THE FACTS
A new Washington Post piece interviews, Karyn Langhorne Folan, author of the new book, Don’t Bring Home a White Boy: And Other Notions That Keep Black Women From Dating Out.

THE SPIN
Black women have been hit pretty hard lately in the press. First, all of the mainstream media outlets pick up on reports of the difficulties of Black women to find a Black male counterpart to date.

Most recently, a controversial billboard campaign was launched targeting Black women in Atlanta – claiming that abortion has led to Black children becoming an endangered species.

And now, we’re back to Black women needing a man – since you’d need a man to get you pregnant to need a pro-life person attacking you anyhow.

Karyn Langhorne Folan has written a book advising Black women to think outside of their race to net a partner.

Naturally, she’s already gotten the clap back.

Here’s some of what she said in the profile:

She is not bashing all Black men or implying that all Black women are aiming for the altar. The writer, mom and Harvard-educated lawyer says that she is just offering a reasonable solution to the shortage of available Black men.

“Consider your options,” she says. Expand your horizons. Stop listening to your girlfriends. Forget about the brothers calling you a sellout. Get over those old images of slavery and stop blaming every White man for sins perpetrated by others.

“In short,” Folan says, “some Black women choose to demonize all White men rather than look objectively at the facts of our modern times, which are these: Some men, whatever their race, are bad for us. And the converse is true as well. Some men, whatever their race, are good for us.”

Now obviously those sort of statements will attract potential book buyers, but Black women have you grown tired of this discussion or is this something worth agonizing over in the press?

Moreover, how do you feel about being told who to date? Note that the author herself is a Black woman.

Source

YOUR SPIN: What do you think, should Black women really look outside the race?  Tell us here.

Image courtesy of interracialdatingcentral.com

(*The views contained herein are solely the views of their respective authors, and do not express the views of TV One. TV One does not take responsibility for their content.)

THE FACTS
A follow-up to the popular novel, Waiting to Exhale, will be released later this year.

THE SPIN
In recent years when I think of the name Terry McMillian, I think of her being depicted as a raging woman who needs a gaydar transplant in the press.

Fortunately, McMillian is going back to what earned her first headlines. The popular author has announced that she plans to release a sequel to her best-selling novel, Waiting to Exhale.

The book, entitled, Getting to Happy, will follow-up with lives of all of the original characters.

Getting to Happy will be released in September. McMillian was recently in Grand Bahama Island and talked about what inspired her to write the follow-up.

I can already hear women cheering and men sighing.

Source 

YOUR SPIN: Would you want to see the book made into a movie?  Tell us here.

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(*The views contained herein are solely the views of their respective authors, and do not express the views of TV One. TV One does not take responsibility for their content.)

THE FACTS
Writer questions why there are so few adaptations from works by black authors.

THE SPIN
Despite Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (my goodness, what a long title) garnering a heap of praise from the film community, there are very few films that are adapted from novels penned by black authors.

In the article, “Can’t Hollywood swing for the ‘Fences’?,” Boston Globe writer Wesley Morris tackles Hollywood’s reluctance to pull material from black literature.

In his piece he asked why can Denzel Washington star in The Book of Eli but not in a big screen version of August Wilson’s Fences (versus the Broadway revival)?

He also goes on to add that when it comes to black films in general these days they only come from Tyler Perry.

Morris writes:

There are so few current movies about black lives based on black books that this movie needs to remind us not that it isn’t based on a true story (although it could be) but on a chilling work of fiction. The full title serves a promotional purpose: Dammit, we made a movie based on a book written by a black author!

On one hand, that’s silly: What bearing does an announcement of the movie’s provenance have on the experience of watching that movie? On the other, it’s important. In the rest of the movie universe, films adapted from novels and plays by white authors (Shakespeare, Dickens, and Neil Simon aside) don’t announce their source material. Picture it, “Ryan: Based on the Novel ‘Up in the Air’ by Walter Kirn.’’ So “Precious,’’ which is more or less an independent film, brings with it a degree of politics. “Dear Hollywood,’’ it argues, “we will keep on with these extra-strength titles until more adaptations are made.’’

The makers of “Precious’’ might be on to something. Winfrey has been the film’s biggest supporter (early last year, she and Perry signed on as executive producers). And most of the movies she’s starred in or officially backed began as books. Given her lucrative affinity for literature, imagine how effective she’d be as a proponent of film adaptations. Oprah, how would you feel about starting a book-to-movie club?

Doesn’t he have a point?

Shouldn’t more works from authors like Morrison, Hurston, Baldwin, and new black writers be afforded the same opportunities to see their work on the big screen like their white counterparts?

Would love to hear from you.

Source

YOUR SPIN: What do you think? Tell us here.

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(*The views contained herein are solely the views of their respective authors, and do not express the views of TV One. TV One does not take responsibility for their content.)