No. 22 - Boycott “first Sunday”

In movie theaters across America the hollywood engine is, once again, at work destroying the Black community. There is a statement we’ve all heard… “Art Imitates Life”… that’s only half of the truth… the other half is: “Art Dictates Life”. The truth of the matter is film is used to placate, implant, and incite society to respond to what is shown. I say this as a filmmaker, and I say it as a writer.

I am absolutely enraged at the very thought of a movie making light of – even making fun of – a Black church being robbed! hollywood will never be ashamed of itself unless we decide to hold hollywood accountable for their abundantly obvious callus and disrespect for our Church community. Our Churches are the very institutions that have safeguarded our communities and given us a greater sense of being. Our churches have served to meet our needs in so many cases when government, friends, family or work could not.

We are being stomped on, urinated on, and laughed at once again by the “powers that be”, and when it is all said and done they expect us to pay for admission to receive that “service”. My heart is screaming louder with every beat: WHEN WILL WE WAKE UP?

This is a call to every self-respecting member of the community, the clergy or the congregation to step to the plate and forego the lip service. This is my challenge to everyone who reads this to pass this on to anyone who has ever opened their mouth and said they believe in God, or they are a churchgoer.

If we ever needed a rallying cry to bring our people together to respond to the utter disdain so many have for our communities and beliefs, this is the call.

That movie should be boycotted. And every theater across this country that plays it should also be boycotted until WE feel they understand this will not be tolerated. And I believe the makers of that vile product owe the Black community a formal and public apology.

If you do not believe this film will plant subversive messages in the minds of the weak, the corrupt, or the grossly impoverished, I would ask you to consider this: About a week ago in a small church in Bloomingdale, Georgia, my mothers best friend along with some fellow Church members were robbed at gun point in church. True Story!
We have got to understand that until we start caring about ourselves, and the way we are collectively treated we will always be the brunt of the joke for much of mainstream America.

There is no humor in stealing from the Church. There is no humor in robbing the Church. There is no humor in one Black person robbing another. How can we even think there is?

I was taught to believe the Church was sacred in our community… that it deserved our respect because when we were in the throes of our fight for civil rights it was our safe haven, our place of common inspiration, our community stronghold. And let us not forget that during slavery Churches across America housed and hid our ancestors who were fleeing from that monstrosity. What has become so important that we have decided to sit on our laurels while the last standing frontier, the last standing representative voice of the Black community, is so openly disrespected.

It doesn’t matter if you are Baptist, Methodist, Seventh Day Adventist, Muslim, Catholic, Buddhist or Jehovah’s Witness… if you are Black then this movie insults and attacks you. And you ought to be raising the alarm in your place of worship, in your community, on your job and through your network. We ought to make it clear we will not tolerate this kind of demeaning, disrespectful vileness.

Let us not be misled… the people who put this product out there will not be impressed by a letter or a phone call. Those options may not even get their attention.

Black people are the primary group supporting the struggling motion picture film industry in America. When we stop supporting them, they will listen.

Think Montgomery Bus boycott, and the difference that made in America.

And while my tone may be misconstrued as demanding, please understand it is not… It is urgent!