The greatest Black films ever - in domestic dollars

Here is a list of the highest grossing films to feature Black actors, directors, writers and on. It's something you never really hear about, but Black film makes money. And lots of it.

1. The Lion King ($576 million inflation adjusted dollars) - yes I know it's animated. And yes I realize that its about animals. But this is Africa. The reality is that this film, if portrayed by human beings (even animated ones) is about Black people.

2. Shrek 2 ($530 million) - there is no shrek movie without one of the most successful Black actors ever, Eddie Murphy. He is a co-star of the film and a central theme. So this film counts.

3. Independance Day ($516 million) - the word is Will Smith.

4. Beverly Hills Cop ($500 million) - An undisputed Black film. And the first film that stars prominently and solely and African America - Eddie Murphy.

5. Blazing Saddles ($471 million) - the film is co-written by Richard Pryor (the Sheriff Bart role was supposed to be his). It stars Cleavon Little. It's about the racist history of America, in a very comical way. Yes, it's a Black film, made by jewish Mel Brooks.

**Note ** The next should be The Passion of the Christ which made $445 million. Because Jesus was Black - unless you think a man with bronze skin and hair of wool describes your average European. But since Mel Gibson chose to depict him as he did I won't include him in this list.

6. West Side Story ($417 million) - ok so they aren't Black but Puerto Rican. So am I. And the Caribbean was filled with African slaves. Ok, it doesn't belong on the list but deal with it.

**Lawrence of Arabia (417 million) - Again a film that was made about Africans and Middle Eastern people, that I define as Black, that were all shown as White.

7. Men In Black ($407 million) - Will Smith again.

8. Aladdin ($391 million) - That isn't a suntan every character in this film (except the genie) had.

That would make the top ten list of greatest grossing Black films ever, if you include the notes I made. I'm sure there is dispute about many of these films. I'd like to hear that dispute.

But the next time you hear some dumb Hollywood exec make an obtuse statement like "American won't watch a show starring an African American/Latino/person of color" remember this list. Because American will watch people of color and African American, so long as the film good. Just like anyone else.

The numbers are from Box Office Mojo

American Idol is for pikers, Harlem is for talent

With all the people that go out to American Idol each year I have to wonder why those that are serious actually show up there. Because when you think about it, it is one of the least successful avenues an entertainer can take to get recognized.

I came to this understanding the second I saw something most probably skipped over today. The announcement of the 75th year of the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night. For longer than any of the judges on American Idol have been alive this one venue has been grooming and introducing talent to the nation. And many of those that have gotten their start at the Apollo have become bigger stars than all of the American Idol contestants (and judges) combined.

The Apollo was the start for:

Women –

India.Arie
Pearl Bailey
Josephine Baker
Mary J. Blige
Brandy
Blu Cantrell
Diahann Carroll
Faith Evans
Eve
Ella Fitzgerald
Celia Cruz
Roberta Flack
Aretha Franklin
Billie Holiday
Lauryn Hill
Lena Horne
Etta James
Alicia Keys
Eartha Kitt
Stephanie Mills
Chante Moore
Nina Simone
Jessica Simpson
Angie Stone
Leslie Uggams
Sarah Vaughan
Dionne Warwick
Dinah Washington
Ethel Waters

Men –

Harry Belafonte
Tony Bennett
Chuck Berry
Ruben Blades
James Brown
David Byrne
Ray Charles
Chubby Checker
Nat “King” Cole
Sean ”P. Diddy” Combs
Sam Cooke
D’Angelo
Chico DeBarge
Bo Diddley
Fats Domino
DMX
Marvin Gaye
Ginuwine
Al Green
Isaac Hayes
John Lee Hooker
Ja Rule
Michael Jackson
Jay-Z
Jadakiss
Jaheim
B.B. King
Ludacris
Johnny Mathis
Maxwell
Brian McKnight
Prince
Lou Rawls
Otis Redding
Busta Rhymes
Sisqo
Keith Sweat
Muddy Waters
Barry White
Jackie Wilson
Stevie Wonder

Groups –

Bob Marley & the Wailers
Buddy Holly and the Crickets
Dru Hill
El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico
Fugees
George Clinton &
Parliament/Funkadelic
Gladys Knight & the Pips
Isley Brothers
Jackson Five
Jagged Edge
Korn
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
Martha Reeves & the Vandellas
O’Jays
Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles

Musicians –

Louis Armstrong
Charlie Barnet
Count Basie
Cab Calloway
John Coltrane
Miles Davis
Duke Ellington
Dizzy Gillespie
Benny Goodman
Thelonius Monk
Charlie Parker
Louis Prima
Tito Puente
Buddy Rich
Max Roach

And others –

Sammy Davis Jr.
Bill Cosby
Redd Foxx
Whoopi Goldberg
Dick Gregory
Steve Harvey
Jackie “Moms” Mabley
Richard Pryor
Chris Rock
Sinbad
Flip Wilson
Ossie Davis
Ruby Dee
Kid Capri
Doug E. Fresh
Sidney Poitier
Paul Robeson

And I have cut the list down massively. Yet if you are between the ages of 25 to 80 you know names on this list. In fact you probably know a couple of dozen of them.

Now with all that talent focused from one source you might think that the Apollo Theater would be the biggest thing out there. The proving ground for up and coming entertainers. That American Idol would make homage for a legend, and that someone would be highlighting the importance of the place. But you know that won’t happen.

American Idol is a great gimmick. The purpose is not to find great lasting talent, but to make a quick profit off of manipulated fame. William Hung never deserved fame, yet Idol gave it to him, and we were the worse for it. Thousands of performers that might have a shot at some kind of career in entertainment have their spirits crushed on national TV and never go forward. It’s a shame.

Now I don’t know the numbers, but considering American Idol has 2 winners a season out of tens of thousands, compared to several categories of entertainers numbering in the hundreds competing at Apollo (dance, groups, individual singers, comedians, ect) each week; I don’t need rocket science to tell me where the better odds are. And looking at the ultimate success of the Idol winners versus the Apollo again Harlem wins.

So if you want to see the future superstar entertainers of America, I suggest you turn off the television and take a trip to Harlem. Because that’s where the real talent will be.

Taking a look at the past and present race relations - 10.31.2007.1

** This can also be seen at Black & White Blog, where I am a co-author. You can comment either here or at that site, which is a forum for views on race issues from many sides. **

I was going through some of my favorites at YouTube yesterday and I ran across an old Saturday Night Live skit that is classic and funny on so many levels. But it’s more than that as well. It features Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor, from the 70’s when SNL was at its best and most biting social commentary.

I’m sure everyone my age and older have had the joy of seeing this long ago. For those who are younger, check out the clip.



Now the point is this. What really has changed since then? While there is PC this and that, and Blacks have gone from being “Black and Proud” to ‘Forshizille my nizzelle’, has anything become better?

Yes there is more interracial dating, yet it is still shunned as the recent death threat against the Boise State player that asked his girlfriend to marry him on national television proved. Yes there are Black doctors, lawyers, and even Secretaries of State yet Blacks still have disproportionate poverty and unemployment levels. While Senator Obama is running for President of the United States, the number of CEO’s of major corporations (on the stock market) can be counted on 1 hand.

In the 70’s the N-word was understood to be a negative term, and even this video showing its use to evoke humor recognizes the absolute anger attached to the word. Today kids, of all races, routinely play on pronunciation and use the term daily as a greeting. Yet its use has not changed its meaning as we have seen in the Jena, West Virginia and Lititz cases.

The KKK, and neo-nazi groups still exist. Cops still beat and kill Blacks (name one year where there have not been several unjustified explosions of police abuse since 1980, whether or not it got national media attention). The legal system (the word Justice is unwarranted in describing the system we have) routinely continues to convict innocent Blacks, and invoke penalties so harsh as to be ludicrous to compare on those Blacks convicted of crimes, as with the Jena 6 and Genarlow Wilson.

While the surface of the nation may seem like calm waters, it’s not. There is as much or more racial tension in this nation than ever before. Political Correctness may prevent hearing all the tension, but it’s doing little to nothing to prevent the action itself. The media, without uttering a single slur, has never stopped presenting slurs or negatively portraying African Americans.

In 1977, the year Roots was on television (I haven’t seen it on ever since), there were 24 Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian characters on all of television (not less than 69 shows). That number includes 5 shows where the characters had starring roles, but does not include a cartoon (Fat Albert) or a dance show (Soul Train) which was only on Saturdays. It also includes 2 programs that ended that year, Sanford & Son and Electric Company, and one star (Freddie Prinze) that died.

While it’s harder to define all the shows on television today, including cable and reruns, looking at the top 100 first-run programs I get an estimate of 18 African Americans. I’m sure I’m missing a few characters (only counting leading and featured support characters) and television shows. My previous efforts, including reruns, came to less than 2% of all characters are African Americans and less for other minorities. That’s sad when there has been an increase of 1000% in television channels since 1977.

So what has really gotten better? Yes some individuals are doing better, but not society. The realization is pitiful. At least in 1977 we were honest, but the main thing I see that improved the most is our ability to hide the anger that exists.

Do you agree?

The honesty only the Boondocks provides - 10.16.2007.1

I just love the Boondocks cartoon on Adult Swim. The honesty that is contained in that is more than what is seen in a dozen programs throughout all television right now. Live action could never get away with the obvious facts one half hour of this program provides.

From the R. Kelly trial (which in real life has waited 5 years and still has yet to occur), to pimps, Oprah and Dr. Martin Luther King there is a direct honesty that would cause an uproar in another format. In the caricatures of the lead and recurring characters we get to see multiple aspects of Black Americans. That’s a diversity that is only approached by combining characters from the Shield, CSI, Eureka, Blade: the series and Mind of Mencia all into one program. It’s also interesting to note that that’s almost all the leading and major supporting African American characters on television (combining cable and broadcast) at this time.

I don’t know what is more alarming. That the Boondocks is not the most watched program by African Americans, that BET (Black Entertainment Television) was incapable of securing this program themselves, or that my allusion that the diversity in this program exceeds virtually all other programs with African Americans combined is almost accurate. And yet so few see the program while that most don’t get it.

Often social commentary is best stated in formats that are seen as the least confrontational. That’s why, when done by the best performers like Mr. Richard Pryor or Mr. Lenny Bruce, the greatest impact occurs without the direct confrontation a discussion often brings.

As Huey states in one episode, [I paraphrase]

“America has done a multitude of injustice to Blacks, but that does not mean everything is an injustice, or that this makes every African American a hero.”

R Kelly is not a hero, OJ is culpable, and Dr. Martin Luther King would be appalled with the state of the Black community today. It may seem funny when a cartoon character says it, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the truth. And it’s a shame the greatest honesty and diversity can only occur in an animated program in the year 2007.

Reflections on Bill Cosby's words 3 years ago - 9.24.2007.2

3 years later and finally Dr. Bill Cosby is getting some respect for his statements about the Black culture and community in America. It’s about time.

At that time, and since there has been a huge outcry that Dr. Cosby should not have said what he did and has since. I’ve never understood why. He was speaking the truth and it was as obvious then as it is now. In fact it’s been true for a lot longer than just when he made his statements.

But the fact was that more than a few were either embarrassed, in denial, or oblivious to these facts. How I am unsure. A casual observation at high schools around the nation, or prisons, say everything right there. The Black community had become complacent about the advances made in the 60’s and was doing nothing about the wholesale commoditization of the culture since the mid-90’s.

Perhaps the impact that Dr. Cosby was speaking about can be summed up in these words

“If we can get outraged enough to trek by the busload to Jena, La., then the dysfunction destroying our communities from within should compel the same outrage -- and the energy to do something about this black implosion.”

Strong words. And appropriate. I would add that if we can feel a national outrage by the words of Don Imus, revulsion by the idiotic definitions of Snoop Dogg, endangered by the torture in West Virginia, and angered by the lack of compassion provided by Michael Vick, then we must look to the roots of those problems and what we can do to correct them. Sitting by passively allowing these things to exist cannot provide answers, or more accurately answers that will engender a positive response.

The major news media has no interest in discussing the positives in the Black community, apparently. Universal condemnations of OJ Simpson and Michael Vick, excusing acts of denigration (Don Imus) or completely ignoring them (How long was Michael Richards in the news?), and promotion of the worst aspects of rap music and videos seem all that they are interested in. When that is the message being presented by the news on a daily basis, coupled by the virtual non-existence promoted by television programming, we need to step up in our communities to provide the positive impetus that is desperately needed.

I mentioned

Of the centuries that our ancestors struggled to gain the right to read and be treated as equals, is the only benefit our chance to compete in games for the selfish monetary return it provides? I cannot agree that the only benefit of the past efforts is our increased ability to entertain the masses. Dr. Martin Luther King did not dream of an equal chance to ‘shake dat ass’ on an iPod. Mr. Malcolm X did not want to defend his life and family “by any means” so that his children could sell drugs, or have ‘baby-mama drama.’ Mr. Jackie Robinson did not endure the stresses of proving his abilities to hostile crowds so that drop-outs would have the inability to read about his challenges; and Mr. Richard Pryor didn’t make us laugh and think about what was inadequate so that the youth could use a term that is the single most offensive term in the English language as a greeting because they haven’t learned enough to know the words meaning and history.

I feel no different today. I would hazzard to believe that Dr. Cosby would agree. The fact that others are also joining in this mindset is a positive. Perhaps that is the best news, after 3 years. That there are positive moves being made, and that the community has gotten over the minor reasons to avoid Dr. Cosby’s words and are now embracing them. If that is the case I look forward to the next 3 years.

This is what I think, What do you think?

Paris Hilton back in orange - 7.30.2007.1

Take a look at the picture above and observe it well. Yes I know it’s Paris Hilton. As sad as this girl is, actually pitiful is more the term I’d use, I have to think the executives at the Fox show The Simple Life are worse. That is because the talent less heiress was made up like the Great Pumpkin, or perhaps for an appearance on The Simpson’s, and that is being described their interpretation of a Black woman.

For some reason, and I am lost as to why, Paris is being changed to look Black. It has something to do with her television program that continues to be shown season after season. But I am insulted that this is what they consider Black on that program.

I don’t know when looking like Farah Fawcett with a really bad fake suntan became the equivalent of being Black. Didn’t any of them get to see the program Black.White. Couldn’t they afford that makeup team? Or did they somehow think that Mr. Gene Wilder’s comedic act of desperation, devised by Mr. Richard Pryor, from Blue Streak was somehow spot on.

I know I often joke with friends that I have the ultimate suntan base, it cost me nothing and I have it year round. Even so, a suntan is nothing like the hue I have gained from my Puerto Rican father and Black mother. Paris does not look like any Black or Hispanic person I have ever seen from anywhere in the world.

I don’t care that a low quality, mind-numbing show is using a gimmick to get viewers. I expect that, since that is the premise of the program. But I do have issue when someone tries to ‘revision’ the Al Jolson blackface just to get a ratings bump. It’s distasteful and insulting. If say Lil Kim was to appear for a show in clown white makeup, pretending to be Caucasian I think some might find that insulting. Same thing here.

If the execs at Fox have no idea of how a Black person looks, here are a couple of hints.

Why protest D L Hughley - 6.19.2007.1

Free Speech. African Americans. Comedy. Each of these are parts of the United States and the world at large. Take any one of these elements away from America and you may not have a nation today, even if you did it would not be nearly as grand, powerful or free. I feel this is a fact, and there is no questioning it.

Yet, when all 3 are combined the outcome can either be extraordinary or devastating. On the positive side is Mr. Bill Cosby, Mr. Richard Pryor, Mr. Dave Chappelle, Mr. Redd Foxx, Mr. Jaime Foxx, Mr. Eddie Murphy and many others throughout the decades. There is no question that each of these men, and women as well let’s remember, have helped advance Civil Rights, helped pave the path that every Black person in America walks today, and an integral part of forging the path the youth and unborn will be walking tomorrow. Such is the power of these combined forces.


On the other end can be seen other figures. Some have been influential others just known by the populace. The were centuries where Black Americans were considered the butt of jokes, performers like Al Jolsen using the right of free speech to demean and hold back millions. While much of that kind of action lives only in the past it still has not left the nation yet. In the 21st century, nearly 500 years after the first Africans were forcibly taken to America, after Civil Rights and riots, after having African American Secretaries of State and while we have a viable candidate that may become President of the United States, we have men like Mr. Don Imus that used the right of free speech that Blacks like the Tuskegee Airmen died to protect to attack innocent, unsuspecting, private African American college students under the guise of comedy.

While these are the extremes, the expanse betwixt is vast and mired in shadows and grayscale. And this is where Mr. D.L. Hughley falls. I mention him because of the recent protest that is being made over his remarks made on the Jay Leno Show about the Rutger’s Women’s Basketball team. Part of the comments made by Pastor Kyev Tatum of Servant House Baptist Church includes

“Imus’s comment was insulting and so was DL Hughley’s. He said it’s time to stop all black performers from such vile attacks - starting with DL. ‘It’s not only that comment,’ Pastor stop all black performers from such vile attacks - starting with DL. ‘It’s not only that comment,’ Pastor Tatum said. ‘He has a history of demeaning our community in such a way that it’s not funny anymore.’ Tatum said. ‘He has a history of demeaning our community in such a way that it’s not funny anymore.’”

Let me mention that I have heard some of the comedy of Mr. Hughley, and I’m not a great fan. He is funny at points, but it’s not really my cup of tea. His television show didn’t hold appeal for me, though friends of mine loved it. His late night show had some moments but overall did not grab me. Essentially I find him a middle of the road comedian, he hits and misses about evenly for me.

Continued in Part 2...