Thursday, February 03, 2005

Baby Boy



last night wifey and i watched baby boy and i must confess that it was uncomfortable watching it on swedish tv. first off, the premise for this movie is intelligent, though john singleton had painted himself into a corner by then (cali street culture's cause and effects).

in case you've never seen it it's about the perpetual childhood placed on black men by society and themselves, good point. the problem is that it's an oversexed, unrealistic portrayal of black life in general with no real tangible cause and effect. the characters aren't more than cartoon-ish stereotypes that others view already as pure fact and it does nothing to suggest that they honestly evolve. it also paints the picture that black males are prone to, and indifferent to, beast-like violence. now place that in a country that's 90% homogeneous and bleeds stereotypes because there isn't anything to dispel them. i won't even start on swedish black kids' lack of understanding of what it really means to be black (c) ice cube.

not a good thing.

right now there are people who are dying to ask (and will) any black person about some of the things they "learned" from watching that last night and it irks me to no end.

i've tried to explain to countless swedes that there are 30 plus million black americans (compared to 9 million swedes) and the idea that 30 million people could all fit into any stereotype is utterly ridiculous. it doesn't work... and it seems that the cosby show has conviently disappeared, or was viewed as pure fiction. regardless it seems irresponsible for this movie to be shown here. as to how to balance out something like that i haven't a clue, it's just frustrating to have to deal with the repercussions.



i've got so much problems on my mind, refuse to lose.. (c) Public Enemy

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