Tyler Perry Responds To Spike Lee’s Years Old Critique That He Makes ‘Coonery Buffoonery’ With His Madea Movies!
TheRoot.com, By Shanelle Genai, Posted October 102th 2022
‘For me, I love the movies that I’ve done because they are the people that I grew up with that I represent,’ Perry explained.
Though it’s been 13 years since Spike Lee called the types of stories Tyler Perry makes “coonery buffoonery,” Perry is now finally addressing how he feels about the comments.
During an interview on HBO’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, Perry explained that the stories he’s told come from the people he knew growing up and that the critique he’s received stems from certain parts of Black culture that don’t like seeing that particular facet shown in the mainstream.
“There’s a certain part of our society, especially Black people in the in the culture that…they look down on certain things within the culture,” Perry said, per TMZ. “For me, I love the movies that I’ve done because they are the people that I grew up with that I represent and they, like, my mother would take me in the projects with her on the weekends, she played cards with these women. Most of them didn’t have a 12th-grade education, but their stories and how they loved each other, and how when they get sad about something, another would come in and make a joke. I was at a masterclass for my life.”
He continued: “So when someone says, you’re harkening back to a point in our life that we don’t want to talk about or we don’t want the world to see—you’re dismissing the stories of millions and millions of Black people and that’s why I think it’s been so successful because it resonates with a lot of us who know these women.”
He also informed Wallace that the particular argument, which arguably boils down to what kind of stories and representation are acceptable to be shown and how, isn’t one that’s just now creeping up between him and Lee—but that it’s been going on since the days of the Harlem Renaissance.
“It also goes back to the Harlem Renaissance and Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston,” Perry continued. “Langston Hughes said that Zora Neale Hurston was the new version of the Darky. Langston was Northern, very sophisticated. Zora Neale [was] from the South, her character spoke in a certain dialect. So this is a conversation that’s been going on long before Spike Lee and Tyler Perry.”
In fact, it’s also one that should finally be put to rest seeing as how Perry named an entire sound stage after Lee back in 2019, when he opened Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.
Lee was gracious and accepting toward the honor and it appeared the two iconic directors have put whatever beef theyhad behind them. So it’s probably about time we do the same!
