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Originally Posted by SummerChild
It seems like the author of the petition is really more upset that the heavier woman who is the more outrageous character is dark-skinned and the lighter-skinned woman is the woman that is depicted as less outrageous and the heroine, i.e., it seems like he's really more on a light-skin, dark-skin thing than anything about the weight.
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Well it would certainly be comical for Murphy to put on "yellow face" just so he could be a light skinned, unattractive, fat, overly aggressive woman.
Or he could've done away with the fat suit and taken "fat" from the equation. That would've been more PC seeing as though the fatness is a bigger (no p.i.) stereotype to me than the blackness.
He could've gotten a darker actress instead of Thandie Newton if the colorisms are that big of a deal that we may need to incorporate a form of affirmative action. I wonder who auditioned for the role and why Newton was chosen. Maybe shade of blackness wasn't a factor.
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Originally Posted by SummerChild
I agree that the fact pattern that the darker character is seen as the fool or the negative character and the lighter character is seen as the heroine or smart or otherwise positive is a recurring fact pattern in U.S. movies and film. It has been so since before the days of Aunt Jemima and the rag on her head. Shoot, the Aunt Jemima comes from the slavery ignorance that the closer you look to Master, the better you are. We propagate this ignorance by referring to hair as "good hair" and referring to people who are light as "fair" (which is a synonym with pretty - Cinderella was the fairest of them all). Think about it. "Good hair" is typically hair that bears an influence from another race. So you mean to tell me that when we bear an influence from another race, then we are somehow better or uplifted. Self hate at its best. I don't think that many think of it b/c it is just a term - often used down south. I know college-educated people that use this term. They don't mean any harm but when we propagate terms like this, it hurts our children, it confuses our men, shoot, it confuses our women too.
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I agree. So again, Norbit isn't the culprit. There are social isms that need to be addressed as they are reproduced through media outlets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SummerChild
However, given all that. I think it's a stretch to say that Eddie Murphy is playing out his own personal dislike of dark-skinned AA women. I have never known him to say he dislikes dark-skinned AA women so where are we getting this from? So I think the petition is kinda bogus.
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I agree.
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Originally Posted by SummerChild
But I think that we should petition networks in general to show AA of *all* shades and sizes. Even BET only really showed light-skinned AA women. We must demand better.
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Petitions don't work if people will continue to patron. This Norbit petition will draw more people to the box office.