Baby Boy

Anytime someone of the "Hip-Hop Generation" refers to their favorite movie, aside from Scarface, two other movies come to mind: Belly and Baby Boy. I'll be honest, I can't remember EVER being a fan of either movie, but I've sat through each of them time and time and time again, typically while visiting someone who was deeply engrossed in the movie. I don't own a copy of either and would probably never choose to watch it if I had my choice of what to watch. That being said, a couple of nights ago, hanging out with a couple of friends, Baby Boy came on TV. Both of my friends had fallen asleep and yet I laid on the couch wide awake re-watching this movie that I'd seen a gazillion and one times. But for some reason, this time was different. The introduction really struck me:

"There's this psychiatrist...a lady named Dr. Frances Cress Welsing. She has a theory about the black man in America. She says that because of the system of racism, the black man has been made to think of himself as a baby...a not yet fully formed human being who has not realized his full potential. To support her claim, she offers the following: First...what does a black man call his woman? Momma. Second, what does a black man call his closest acquaintances? His boys. And finally, what does a black man call his place of residence? The crib."

The following is the first ten minutes of the movie, but the video for the aforementioned quote is from 0-1:43.

I'd never read so far into the "slang" that we use, but there has to be some validity to this comment, because as I watched this movie, in each scene I could replace any one of the characters with someone I know. Hell, I have probably been a few of the females in the movie. I think it was enlightening, yet also frightening at the same time. Kind of the same reaction I had when I watched Good Hair by Chris Rock. These movies simply reiterate things we already know or have seen, yet, they've become such a common place, that we don't see certain actions as being erroneous. We have grown accustomed to passively observing and interacting on these levels. I always jokingly, (but seriously), say "Don't buy my Louis Bags, buy me STOCKS!" And I saw the same topic reintroduced in this movie as "Guns and Butter". I thought to myself, what a powerful analogy. I've blogged on this topic several times, the fact that we're are always so caught up with artificial status and what I call STUFF.

Guns and Butter:

I'm a young female who dates...sorta...This movie just helped me to recognize some of the characters in my life and how the characters in this movie are so REAL! Tyrese's character, Jody, made me so angry, because I've seen him many times before. Not "Jody", but males who act just like Jody. His arrogance, selfishness and sense of entitlement infuriated me, but the reality of the situation is, people can only do to you, what YOU allow. A lot of men AND women, talk big game but have and/or are living with Jodys. It's scary to know that this is some people's reality.

Like A Baby Boy:

Are we really content with the Baby Boys of our society? Or have they become such a common place, that we don't expect much more from them? Have we become enablers? I hear a lot of women complain about dating in Atlanta, because the ratio of men/women is so unreal. They always go on to add "And if you add in the ones who are gay, married or gay and married, you really have nothing left! " Have we led ourselves to believe that there are no REAL MEN out there? I know that there are REAL MEN all, I've met a few of them. I would even go so far as to say that there are some REAL MEN who are struggling with the Baby Girls of society. I wonder what that movie would look like. Hmmmm...