White Writers, Black People

Novelist Richard Price set in his 1992 Novel Clockers in the fictional town in New Jersey. When Spike Lee turned Price’s Novel into his 1995 film he moved the action to his hometown of Brooklyn, New York giving the film a more personalized vision as great filmmakers always do. But Brooklyn also added a more pop culture sense of theater and operatic quality while also keeping the authentic gritty quality and style of the Novel. The book served as an inspiration for the hit drama The Wire where Richard Price served as a writer, working closely with the show’s creator, David Simon. The Wire takes place in Baltimore as did Simon’s first series Homicide: Life On The Street. Writers like Price and Simon seem highly interested in Black culture when it’s set in the world of Crime, drugs, guns, cops and craziness. It’s now been twenty-six years since Clockers so Where is the word of Clockers in New York today? White writers who have made their reputations and careers on writing about black culture have been lifted up and given this odd street cred cache as if they really know the streets, they deeply know the world that they’re writing about almost as if the real world wouldn’t exist without them writing it. It’s a bewildering sociological statement. A phenomenon of a stream of white Hollywood writers

completely lose interest when that culture isn’t steeped in crime, drugs, violence, guns, jails, prisons and police detectives and the gritty street world. There seem to be three areas where white writers and filmmakers are interested in black people. 1. The crime/hood world. 2. Blaxsploiation Satire Or 3. Totally invisible where Black people are present in the movie or tv show but appear in the background. At the edge of things. Their race seems unimportant to them or anyone else. In essence in film and TV black people are there for what they have always have been there for. To be feared, mocked or ignored. Maybe black characters aren’t that interesting to white writers when black characters escape the stereotype that white writers are so comfortable with. Are Richard Price or David Simon interested in a black person living in a suburb who isn’t a drug dealer, ex convict or a prostitute as he was so interested in a black character living in tenement building in an inner city slum dealing drugs? Why is David Simon so infatuated with Black characters when they’re getting killed, killing or slinging crack?. Are white audiences interested in reading books or seeing movies about black characters with black actors that aren’t stories that embrace those stereotypes? The movie Moonlight won the Oscar for best picture but it wasn’t exactly a blockbuster hit. The characters in that film busted out of their white Hollywood writer stereotypes as they were written by a black writer. When black characters have busted free of those stereotypes it’s been black writers and filmmakers that have busted them out not white writers. Training Day was a big hit but once again it was a gritty, crime, violent drug movie about cops and gangs. The movie starred Denzel Washington and was directed by African American director Antoine Fuqua but once again the movie and the story and the characters were all an invention by a white writer named David Ayers who also is infatuated with gritty crime and street movies and seemingly little else. When Denzel Washington played a Blue collar Father raising his family in 1960s Pittsburgh in the movie Fences white audiences and critics weren’t very interested. Spike Lee has been slammed his entire career because the white characters in his films were racist and evil. I guess the passion for that gritty truth and realism disappears when the mirror is placed in front of that white demographic and not at the black characters. Those complaints were never there when the only black people in a Martin Scorsese movie were a drug dealer or a gun toting robber. White people can only be evil in movies if they’re also the star played by a charismatic actor. Hannibal Lecter killed people and ate them but White people were incensed when Danny Aiello turned out to be a racist in Do The Right Thing. Hannibal Was bigger than life. White people must see themselves on screen as bigger than life characters and Heroes even when they’re the villain. It has to be heroic in some way. Big, Sensational, Operatic. Sonny in The Godfather Or Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver saying the N word is just fine. It’s accepted because Sonny and Travis are bigger than life characters who don’t have to bust out of a stereotype but the second the criticism of white racist characters is too specific, too authentic and too pointed and the character is portrayed as small because of his racism they get offended and turn on the movie. If you go Racist, go big or go home because white people don’t like Racists to look small. Racism can exist as long as its not pointed out. Sonny in The Godfather can say “Hey how about those N words driving Cadillac’s?” its okay as long as the conversation keeps moving after that but if Connie or Fredo had said “Hey look Sonny can you stop being racist at dinner please?” then there’s a problem. When Mookie confronts Sal or Pino in Do the right Thing and takes a minute and points out what they’re doing is racist and even delves into the reasons as to why they may be Racist there’s controversy. So why aren’t these white writers who were so interested in Black culture in The Clockers days interested in writing stories about Black people otherwise? Maybe White people just don’t like to be asked why. Why is bad. Why leads to self reflection not deflection “Why?” leads to looking at themselves personally. My God why might even lead to them having to change and who needs that?