The writer and director of Loqueesha, (yes, seriously) has responded after Black Twitter became enraged once discovering the existence of the new independent film where a White man pretends to be a Black woman to get a job at a radio station so that he can (get this) pay his son’s private school tuition.
Jeremy Saville, wrote, directed and stars in the controversial film, which is slated for limited release on July 12, according to IMDB, follows a White man as he uses auditory blackface to fulfill the tired stereotype of the strong, sassy, Black woman, as played by Mara Hall.
Black Twitter is not here for this movie at all, and rightfully so. Critics immediately began to point out the more obvious problematic aspects of the movie’s premise, but also the layers and layers of societal and racial issues associated with it.
They compared the film to Soul Man, the 1986 comedy where a White man wears blackface to gain admission into Harvard.
Critics also jabbed at the strongly coded title, and the unlikeliness that a Black woman would ever be offered a job “sight unseen” right away.
Saville tried to defend his choices over the weekend by comparing his work to the 2004 movie White Chicks where the Wayans brothers go undercover as a pair of privileged white heiresses to protect them from potential kidnappers.
He even went as far as posting a picture of himself with star Marlon Wayans (as if it were some type of implied co-sign.)
“With @marlonwayans. @LoqueeshaMovie meet #WhiteChicks. Have a great weekend everybody,” he wrote.
Wayans immediately responded Friday night, shortly after social media erupted.
“I hate when people tag me in their bullshit,” he wrote, seemingly referring to Saville. “It’s annoying as f–k.”
Like Wayans, Black Twitter was not pacified by the picture. See what else they had to say about Loqueesha below: