Clutch Magazine Article: Black Female Writer Says Some Of The Criticism Of For Colored Girls Is Really Racism & Jealousy Of Tyler Perry’s Incredible Success!!!
‘For Colored Girls’ for Black Women Only, And So What?
Didn’t we see this coming. Now that Tyler Perry’s big screen adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuff” has hit theaters, confused critics are asking exactly who is ‘For Colored Girls” for—as if the title doesn’t say enuff? The most disappointing thing of all is, Tyler Perry himself, and cast members Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton, and Anika Noni Rose have stated, “For Colored Girls” is for everybody. Newton told ComingSoon.com, “It’s not just for colored girls, it’s not just for colored anybody, it’s for humanity.”
But why can’t “For Colored Girls” be just for colored girls? Isn’t that the point of it all?
I have no doubt—albeit not being born yet—that when Shange penned her original “For Colored Girls”–belting out jazzy Black feminist verses, and later dancing about the Public Theater stage in 1975—that every syllable of her prose, every pointed foot in her movement was done for colored girls. Now that this Black women’s work has been re-appropriated, remixed and re-staged for the 21st century audience—and lest we forget with the critical expectancy to yield millions—it seems that being just for the colored woman is no longer enuff.
It’s the very title in itself that makes people uncomfortable. “For Colored Girls” is too non-inclusive, too exclusive, and too pre- and – presently racial to be accepted as a venerable film in a so-called post-racial world.
We must have been kidding ourselves to think in a mythical beyond color climate; and when the First Lady of the free world is as brown as Lady in White, that a big screen effort would be said to be just for us.
Is it entirely impossible to engage in filmic spectatorship without the optical experience of looking like screen subjects? Or to even remotely identify with their experiences? This is the typical theater-going experience for Black women in America, but it seems White America isn’t so pleased with having Oscar buzzing movies not all about them—no White lead cast member in sight, even the studio itself, 34th Street Films is Black. Say what you want to say about Perry, but he’s giving the Hollywood a colored experience unseen before–he’s a complete shout-caller who doesn’t answer to any folks—colored or uncolored.
It’s saddening that the once chitlin’ circuit crowd pleaser who once had no interest in crossing over is using his “most mature work yet”– a work authentically designed for and by Black women to reach audiences, empathies, and cash unintended for. My advice to Perry and the “For Colored Girls” cast, don’t compromise the work of the film—already deemed stellar and powerful by reviews—just to reach the top box office spot.
If there is any confusion who “For Colored Girls” is for, let me be so bold to say to White America and Black men, you are welcome to the picture show, but this flick not about you.
Gayblackcanada 