Tyler Perry: Hack. Drag Queen. Juggernaut.

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I tried to sit through Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman last winter with my cousin; I almost bodied myself. Not content to let Steve Harris’s character simply be a dick, Perry made him an unfaithful husband who colluded with drug dealers to amass his fortune before literally tossing his loving, supportive wife (Kimberly Elise) out of his tacky monstrosity of a mansion to be with his new white girlfriend — with whom he fathered two kids. It’s that kind of movie.

Tyler Perry hears my complaints, and dabs his tears with large denomination bills. Why Did I Get Married? opened at #1, and did so without the stamp of approval from mainstream movie critics (who use all kinds of funny coded language when describing the film’s audience). Some of Perry’s fans have explicitly referred to the reviews of his films as racist.

The Boston Globe‘s Wesley Morris says that whatever you think of Tyler Perry, he isn’t going anywhere for awhile.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.