RACIST HOLLYWOOD (2023)

Reins of Freedumb

By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

We’ve forgotten that Hollywood began
By promoting the Ku Klux Klan.

Its first blockbuster presentation,
The film The Birth of a Nation.

That dehumanized Black men,
Portraying them as all having a plan.

To stalk, prey on, and rape white women,
So the Klan must protect them and.

Keep Blacks out of political power,
Because ignorant, corrupt, destined to sour.

Cherished white ideals,
That Blacks will only rape, maim, and steal.

This image prevailed, then,
Came the film Gone With the Wind.

Cast the Black woman as not too bright,
Whose only use was to serve the whites.

And remember the minstrel shows,
The most famous was Jim Crow.

The craze that swept the nation,
Even became the name of segregation.

Hollywood continued this disgrace,
Stereotyping us in blackface.

Humiliating us was funny,
Then they saw Black films made money.

So as Sydney Pointier revealed,
The fate of Black actors was sealed.

Only a handful would receive,
All the major roles played by 2 or 3.

Nothing’s changed its the same today,
A small group of Black actors still play.

In all major films,
To name just one of them.

Samuel L. Jackson over 40 to his name,
Instead of diversity and opportunity its the same.

Black faces in feature after feature,
As though talented Blacks are a rare creature.

And let’s not forget Tarzan,
Afrika subdued by a single white man.

Or the insane joy,
Of typecast Indians slaughtered by cowboys.

And the major problem we don’t control,
How we are portrayed in roles.

So our youth are fed images to emulate,
That continue to misrepresent and berate.

Our history, our image, our ideals,
While our creations Hollywood steals.

The misrepresentation never stops,
Our feature roles crooks or cops.

Like Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind,
We’re either degenerates or servants of their system.

At the end of the day its all about,
How much money we can make them no doubt.

So including Blacks isn’t a care,
Until they consider market share.

Or they need to suppress,
Stirrings of Black unrest.

Both these factors were the inspiration,
Behind the era of Blackspoliation.

The use of film was devised as,
A counter to the 1960s uprisings.

And we all recognize racism on award nights,
The exclusion of color in “Oscars too white.”

So the response is cloaked in,
Recognizing a few Black and Brown tokens.

And this is supposed to make it all good,
A facelift in blackface to racist Hollywood.