Meet Norbit: Disgrace to Black Women

[20PearlGirl]

Hello Sorors,

I just viewed the trailer for Eddie's newest movie because I received a link to an online petition....this is a disgrace.
Please sign this petition if you are tired of being made a mockery of in the media. http://www.petitiononline.com/Norbit/petition.html

[pinkies up]

This movie is very coonabalistic. If you'd like to see what it's about, here's the link to the movie. www.meetnorbit.com I wouldn't be surprised if the Asian community weren't ouraged as well. Definately promoting stereotypes.

[DSTCHAOS]

I'm not your soror but I've seen the movie trailer before. The theater died laughing at it.

I can see the stereotypes in this movie. Comedies often play on stereotypes. Did the Jewish community protest Coming to America for the barbershop scene? The "what is it, velvet" dude.

Maybe obese, unattractive and overly aggressive black women who are obsessed with food and a man should feel offended and protest. But as long as Thandie Newton is a black woman who isn't poorly represented in this film, I don't see where black women are being misrepresented. Unless folks are arguing that a substantial segment of the black female population is obese, unattractive, overly aggressive, and obsessed with food and a man. If that's the case then there is serious work to be done and this movie is just a scapegoat.

[ladygreek]

I haven't seen the trailer, but my concern about the petition is that it is mainly about Eddie Murphy personally. So is the author really concerned about the depiction of Black women, or he is using that as a smoke screen to get at Eddie Murphy?

[jitterbug13]

All I see is a combo of Bowfinger/Nutty Professor/Big Mama's House/The Jerk/Coming To America. Maybe that's just me.

[pinkies up]

After really thinking about it, I guess it's the same as Little Man, Soul Plane, and White Chicks. Maybe it's not meant to offend people, but to purely entertain. I guess if people are laughing, they don't find anything offensive about it. The truth of the matter is that when there's "controversy", it'll make a lot of money.

[mccoyred]

Originally Posted by jitterbug13

All I see is a combo of Bowfinger/Nutty Professor/Big Mama's House/The Jerk/Coming To America. Maybe that's just me.

No, its not just you, soror. This is exactly what I thought. This petition for THIS movie seems out of left field.

I can think of several other movies and artistic works that deserve this type of petition. In fact, I just signed one protesting the exclusion of Black girls from the pantheon of Disney princesses.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

SC

Originally Posted by 20PearlGirl

Hello Sorors,

I just viewed the trailer for Eddie's newest movie because I received a link to an online petition....this is a disgrace.
Please sign this petition if you are tired of being made a mockery of in the media. http://www.petitiononline.com/Norbit/petition.html

[DSTCHAOS]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I agree.

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.

Petitions don't work if people will continue to patron. This Norbit petition will draw more people to the box office.