“for colored girls”? Nope.


















i stood by beau in the window/ with naomi reachin
for me/ & kwame screamin mommy mommy from the fifth
story/ but i cd only whisper/ & he dropped em




It’s a good thing that






24 thoughts on ““for colored girls”? Nope.

  1. Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

    You have expressed so eloquently the emptiness i was left with after seeing #FCG. Why am I not enough of a person to be dealt with wholly, as opposed to fragmented problematic tidbits strung together with tears, lipgloss…only good enough to be mirror of others pain, no thought to what makes up the mirror.

    I’m rambling…just know that this is an excellent post & I thank you for writing it.


    1. Real Brother here.

      I’m boycotting the movie and I’m asking that my wife and daughter boycott it too. The group of Black lesbians who introduced gay azz Tyler Perry on our community have an agenda to destroy Black heterosexual relationships and why anyone would want to support that is beyond me. I love our Black families and I won’t support anything that is designed to break them apart. http://wp.me/p18LGX-1V


      1. Real Brother — I think what you are saying about Black lesbians and Tyler Perry’s gay agenda to destroy back heterosexual relationships is pure nonsense. One really has zero to do with the other – if you are attracted to the same sex what in the hell does that have to do with me and my marriage to my opposite sex partner? It sounds like a whole lot of homophobia that has no rational basis to it but hate. That’s why my critique has nothing to do with TP allegedly being gay – I don’t care, and whether he made the movie as a gay man, bisexual man, or straight man, he still made the movie as a MAN who is invested in patriarchy due to his manliness and he still made MEN more front and center than was otherwise required to stay true to the original playwright’s intention.


      2. “Real” Brotha… thou doth protest too much
        They say the ones who speak the loudest “against” are usually the deepest “for”

        “It may not make sense to you but to a Black lesbian it makes all the sense in the world.”

        Maybe that’s why I, a Black bisexual woman, can’t understand what exactly you’re saying.

        “Black men are competing with Black lesbians for Black female companionship”

        Hmmmm, one would think there should be no competition if people are true to their natural desires. A man can’t make a lesbian straight and a woman can’t make another woman gay.

        “Gay women seek babies from Gay Black men not straight ones”

        Most lesbian mothers I know have children by straight Black men. Try again.

        “Its why 85% of all new Aids/HIV cases are Black women”

        This statistic is incorrect, by the way. Try again.

        “Ask a hard core Black lesbian and she’ll tell you they don’t need Black men.”

        Hard core, as opposed to soft core? Hmmm ok. What is that exactly?


  2. What is wrong with people who prefer to take charge of their lives rather than wallow in their misery? I wish colored girls to be victorious not victims.

    I’ve rarely known any movie that lived up to the book it was based on! That’s why reading the book is so important.


  3. Awesome post. Melissa Harris-Lacewell gave a talk recently entitled Black Women: Citizens of the Crooked Room which dealt with some of the stuff you are getting at in your post/(righteous) rant. Basically, the condition of being in the crooked room is that you are in a space where everything is slightly off kilter, and you are either able to find the upright and see the room as crooked, or you are bending yourself always to try and be aligned with the crooked room. I thought of it as I read your post because what you say is right, sometimes there is real crookedness out there and NO, it is not you/it is not us, NO you dont have to bend and twist yourself to fit in with the crooked flow. The fundamental struggle for many black women is, as MHL said, to “find the true North.” Your post was like a North Star this morning. Keep up the good work.


  4. Great post! I don’t think anyone can say it better than this. I walked out of that movie wondering why didn’t I shed a single tear and feeling uneasy about the whole thing. This post gave voice to my uneasiness..




    You mean a Black woman isn’t a mammy or caretaker? Wow. Paradigm shift for half the world and many black women themselves.


  6. I co-sign all of the commenters in saying, “True dat!” My students were excited to see the film and hoped that I had seen it already, too. I haven’t. We’ve already had a number of conversations about Perry’s work, but my response to most everyone who asks is, “Go see a stage production and read the original.” I think I’ve only seen one man (a friend) who remarked that other men should see it in order to help them understand women’s pain and the importance of being solid, compassionate men. You are so right that Shange’s “For Colored Girls . . .” is for and about colored girls. And no one else.


  7. It was refreshing to read a review from someone who was actually familiar with the plays. I don’t 100% agree, but only because I think some of the issues you raised in this blog where necessary in order to adapt the play/poems into entertainment. How can you have a movie that does not develop the characters and motivations of the men. Maybe the question we should be asking is if this work should have been turned into a movie, by anybody… PERIOD. Thanks for the read.
    The SoapBox Princess


  8. I enjoyed your post
    I have expressed my own critiques of the movie in other forums, but they are different from this. Mine focus on TP’s deficiencies.
    You definitely captured the personal connection you have with the choreopoem and that is important.
    Great post!


  9. This post is so beautifully written. The way you have those quotes interwoven with your own experiences was so eloquent . I had no idea about the original poem but did not expect the movie to do justice to it as something always get lost in an adaptation for the screen. However, your post allowed me to see how TP went far for the intention of the author and I appreciate knowing it. I did not feel the plight of the husbands while watching the movie, I stayed with the women all the way and cried with them . Our pain is enough. Sharing it who can understand or relate is enough…


  10. I can always tell when you write a post, LaToya. And I love you for it. This was great!!! And I love the fact that you’re asking the universe for an expression of how awesome we are and that we are enuf. Because we are. And that’s okay. Now, you’re in movie town so let’s hope you can be a part of making it happen!


  11. @Real Brother: Why would gay people, who were born from heterosexual people, want to destroy straight relationships? That makes no sense. Why would they want to destroy the relationships of their mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers? Gay people are black too, and have an interest in continuing the black community, which is achieved by having black children. Gay people aren’t trying to stop that – they depend on black straight people coming together to make black babies they can adopt! Please stop this foolishness.


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