Tyler Perry Phenomenon

Tyler Perry on the Oprah Show

How many of you got to watch Tyler Perry bare it all on the Oprah Show? Was that as painful for you as it was for me? My heart broke for the kid in the picture who was being tortured. Sigh. But that is a conversation for another time.

What really had me going was the title Oprah gave him at the beginning of the show.

"The Second Most Highly Paid Man in Hollywood"

Yo! I don't think I really grasped what that meant until an hour after I watched it.

After David Cameron, the director of Avatar who made 8 billion dollars off ONE movie, Tyler Perry is number 2.

A lot of people within and without the black community consider his form of art "coonery and buffoonery" and either refuse to watch his movies and/or plays or go to watch them just to give them bad reviews, but let me reiterate,

After David Cameron, the director of Avatar who made 8 billion dollars off ONE movie, Tyler Perry is number 2.

Most of Tyler Perry's work is consumed by the black community so in essence we are the ones fueling his rise in Hollywood. Us.

Rather than looking at it as "we made him rich" it should be "look at the power of our dollars". When people make movies, write books, do documentaries, print magazines, create TV shows, make clothes, the last factor they think about is African American dollar.

And yet here is Tyler Perry, whose art is mostly consumed by the black community and he is the second highest paid man in Hollywood.

(Have I made my point yet?)

I am proud to know all of you, reading this post, and all my African American brothers and sisters whose statement with their dollar shows what they want to see. Images of redemption, of themselves on the screen living robust and full lives and figuring things out just like everyone else on the planet.

Kudos!