Is you ready to "Act Da Fool"?

Yes I know I made a grammatical error in the title


I know I'm late on this video, but I wanted to show you guys who haven't seen it yet, and to voice my opinion on the video that Proenza Schouler released this summer for Spring/Summer 2011, called "Act Da Fool". You may have to watch more than once to actually understand it.






Okay, so the first time I watched it, it was without doing my formal research which eventually persuades my thinking in a way. I'm open to all views. Well, initially I thought that...

was past degrading and that the ebonics used in the video didn't quite represent all of the african-american race. The stereotype that women were beat by their father, and drink 40 ounces, clearly was based off of stereotypes that these caucasian men heard growing up. I'm not knocking them, it was a very well produced video. I just took offense at first.


However, when the duo Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough who design Proenza Schouler went on interview explaining their reason behind the video.



... okay. Well, I wasn't really quite convinced with their explanation. They said that they based it off a movie called "Kids" which was written by Harmony Korine

Apparently he was the one who conceived the idea, because his movie was about poor teenagers and skaters in New York City. His cast was multicultural. (Random but you will see why I said this)



Fast foward to the end of the video when the credits come rolling in. Well, they stated the stylists, and the people who worked on it. Mel Ottenberg, Scott Pierce, Adam Robinson, Lauren Edelstein, Lauren Taylor. Not one of these people are black. (Go ahead try google for yourself). They also gave special thanks to some people Jen Brill, Bryan Boone, Ruth Inouye, Marisa Pucci, Mary Pierson, Aaron Rose, Shea Steele, Rachel Korine, Charles-Marie Anthonioz, Jeff Rudes, Shirley Cook, Alejandro Cardenas, Stephanie Dane, and Justinian Kfoury. Still no black face.



Which brings me to the moral of the post. If you're going to do something so extreme, do your research. Okay, you picked a director who made a movie about impoverished minority kids. But your staff was Caucasian who clearly have no clue what it feels to be a black young woman who has to face the everyday life in the 'hood' with no role models to look up to and constantly indulging in alcoholic drinks and doing things they shouldn't be doing. Who gets abused verbally and/or physically by their father. Who wants to make it out the hood. No, I don't care what no one says but none of the people listed above have ANY first-hand experience with that. If they did, this video would have played out better. The ebonics was shitty, I myself use ebonics from time to time, as well as my friends and I've never heard anyone speak like that or use vulgarity in the way that was depicted in the video at topic. 40 Ounces are so jaded, women usually now drink something more sophisticated. Yes, even the impoverished ones. If theirs one thing that we do, it's spend money on out liquour. One cast member worked at the local zoo, another at a school for the blind, one is a double dutch champion. Where is the 'baby mama' on welfare. Clearly the cast was picked by beautiful black women who actually have money. Not the real women in the 'hood' who can actually help you with making the video more authentic. *sigh* I knew eventually something like this would surface the internet. Sorry, I'm not sold.