So now we’re to believe that the only reason that Jennifer Hudson is on Sex And The City is for racial balance. I had to go to an Indian news site to find that out, of course. Personally, it isn’t surprising and I doubt that news is either a deal breaker for African-American fans of the show nor the jump off for true discourse as a discussion for race in entertainment. There are a few reasons I make this assertion; first off everyone knows Jennifer Hudson “owned” Dreamgirls her singing voice was great, and that helped, but her acting was superb and few can question her being recognized for the work that she did in that film.

Those still being acclimated to social-networking, Internet “speak” the term owned suggests that someone kicked a*; but the other part of my argument is that I am sick of seeing token Blacks on television, because I never needed them. Before I move on though; why didn’t they give Eddie Murphy an Oscar, was it because of his personal life, perhaps they don’t like him so much out there what gives? That was the best we had seen of him in years. One other thing, Halle Berry was owning every single movie she was in before Monsters Ball so give it up to her, she didn’t need the film to convince anyone of her talent and quite personally I’ve seen better films with her in it because if anything that’s just a rough art film to me. Did she really sell out, what type of character was she not typecast in her entire career that wasn’t identical to that exact role; the only thing that happened there was that you may have gotten an extra layer of depth with the character but it’s difficult to tell if it wasn’t because of the tone of the film, which sort of put all of the characters out there in that way or if she really stepped it up a notch. If we really had a problem with it we’d find a script that would allow her to truly become that three dimensional character that she wasn’t in that, and many other films she’s been in.

I grew up in the days of segregated television, where you watched a show simply because it was a great show, not because you saw a Black face. I never even watched the episode of All In The Family where Sammie Davis Junior showed up, sure I heard about all of the episodes where African-Americans were guest stars on Friends long after the fact and could have cared less if one made a guest appearance on Three’s Company.

Is there some devious message behind Clifford The Big Red Dog because he’s red? Is it pro communism; I mean maybe 30 years ago you couldn’t have done that type of thing because everyone was taking pot shots at everyone else. Shows I did like from the seventies and eighties that featured an all-Black cast were very denigrative and exploitive anyway; The Jeffersons, Good Times, What’s Happening, must I go on? Shows from the eighties tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to convince me that Whites and Blacks could get along; Different Strokes, Webster, Benson, these were good shows but they went a little too far towards being politically correct.

Children aren’t hung up on the fact that Clifford is red and we shouldn’t care so much that Barnie is purple. Sure the effeminate child is a huge star in children’s television as of late, but children aren’t paying no where near as much attention to it as we would. Perhaps it is teaching young men something other than being over masculine, is a response to the metrosexuals in society or any number of things. You don’t pontificate with a child making a case for Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street being lifted from The Odd Couple any more than you espouse your conspiracy theories about hidden messages in the Smurfs. Let them have it and figure it out once they’re grown. So yeah I am okay with watching a show that doesn’t have any Black actors in it. If it is a good show I’ll watch it; hey I love Superbad, on the other hand the politically incorrect stuff that happens on The Office is hilarious. But what they do on the British version of The Office would have Americans outside of NBC picketing and demanding the removal of the show if they tried to pull that off over here.

That’s why Coupling never worked here, because we’re too uptight. Don’t get me wrong, mixing things up on the big screen and intercultural scripts are great and all, and in real life there probably were some African-Americans around somewhere in Candace Bushnell’s life, yet do we really need to know that? On the other hand, this doesn’t diminish Jennifer Hudson as an actress because I think we’ve yet to see her full potential as an actress. You take the jobs that are going to position you in that industry, and to some Jennifer Hudson is already an A list actress so who else would have been in the film that we haven’t already seen too much of already?

You don’t have to patronize your African-American viewership. We watch all types of stuff, hot foreign films with subtitles, art films that don’t make a whole lot of sense coming or going, rough foreign horror films in their original incarnation, pretentious comedy films that poke fun at the seriousness of life, much of which do not make any sense at all. Was The Jerk funny, are there African-American art films, actually yes though little attention is paid to them, why did it take for someone to talk about an interracial relationship between a Black woman and a White man for anyone to truly take notice of the genre. Not all of us are watching Baby Boy, Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, Paid In Full, Dead Presidents or Menace to Society. Those are great films, classic films but then again they are in any capacity, then again I’m still watching those old blaxploitation films like Shaft.

We know that The Wiz sucks, but it’s our film we owned that film and we’ll defend it in our graves. Let us have that film! We know that you hate it because it makes a mockery of The Wizard of Oz but quite honestly, as many films as you have let it go already. We’ll always continue to find a way to own something that isn’t ours, and it’s more of a compliment or a tribute than it is deep seated issues, though for some it may be perhaps. How old was the Wizard of Oz when The Wiz came out, I mean wasn’t the intellectual property of that film a non-issue it should have been in the public domain by then. A lot of the actors weren’t even around by that time.

What’s unfortunate is that it took Michael Jackson some time to find himself after that; I guess he still had that ball and chain (The Jacksons) getting in the way of his true success. Um, no, the real ball and chain is New Edition, when you’re Bobby Brown and quite honestly aren’t that great of an artist to begin with, a great performer but at the end of the day another uninfluential pop singer. Shameful, just let it go already you sold as many albums because you had some great producers and did one h*ll of a performance on stage. I stuck with Bobby all the way up until he tried to be gangsta with Ja Rule, if anyone remembers that; by then it was obvious the drugs had taken over. Of course if I ever met him in real life, regardless of what I say here, that’d be really cool.

Which is all that I’m saying at the end of the day; there is still something magical and wonderful about television and cinema, regardless of how horrible, or politically correct, or politically incorrect, or how it goes against the grain of your values or how you choose to take issue with it. So maybe they weren’t keeping it real on the Sex And The City movie, or felt the need to bend the rules a little. But we’re still going to watch it; hey I ended up watching the entire first season in syndication I’d be hypocritical not to do so. It’s the same reason I was a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm; Seinfeld was watered down so I just had to get a taste of that humor straight up, and I’m glad that I did …