Gabrielle Union does not like black movies labeled as ‘urban’

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Gabrielle Union is insisting that movies, especially her new movie ‘The Perfect Holiday’, should not be called ‘urban’ just because black people star in them.

In a recent interview she said:

“No one calls Fred Claus the white Christmas movie. The Perfect Holiday is a movie about the holidays. It’s not race-specific.

“If there’s more than one black person in the movie, it’s an urban romantic comedy, an urban thriller - it’s just a flipping movie. The way kids think, the demographic they pander and chase - they don’t care.

“The same way guys are like, ‘Halle Berry’s hot, Jessica Alba’s hot’ - they don’t say, ‘She’s a hot black girl’ or ‘a hot Latina’. They notice trends, they buy movies they like, they Google people they like. It’s not race-specific…

“Give me a break. It’s an old-fashioned notion of marketing, and how they like to label things.”

I agree with her, because, black movies of late tend to be the same stereotypical stuff rehashed:

• Fish out of water comedy - Black person in ‘white setting’ teaching white people how to be ‘hip’
• Eating and praying - I liked Soul Food, great movie, however, does every ‘black’ movie made after Soul Food have to center on black folks eating big meals of soul food and praying? Check out ‘This Christmas‘ and you will see what I mean (it could have easily been Soul Food 2 by the way). Oh yeah, please, for the love of God - NO MORE SOUL TRAIN LINES!
• Can’t forget about the magical black man story lines where the character’s sole purpose is to help the white stars and rarely has a back story that would conflict with that. (Side note: these movies aren’t called ‘urban’)

;

As a result of the same ol’ stuff being done over and over, the ‘urban’ tag tells black folks exactly what is going to be in the movie, and guess what, WE EAT IT UP.

Studios make movies to make money. If these ‘urban’ flicks didn’t make money, they would not be made. Studios know that to make money, they need to make movies like ‘The Cookout’, ‘Who’s Your Caddy?’, etc.