WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS
The black community has been buzzing about TP's "For Colored Girls" since it's debut this weekend. There's a great mix of love and hate going on about the movie. One great sentiment that I've seen from many men is that TP hates black men...and that shows through this movie. While he does tend to show some men in a negative light, he does also show stand-up guys too. Truthfully, I don't think he was showing hate towards anyone with For Colored Girls except Kimberly Elise as he clearly refuses to let this girl's hair be great .
What Perry did with this movie was not take a play verbatim and put it on camera. Yes, he took some creative liberty and introduced names and faces to these stories. What he also did was take the opportunity to spark a conversation about stories that we never really hear about until its too late. We don't talk about the woman who gets her arse beat everyday until the story of her death appears on the news. We didn't talk about brothas marrying women but "enjoying sex with men" until someone was bold enough to write a book about it and appear on Oprah. We don't talk about the many women who are pregnant and scared and find themselves in the hands of an unlicensed aborter who ends up damaging their bodies permanently. We don't talk about the shame associated with being young and pregnant and repeating generational cycles because in some circles teenage pregnancy is so accepted that we can't imagine that someone not want to have the baby and NOT know where to get the right information for safe procedures. We don't talk about how that untreated STD from that guy that you loved and was your first damaged you to the point that you can't build a future with your soul mate until all options have been exhausted. We overlook that so many women use their bodies to get the love back that someone stole from them when they violated their trust. We don't even really talk about the woman that lets a man in and out of her life over and over again just so that he can trample all over her heart and self esteem. We don't talk about date rape, because after all, you were on a date with the person, right?
So you mad cuz our dirty laundry is out in the open? Or are you mad because you looked on the screen and saw a glimpse of yourself? Are you mad because you didn't see yourself but you saw the face of someone you never reached out to because you are so consumed with your own life? Or do you simply hate that the movie wasn't taken verbatim from the play?
I truly think that people find the time to take issues with any and everything. This is clearly no different with "For Colored Girls". I thought the movie was great. Was it emotional? Yes. Did I leave feeling like I should consider suicide? No. It was a movie, and as EJC has pointed out...these aren't my plights. But I did leave with a certain feeling of empathy for the women and men who endure these situations, make these decisions, and live these lives everyday.
C'mon folks..what are your thoughts?
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