the same token they will say “ well, we’re all black at the end of the day”. That was an excellent example of people and their hypocrisy. We’re all black is just a smokescreen to justify bullshit. We’re all black when it comes to colorism. We’re all black when it comes to class issues. We’re all black when it comes to representation. Anytime we call out our differences and privileges within our community and outside of our community, people use that as an excuse. It’s really crazy how we don’t see how that parrots. “well, we’re all human”. “We’re all American”. “All lives matter”.
Thank you for this video essay - I agree wholeheartedly. My takeaways: I'm not supporting any of these films with my time or dollars. Daniel K in that jogging suit is hysterical. Lena's "hot" face is gross. How ironic Amanda Seales dump on her BA side but the Foreign blacks turned their backs on her. Cynthia Erivo and Daniel K seem to have been trained at the same acting school because they both use the same buckeyed looks in all of their roles. Harriet Tubman wasn't timid. That Cynthia caricature of Harriet was despicable. Spike Lee said they were better actors because of their "Shakespearean" training and something slick about BA actors being strip club trained. Yvonne Orji got on the Breakfast Club and dumped on BAs and nobody took her to task about it. None of the BA producers/gatekeepers are holding these foreign black actors accountable for their anti-BA sentiment. We still need to know if these elitist Africans are descendants of Slave traders. They're not answering...but I assume they are.
As always on point!!! My money will not be spent for any of these movies. Thank you for unpacking what is occurring with the ‘cool kids’. Since our culture doesn’t matter, then it shouldn’t matter that I’m keeping my money in my pocket.
I think Lena Waithe is one of those black gays that has a lot of internalized self-hate issues towards blacks because she got persecuted for being a lesbian growing up and still does, however that’s no excuse to use respectability politics and shame other blacks, while also wanting the culture to support you. She needs to get a therapist. As far as Queen and Slim, it’s just another case of foreign blacks wanting to play us for some EGOTS, Daniel Kaluuya’s interview with Sway In The Morning really shows how he feels about black Americans. This idea that your have to automatically go to the ghetto to accurately portray a black American male was an offensive statement and proves that’s what they think of us, but love the shit out of our culture. Also, Jodie Turner-Smith is Jamaican-American, but she grew up in the U.K., which really connects the dots of why she was picked. I also wanna throw out that she’s married and has a whole family with a white man. It’s like they blatantly go out of the way to cast foreign black women who love wypipo. As far as Julia Roberts.....are we really surprised Hollywood would consider her to play Harriet Tubman, when Hollywood actors used to dress in blackface in general? Even judy garland did blackface 3 years before she did the wizard of oz.
@@dontamanson Hold up what dude from dawsons creek?! Not Dawson is it? I know Pacey dated the white chick from National Treasure (can't think of her name) for like ten years.
Damn I just looked up that fred hamilton movie. A low and behold they have the black brit playing hamiltion and the black american playing the fbi informant that helped get him killed.
Issa Rae, Barry Jenkins/Brad pitt, Oprah/ava duvernay, Kenya Barris, Kevin hart, Donald glover, Jordan peele, Lena waithe, spike lee, and the actors they use can do no wrong. It's a small circle of black directors/producers/writers/actors. And people sucking up to them. A very small circle that controls the creative space in black Hollywood. Back in the day, there was no such clique. Just people creating art for expression and for thought. Now its too cliquey and this makes things super messy.
Thank you for this discussion Seren, I knew you were coming so I just bode my time. As a precursor, self-hate and anti-Black Americanness is clearly a thing and the axe swings in our direction every single time there's something negative or accusatory against us especially when talking about economic standing, WHICH IS NOT OUR FAULT OR CREATION. The rise of films that have foreign-Black actors as leads that are portraying DACS historical figures or in these new contemporary fiction genres seems like something far deeper psychologically. It seems that these rich-famous Black Americans are trying to embrace foreign-Black people to glean something or get a familial or ancestral connection back to the diaspora (and more wealth of course). How many of them have you explicitly heard say something to the effect that we're all Black and we all need opportunities, etc etc? There's this need for many of them that have made it to run from us and our shadow. The conflation with Black(American)ness being a universal experience is really doing damage in regards to representation everywhere for Black Americans...whether it be in the media, policy, education, etc. ( In the words of Jasmine Masters, just as I thought, TRASH! In regards to the Julia Roberts-Harriet Tubman movie mess...its akin to every other time a white or non-Black person has been cast as a historically Black American or diasporic figure. The white Hollywood machine loves to do it. ) The erasure of Black American-ness and the massive absorption of historic Black American capital gains is like THE BLOB movie (shout out to my horror fans) where it consumed everything gradually and then rapidly escalated until there was nothing left. The reason Black Americans fight so hard for our representation anywhere and everywhere is because we're the only ones that are willing to fight for us. PERIOD. A lot of us don't have a lot of extraneous capital to just leave and go someplace else (build new careers or take opportunities from people existing someplace else). The same intensity with which they can take, they can build (and not on our pre-existing history/legacy). Now, if some of the diasporic Black people could honestly engage, listen, and apply the conversations that we keep having with them that'd be different...but there has been no willingness to change or grow...thus our vitriol.
Jennifer Hudson is still playing Ms. Aretha in the biopic tho! I’m about to see that movie a hundred times in theater.
5 лет назад
@@SenseiAishitemasu Too bad that Jennifer Hudson is more of a screamer than a good songstress, and unlike Aretha, Hudson lacks charisma. However, will definitely support her Aretha movie
@ Aretha named Jennifer Hudson to protray her on film and stated that Jennifer is an excellent singer. I think Aretha knows a good voice when she hears it.
I swear these Hollywood 'cool kids' act like the kids who weren't cool in school the first time and are trying to remedy that this time around. Inauthentic and insufferable the lot of them.
I think the timing about Julia Roberts being suggested to play our Moses is interesting too. There was a little buzz about the film when it premiered so since then I’ve heard nothing.
noooooooo i cannot believe fred hampton is being played by daniel that hurts my soul. fred hampton influences so much of my political ideology and beliefs. so disappointing. he doesn’t have the intensity or range
Not only did they not cast any New Orleanians...even the “bounce” song on the soundtrack isn’t made by any New Orleans artists 🙄😒 I could go on FOREVER about this bounce music crazy across the industry that doesn’t include many (if any) artists in the bounce music genre. Example...that Chance the Rapper Doritos commercial rapping to a bounce beat, sounding ironically like lil Wayne, Drake being sued for using samples of other bounce songs (even though he did use a New Orleans producer) and y’all beloved YeBoncé using Do What’cha Wanna (not crediting Rebirth Brass Band) during her Coachella performance, recording Before I Let Go, using a “bounce beat”...when the bounce version of that song had LITERALLY been out (here anyway) for at least 15-20 years. I know I’ll probably get stoned for this but IDFC IDFC IDFC. ETA: I didn’t even know about this Fred Hampton movie! Are there NO qualified Black Americans to play this role?!? Da’phuck?!?
The current trend of non-American black ppl playing black Americans is getting out of hand. I can understand an instance here and there but with this much volume seems there's a low-key agenda here. I'm not happy at all with Harriet. In the instance of a historical film, black Americans should be playing themselves.
You just summed up everything I felt and this is why I did not see any of these contrived movies.This is the only way we can break up these cliques.These brown brits coming to America playing the roles of the original people is lame to me. I mean they didn’t learn by casting Zoe Zaldana as Nina Simone?👎🏽You are so well spoken.
Wow I hate it for you millenials I remember as a kid in the 80's and a young adult in the 90's when black Hollywood was a real thing. I don't know what the hell it is now. My condolences lol
I wonder if the "Cool Kids" clique developed because members of that clique are apart of tribes (Igbo, Yoruba &c.), they're used to excluding Black people! It's apart of their tribal behavior.
Wow! You're just Awesome! Everything you say is correct.You are always on point. There are unlimited amount of actors in America to play Black Americans in movies.
Sis im listening to these interviews with Lena and Lena is more and more starting to feel like that one person who says “woke” things but doesnt know what the hell theyre really talking about. Giving me very Black™️®️ vibes
I stumbled on your channel today. I've already listened to 3 or 4 commentaries. You are RIGHT ON POINT my sista! I'm enjoying listening to you. Keep the fire to these mugs' feet!!
I love your videos. Definitely gotta watch them more . Being busy sometimes I lack the critical eye to really read between the lines of certain individuals agendas. Daniel Kuluuya as Fred Hampton? Geez how is there no 1 else!??!! I'm going to see Queen and Slim tomorrow out of curiosity tho. I notice it's mostly celebrities bigging up the movie while everyone I know or on twitter seems to hate it. Let's see
Fred Hampton was assassinated when he was 21 years old. This would be the perfect opportunity for to give a young black American to have a breakout role. PUT ASHTON SANDERS IN MORE SHIT! Also the Julia Roberts things make more sense. “no one will no the difference.” Seems to be the approach that’s been taken for casting any sort of black role.
I absolutely agree. Also take notice of how the only African American in the film played & established his role as the most robust well developed and familiar. Which also speaks to the importance of having African Americans in these roles
Very upset at how she handled the Jason Mitchell thing. She went on a long rant against him, then when he finally spoke up, she agrees with him. I don't get it
Ava DuVernay wants white acceptance full stop. I respect her talent but her idea of equality is us being accepted by whites. She has COMPLETELY thrown her BA cast on Queen Sugar under the bus with those plotlines, she did not cast BAs as her mains in Selma, she said it was ‘important’ to her that she showed a white boy thinking a Black girl was beautiful in A Wrinkle In Time which was why that pairing happened, four out of five of the boys playing the Central Park 5 in WTSU also were not Black American: Jharrel Jerome, Jovan Adepo, Ethan Herisse, and Marquis Rodriguez. WTSU is based on a true story and idk what the ethnic background is of the real Central Park 5 with exception of knowing one of them was Hispanic so WTSU I’ll let slide. But she also literally cast Brits as MLK and Coretta and then surrounded them with a supporting cast of BAs like how white people use us as props, no it’s not enough and I don’t give her more credit.
Black Brits started bullying us on this subject on Lipstick Alley yesterday. You have to read the comments on this threads, guys. www.lipstickalley.com/threads/2975237/page-7
The cool kids are all connected to you know who, that person who built that school in south Africa. I'm not going to even write her name. But, you know she values Africans more than other African Americans.
