Colored

I am old enough to remember when people referred to each other as colored. It's funny how it didn't mean very much back then and Black people weren't offended by it. I also, remember when being called colored was not a good thing, and Negro was the thing to be called. Then came Afro-American, Black and African-American. Our name changes signified change in our psyche.

No matter what we've been called we've suffered. Men and Women.

I saw the movie For Colored Girls today. If you've never read the book of poetry you should so that you hear it in your own voice and let it give you a vision of what the women in the poetry are feeling. When the book For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf was 1st published it was a voice for women who were in plain sight abused. I think if not for this voice Black women might see themselves differently than they do today. At least in their minds, if not in reality. In the past performances of this work the women do not interact. Personally I thought it was good to have them be connected in similar vein as the movie Crash.

Some reviewers will have you to believe that the story is dated and that some of the directorial choices are trite. See for yourselves and don't let others who have no reference whatsoever of some Black women's past that still exists but now covertly with subtle nuances that manage to hide the voices of Black women dealing with pain once again.

One might say that the poem and the movie paint a picture of Black men that we'd like to keep hidden not unlike our dirty laundry when company comes to visit. However, the images may offend and seem dramatic but in my opinion resonate a sickness that exists even today.

The performances in the movie were stellar. See for yourself before following a reviewer with probably no point of reference or color.