I loved The Color Purple BUT it was totally not appropriate for a child to watch. And except for Shug's father, and the husband of the missionary, and maybe one or two minor black characters.... all the men were horrid. Which didn't make the book not worth reading or the movie not worth watching, but ...

Another movie I saw was Precious. It is a gripping movie but, again, it is not representative of black people in general.

It's like Slumdog Millionaire. My parents are from India, and I watched and enjoyed the movie BUT would be highly offended if people thought that was how all Indians lived.

The thing is, there were sitcoms that were much better representations of black people - not just the Cosbys, but there was Family Matters, which portrayed an ordinary, loving black family with normal, healthy kids - and an annoying neighbor. But growing up in New York City, I could imagine a neighbor like Laura Winslow and I becoming friends.

The black kids I knew were NOT drug dealers or promiscuous or killers. They were nice kids who were in my advanced placement class or who I met in dance or other normal activities.