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  • 1 day ago
Tyler Perry has been widely criticized for his portrayal of Black women in his works. ESSENCE sat down with Perry and asked him about his critics and he said that he's proud of the work he's doing around Black women.
Transcript
00:00Tyler!
00:01Hey, Danielle.
00:02Look at you.
00:03How you doing?
00:04Wonderful.
00:05Good, good, good.
00:06Glad to be seeing you.
00:07Love your shirt.
00:09A black woman creative.
00:10Always championing for black women over here.
00:11So, Tyler.
00:12Black women.
00:13This is theblackwomanbibleessence.com.
00:16And we're always talking about the treatment of black women, especially when they're written
00:21by someone else.
00:23How do you feel like you handle our image?
00:25Oh, listen to me.
00:26I'm very, very proud of the women that I write.
00:29Let me tell you why.
00:30Okay.
00:31Let me tell you why.
00:32I grew up in the household at the hip of my mother and my two sisters.
00:37And I watched them go through so much stuff with relationships, so many things that men
00:42did to them, so that I gained a tremendous sympathy, especially for black women.
00:45So, sometimes I'm criticized.
00:46Well, why does your character have to be this?
00:48Why does a black woman have to be this?
00:49Why are you a black woman?
00:50Can't be this?
00:51Why are you black?
00:52What I realized years ago is that I was speaking to my mother subconsciously through
00:55all my writing.
00:56Saying to her, you don't have to stay in this abusive relationship.
00:59Why are you with this man?
01:00You can do better than this.
01:02You deserve love.
01:03And that's the thing that runs through all of these movies when I'm usually writing about
01:07a character.
01:08So, it's even if she's a lawyer and she doesn't have love.
01:12Or if she's a homemaker and she doesn't have love.
01:15My hope is not, I'm not speaking to every black woman.
01:18I'm talking to black women who like my mother.
01:19Got it.
01:20And hoping that they get the love that I wish my mother would have had.
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