by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Black Planet
I woke up this morning to see that Tyler Perry is being forced to defend himself against nasty allegations coming from Spike Lee. Spike has made it clear that he doesn’t appreciate what he perceives to be “coonery” in Tyler Perry films and TV shows. When I saw Perry flat out say that the accusations “pissed him off,” I thought, “Wow, now that’s an honest brother!”
RELATED: Tyler Perry Responds To Spike Lee’s “Coonery” Criticism
I grew up on Spike Lee and I’ll always love him. I am also certain that images of black people singing, dancing and eating chicken certainly won Perry instant favor with the not-so-in-touch executives in Hollywood. But here are three reasons that Spike Lee might be wrong about Tyler Perry:
1) Tyler Perry is not all about Madea: I went onto BET a few times to talk about Hip Hop. My hoity-toity friends in academia (many of whom pride themselves on writing research papers for journals that nobody ever reads) criticized me for being “unscholarly” by talking to rappers. But my response was that hip hop culture has a dramatic influence on the young minds that I am trying to reach with education. You don’t get a baby to eat healthy by only forcing vegetables down his throat; you sprinkle sugar on the food to get the child’s attention. It’s not always a matter of forcing people to consume what they NEED – you should also be willing to let them have some of what they WANT. Every positive black movie doesn’t have to be a PBS special.
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