(ThyBlackMan.com) Success in Hollywood can be the key to fame, fortune and the fulfillment of all of your dreams as an actor. But those dreams can sometimes come at a price, especially for African Americans. One price that may be paid is your dignity and self-respect, leading you to do things you wouldn’t normally do if you weren’t being paid to do them.
Dave Chapelle, while speaking with Oprah about his experience in Hollywood, said he became disillusioned with the fact that nearly every great black comic and many black male actors are asked to dress as women at some point in their careers. While some white actors dress as women, the list isn’t nearly as long as it is for black men, who comprise a very small percentage of the men in Hollywood.
Chris Rock also said that a masculine black man with “a goatee and base in your voice” has a very difficult time making it in Hollywood.
When considering the numbers of black men in Hollywood who have put on a dress for success, the list is long and a little bit shocking. Also, this list is non-exhaustive:
1) Eddie Murphy
2) Martin Lawrence
3) Wesley Snipes
4) Terry Crews
5) Kevin Hart
6) LeBron James
7) Kenan Thompson
8) Jamie Foxx
9) Tyler Perry
10) Charles Barkley
11) Chris Tucker
12) Ving Rhames
There are actually quite a few others who can be added to the list as well. What’s interesting about this list is that if you try to create an equivalent list of white actors who’ve done the same thing, it’s just not nearly as long. I don’t recall seeing Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Leonardo di Caprio, Matthew Mcconaughey and other famous white actors slapping on a miniskirt for laughs. Could it be that the black male image is so powerful, domineering and overwhelming that only a dress, wig and a little twerk can make it less threatening?
Here’s a new Old Spice commercial featuring actor Terry Crews. Crews, as the star of “Everybody Hates Chris” stands alone as one of the few strong father figures left on TV, especially after Bill Cosby’s complex personal life has left his legacy in ashes. So, you can imagine how hurtful it is to see Crews join the legions of black men willing to put on a dress in order to make a buck.
For the record, I still respect and appreciate Terry Crews as an actor. I just wonder whose idea it was for him to dress as a woman. Imagery does matter, and we must consider the complexities of leading young black men to believe that emasculating yourself or becoming a televised clown is the key to being successful. You can never become the king if you’re always signing up to be the court jester.
If a man as talented and successful as Terry Crews has to put on a dress in order to make a buck, it seems that many other black male actors in Hollywood don’t stand a chance. You can watch the new ad below. Terry Crews can be very funny on-screen, but with all the serious issues facing the black male’s right to manhood, we have to ask just how far we’re willing to go in order to make other people laugh.
[youtube AtJPZGsqaYs]
Staff Writer; Dr. Boyce Watkins
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. For more information, please visit http://BoyceWatkins.com.
The entertainment and sports world along with Hollywood is run by rich wealthy liberal gay Jews that want to break the man down and dress him like a women and a good would into a sex symbol /object. Who ever doesn’t see this is a walking zombie or doesn’t care about pride and dignity Today’s under cover on the down low all started because of hollywood , why you may ask.? They are controlling and sick to a degree of shameless like mad scientist building a nd creating this new gay monster that the heterosexual must except and hopefully get on board and participate its call disruption of the manly race culture,
M
Steve what happens when my 7 year old male chils see this, its bad enough that we have to explain to them that sponges and animals can’t talk and that Santa does not come down the chimney. we have inidated our children with nonscense that we must later on in life either retrain them or put them on psycotropic drugs to control a behaviour that was more in likely caused by the unrealities of life that they have to circumnavigate. the image of white celebrities s not being assaulted , and if you find this not to be true check out all the new movies on OWN or speak to Tyler Perry who ‘s movies just denograte Black Men while making black Women look like goldiggers or Whores ,and this is on purpose.
we must not forget the saying that White Suprememacy cannot proser with out BLACK COMPLIANCE. they need to have those power brokers in place just in case you as a Black man gets an idea of breaking away from control. they are there to redirect your energy to a place that is comfortable for comfortable for White Elite ,and generally it is the Black Elitye who is charged with keeping its people ignorant and broke. accumulative wealth of Black people during reconstruction was 1.1 percent ,and guest what it is today. it is just a perception that we have made strides, we have actually lost more then we have gained. the idea is to show all of our young men that see it is OK to be a homosexual. look all of your statrs and athletres are doing it. It is also stated i nanother articl that white men dress in drag. yes this is true and only in the movies. Black men do this in real life ,and their image is not under assault i nthe media and in print. they are systematically assassinating the image of black people , thus the need for us to exist.
ITS CALLED THE EFFEMINIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAM MALES. its a form of genocide.
There is so much wrong with this “article” and all of it says more about homophobia in the black community than it does about some imaginary conspiracy to put black men in drag. So many false premises are presented. Right off the bat, there is an implication that an actor playing a role outside his comfort zone is somehow losing dignity. It’s called being an actor. Then you go on to indulge in various false flag type statements and analogies that are a stretch at best, like comparing a list of true A-list actors like “Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Leonardo di Caprio, Matthew Mcconaughey “ to the list you presented. Only one actor on that list is truly in the category of the aforementioned in terms of having a long career of primarily blockbuster movies, and even that is being generous. A couple actors on that list besides Murphy have been the stars of blockbusters, but he is probably the only one who it can be said that every movie he has been in since he rose to fame has been in that category (even if the movie flopped). Snipes had one blockbuster series and 2-3 A-list role but fizzled quickly. Not downing him because very few black actors are given the chance to maintain their success after their breakout role. Hart may join Eddie. Time will tell. In the meanwhile, most of his career has been low budget material aimed at solely black audiences. He is mainstream now and the most marketable name in comdey. We have seen this movie before though. Funny standup black guy gets to be the black guy of the moment until he is replaced. Hope that is not true for Hart, but don’t act like that’s not a bigger problem than drag. Foxx is borderline in that he gets the lead role now and then but not consistently. But for sake of argument, I will put him in that category too. The other true A-list black actors are Denzel, Morgan Freeman, Samuel jackson and Will Smith off the top of my head. Comparing the Brad Pitt’s of the world to the Keenan Thompson’s of the world is a joke.
The other big mistake related to this is most of the list are comedians or were in comedic roles. The fact that big roles in hollywood tend to be more available in comedy than any other genre. White actors who do comedy are often in drag too:
Robin Williams
Adam Sandler
Michael J Fox
Tim Curry
Tom hanks (in his comedy days)
and many more (going old school you could list legends like Chaplin, fatty Arbuckle, Tony Curtis, jack lemon and Jerry lewis) .
Drag has always been a cheap laugh, regardless of race when it comes to comedy, but white actors doing drag extends beyond that:
Daniel Craig
Johnny Depp
James Franco
John Travolta
William Dafoe
Jude law
Guy Pearce
Matt leblanc
Kurt Russell
Patrick Swayzie
Dustin Hoffman
Rivals (and honestly surpasses in terms of fame , box office success and marketability) the list posted. Most of this list were big enough at the time that they did not have to dress in drag. They did it because they are actors and have the sense to know that playing a fictional role does not emasculate anyone except a guy who is already a closet case. I doubt Mr Crews feels one less bit feminine and I hope he is not sitting around worrying that misguided homophobic people are going to derail his career by looking too deeply into conspiracies. When comedy stops being the easiest path to success for black male actors, the number of drag roles will decrease. If Keenan Thompson was starring as the lead in a chick flick with Mefryl streep, I doubt he would be asked to be in drag.
Did Will Smith really dress as a woman?! I thought he was one of the FEW black men that escaped the dress.
Let’s not forget to add Will Smith to that list in “The Wild ,Wild West” and Michael Strahan dresses as a women on “Kelly and Michael” quite often. I am a black woman and I find it insulting that these men allow themselves to be emasculated by hollywood over and over again. And even though they’re comedic actors I don’t find it funny. It’s old and tired. I just wish these black men in Hollywood held their manhood their strength and rich history in as high regard as I do and no amount of money should be enough to sacrifice that. I really admire that Dave Chapelle walked away from such a lucrative career to stay true to himself and his beliefs. I would rather people hate me for being myself than just like me for acting the fool that they want me to be.
@Steve, it would not surprise me one bit at all that you are probably one of those cowardly ” I’m pretending to be a black person” types so I can screw around on black oriented websites individual.
@Steve – you have NO idea what you’re talking about. The author that wrote this piece and the other commenter on this thread are speaking at a level clearly above your present capacity. At this point, there is no need for the rest of us to try to enlighten you. Go pick up a book and learn about the history of the emasculation of black males for white entertainment, then we can talk.
Not falling for the DL issue you tried to interject into the conversation because I see that you are trying to bring the level of discourse down to a comfort level. Not buying it.
Excellent article, even though some of those who are commenting on it (Steve) do not have a clue as to what is going on. Emasculating African-American men to be effeminate is a direct attack against our manhood. It’s belittling and shameful. It’s not just entertainment, it’s a display of what price ignorant African-American men will pay for fame while they are laughed at by the white people who own the studios and production houses.
I am also proud of what Dave Chappelle did in taking a stand.
If you do not stand for something, you will fall for anything and end up inadvertently projecting yourself as somebody’s bitch.
People, give me a break. Do you mean to tell me that his portrayal of a hideous looking woman, with a mustache, somehow lends to his popularity? He’s a comedic actor, and in case you’ve forgotten, a comedic actor will do a lot of things for a laugh that non-comedic actors won’t do. Dave Chappelle portrayed a blind klansman and a crack addict. In the pantheon of doing damage to our community both of these characters have historically been much more damaging that a man wearing a dress. BUT, he did it with his comedic aplomb and very good writing. Both portrayals were hilarious.
What this criticism is really about is being culturally offensive. We have to be able to separate how our sensitivities are offended, and call them out as that. It is precisely for this reason that so many of our men have been able to hide a lifestyle that has been far more damaging on our community that simply wearing a dress for, once again, comedic laughs. I’d rather a straight actor wear a dress, a la Wesley Snipes in Too Wong Foo, than a man who is pretending to be one thing but is, in fact, something else.
It’s okay to laugh sometimes. Really, it is.
Dr. Watkins-
Add the following other black men to your list:
Shawn Wayans
Marlon Wayans
David Alan Grier
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
I’m sure if I gave it more thought I’d be able to come up with at least a dozen more. The story here is that these are the ONLY black men white Hollywood are willing to cast. It’s as simple as that. The black men who refuse to emasculate themselves are the ones you never heard of because they are not being cast in major roles.
These black men need to stop it. At some point it has to not be about the dollar but about your dignity.
I am proud of what Dave Chappelle did. Most black male actors would not have done what he did. But, funny you see that his career is basically OVER after he refused to dress in drag. He’s back to doing stand-up on his own. Very telling indeed.
Crews is and always has been a sambo, he justified all kinds of racist behavior white inflect on blacks. That’s why he gets a of work as an actor.