GQ writer Devin Friedman wrote an article titled Will you be my black friend? which Oprah and Chris Rock intend to make into a feature film!
Harpo Films and Lionsgate have teamed up to acquire the film rights. The film, will be produced by Oprah Winfrey herself, along with Kate Forte and Carla Cardini — both also of Harpo Films. It will be a starring role for Chris Rock, who we assume will play a black person. Lionsgate holds the distribution rights.
I found myself reacting two ways when I heard Chris Rock was attached to this. The title seems to imply a certain degree of ignorance asking for a “Black Friend” in an effort to diversify the ethnic mix of his circle of friends.
My reaction was this: Chris Rock slaps that one trick pony too often pulling out lines of his stage act ranting about how hard it is to be black. I was puzzled to find out he might be involved in a film that focuses so much on those sterotypes he built an entire comedy routine (and sitcom) ranting against.
But then I thought this might be exactly the kind of message he would want to send. Some guy ignorantly seeks out a black friend because he feels he needs one, and just gets a friend who happens to be black. Sounds like a feelgood movie to me.
I know that in this day and age its almost embarassing to think we still have racism, and I am proud to say that my kids didn’t understand the film Hairspray because they couldn’t comprehend what the big deal was that some of the kids were black. I struggled to think that I should explain it as I realized the concept never occurred to them and here I was inadvertantly introducing it to them.
We will see how this film goes towards accomplishing that. Sadly the people most in need of hearing it likely won’t see it for that reason.
