For Colored Girls My 2 Cents

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf is a play written in 1975 a collection of 20 poems that are performed by seven different women? The play written by Ntozake Shange and was made into a movie in 2009.

The movie’s release has made for a lot of discussion on whether it should have been released as well as the choice for the director of the project. I was not surprised that the play is now a movie but I was a little surprised at who was tapped to direct the project. I have my issues with the director about his previous movies and their portrayal of blacks. The casting of the female characters of the movie was excellent with a wide range of talented black actors who care about bringing a script to life. There seems to be two topics of contention about the movie how black men are portrayed and why we do not have more positive black images on screen.

I feel black men do get a bad rap on screen and there have been some improvements but overall it seems our faults are magnified on screen with the world to see. Are we perfect? No but there is more to black men then the parts we play on the big screen. Positive images of blacks in movies is dictated by the box office numbers in my opinion if movies with positive images are in the top five for the opening weekend and stay there for a few weeks then there will be more of those movies made. Movies with dark and painful stories about black men and women will make more money they will be in the top five and receive the critical acclaim, which keeps those scripts in demand. We need balance in the roles black men play in movies on a more consistent basis.