The Black Mind in the Film World: What Needs to Happen for a Hollywood for African Americans

As kooky as actress and Fox News contributor Stacey Dash sounds, the woman has a point. She’s right but for all the wrong reasons. There ought not be a Black History Month or any other set of time to recognize the contributions of the Negro race. While once upon a time representing poor audio visual qualities, subpar scripted series, and a glut of coonery, Bamboozled Entertainment Television better known as Black Entertainment Television (BET) might remain but as long as it continues to be guided by white hands. What Dash fails to see is that there ought to be the private segregation of businesses and services under the beautiful system of capitalism. Diversity and multiculturalism favor the lowest of the low over the higher sections of arts and culture or claims that they’re equal. This order of feeling only worsens the racial relations.

African Americans should look forward to self-reliance and independence from the white gaze. Their spirituals, blues, rock, soul; all of the above establish the Black man and woman’s profound humanity. Miss Dash misunderstands clearly the nature of the Black experience. The rapes, murders, thefts, castrations, and other indignities imprinted on the Black soul ought to inject in Miss Dash’s consciousness. She ought to realize that the scarcity of roles for Coloreds should not be deterred in founding their own version of Hollywood. Negroes ought to be empowered to be best boys, grips, assistant directors, and other professions within the filmmaking industry. Blacks ought to focus their attentions on building their own. By hiring personnel and allowing other Negroes to flourish in the movie business, African Americans should seize every opportunity to grow and thrive in an environment where rejection based on skin color would be nil. And lest we forget, there is a Black man in the White House. Such a reality ought to prompt men and women of color to consider the advancement of a film world that they can call theirs.

Any notions of why Blacks seem to come up short when it comes to being chosen for the Oscars ought to be viewed bunk. Because of the higher melanin counts and the cultural upbringing combines, so-called Negroes feel privileged to call anything and everything racism. These baseless allegations only fuel the fire of actual racism and distort the realm of ideas. Without say Black History Month, Blacks would be released from the strangleholds of any perceived oppression and allow themselves of confining the celebration of their achievements to a single month. The importance of Black expression and scientific contributions ought not be look over or ignored. In fact, the treasures that African Americans have created or discovered intertwine with those of other races and backgrounds. What's next, the Black boycott of the Nobel Prizes because the have never awarded a single Negro in the science and medicine categories? Sadly, most Negroes only sit back with their poked out lips, upset that whitey refuses to acknowledge their gains. Contrarily, they ought to stand tall and be proud of their history and their ancestors who braved slavery. Rather than passing the blame onto their family members from generations past, they ought to embrace the legacy of their forebearers.

Miss Dash’s assertions that we’re “all American” ring true. But what also ought to be considered are the individual lives which have been altered by brutal past. Blacks should be looked at as the nationality in which their parents birthed them or how they earned the title of American by becoming a naturalized citizen. A greater look at the nuances of how race remains a hot topic is due. Miss Dash’s claims only illustrate her position at Fox News and her continuance of her acting career, as Troi “Star” Torain would say. The root of the issue lies not in Black excellence and intelligence but in their negation. And it is in most African Americans that this problem persists. Miss Dash displayed her absolute ignorance of what she is, phenotypically speaking. So, she ought to learn that her skin color does not influence the validity of her mind. It’s her own misintegration and disintegration that do. Why hasn’t Spike Lee and John Singleton and John Ridley and Ava Duvernay already put forth funds to bring up about the place for actors and writers and directors to call home? What will it take for Blacks to take up the reins and carve out their own destinies? To dismiss the Black History Month observances and criticize networks like BET only scratches the surface. The gatekeepers of a new order of Black filmmaking would make dreams reality and cause a groundswell in innovation and ingenuity. That day has not passed Negroes. The future calls the fresh talented tenth to rise above prejudice and injustice and make possible the inventiveness of the Black mind.