No Good Deed- Return of the Black Brute to Cinema

I saw the trailer for a new movie called No Good Deed, a film starring Taraji P Henson and Idris Elba. In the first few seconds of this trailer for this film a Black man is shown brutalizing and assaulting a White Woman before he’s sent to jail.

Further along in the trailer, viewers are shown him at the door asking for help then the camera cuts to a phone with the line cut. And no one is at the door. Then the Black male predator springing into violent action.

No good deed goes unpunished in this film. Unfortunately, this so-called thriller punishes the Black community by promoting and perpetuating a destructive stereotype about Black men: The Black Brute.

After watching the trailer I went to IMDB to learn more about this abomination calling itself a film …film The synopsis for this film says an escaped Black male convict terrorizes a Black female homeowner who offers him help.

14 years after Denzel Washington won an Oscar for Best Actor in Training Day, the Black Brute has returned to AmeriKKKan movie screens. And Black folks have no idea how destructive this stereotype is to all our young brothers out here.

Who is the Black Brute? Back in Jim Crow, the Black Brute was the caricatured image a big muscular, violent Black man who terrorized everyone who came into his path. A savage who lived for violence, especially against White women. A violent predator who was a menace to society. Someone we don’t need to see right now on movie screens across the country.

In the aftermath of the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown the last thing the Black community needs is a movie featuring a Black Brute terrorizing people on movie screens across the country. Further perpetuating the idea in people’s minds that Black Brutes are out and about.

And that the world needs to protect itself from them.

Black men have it hard. And movies like No Good Deed make it even harder for Black men and Black boys to go about their lives in American society. With racial tensions at an all-time high the release of this kind of movie presenting a Big Black predator is the last thing we need.

The first clips of the trailer show this Black Brute assaulting a white woman. An attempt to get an emotional response out of White men and White women. An attempt to polarize the audience on a racial level.

The later clips show him terrorizing a Black woman at her home. An attempt to put fear in Black women about their perceptions regarding Black men.

The only thing missing from this film are a noose and a tree.

This movie isn’t entertainment. It’s social engineering. It’s social propaganda meant to put the idea in audiences’ heads that Black men are violent sociopaths who are a danger to all those around them. Like Training Day, Monster’s Ball, Precious, The Help, and The Butler, No Good Deed breathes new life into old stereotypes. Bringing the Black Brute back to the minds of a new generation of Blacks and Whites.

Reinforcing the idea in the minds of sociopaths like George Zimmerman and his enablers that this kind of Black menace exists. And the only way to protect oneself from them is with concealed carried handguns and use them to terrorize Black communities and eliminate their menace from society.

What most Black folks don’t understand is that usually the only way White folks thought they could stop a Black brute was to kill him. And in old pulp novels where the Black Brute was featured the only way to kill the Brute was for a White mob to hang him or to burn him alive. I have a feeling this will be the conclusion of this movie.

The Black man will be put in his place: Six feet under.

Brothers and sisters, you have to be careful about the media you imbibe. These racist stereotypes from Jim Crow and the Antebellum South have been repackaged in brand new boxes for a new generation of viewers. And if you watch too much of this media, you’ll start believing it to be the standard for the behavior of Black people.

Moreover, Black folks have to be careful about controlling the media that’s promoted in their communities. Images of Black Brutes are detrimental to Black men because it shows the world Black men are violent savages and not intelligent responsible and conscientious fathers, husbands, sons and brothers. The images in these kinds of films devalues the life of Black men by saying they’re not human.

Films like No Good Deed promote the idea that a Black man’s life has no value. And the only solution for any nonblack person dealing with any Black man is to execute them like an animal with depraved indifference and extreme prejudice.

The only way to stop this kind of dysfunctional media from being made and promoted is to vote with your wallet. And I’m urging Black people across the United States to not go see No Good Deed when it’s released. Buying a ticket for this movie is just like buying a White man a bullet to kill your brother, husband, son or father. The more we go see movies like this, the more Hollywood will produce. And the more they’ll perpetuate old racist stereotypes about Black people into society.