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Hello Sister Toldja,

I, too, am amongst the Black community, and have read your article. I found it to be insightful and excellently written. However, I cannot say that I totally agree with it. You see, oftentimes, we, as a cultural community, have a tendency to group together experiences and instances as a whole thinking that everyone should have the same mindset and perspectives. Times have changed and times are changing. There are more people now looking at the character of a man rather than the color of his skin.

We have a beautiful, beautiful culture, but we error when we would think that because one Black mind feels strongly about a particular thing that we all must and should feel this way. Hunger does not have a color, nor does hardwork. At the end of the day, we all need to eat, and we all need to work to obtain the food to eat.

The challenges that we have within our culture do not stem from one man building his own empire. It stems from individual decisions. When an individual has a family and chooses to step out with another, is it because they are Black? No, it is because individually that person chose to step out. Now, when we support films and things that go against the support of the Black family, this says to society that we do not need to value the family structure period, whether Black or White. The reality in it is that these issues are existent within our culture. Tyler, with his movies, brings issues such as these to the surface and presents solutions to these problems. However, what is portrayed in your letter is the opposite.

Mr. Perry's films offer solutions. Can we say the same for other cultural movies that do not support the Black family, instead support the degredation of a Black woman, or the portrayal of the Black community by promoting violence? What portrait are we painting then? What Tyler does within his films is show the realness of what happens within our culture, not what we hide superficially for the sake of having someone think that we are otherwise. In this is true healing. And this is what he brings. I know for me, I didn't know much of Tyler Perry prior to 2008, but when I saw one of his films, "Daddy's Little Girls", it left me in tears because I could relate to the realness of this film. This message conveyed a real issue.

You see, not everyone is born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Some have had to live it, and those who have can truly appreciate his work, because it comes from the heart. It comes fromt he realness of life's situations and circumstances. He's not trying to fake the funk or perpetrate a fraud for the sake of pleasing "White America". Instead, he is in it for the sake of pleasing his heavenly Father. To downgrade his character or his hardwork is not fair to him. He is from a real place and has a real desire to see people healed. Who can communicate the power of healing more; the person who has never been hurt, or one who has been hurt and then healed? Tyler's work is ministry. It is his way of giving back to God all that He has given him.

To say things like,"I don't want to send the message to networks and advertisers that I as a Black consumer find these images to be acceptable", with respect, is really rude. First, I do not beleive that what Tyler is doing is for "White America" or for "Black America". I truly beleive that what he is doing is for God and not for man. This man works hard for what he has, and to take that from his is really wrong. And to back it by making it a culural thing, is not fair to him. Work has no color. Every man has is given opportunity, Black or White, but what we do with it is what makes the difference. Life is not about color, it is about character.

I know this man's story and you know his story. He had to start from the bottom, just as we all had to. The difference in his success and say ours, is dedication and determination. Not to mention supernatural assistance. To strip from him his hard work and dedication is not right. We always do that, though.

Tyler, your work is great. There are some that see the Spirit behind what you do, so keep on keepin' on. Lord willing, I will be one of the one's sitting in the theater on September 11. Happy Birthday!

One last thing, it is high time that we look past the color to see that we do have more potential individually than if we keep comparing ourselves to what we think that we should be culturally. As a memeber of the Black community, it gets very old when we see Black success and think that they are suppose to behave and relate on a "cultural basis" and not on a "character basis". You see, throughout the eighties and nineties, we have always had a problem with someone who doesn't measure up to our own standards of what we think that they ought to be, culturally. When we limit things to our culture, we miss the greater aspect of it. For example, our culture, though for great reasons, got hyped about the idea of having a "Black President". I mean we released songs quoting.."my president is Black". Yes, that he is, but it wasn't President Obama's color that got him into the White House, it was his character. But soon, when he didn't represent what we thought he should in the White House, we soon got an attitude because we think he should be representing our Black community. We have a wonderful cultural community, but we should celebrate each other individually, and not just culturally.

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