Flooded with Black Thoughts
What if I wrote a script and a Black Writer with Hollywood ties took notice, we met, had beers, just her and I, my daughter, her assistant; then I ask how can I say yes to you and say no to Hollywood?
How can Black Folks grow as an entertainment community and not repeat the same things as racist, sexist, sexual assault-ist, color-struct, white shows, white movies, white theft (Living Single > Friends) Hollywood? I don’t know why this is on my mind. I don’t want to be a part of Hollywood. I have a flow chart of Blackness in my mind. It consists of a Black Infrastructure, building blocks to a better future. It includes entertainment, utilities, engineering, manufacturing, farming, tech, policies around Global Warming and so on. Just my thoughts. Black folks know exactly how America feels about them. I do appreciate Black trailblazers who faced racial adversity and attacks and kept going. We have to be just as radical today, but also not beg for status. Winning an Emmy is great, but taking our talents elsewhere is a bigger win for us. Elsewhere could mean Black Americana or the Diaspora at large. We are our own market and audience. How can we leave the other side behind? What if Black folks stopped working for white studios? How long has United Artists been around?! What about MGM? If we don’t take a stand, if we don’t get past this dependence, or this addiction to White Western Wanting, we may continue this dance.
Issa Rae, Insecure, Misha Green, Jordan Peele, Melina, Ms. Kemp, Lovecraft Country. The writing, acting, cinematography. The genius. The messages. The Black spaces.
The awful state of America. Oh wait, it’s always been awful. Anyway, during this time of death, chaos, televised and government sanctioned racism, certain shows give me life. Right now that show is Lovecraft Country. It’s something I look forward to. I can get lost in the story. It helps me to forget the pain and tragic state of the world. It helps me to be optimistic for an hour of my life. Seeing melanin move and speak, seeing Black folks put their all into characters, noticing the lighting and photography and scenes, helps me to float into the sky, doing backflips, in slow motion. I need Issa to get her due, as well as Misha and Melina. My sisters are doing big things. So many are and always have. Thankful for Black Stories that are human stories.
Durban, Vancouver, or Cape Verde?
Are you a Black American who has thought about leaving America because of racism? Have you thought about tracing your roots and gaining citizenship in that African Country? I definitely want to leave. America has never seemed like home to me. I want to trace my roots back to Africa but I also would want to go any place that would have me. I’m not sure Canada would be any better. Cape Verde seems like a place to escape. Durban is majority Black and Brown I think. Wait, let me look them up… Ok, yeah, it is. It’s not like these are new obstacles we face as Black Americans, but who can deal with it for a lifetime? When I think on my Ancestors and the pain, suffering, torture, I tense up. Why Black folks? Why are we looked down on? Who is here for us? Where is God in all this? Why the Holocaust? Why the Transatlantic Slave Trade? Why ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia? I would like to recognize these tragedies but live my life trying to be the best I can be, living to my full human potential. I can’t for some reason. I don’t want people to hurt. No human asked to be here and experience horrors on an unearthly scale. The Why of our existence haunts me day and night. Day, and fucking night.
Nothing is random but damn!
Written by Michael Allen
Escape Indie 2020
All Rights Reserved
For my People!
