Ed Gordon and The Roundtable, From March 3rd.

Topics- Congress, Supreme Court, and Hustle and Flow. I agree with the panelists 110% that the 'Hustle & Flow' role was basically a disgrace that will feed the stereotypes about Black men. Stereotypes that say we are all animals, all uneducated, we all glorify the "pimp" "hip hop" "thug" lifestyle, we all listen to rap music (I personally hate it), etc. Now the main song from the soundtrack is being marketed as an award winning result of musical genius.

It's embarrassing really. That's why I never went to see the movie.

Hustle And Flow is a perfect example of why I don't identify with so called popular "Black Culture"....I HATE IT! I don't think that I like anything about it. And I hate being lumped into a group based on my skin tone. It's so disrespectful. No other ethnicities in this country have to go through such issues regarding racial identity and being boxed into some category based on race.

And it's interesting how Hollywood & the Tony Awards never seem to notice other great black performances....more positive performances (I can name countless performances from Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Halle Berry, Denzel Washington and others that basically went unnoticed).... but they seem to notice and recognize the performances that show blacks in negative stereotypical roles, as ignorant, as sex objects, etc. The institutional racism is pretty obvious at this point. I wonder if Black Hollywood will ever stand up to say anything about it. What's even worse is that there are black folks who support this kind of material. Blacks often tend to join in and celebrate the degradation of their own image. It is no wonder why kids in the inner city aspire to be pimps, NBA players, Football players, drug dealers, playboys, models, sex objects, video girls, rappers, etc. These have become the virtues of "Black Americas" urban youth. The impact of these negative stereotypical images goes deeper than the CD's and the movie theaters. It affects how blacks view themselves, and how White America (and the world) perceives blacks in this country.

Here is the link for this roundtable discussion:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5243598
They discuss "Hustle and Flow" at the end of their segment. Just click the audio icon. This is the movie that Hollywood will be celebrating. (I get sick just thinking about it). I don't watch awards shows.... American awards organizations lost any sense of "art" a long time ago.