Chris Rock recently spoke about the unique pressure of being a Black entertainer. Pressures that White actors don’t have to deal with. He said that Denzel has a responsibility to his people that actors like Tom Cruise don’t. He said that no says to Tom Cruise, “Stay White. Don’t forget your whiteness.”
But I don’t have to tell you that Chris Rock is right. That is exactly what goes on in the Black community. The notion of selling out or “making us look bad,” for better or worse is a very real one. Actor Tyler James Williams, who just so happened to play a young Chris Rock in the hit series “Everybody Hates Chris,” found that out recently when he took on the role of Lionel in the smash indie film Dear White People.
In case you haven’t seen the movie, Lionel is gay. And not only gay but also incredibly socially awkward. Which makes it hard for him to fit in with both the Black and White kids on campus.
It plays out in a very interesting way on screen and I strongly encourage you to see the movie if you haven’t done so already.
But after the credits rolled and the screen went black, some Black audience members were left feeling betrayed.
Tyler spoke about this recently in a Huff Post Live interview.
“There’s this interesting thing in the Black community of staying real, never going away or forgetting where you come from and always representing the Black community well. Which is frustrating in a lot of ways and stressful as well. Because so many different parts– like any community of the Black community have different opinions. So it’s hard to please everybody and stay Black and proud. So especially with this, I got a good amount of backlash from a lot of the Black community, who are homophobic. And especially the “Everybody Hates Chris” audience, saying ‘we don’t mess with you anymore.’ ‘How dare you do this.’ ‘Why did you turn on us?’
And I was recently talk to Ali Leroi, who is the co-creator of “Everybody Hates Chris,” and he was saying what’s interesting with that is that for so long, there was so little portrayals of the average Black American that the average Black American male associated himself with whoever was on tv. So in this way, there’s still this mentality of ‘Okay, you’re a Black male on tv, I am you. Wait you’re gay? I’m not gay! No, no no. Never mind. We’re not the same thing. Forget you, we shun you now. That was very interesting like wow, we still have a ways to go.”
Tyler ain’t never lied. And I find it incredibly poetic that a movie that was meant to educate White people about their ignorances and prejudices ended up exposing a huge prejudice and problem in the Black community as well. Funny how life works out.
You can watch this segment in the video below and Tyler’s entire interview on the next page.
