Post of An Ambivalent Black Woman

Diary of A Mad Black Woman is number one at the box office, and I am both delighted and disturbed. I actually worked with it's star a billion years ago back on the prairie. Since she was genuinely friendly back then, I'm always pleased by her successes. Plus, she has the kind of beauty that often goes unappreciated, or that is just plain feared by many folks. Under most circumstances, the success of a film with the words mad, black, and woman in the title would be a sign of progress. Who cares if the film is stupid? I do. The this is the one film with a title that I can relate to, and I can't relate.

1, 2, 3. The Devil's After Me
The film that I can relate to most in the history of cinema is Crooklyn. Considering where I grew up, you can see I have to make quite a stretch. Like the little girl in Crooklyn, I find my relative's spirtual practices a little alienating. What others find reassuringly simple, I find binding and complex. When I was a kid visiting my grandparents' farm and first heard my cousin praying "If I die before I wake..." that scared the shit out of me. Unlike the girl in Crooklyn, I did not eventually take small comfort in prayers and songs. My soul has not just opened up, and I wouldn't even begin to know how to be loosed if they drew me a diagram.