A while back, I posted the angry letters I’d gotten in response to my review of “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” currently in the running for Worst Film of the Year. Well, here is an angry letter I got in response to my posting the angry letters. The subject line is “THE YOUNG WOMAN WHO DID NOT EMBRACE YOUR REVIEW,” and the text is as follows:
You have never been Black and would not know one if it slapped you in the face [Actually, I am pretty sure I would know a black person if one slapped me in the face. In fact, I have often been able to recognize such a person even without being slapped by him or her.] …Do the young people [I think she means “TO the young people,” as the rest of the letter seems addressed to them] who read Black reviews….White folks do not have a clue about who and where you come.. [It’s true, I have no idea who black people come, much less where they come.] DO NOT READ ANY BLACK MOVIE REVIEWS…..EMBRACE YOUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS MOVIES…I LEARNED THIS A LONG TIME AGO…
If the message here is that blacks should embrace movies made by blacks simply BECAUSE they’re made by blacks, then I could not disagree with that message any more strenuously. People should embrace movies because they are good, not because you share a background with the people who made them.
