Why Most Black People Hate the 'Harriet' Movie

The movie Harriet was supposed to be a historical biopic documentary film that was publicized as an homage to the great pioneer of the underground railroad Harriet Tubman, but was portrayed as something else. The movie was co-written by Kasi Lemmons and Gregory Allen Howard, but the way the movie was written ticked off people in the black community for several reasons. Harriet was portrayed as a female sex slave of her slave master "that was giving up the goodies up and down the underground railroad." Well, first off, British actress Cynthia Erivo (who does not like black Americans and is outspoken about it) was selected to play the lead role in the portrayal of Harriet Tubman. Erivo being selected as the lead did stir up a negative buzz because of her negative thoughts and remarks about black Americans that she has stated in interviews and posted on her social media. Erivo is a stage actress who had a debut role in the Broadway classic The Color Purple alongside Jennifer Hudson, who portrayed singer Shug Avery. Erivo is also a Tony Award-winning actress. Black America was trying to figure out how and why the directors and writers of the movie chose Erivo to play Harriet Tubman? Erivo is an accomplished stage actress, but seems to look out of place on the silver screen. Also, the black community wanted to see Harriet Tubman portrayed by a black American actress that respected the culture.

C ynthia Erivo is at the center of controversy, taking the role of Harriet as well as playing past roles as Sister Mary Clarence in a stage version of Sister Act as well as the fore-mentioned role of Celie in The Color Purple, which are roles that originated with black American female actresses. The Black community has been wondering how a woman who has a history of making negative remarks and even mocking black Americans takes a role to portray a historic icon in Black History as well as American history? The people wanted answers. Film Consultant and historian Kate Larson said, "The movie is fiction, but mirrors Tubman's life." Yet Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons portrayed a version of Harriet Tubman that was disrespectful to the Black community. The movie had Harriet running from a "black slave catcher or bounty hunter," which is not historically correct and the antagonist's role was fictitious within itself (as were over half of the main characters in the movie). Then, has Harriet in all kinds of sex scenes and having sex with the slave master. Harriet Tubman was trying to get people from point A to point B as quick as possible while saving these people's lives. Harriet did not have time to have all the sex that they showed in that film. The main reason why Black people are turned off to the movie Harriet is because the life of Harriet Tubman that most black people have studied and learned about their whole lives did not match the role that was portrayed on the screen. You have a movie that is supposed to be a biopic of an American Icon's life, but the film that you would think would be based on facts and history is flawed with fiction. The movie did gross over $12 million, which ranked #12 of all the movies shown since its release. In the last couple of days, Erivo has been doing damage control over the tweets and comments that she has said before this film. What Cynthia Erivo does not realize is that when it comes to black Americans, you cannot disrespect them and then play a role portraying one of them to try to make it go over. These are the reasons why black people hate the movie Harriet.