Tyler Perry Doesn't Care What Certain Black People Think About His Movies

Last week, writer-producer-director-actor Tyler Perry was interviewed by Keke Palmer on her podcast, Baby, This is Keke Palmer. They spoke about how his career first started, how the two of them worked together on the 2006 film Madea’s Family Reunion, his approach to making movies and television shows, and about Perry’s newest film, Divorce in the Black, starring Meagan Good. But the portion of the interview that grabbed the most attention was Palmer and Perry’s discussion of the mostly negative reception to his films from other Black people, and how they seemingly don’t respect him or his work because of the stories he chooses to tell.

There were some people, especially those in Black Twitter, who couldn’t help but laugh and roll their eyes at the thought of Tyler Perry, a billionaire who is now good friends with Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle, referring to other Black people as uppity highbrow Negroes who drive their Volvos to therapy on the weekend, simply because they don’t like his films, or to think that it’s only upper-middle-class Black people who feel this way.

They also saw his response as further proof that Perry cannot and will not listen to any feedback or criticism about his work and use it to help him become a better writer and director, and that he’s a slightly less egotistical but not nearly as talented version of Aaron Sorkin. Perry will always deserve his props for recognizing the value of the Black actors who star in his films by paying them what they’re worth, which is something that far too many studio execs are unwilling to do. He has boasted in the past about the greatness of his work ethic, and how it has led him to be as successful as he is now. But none of that changes the fact that the quality of his work leaves a lot to be desired, and that there are plenty of Black writers and directors in Hollywood who possess greater skill at telling their stories but don’t have the support or the resources that Perry does.

If Tyler Perry wants to continue telling himself that Black people who don’t like his films feel that way because he’s not making the same type of movies as Spike Lee, that’s his prerogative. But the reasons that Perry and his work have such a bad reputation outside of his core demographic (churchgoers of all ages, particularly those who are Black and female, who prefer to watch uplifting and family-friendly entertainment with good moral values and no sex/violence/profanity) have nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that he isn’t following in Spike Lee’s footsteps. Those reasons have been discussed more than once by me and many others, including Aaron McGruder and Donald Glover. Colorism, misogynoir, bad writing and directing, bad cinematography, horrible-ass wigs, his fondness for respectability politics, the fact that any good idea he comes up with for a film will only end up being nearly unwatchable due to poor execution on his part, and that Divorce in the Black starts like … this.

Perry’s next film is The Six Triple Eight, which will premiere on Netflix. It’s centered on the true story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, which was the predominantly all-Black US Women’s Army Corps unit sent overseas during World War II. Judging from his interview with Palmer, he seems convinced that this film will silence many of his naysayers.

But Pepperidge Farm remembers For Colored Girls, his adaptation of the late Ntozake Shange’s classic play for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, and how that particular story with a large cast of Black female characters wasn’t nearly as well-made or impressive as it could’ve and should’ve been, especially since Perry wrote and directed it himself instead of giving that opportunity to a Black female writer and director. So he may want to prepare himself for more complaints and negative reviews from the “highbrow Negroes” that he clearly holds in such high regard.

You can listen to Tyler Perry’s interview with Keke Palmer on her Baby, This is Keke Palmer podcast, or you can watch it on YouTube.