That's What I'm Talking About (2006) | Paul Mooney Wayne Brady Diahann Carroll

tonight that's

what

I'm

talking

about the legendary Harry Belafonte award-winning actress, Diane Carol, falls into sinusitis again, contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine and bez touré correspondent, do you know

what

true courage would have been if the family of the broccoli would have allowed new bond to be black and the always outspoken comedian Paul Mooney. I have a great idea for daytime television which is good morning for black people in America and it will come out at noon, okay we'll talk about movies, television and news. The Grates dates and debates. from the black media I'm Wayne Brady and welcome to that's what I'm

talking

about hello Wayne Brady here and welcome to that's what I'm talking about thank you so much guys for being here the first thing I'm going to throw on the table is a black or an African American, which do you prefer or should we even prefer which Ellen Truths?

What I put as race is stolen African mmm, but don't forget the new word which is my favorite. race and he loves you, but then there are people who hate him because of the experience with him and conjure up demons, yeah, well, when we grew up, they used to know, Harry and I have been around for a long time and we used to say. while you were applying yes, I'm sorry, you asked for your color on your driver's license application something that always wrote boxes, but I think we should never get so involved in this conversation that we can understand that it is a kind of camouflage it is a kind of to distract us from things They are important like money, so why are we sitting here talking about?

Know? You do not know? Call me green, it's my favorite northern group mmm-hmm been looking for a title, no one else that's what an artist from the city was called at some point it's all the otic for a black African American and then something else and we call ourselves African Americans and However, the truth of the matter is that most blacks in America know very little about Africa, how did we get to Africa with the sea? Because it was very original with a camp. I mean, even though everything is confusing, where is the doctor? We are now.

I just wanted to throw in the African American and black thing to see where. we came from that, so now we're going to move on to television, we'll start with the media. This is a list of our most influential black television shows. Now I just put this list together, it's my top 10 list plus two, so that's 12. at number 12 I have the Richard Pryor show uh the Flip Wilson show 10 roots and roots of love The good times of the Jeffersons Julia thank you very much The Cosby show roc-roc ok the Arsenio Hall show I see in vivid colors how Richard Pryor is doing 12 none of that list, no, in order not to be among the top 3 seen culturally, I would place the Richard Pryor show and Chappelle's show as bookends.

Pryor's show made NBC so nervous. Rarely has a network been so nervous that the network wasn't actually scared that they loved it. It was because they had a life those executives were like zombies when Richard appeared now they had a life they could make decisions they could make decisions over the phone they could order you we can't do that the censorship had to say something they came long before Richard they were zombies they were The Walking Dead it was like when I was a kid and there were no blacks and no commercials and we should sit down and move real quick that was a black ago you mean we used to wait like this man here we worship this man mm-hmm because we'll be men and that's how we want it when I go to the cinema I want to see me I'm sure my mother we have I have never seen anything like it.

This was an image for us. You have to remember that we did it. We went to the cinema. We saw John Wayne. We saw these white men. Yes, really, to get involved, I have to feel like I'm actually in the movie. See you, I'm so glad you said that because well, I've thought about this for years, I guess we've all thought about it because I thought for a long period of time that I was obligated to watch any property that involved black people and the moment when you came into my life and I said, wait a minute, should I still hold on to this sense of responsibility that I'm there and disbursing because it's a black project and I think it was a huge dilemma for me, but I would say in the long run it really I started looking for quality, so you feel the need to always commit, whether as a viewer or as an actress, that I have to be behind these black things because it's black and I have to be there for the well-being of black people, the concerns of the responsibility, I don't care, help, whatever you tell yourself, what denial, whatever you do, we were watching dynasty, do you like it?

It was a very popular soap opera during the day, I mean, during the night when you arrived it changed it mmm do you understand now? There was certainly someone who was beautiful, yes, it was someone rich, there was someone who would kick your ass, you know? When we were putting that together, they were kind enough to come. He asked me how we should put this character together and I told him that I would like to be a part of who this character is because I know that everything is bad and good, they would have a good time, we are pretty close, but I would really like it if you wrote Dominick Deveraux exactly the same What would you write for a white man?

I want her to be totally ruthless, absolutely no humanity. I didn't thank you for your gift and I want her to not have feelings towards being a mother, if you do that, white girls are like that, the beauty was also that she was rich and with The Cosby Show again that they were rich and so there was this aspiration that was my business, the money it was all about, yes, they were and I didn't want them to feel, because they were bringing a black person on the show, that suddenly I had to be this wonderful human being.

Yes, when you got to the dynasty, you crushed walls just by being there, why if you get to a certain place as a black actor or sports figure, why can you suddenly not say that I have reached the mountain, but instead then you have to pick up the whole neighborhood and say, come on, I'll take you with me? Well, why do you have to do that? Do you feel that the answer? The lineage is so clear. I wouldn't have been on CNN if you hadn't broken down the barriers decades earlier and I can see you. I grew up watching you.

I know and even more than that, what Jackie Robinson did before that and even before that, what Harriet Tubman did, there's a very clear lineage that we talk about in my house with my parents, so I know there's all these people who push the rock up the hill and now I can be at the top of the hill because they did a lot of that groundwork before me when you just said why it should be once we have established ourselves as present why we have the responsibility to have to bring everything else with us I think yes, that responsibility in part because that's how you got to where you are, someone brought something, yes, when they got to where they were and there are expectations with that access to power, access to debate, access to bring something to the table that didn't exist before.

You, I grew up in my early life watching people who played plantation blacks and house slaves who played jesters who had to stick out their lips and open their eyes. What I never saw was a levar burton and that physiography says something about the fight. say something about aspirations say something about who was moving them from the bottom to the forefront calls from white friends every day stay there we'll be back after this next now watching MTV like watching beaches I don't know if you People know it, but a large percentage of the daytime television audience is black.

I have a great idea for a daytime TV show which is Good Morning, Black America and it will air at noon. Well, daytime television is all about Oprah, she's the number one queen. of all time, Oprah is a kingdom unto herself, which I want to debate, that's a good thing and that's a bad thing, well, but we've seen Oprah through threats in three generations of daytime television and she went from being. semi dignified when it started then completely turned into a circus the Springer era from Donahue to Springer and now it's dubbed Springer is old now it's back to being more confessional plus a little more dignified Oprah has remained a dignified television presence yes she has during all of this It's amazing, I love them, I love her because she fooled the white people, that's why I love her, because she came out like Aunt Jemima with a title and she cried and she had a son and, lord, have mercy, they gave her a billion dollars since then. became 2.2 her dad was right in front of that black girl when she said no I'm a cover girl I'll get over myself but I think the point is that during the day with such a big percentage so much income is generated Because you would think we would have more of a presence during the day, let me say one thing about that observation, why isn't it targeted more to that demographic?

And I think there are some where they sit back and study the market. moves study where people study who spends their time studying there is a don't say spend and look in my direction I always speak to my right but the question is that if those same forces felt that somewhere on midday television there was something to bring that out spell profits for them, black people wouldn't interfere with the election which we're certainly seeing, that with the era of reality TV, I mean, you know, with Bobby Brown running the house, there's tons of, and whatever Whatever you think of them, there are tons of black reality shows, although there is a niche market.

I mean, I mean, MTV is huge, yeah, but it's MTV, well let's talk about MTV, they didn't want black people, oh the first one for you, yeah, they did it with black people and they didn't want Michael Jackson, he's whiter than all the microphones we have. I have to fight with Michael, his mother said they didn't want him. I'm saying he's whiter than all of them, yeah, they don't even want him on OK and it's interesting to see because now watching MTV is like watching BT, that's right, which is almost. black television and anyway I just want, I want us as black people to represent ourselves in all the phases of the new, in everything you know, we do things where we die, we sit, we are not and then everyone else , women. their part i'm talking about white women they get their part because of us how white people suffer they should kiss a black man every time he has seizures because without us they wouldn't have anything good it's also about how gays have used the template of the black civil struggle, of course, you work there, fight for power, everyone has done it, why is it still like this?

Why is there something about the black man in us? It's not that we can't take a taxi. There is something about this. Are you saying it's James Baldwin? it's there but also the fascination with Blair's imagination is there at the same time yes, I know it's true and I know Harry knows it's true - it's just that it scared him to death and yet they couldn't lift their eyes, they don't want it , You know? He ran out of his presence, he comes next to you and Sydney and you said, "I have to do it too." Before there were Freemasons or Elves, we were black.

Before Jews or Christians existed, we were black. We're talking about, you know, black can entertainment, what not, what's with the trend of trying to make black versions of something that exists just so that we have some kind of ownership over it. We recently had a remake of The Black Honeymooners. Was that version that version of the movie better now once it's done that's white it's done and even its whiteness redone like the postman rings twice once it's done it's done it's like The Wiz are you really upset because you were coming in ? waters shark infested waters loved that remake the way you know the way the Wizard of Oz the wizard didn't like that you actually stepped on holy land yeah, you're messing with Julie Gold we did it better, we did it better let's just say wait , I didn't do anything, no, but I have to ask if you enjoyed it, the parts did a lot of parts that I didn't, I was going to connect with Judy Garland, oh, I've been brainwashed, okay, oh, I love it.

Don't go, I've been pretty good. I love looking for Julie. You have a job that is so distinctive and has such powerful DNA that I can try to remake it with you. Do it with white or black people. People, if you don't live up to some standard of law, you say you want to redo, that it's because of some tragic conclusion, that's exactly it. I didn't like the Wiz and it wasn't like other black people did it. that's exactly how you like it because it's a poorly made movie from a classic, why are you making it unless you have something better used to being a minority special?

I love this, I love 34 music, I love Michael Jackson, I just love the beat of It's the way they really found a black way to really attack some of those things they did in The Wizard of Oz. I said, "I love the music versus when you saw the genius." The Wizard of Oz, come on, Dave, the white people's show. The Wizard of Oz every year was on September 7th every year, you should watch The Wizard of Oz at least when I was a kid every year they played it and then when I finally saw The Wiz, oh my gosh it's so much fun, what is it?

They're remaking King Kong again hmm, what a fourth, fifth time, it doesn't look like a movie, no, I'm saying they remake it, they're obsessed with remaking American King Kong. Now I want rate, I want herChase a gorilla back to the broccoli family. I had allowed the new Bond to be black, well now that he's not fun like James Bond, what will you reduce that risk throughout America, you know, bon bon, now it's going to be quite difficult for actors in movies like this, look, how Does Daniel become? Oh, Butterfly, McQueen, um, Intervener, Fetchit, Bill, Bojangles, Robinson, Billie. buckwheat Thomas hmm Eddy Rochester Anderson now those are guys that as soon as I say their names we are looking at the photos yes, it brings a certain connotation because we know that they had to operate within a certain period of time, now there are people that I have heard say well , you know that guy was a sellout and they were the sellouts of their time, hey, that's nonsense, but hey, they were actors, she because they had to really act, they deserved the Academy Awards, intelligent men very because they put on. this buffoon D they did this act they knew why people wanted at that time it's over now it's sewer you know you were a when you left the room but then you were this straight in your face because it was a control factor no, they took the stereotype period , but it's not, but even when they were porters, mr.

Michaud working at the same time, would you like to listen to the radio? I'd rather listen to you Nina doing fillies where there were some decent rules, I've seen some of them and he has some of Tom's, but for the purpose of saying this. The person is a radio Tom was white and so was Eminem, nothing has changed then, when he appeared on television, these were black artists and they had names for going to the Apollo and looking at black people and still accepting black people. I would rather see black people act black and do buffoonery and do things that I would like you to do and then I see white people doing it it's like with the packaging I don't like it It offends me I don't like it It makes me want to hang the black people again and then I'll find out who's white.

We have to admit that many of those performances we saw are, we will never forget them. Incredible and the only one where they work a full day. of any indignity without them, without them, opening those doors for them to accept black people the way we wanted to be accepted. I don't think this man would have been accepted when he walked in if we weren't there to do that. Someone has to open that door, whether we open it with Gaza Sydney and you said I have to go back, where should we be now? I mean, you guys still think I'm going to be stronger, but yeah, the time he lived there.

There was a universal readiness for the kind of change, the kind of upheaval that came along with our era, not only were we defined by those leading men and those really remarkable looking women who graced the screen, we were also connected to a lot of things that were happening. Socially in our day, Africa was in great turmoil and no one wanted to return to the colonial formula after having fought the Second World War, which many of us did because we were told that the war was for democracy, that the war was for ending white supremacy was putting an end to all those inequalities and at the end of that war we returned with expectations.

I came back with that. Sydney returned with expectations. Everything is there. Jones came, so one of the doors that we hadn't yet given the slightest indication that they were ready to open, we walked in and we brought those expectations with us, it was a black entertainer at some point there's a certain level of minstrelsy, look, and it's tap dancing or the black monster figure, you have to do one of those two things, you know when we're doing it. she didn't have a neck Daniels said she would rather play a maid than be one you say but where are the brave people who said I don't do those stereotypes I won't play those where are they let me ask you a question see?

Comparatives: Would you say that that aspect of hip-hop culture that now puts black men on the street with chains around their necks, desecrating black women and going to a degraded place, the cultural expression has any comparison to those who made the decision to play the jesters of In that earlier era, do you find that yes? Absolutely there is something I talked about, the minstrel sees and wants to play that black dollar, you know, figure so ignorant as if we delight in that at all, don't you find it so offensive? Well no, because he's in stark contrast to the weak black guy we saw in the '50s that you know as the men we just saw he's in stark contrast we're not taking anything now he's an ignorant figure at the same time he revels in his exploits in the streets isn't necessarily true, you can flunk a ball, so part of the hip-hop generation has so many problems with our men's relationships with women, true, but a lot of that is because a lot of our parents don't They are not mine, but many of our parents abandon us, we grow up without paternal love, how do we really know that women really know?

But I actually think that all of hip-hop, all of this is a backlash from the civil rights movement and the movement that we never followed. We were supposed to be free and this dream never came true and I think the kids are challenging that they are angry about that so we didn't do it the way it should be there we march, we have my daughter and where are they? We, I just think I think these sneaky white people in the boardroom froze us again. Yes, something on the table, well, it was so seductive and yet hard to resist.

Yeah, look, when I was when I went out in the South Bronx with Afrika. Bambaataa and melly-mel and seeing the rise of hip-hop culture brought me a deep sense of something wonderful that was in our future. This was a joint that was absolutely incredible. Yes, Miller arrived suddenly. family camping day and 30 bags clinked like 30 pieces of silver and, suddenly, many began to harden that institution of rape and profit, yes, they intervened and yes, they corrupted and turned that thing into another, no, I must ask you, are you saying that the white musical commune understood that there was a place in the central power for this music and they led these young black people, not the white musical community, the white banking community.

I don't know, I don't even know if it is the whites, our structure that directs. it's very much about the basic structure, the teenagers who mainly because of the music said: hey, we like the black dollar, we like the guy who shoots, everyone hits, this is how they marketed you, this is how they brainwashed you , the market is dictated by those who want the market. go wherever they take you and follow that has always been there with the whites, the blacks, we are going to war, we are in Iraq because their market is that way and we are fighting with our souls to try to find an answer to something that is absolutely immoral and we don't know how to deal with that because we are part of that and I think we have to face that fact and then approach it from that perspective, let me feel, then white people don't go. and they just abstractly buy things that demonize them because they want it, they're supported for it, they're prepared for it, they were structured for it and everything centers around it and I think that's America, look, now we're getting into this, so stay with us, don't go, next I saw Malcolm leave from where Malcolm was.

Malcolm behaves, so which Father Khan is our leader? 1 million black men, our black people informed enough about what's going on in the world, okay? I think in general as Americans, even after 9/11, our concern, our consideration for the rest of the world doesn't really exist, we think about what's happening in America, so you know, if black people riot in Paris for seven days, then we started paying. attention, but for the most part we just pay attention to what's going on, but that's not racial. Yes, all of America is so focused on America and I think it's not enough action.

Yeah, I think that's the part I'll accept. That there is not enough. enough action as another as something positive and important, yes, a criticism, but I have to tell you that there is not enough action not only at the gates of black America, oh, I know, or the brown ones there, yes, I think it is an American defect, now they move on. Washington and the March on Washington was one of the most significant events in black and white, it was just an American thing, it was American history. Malcolm I saw Malcolm leave where Malcolm was. towards Malcolm he turned and there was a decided change in the way he started and the passion of him in the way that by the time he ended his life was exactly the same as dr.

King mm-hmm dr. King's relationship with his ministry and the religion from which it emerged was decidedly more militant when the time came for him to be taken from us, the March on Washington was a black-driven experience that changed all of America to make America came closer. to the dream that we say we want this nation I think I'm another thing we would like to mention here remember the silent protest at the Olympics yes, now there are two important lessons here I was thinking that you must have one the courage of your convictions and two to have that , you have to be a winner because if they had come fourth, Norwood would care because they would have been doing that, all sides are not powerful.

I love it, that's like Jessie is running to do the when. Hitler was there, what was his name? Jesse Owens, yes, running. I love everything that is better. That kind of black drama. I love witty drama. Exactly is working on my means on how they laugh. It doesn't just show a metaphor that you alluded to when you said they could. they've never had a significant impact if they haven't exactly been at the top, that's precisely why being an actor isn't enough mmm at the top of the game you have the ability to make an impact. I think when black people achieve so much any minority person, when a Jew achieves it, there is an expectation from the tribe and somehow you get to where you are because someone paid the price to get you there mm-hmm and when you get to where you have access, a voice and capacity. to influence that somewhere in that power you would use aspects of it or parts of it to return to the plantation and reach out to the suffering of our group and lift it up.

I completely agree with you, it's what you do with power, it's what it has to do with power? Apply exactly. Would it make any difference to you if you ever saw Denzel Washington doing that pose? What would it mean if he did it? It would be polarizing, it would be cool, but wait, this is all, I mean. This is a salute to Black Power, rights and when Denzel won the Oscar, the Oscar and a gesture towards Sidney and that to me was the same in Hollywood. Is this the continuity of Black Power, are we together? I see that you are part of my fight.

Go ahead, someone comes there, it was absolutely beautiful, it was a lovely moment in our history. I was glad that the film industry had finally produced that moment for itself. Yeah, I'm going to show some more flash footage and then I just want to get your opinion on the Million Man March. One of the things about the Million Man March is that depending on how you felt about it, if this Million Man March was happening, other black men might look at you like you were crazy if you were. Not there, only a million people were able to go.

An incredible day. I will never forget last year. A week ago. The jet I traveled on made me feel great, but as time goes by I'm like dad. Why is there no impact? Why did we do it well? Don't think it was what you feel, like you thought in that last moment when we're all a million million and plus it's black men holding hands and he's cool, did you ever hold hands with two black men. I don't know if he likes it, no, they're not going to gather a million black people in one place at the same time, I like it, but nothing has happened, nothing has changed, nothing has come of it, you know me, at least the march to Washington. they could look and say look, that had a huge effect, but you know ultimately it's just one day, it's like you know we had a great party.

Know? Does a party ever change anything? No, the fact that we all got together in one place and did it. that even the victory in that is that there are a million and you are one of those brothers who walk with the great memory of that solidarity demonstrated. He was not obliged to go beyond what was demonstrated. It had to do with a great institution active in this country that saw value in the kind of militancy that is really expressed in its name and I think with Farrakhan and what was said, he didn't talk about burning now he could talk about burning the nation, He said, let's get up and let them know that we exist and that we have a sense of responsibility with the family.

All the things that were not said were reflected in that moment. It was not created to have a continuous agenda. I think the second one that just happened was the million More people joined with the first dialysate, this movement of this group began to put things on an agenda for activism and for future applications. Do you agree?So you know when Kanye West made a statement, I know a lot of people. He freaked out, black, he was saying Bush and the government didn't care, well I came, that's when they made me go to the poll and Katrina took a poll.

We said that white people in America say that Bush likes black people, we are the ones who don't. It's not like the orange alert, did they say that out loud? I'm good. I'm on white alert and I won't get out of it. Go ahead and take a short break and we'll be right back. We are a product of the segregationist era and you are not, folks, welcome back to that's what I'm talking about before we continue, you know, uh, sir. Belafonte and I were talking off camera and there was something you wanted to say related to this discussion we were having right now and I thought it was really fascinating.

I think there's a line that keeps getting crossed that hasn't really been defined yet in the national dialogue and that is those of us who sat on the sidelines of the legal segregationist experience and how we had to make decisions, but those of you sitting here who are really children of the post-segregationist period, they know that they have a completely different level and a completely different set of realities, it was drawing on their experiences and making their decisions and I think the way that we look at how we talk to each other when we talk about the past and we deal of projecting certain things for the future and what exists in the present is something that I think would be a wonderful exercise to continue and I think that someone within the conflict or The clashes that we encounter is that we have not understood our continuity, we do not we have understood our bond, which of the biggest shocks is that we were also talking about you know the word and that, and the generation thinks well, you can't use that. word because it is this and the younger ones say, well, no, I'm going to use it because it's ours and I've accepted it and it means something completely different and to me it represents the growth of how we have turned this tool of oppression on its head. that and now it's a symbol of love it's something we say I can say around a group of white people and they're bathing right now oh my gosh you know as long as I don't say it but he can say love that because there's a power on my back I say it so I can say in front of white people you know my pretty face like that and they accept it it's okay or you are silent your liberation you say it is a freedom I think it is a representation of how far we have come and that that word no bacon from their mouths now it's an Armor the moment Harry told me you know we're a product of the segregationist era and you're not and there's no way for us.

I don't think so, I don't know that one day the day will come that I want to say and say in front of someone and make them comfortable or make them laugh or kite or any of those things because I'm from another era and all of that has a connotation of ruling that. It's very ugly and it's not that humanity went through eighty million dollars in eighty million years of analysis to find my own Center so that I would know the true meaning and who it was that was telling me that and my compassion could change and I could say poor thing if that's the only thing they can see when they see me we can help each other it's like when you said the show that's who I am talking about it I mean I heard it and it wasn't you know people say that that comes according to his will, that is my will of President George Bush, I guess I never see that you never see that that has to conclude our meeting.

I'm so happy that I had the chance to talk and I'll take your hand at any time and this is over, it's the end of the party, well this was like sex, this is very fast, all our guests and we're going to continue arguing. As we leave you friends, I want to say thank you, thank you very much, thank you very much, thank you very much and see you later. It was wonderful to be with you and my circle. I had to spend the next two years explaining.