I went to see “For Colored Girls” hoping to gain insight into the experiences of black women in America. I consider myself a Tyler Perry fan, but was a little saddened by some of what I saw. I’m not sure if we are empowering black women by reminding them that the source of all of their pain and frustration happens to be black men. The women start the film as bubbling, shiny, well-adjusted human beings and end the movie as depleted, tortured souls who are effectively dead on the inside. Of course, this is almost completely due to the terrible men in their lives. Let’s quickly catalog the list of black men in “For Colored Girls,” shall we?
1) The rapist
This is the nice, smiling, friendly black man who secretly rapes women in his spare time. He does a jekyl and hyde on his victims by charming his way into their apartments and quickly raping them. That’s what happens when you trust a black man in a nice suit who asks you out on a date.
2) The abusive crazy man
This is the insane, alcoholic, unemployed military veteran. His kind, patient girlfriend tries to work with him by cleaning up after him, cooking for him and reminding him to take his medication. In spite of all this, the man beats his girlfriend regularly, is threatened by the fact that she has a job and eventually drops their two young children out a five-story window. I’m sure we all know at least 52 black men who’ve done the same thing, since it’s clear that black men are incapable of loving their own kids.
3) The lying, cheating thief
This is the man who keeps coming in and out of Loretta Divine’s life, coaxing her with smooth words and good loving, only to break her heart in the end. Not only does he disappear while heading out for Chinese food, he takes her jewelry too, perhaps so he can buy bus fare. In the end, he keeps coming back with flowers, begging for forgiveness. As you can see in exhibit 3, black men like to steal and then implore that our victims give us the right to rob them over and over again.
4) The brother on the down low
This is the smooth brother married to Janet Jackson’s character. He is emasculated by the fact that she is successful and he is not (almost none of the black men in this film have their own money). Keeping with the thieving black man theme, he takes a massive amount of money out of Janet’s account without telling her. In return for the money he’s stolen, he gives her the gift of HIV, since it’s clear that black men on the down low are single-handedly responsible for every HIV case in the history of the entire world (just ask Oprah). Janet’s character is evil toward everyone she meets for the entire film, but of course this is because of the terrible black man she has at home, it can’t be just because she’s a jerk.
5) The child molester
This character has a tiny role in the film. He’s the one who looks at the 16-year old sister of one of the characters and asks if she can “join in on the fun,” as they head into the bedroom. There is another child molester that Whoopi Goldberg’s character makes reference to: Her ex-husband who had sex with her when she was 15-years old. To the film’s credit, child molesters only get cameo appearances, perhaps because we don’t want to replicate the entire theme of the film ‘Precious.’
6) The pimp
This is a two-for-one special on nasty-A$$ black men. Whoopi’s conceptual husband who had sex with her when she was 15-years old also “gave her” to a white man to force her to make him a beautiful, light-skinned baby. So, not only do black men like to have sex with underage women, we apparently like to share them like a cup of sugar.
7) The non-existent baby’s daddy
This is the brother who gets a 17-year old girl pregnant in the backseat of a car. He then fails to exist even as she goes to get an abortion from an alcoholic in a back ally. We know the girl is pregnant and the man did it to her, but there’s no sign of the man anywhere. Why would he appear to take care of his own child? He is, after all, a black man.
8) The police officer (aka Knight in Shining armor)
To Tyler’s credit, he did add one man in the film who was not as screwed up as the rest. Hill Harper plays the role of a police officer whose wife can’t have kids because she got an untreated STD in college. I’m sure, fitting with the theme of the film, that the STD was given to her by another deceptive black man. This film makes it clear: black women are the rope that holds our community together, and black men are as valuable as dirty diapers in the refrigerator.
