One thing I need to work on is my all or nothing attitude. It shows up in most aspects of my personality:
- Eat sprouts or Eat garbage
- Exercise regularly or Not at all
- Work very hard or Not at all
- Publish theblackactor.com the way I want to or Not at all
I’m thinking a bit of balance would do me some good. Anyway…
I have been unable devote the amount of time required to properly publish theblackactor.com. And so, I haven’t published anything here in quite some time.
Sometimes I have a thought and I want to write about it – but I don’t, because doing so invariably means watching films, doing research, etc. I can’t.
But today I came across something, I just felt compelled to talk about.
Clifton Powell (by the way, he was one of the many actors on my “to talk about” list, and I was going to get to him. There is something interesting about him that I wanted to explore. Nothing earth shattering. Anyway… Clifton Powell comes to theblackactor.com now, via a news story).
Today, it was reported by TMZ that Mr. Powell was charged in a rape.
I read some of the comments on Mediatakeout.com. I read the first 30 commenters. Here are snippets from 11 of them. Um… I didn’t bother with quotation marks. LOL.
- Damn he acting the n*gga he play in the movies
- wow the same way he act lol.
- WHO THE HELL WUD TRUST HIM AFTER THAT MOVIE WHEN HE PLAYED A RAPIST WARDEN AND THAT MUSTACHE JUST CRIES STEVE HARVEY/RAPIST
- you know he kinda look like the dude that would do that ish
- he look like the type
- He look like he will take some puzzy!
- Not surprised.
- I hate to say it but I agree with macdaddychris. (Agrees with 7 above)
- Not surprised.
- Yep thats about right he got that look lol
- He looks like a woman beater or maybe those were the characters he played on TV. Well I guess he played them that well.
Whether or not he raped someone is not in question here – the fact that people think he may have, largely based on the characters he has played, as well as his physical appearance is indeed noteworrthy.
For a full one-third of the commenters, Clifton Powell… a steadily employed actor for more than three decades… not in the news before… was thought to be capable of raping a woman… simply because of his facial structure… his complexion… the shape of his eyes… his mouth… and whatever else the commenters and others see when they look at him.
It doesn’t help that Clifton Powell often portrays menacing types. Does he portray a menacing type because he looks menacing to one-third of the people in a random population? Maybe.
When they look at Clifton Powell, I wonder if one-third of Hollywood screenwriters, casting directors, producers, and others see a menace… or an actor.
Imagine, being stamped as a would-be rapist because some people conclude you look like one, or have determined that you played the bad guy, one time too many.
Damn.