“Greatness should not just be based on how many Books, CD’s and Tickets did it sell.”- Spike Lee

This is a direct quote taken from acclaimed film director Spike Lee’s Twitter earlier today. It was in response to the criticism he has been receiving as of late for him voicing his opinion on fellow film Director Tyler Perry’s work. There has been a fiery exchange of words between Lee and Perry over the previous months. More words have came from Lee’s mouth than Perry’s up to this point. In fact, Perry has remained virtually silent as Lee rattled off his opinion of Perry’s work as often as he deemed suitable. Until recently when Perry finally exclaimed that he wished Lee would “shut the hell up”. Apparently Perry is fed up with the dogmatic criticism he has received over his work from Lee.

Criticism that many, including myself, feel is well deserved to a point. According to Lee, much of Tyler Perry’s body of work is nothing more than a modern day minstrel show. The only thing that is missing is the black face. He feels that Perry is setting Black people behind years by perpetuating the many stereotypes of Black people that we have fought and currently still do fight to avoid in our everyday lives.

Before I continue, I want to first state the most painfully obvious aspect of this debate. The existence of Black power players in Hollywood is virtually non existent. So to see the two most well known Black Directors unable to at least respect one another’s craft is well, for lack of a better word, sad. You would think that both would be able to put their own egos, pride, and jealousy to the way-side for the sake of solidarity. For the mere fact of them being one of the very few Black Directors who have been able to make any type of impact on Hollywood. For them being two of the few who have been accepted by any length into a Hollywood dominated by Whites.

Having said that, I want to be even more frank. We all have seen Perry’s work as well as Lee’. Both of the brothas have something different to offer to Black audiences and audiences in general. However, both of their work portray Black people in contrasting manners. While Lee has always attempted to display Black people in roles with internal growth, complex characters, and dealt with whatever social issues were surrounding Blacks at the time; Perry chooses to focus on the light hearted side of Black life. He also knows his audience and knows that they like seeing images that they are accustomed to seeing and that they can easily relate to. So bring on the fat, loud, religious, Black woman who comes bearing wisdom and ass whoppings to all of her kin folk because that reminds us of our dear old Granny or Auntie.

While some would argue that the latter is a degrading portrayal, others would defend it saying that it is a reflection of some people’s reality and the reason why they can relate to the material. They see themselves, and family members in some of the characters that Perry creates. Creating this connection with your audience through your writing is what helps to build life long fans of your work. A task that Perry has seemingly done in a span of only a few years.

Personally, I have taken issue with some of Perry’s work as I find that he often plays up stereotypes. An act that I don’t delight in seeing being considered the norm by mainstream audiences. Many, who only interact with Black people when they see them in music videos or in movies. Having said that, I can understand why Lee would be disappointed. In all fairness, he has spent over 20 years of his career trying to create images of Black people that showed us in a positive progressive light. Images that did not highlight stereotypes or recycled caricatures. Perry comes along seemingly out of nowhere and not only does he become more successful than Lee in a shorter amount of time, but he does it by doing the exact opposite of what Lee set out to do. He does it by perpetuating the stereotypical images of Black people (in Lee’s mind) that Lee set out to avoid. I think that the perpetuation of Black stereotypes and the overall quality of Black films today is what drives Lee’s frustrations with Perry and Black films of today. Although some dismiss Lee as being simply jealous of Perry and in all fairness, that may play a role to some extent. However, I cannot completely dismiss Lee’s statements as being trivial or breeding from envy because he does and still has valid criticism about Perry’s work. Lee obviously sees a bigger picture than ticket sells, and who has the most number ones at the box office. I can respect that. Although I have never been a fan of Perry’s work, I can still respect that he is a hard working Black man who made nothing into something. I’m just not going to give him any of my hard earned money for his films. Why? Because I don’t connect with them or the characters he centers the movies around.

I also wholeheartedly agree with Lee’s quote as only using numbers as the definition of a person’s success and talent is not enough. Not in a world where we have people like Soljah Boy dragging out their 15 minutes of fame into years. How can we with a clear conscious, say that success is a direct correlation with talent? This simply is no longer the standard in our world of entertainment.

While I am not a fan of Perry’s work and find it to be a little too coontastic for me at times with some of the stereotypes and shenanigans that go on, I do think that there is a place for his work just as there is also a place for Lee’s. The truth is that every time Lee makes a comment about Perry it should not be dismissed as hating and everything that Perry does is not ingenious. In a perfect world both of these Black men would join forces and create something that would touch audiences of all demographics. They would be willing to work together despite their egos and differences in opinions and create something bigger than themselves. Even though I have my opinions of both men, I still hate to see them battle with one another when there are so many other outside obstacles coming their way because of the position that they are in.