Shawn responds to Comments on his Halle Berry Blogs part 1

I had a person leave a comment on my blog regarding Halle Berry’s impact on Black Cinema. In it they make numerous excuses for Halle Berry. From their response they sound like a clueless Suburban Black person who has been indoctrinated into the Hollywood’s twisted way of thinking. After I make my rebuttal to their comments, I’ll explain why this type of brainwashed Black person is dangerous to brothers and sisters and the entire Black community overall.

Their comments are in bold and responses are regular text.

Halle has a soft screen presence that gets attention. It doesn't demand attention. People will look, comment on her beauty, and move on. Her presence and acting doesn't emit that wow factor.

Which is why Halle Berry is not a good leading actress or a good actress period. Having a soft screen presence is not the quality of a leading lady. A leading lady has to have that WOW factor, that ability to command the screen and carry a film.

A leading lady has to have a screen presence. She has to have charisma. She has to radiate energy from her first frame of the film to the last.

Commenting on her beauty is one thing. Paying $12 for a movie ticket is another. And Halle Berry can’t make people excited enough to pay for a movie where she’s star of the show.

Black Cinema existed before Halle came along. She doesn't have that much power to have that kind of effect. She is seen as a beautiful icon who made history. That's it. She is not concerned about black cinema. Halle is only concerned with HER status in Hollywood as the most prominent black actress.

You just summed up the problem. Halle Berry is only concerned about Halle Berry.

Halle’s status as the most prominent Black actress wasn't made by white people spending their money to see her films. It was made by the support of brothers and sisters who supported her. And when she turned her back on the Black community that was paying money to see her in those movies she LOST her position.

Without Black flimmakers offering her roles like Boomerang, Strictly Business, Jungle Fever and Queen There would be no Halle Berry.

And because she’s not concerned about Black Cinema, she doesn’t understand how racists are using her to keep Black cinema from moving forward. As I stated before it’s hard for a Black film to get produced. A Black star like Denzel Washington, Will Smith or Halle Berry can get a film greenlit or put into production by getting behind it.


But when top Black stars like Halle Berry star in five or more box-office failures it makes it harder for other film makers to get their projects made.

A Black actor can’t be an individual. A Black Film maker can't be an individual. A Black Screenwriter can't be an individual. In White Supremacist America One Black person’s actions affect the entire group of Black people.

When Halle Berry fucks up, it fucks things up for other Black actresses.

And That keeps other actresses from getting work. Moreover, it keeps young new talents from finding an opportunity to get work. When a Halle Berry movie fails, that role for a Black woman gets turned into a role for a Hispanic woman, an Asian woman or a White woman.

Anonymous goes on to say:

There are enough talented famous and non famous black filmmakers out there who can finance their own stuff. I don't understand why black people don't do this. I live on little money, yet I financed, wrote and starred in a short film that won Best Thriller at a local film festival here in LA.

This kind of individualized thinking is how Black people wind up being picked off by White Supremacists who want to maintain the power of institutional racism in this country.

Again, this brotha or sister is showing how they have been brainwashed by White Supremacists in Hollywood to believe they are an individual. They think they are a “special” nigger because they made a movie and they won a Best Thriller at a local film festival.

They obviously have no understanding of how Black films are made and financed. Or how they’re distributed in America.

Seriously, Where are these individuals again? Most Black filmmakers famous and non-famous I’ve heard from say that it’s next to impossible to get financing for their projects. And even harder to get distribution when they do get those films made.

It’s a know FACT that Black films are THE RISKIEST films to get made because they RARELY pull a profit in the U.S.

Worse, they can’t be sold in foreign markets usually due to the subject matter and the inept way they’re made.

Now you can self-finance a short. There aren’t that many scenes. But a feature length-film requires serious cash. Like a minimum of $20 million to $40 million dollars.

And it’s already hard to raise money for a Black film. And that money that becomes harder to get from investors when people like Halle Berry star in flop after flop after flop.

Just because YOU financed, wrote and starred in a short film that won at a local film festival doesn’t mean other brothers and sisters will get that opportunity or have access to that kind of cash.

Anonymous also goes on to say:

Halle is not responsible for the success of black cinema. She does not go out of her way to do "black movies" anymore either, and I am not faulting her for this. She doesn't want to be boxed, and that's a good thing.

Halle is not responsible for the success of other Black movies. I’ll agree with you on that. But she has been granted a tremendous opportunity because she starred in Black movies. Moreover, she became a star with the help and support of Black people and Black dollars.

When she says she does not want to do Black movies she is spitting in the face of the very people who supported her. Killing her money making potential at the box office.

Halle Berry became a star due to African-Americans paying money to see her movies. If she can’t draw brothers and sisters to go see her movies. she doesn’t have any star power.

That’s why Halle Berry needs to go out of her way to reach back to the people who made her a star. It is HER RESPONSIBILITY to reach back to the next generation of Black filmmakers and help them get that toehold in the cinematic arena.

Halle does not want to be boxed? Ironically, that’s what those White Supremacists in Hollywood have done for the past ten years. BOXING HER into the jezebel stereotype with stuff like Swordfish, Die Another Day, Perfect Stranger and Monster’s Ball.

Packaging people is what Hollywood DOES. Hollywood executives take an actress and put them in films that allow them to sell an actress. The goal of the packaging is to maximize profits at the box-office.

Every big budget commercial film Halle has starred in post-Oscar has been some bland thriller or action pic where they play up her sexuality. Even the arty films like Things we Lost in the Fire and Frankie and Alice all utilize some element of sexuality or sensuality.

And now that they can’t make any money off her at the box-office they’re boxing her in to the Sapphire stereotype. When she turned on Gabriel Aubry, the White Supremacist media turned on her, portraying her as a domineering emasculating Black Bitch who berated and humiliated her man.

I know there are great black writers out there who write scripts, sell them, only to have the studio execs cast only white people in them.

I’ll agree with you on this. It’s one of the reasons I want NOTHING to do with Hollywood. It’s one of the points I detailed in my screenplay All About Marilyn. I’d advise you to read it.

Black people should write and finance and distribute their own stuff. We may not get the results we want in this generation but it will set up the next generation to have it easier.

This person is totally CLUELESS when it comes to life as an African-American. They must come from the suburbs and their parents must have taught them to believe in the God damn rainbow where everyone just gets along regardless of color. They have to be living under a magic rock to be THIS fucking oblivious to White Supremacy and Racism.

Seriously, How can Black people who have no money finance their own stuff when we don’t control the money?

How can we get films distributed when we don’t control the distribution systems?

In America Cinematic distribution is controlled by six conglomerates: Viacom, Newscorp, Disney, Comcast/Universal, Warner Brothers, and Sony. If they don’t buy your film no one will know it exists until it appears on direct-to video where it’ll be stigmatized and seen as crap by the audience.

And where are Black people they going to learn about screenwriting in a White Supremacist education system where many brothers and sisters barely know how to read at a fifth grade reading level? How will they get skills to make films in a world 50% of Black people don’t finish High school?

Now I was blessed enough to teach myself about screenwriting. But film school is a four-year commitment after college. How are Black people going to get to film school if most of them can’t even finish High School?

And how will the next generation of Black people have it easier if a majority of them are being raised by a bunch of illiterate people and stranded in poverty on public assistance or dead-end jobs?

Whoever this is really takes their position in life for granted. They haven’t taken a look at the real world objectively.

If you are Black, there will always be a struggle to make any progress in life. There will be an even greater struggle to maintain wherever you are when you get there. No matter your position in life you will always encounter racism. You will always encounter discrimination. You will always have to FIGHT.

Many of the gains brothers and sisters made throughout the last 25 years after the Civil Rights Movement were wiped out soon after the verdict of the OJ Simpson trial.

Why? Because a generation of Brothers and sisters like Halle Berry and this Anonymous individual got comfortable and took their position in life as Black people for granted. They thought were finally part of this great American Melting pot. They didn’t understand that White Supremacist America NEVER has had a place for Black people.

And because they took their position in life for granted, African-Americans no longer own radio stations. We no longer own newspapers or magazines. We no longer own TV channels or movie theaters. We have no businesses or wealth in our communities. 90 percent of Black America’s wealth is now owned by a White Supremacist corporate oligarchy. 98 percent of Black dollars go out of the community into the hands of someone of another race to make them wealthy.

I dare to say Black people today are worse off today than they were during slavery. And the next generation will be worse off than our slave ancestors 20 years from now.

At least the slaves had skills like tailoring, blacksmithing, carpentry, and farming when they were freed. And our Northern Free people of Color like Fredrick Douglass had skills in publishing, barbering printing, law, Medicine, and other trades.

Most of today’s Black people don’t even have those abilities. All they’re being raised to be are entertainers and athletes.

And every Black person can’t be Halle Berry or Lebron James. Hell, they can’t even be Shawn James.

Here’s the facts. The next generation of Black people will NOT have it easier. That is a delusion of grandeur Black people in denial say to themselves.

The next generation of Black people are going to have it WORSE than my generation in 20 years. 70 percent of them are being raised by single mothers. 70 percent are living in poverty 50 percent of them don’t have can’t even get a High school diploma even though the material has been dumbed down to the sixth grade level. Most are destined to be stuck in low-wage jobs for the rest of their natural born lives or in and out of the prison system.

Brainwashed brothers and sisters like this are dangerous. They’ve been programmed to believe that they are “individuals” or “Americans”. That their actions only effect them and only them. That their mistakes don’t affect others.

They’re the kind of Black people who take their position in life for granted. They think everyone has an opportunity not understanding that America has historically denied equal opportunities to Black people for over 400 years. That White Supremacists in a corporate oligarchy continue to use a combination of business policy, laws and unwritten social rules to keep Black people oppressed.

When Black people like this are in positions of power And they have the ability to make decisions that impact the lives of brothers and sisters in the Black community. And because they’re clueless, their decisions keep other Black people in poverty.

All while they say they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.

Not understanding the many privileges they were blessed with over brothers like me who grew up in poverty.

None of us are individuals.  Not me, Not Halle Berry, and not this Anonymous person. We are all connected to each other on this planet. When one of us acts it impacts other people. And when you’re Black your actions can either help other black people or hurt them.

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This individual also comments on the Halle Berry Baby Mama drama without the understanding of why Halle Berry’s behavior is embarrassing to All Black women. I’ll be commenting on that in the next blog.