Real African Americans

I cannot begin to tell you what it means to me as a 32-year-old African American woman to learn that, for whatever reason, the movie industry believes the African American movie-going audience consists solely of young males (“ ‘Waiting’ to Start a Trend?” Calendar, Jan. 9). This assumption blatantly ignores more than half of the African Americans who attend movies.

Even more troubling is the suggestion that there are those who opine that the response to “Waiting to Exhale” is some kind of unique occurrence or “phenomenon.” A point of clarification for those who are apparently unaware: Being African American in America is not a “trend.” Wanting to see films accurately portraying your life, friends, relatives and loved ones is not a “phenomenon.”

“Waiting to Exhale” is the first movie in a long time to touch on the dramatic lives of modern-day African Americans without over-emphasizing racial conflicts with Caucasian America. The characters in the film are attractive and interesting and have characteristics of real people.

Contrary to popular opinion, African Americans do not spend every waking hour of our lives pondering our plight in America or the damage caused by slavery. We would like to see more movies about our real lives and who we really are and not what the movie industry has perceived us to be. I hope that “Waiting to Exhale” and other movies will finally acknowledge that African Americans are as multidimensional, interesting and real as the rest of America.

RACHEL M. LAMOTHE, Esq.)

Los Angeles