For the entirety of my life, I have been a romantic. I have always loved the innocent beauty of love and my chosen literature reflected this while growing up.
I have read the likes of Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Anne of Green Gables all of my life and relished when I had the opportunity to see these works of pure art brought to life via the theatre and in movies.
I greedily watched with baited breath, the Jo's and Elizabeth's of my literary choices come ALIVE and visualized in all their radiance in a time of pure, sweet innocence.
Escorts and chaperones. Parlor rules. Long, handwritten letters. Declarations of love from a man who has never been alone with you before. Innocence. The love of a time long gone.
As we know...that time seems to be not much more than a myth. Traditions of cherishing innocence are old fashioned at the least...and barbaric at the most.
But I still enjoy a good innocent movie.
If only I could I let myself...completely.
As a Black woman, I'm as proud as they come and...I'm much smarter than the average bear. I've known forever why I could never COMPLETELY enjoy the romances of old because of the absence of Black people.
None.
Where are they?
My favorite show growing up was Little House on the Prairie. I LOVED the whole dang gang...even Nellie with her lil evil azz. I never, EVER, missed an episode. My father, the Black militant he was, allowed me to enjoy it but always, ALWAYS reminded me that the one Black family that showed up toward the end of the series probably didn't live like that. You see...he was trying to allow me to have my innocence but preparing me for the real world as well.
Never forget Princess. Never forget.
The end of my innocence as he regaled me with reality.
It only takes a glance at the titles of the movies tucked under the master, Sidney Poitier's hat for you to see how black life has been translated for the most part. Slavery, constant struggle, barely making ends meet, racism, sexism, and exploitation of our life as it once was.
I was that kid they always said had "been here before." I loved sitting with the elders and listening to their stories. Their words painted pictures for me and I was never, EVER afraid to allow myself to imagine a time when...
But I hardly ever heard stories of innocence...of romance...of a black Jo or a black Elizabeth. But I heard of lots of tragic black women whose lives ended up tainted somehow because of how beautiful they were. Never the same as the Scarlet's of the world because her beauty was celebrated and protected by men and marriage, but the beauty of a black woman back in the day when a man decided to make her his property regardless her age or innocence...a sex symbol with breath sweet as cow's milk.
I don't remember there being anything on television or at the movies that my parents would allow us to watch with an all black cast. There were usually guns involved, pimps, hos, comedic crooks even as in one of my favorite movies, Let's Do It Again. Yup...Mr. Bootney Farnsworth himself. Good Times in our household was a HELL NO ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND.
How beautiful was Carmen? The bad, black woman with killer legs and known for NOT being good? Ridiculously so.
You ever heard of Panama Hattie? Prolly not. Why? Because it WAS innocent and the beautiful Ms. Lena Horne sang with the range and control stars of today with all their editing machines WISH they could re-create.
But I bet you've heard of Dolomite and Foxy Brown. The Penitentiary movies? Yeah...you remember em. Why?
Cuz black innocence was never something screen worthy.
Sure...it's gotten better. But not by much.
When Delana was here we went to the bookstore to buy her some books. We found one book with a young black girl on the cover. I read the synopsis and it was about a young girl whose mother died and she had to go live with her rich father whom she didn't know. I was cool with that so I bought it.
A couple of days later she was in the truck reading and she gasped and I asked her if her book was good with a smile on my face because I enjoyed seeing her so engrossed in her book. She said yes. I asked her to tell me about the part she was on and she told me that the girl's friend who was 14 has a baby by a 23 year old and she just got into a fight with another girl who was pregnant by the same 23 year old. I snatched that fucking book out her hands and threw it the fuck away.
Needless to say...I was PISSED. The only book we saw with a young black girl on the cover and THAT's the ish she was dealing with. No traveling pants for her. No sleuthing...14 year old baby mama drama.
I can't wait to share with my daughter the joys of the innocence of life featured in Little Women. In Pride and Prejudice. In Anne of Green Gables. And I will wait patiently for that dreaded day she asks the most obvious of questions, "Mommy, where are the black people?" and then watch as my honest answer wilts her innocence just a little.
My friends who are not Black never understand why Black folks just can't get over certain things and I never, EVER feel compelled to gloss over it in the event they ask. For all of my life I have been proud of being Black REGARDLESS of the absence of the innocence of Black people in the media. I was raised to be proud and to believe I was a Princess even though Disney JUST had the grand idea that a Black girl could be one.
Black folks never had a chance to be innocent. Here in this country we went from slaves to worse before it got better and we had to keep our chins up to fight the good fight while looking over one shoulder. The Civil Rights movement came and went and it was replaced by false bravado in those that didn't ever RESPECT the struggle of those who wanted...no DEMANDED...better. You think everybody marched? Hell no. Everybody did NOT march and my elders have always been quick to point out the families that didn't because they were damn proud they DID. I come from good stock. Folks who learned how not to let the absence of Black innocent jade their progress.
Black folks never had a chance to be innocent. We always had those safe "warnings" embedded right.beneath.the.surface.
It's far past my bedtime as I stayed up watching Pride and Prejudice again. And then...I felt the need for some Love Jones. I'm melancholy at best...the drugs are working their magic fo sho.
Hi folks...I'm CreoleInDC and I AM BLACK. One day...I'm going to make movies.
