“And the Winner is … ”

My 18 year old son somehow convinced me to watch the move “Predators” the other night. Although I found this science fiction movie to be action packed with some decent special effects, for my taste, there was way too much testosterone gone bad!  In any event, as Joseph and I continued to watch the story unfold, my son said to me “I bet you anything Mom that the African American dude gets killed first”   “No Way” I replied. I was astounded by this assumption because I think that Mahershalalhashbaz Ali as Mombasa, is not only awesome for the part, but he is damn good lookin’ to boot! Well I was right, it was an American Mexican who was killed first, Dan Trejo... so there!

Whoops, not more than a few minutes latter BAM, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali was skewed like a shish-kabob!

So here I thought I found out this hidden little industry secret. As soon as I went to work I tracked down an African American friend/mentor, (I’ll call her MW) whom I admire and anxiously told her of my new found revelation!  New…Hmmm, I don’t think so as she chuckled as she repeated to me that the Black actors who are not box office wonders, usually get killed first or soon there after.  Well thanks MW, there goes my new found theory! But in all seriousness, I am glad that I learned just one more fact that validates how racism is so embedded in our societal culture, that it has become second nature when refuting the possibility that this still occurs, and is a constant reminder of how much more work we need to actually do!!

If you are a Black actor but you are not a big headliner like Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Laurence Fishburne, Morgan Freeman, and Samuel L. Jackson to name a few, there are three elementary questions one should asked themselves before watching a movie, during and up until the movie credits.                                                                       

1. Does the Black actor die first?

2. If not, how soon does he/she die?

3. Can a Black person ever make it to the credits?

Oh yeah, I would like butter on my popcorn too please!