At what cost???

Brent Staples explores in the article “Black Characters in Search of Reality” (12 Feb 2012) how black people have to work harder in the successes that they have and aren’t always proud of the way they can get to what they deserve. The author uses a number of examples to make his point. Staples write this article in order to bring light to the way certain African Americans gain reward and achievement in television. The article was intended to speak to people that doesn’t think anything is wrong with actors that play parts that are thought of belittling blacks.

I really enjoyed the article because I see where people come from. I remember when people were talking about the movie “The Help” being in the Oscars, but I do relate this to conversations to ones that people have about Tyler Perry’s Madea movies. People think that all black people act like her, carrying guns and smoking weed. People who don’t always watch the whole movie and don’t always get the moral message out of the movie prejudge it and think that it brings us as a people down.

The article was looking at how it seemed that African Americans can’t appear to get any appraised acting work unless it arguably racial based or one that makes blacks look bad to whites. It explains how upper class African Americans get upset because whites relate them to being poor or “hood”(150). But the best quote to me in the article was what Ms. McDaniel said was “she would rather pay a maid in the movies than be one”(150).