Baby Boy

[mrsl]

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I woke up at 3:15 a.m. and this movie was on the channel I had been watching when I fell asleep, so I watched to see what was going on. The cast was all black and in a small but vital part was Ving Rhames who I like in his A list movies. I mention the cast because the story is kind of a 'day in the life of' type of movie. The lead character is Joey who is 20 something, living with (off) of his mother, with a girlfriend who has his baby and is trying to hold it all together. Apparently when Mom get angry at him, he goes and stays with girlfriend for a while until they get into a fight and the circle repeats. Except for the girl trying to work and take care of her baby, this movie doesn't try to make any case for how Joey is living his life. He's a lazy bum and feels the world doesn't understand him, yet it owes him. He slaps his girlfriend around and rapes her, and helps to kill a guy later because the guy tried to rape her, but Joey goes after him because he is treading on Joey's territory, not because of what the guy tried to do. At one point Joey and Ving Rhames get into a fight and Ving sends him flying, but then Ving loses it and here is what confused me. I know black people have their own inside jokes about mamas and such but they get so angry at being called the 'N' word yet they use it all through this movie referring to each other, friends and foe alike. Ving uses it at least 20 times like many young actors use the 'F' word today.

My question is, why do they get so angry at us using the word when they use it all the time? I have heard it not only in the movie but on the street. Another reason the movie angered me is that it gives an impression that all black people are like those portrayed here, similar to the impression given in the Godfather, that all Italians were mafia, all Irish heavy drinkers, etc. I thought we were past the time of ethnic qualifying.

Maybe my questions are foolish but just as we wonder about facial expressions and how some actors convey emotions so well, that same part of my brain that sees those things wonders at these movies that speak so badly yet are accepted by the general public (if it is).
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