Quote:
Originally posted by Eclipse
James,
IMO this is because historically black women were seen as oversexed and promiscious. Through out slavery there are many known and unknown instances of slavemasters raping their slaves (most of us did not come to this country from African looking like Vanessa Williams). On the other hand, Black men and White women are much more taboo in society and would not be as readily accepted on the big screen. You may remember a what's his face (sorry I can't remember his name) who played Peter Benton on ER protesting his character's story line after he had numerous dysfunctional relationships with black women, but a tender loving relationship with a white woman (the one that eventially married the doctor played by Anthony Edwards). They later added Michael Michelle as his (black) love interest.
Many male black stars know the historically implications and refuse to go there. Plus, they know many in their fan base of AA women would have a hissy!
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Precisely. Denzel Washington knows a lot of his fan base, and he has a lot of credibility because he's been married to Pauletta Pearson forever. You could say the same about Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson, although Samuel isn't strictly in leading man roles.