television and film, Tyler Perry has been one of the most polarizing figures in
black entertainment. He is praised for his independent, do-it-yourself brand and his up-from-his bootstraps backstory. He is criticized for pandering to
his audience, heavy-handed storytelling and using ‘broad’ characterizations in
his films and TV shows. That last bit of criticism was again levied against
Perry—this time by a fellow director. Spike Lee, in an interview with Ed Gordon on “Our World
with Black Enterprise,” is reported as having said:
“We’ve had this discussion back and forth. When John
Singleton [made Boyz in the Hood], people came out to see it. But when he did Rosewood, nobody showed up. So a lot of this is on us! You vote with your
pocketbook, your wallet. You vote with your time sitting in front of the idiot
box, and [Tyler Perry] has a huge audience. We shouldn’t think that Tyler Perry
is going to make the same film that I am going to make, or that John Singleton
or my cousin Malcolm Lee [would make]. As African-Americans, we’re not one
monolithic group, so there is room for all of that. But at the same time, for
me, the imaging is troubling and it harkens back to ‘Amos n’ Andy.’”
Among the casual African American movie fans, there has been
an increasingly divided fanbase. That separation is personified in Perry and
Lee and their respective bodies of work. There are those that champion Lee as
the epitome of the black auteur filmmaker—challenging, visionary, cerebral—so much
so that even when his films miss the mark, he is still praised for at least
following his creative and intellectual instincts. And those Lee devotees will forever blast
Perry for, quite simply, not being Spike Lee. He acknowledged that African
Americans are ‘not one monolithic group,’ yet in dismissing Perry’s work, he is
dismissing anyone who would enjoy that work.
Is the use of broad comedy by African Americans
automatically ‘buffoonery?’ Are Tyler Perry shows the sole representative of
all televised blackness? Perry has his obvious shortcomings as a filmmaker, but
so does Michael Bay–and no one expects Bay to be Spielberg. Just as no one
should expect Perry to be Lee. The sad hypocrisy is that many of those that will
stand with Lee to metaphorically stone Tyler Perry won’t spend their dollars on
the very same ‘high-minded’ films/shows they claim to be defending. Right
now, critically and commercially, black Hollywood needs both Lee and Perry. —todd williams
