Tyler Perry Solidifies His Place In History With 330 Acre Film Complex
October 16, 2019
Tyler Perry is a media juggernaut. And with the opening of his own studio lot in Atlanta, he has officially solidified his place as a GOAT in the entertainment industry.
But getting to this point has been a long, perilous journey for Perry.
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With a past steeped in poverty and abuse, Perry learned from a young age to believe in and protect his dreams. His early 20s were a time marked with constant discouragement from others; however, Perry didn’t let their words affect him.
As he recalls in his spiritual book, Higher Is Waiting, “If your dream is bigger than anything they could imagine, they will try to tear it down. They do it because your dreams feel as far away to them as the moon and the stars. Your dreams make them feel small.”
Armed with such wisdom, Perry rose from homelessness to media mogul-status. And on Saturday, Oct. 5, with “22 movies, 20 plays, and eight TV shows” under his belt, he celebrated the opening of his history-making studio with a star-studded gala.
Countless of Black Hollywood’s biggest names showed their support by attending the grand opening event for his new film complex, which spans a groundbreaking 330 acres, once used as a Confederate Army base - the ultimate act of reclamation. Legends like Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, and Will Smith all walked the red carpet; the aforementioned celebrities even took photos in front of respective sound stages established in their name.
To the Los Angeles Times, Perry explained, “I am paying tribute to people who have inspired me, who all paved a brick for me to be here.” The complex includes 12 sound stages in all, honoring other legends like Sidney Poitier, Whoopi Goldberg, Spike Lee, Della Reese, and John Singleton.
Still, while Perry has accomplished so much in Hollywood, he believes Tinseltown ignores his innumerable successes. In an interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning, Perry expressed that “Hollywood doesn’t necessarily speak the language [of the African-American stories he tells]... So to them, it’s like, ‘What is this?’ But I know what I do is important. I know what I do touches millions of people around the world.”
And throughout the years, the people he’s impacted have spent millions to receive the messages he depicts on screen. The Madea franchise alone has grossed $614.82 million.
While ignored, Perry did receive his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame recently. But instead of spending his time attempting to appease Hollywood, Tyler Perry was, as he noted when being honored with the Ultimate Icon award at the 2019 BET Awards, “down in Atlanta building my [own seat at the table].”
Google is under fire for its role in the ongoing facial recognition debate. Recently it was reported that the major tech entity targeted a homeless population in an effort to improve the way this technology recognizes dark skin. The implications of what this means for Black people might be devastating because of how facial recognition has long worked against the interests of people with skin that isn’t lighter or whiter.
Subcontracted workers were sent out to collect data for Google. The Guardian reported that they were “instructed to target people with ‘darker skin tones’ and those who would be more likely to be enticed by the $5 gift card, including homeless people and college students.”
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A contractor who worked for them stated, “They said to target homeless people because they’re the least likely to say anything to the media.” This raised concerns about the ethics of the project and what would be done with the data itself.
The subcontractors used tactics that were meant to deceive people, such as telling them they were playing a “selfie game” and that they were taking part in a survey. People were pressured to sign consent forms without reading them while the phones they were given recorded footage of their faces. The deception used to collect the data led to more questions about the use of facial recognition itself which has long had issues around race.
For example, it was also reported that Amazon’s facial recognition technology misidentifies Black people. A test performed by the ACLU “falsely identified 28 members of Congress as people who have been arrested for crimes” and of those misidentified, the majority were Black. Ironically, in Google’s case, their project was allegedly being done to help reduce racial bias in facial recognition.
Yet, how the company went about it points to an underlying distrust Black Americans have for “research” like this as well as distrust in the collections of data that are likely to aid law enforcement.
Black activists in cities like Detroit have been fighting against law enforcement’s growing interest in using facial recognition technology. This has been happening largely because of the research and experiments that highlight the failures of this technology when it comes to correctly identifying Black people. Since Black people already have long-standing issues with identification and law enforcement, what’s happening now is only making that distrust deeper and worse in a more modern context. 
330 acres of Georgia soil - grounds that were once operated by legions of Confederate soldiers - is now the first studio owned by a Black American mogul: Mr. Tyler Perry. But this extensive film complex will do far more than bless us with more movies.
It will also be used as a compound to house trafficked, homeless, and displaced women and LGBTQ youth.
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The groups are two of the most marginalized and vulnerable communities in the nation, especially in Georgia. According to the state’s Governor, Brian Kemp, sex trafficking is a huge issue. “In this city, Atlanta has become a hub for human trafficking. Innocent children are simply being sold for sex. Evil people committing evil deeds all to turn a profit.”
During the most recent Super Bowl in Atlanta alone, “the FBI says it arrested 169 people over 11 days. That includes 23 traffickers and 34 people attempting to engage in sex acts with minors. As for the victims, nine teenage sex trafficking victims were rescued. The youngest victim was 14-years-old.”
“3,600 minors are sold into sex slavery every year in the state of Georgia,” states Street Grace - a Georgia-based nonprofit working to stop youth sexual exploitation. “That’s enough to fill 72 school buses with children.”
Black women are more likely than any other race to become victims of sex trafficking, as well. According to the FBI, “40 percent of victims of sex trafficking are [Black] Americans.” The vast majority of that percentage are Black girls and women.
The FBI also noted that “59 percent of all juvenile prostitution arrests involve [Black] Americans.” This is on top of law enforcement being “more likely to see a Black sex trafficking victim as a prostitute and not as someone needing help, trying to find solutions toward keeping our girls safe may require a radical examination of the core beliefs American society is currently based on.”
Tyler Perry is hoping to dedicate part of this life’s work to this issue.
With CBS This Morning’s Gayle King, Perry expressed the legacy he wishes to leave: “I’ll tell you what I’m most excited about… building a compound for trafficked women, girls, homeless women, LGBTQ youth who are put out or displaced. And having a compound that is a beautiful place right here somewhere on this 330 acres, where they’re trained in the business and they become self-sufficient, they live in nice apartments, there’s daycare, there’s all of these wonderful things that allows them to reenter society and then pay it forward again. That’s what I hope to do soon.”
Amber Guyger killed Botham Jean - there’s no question about it. Instead, what remains after the former-Dallas cop’s 10 year sentence are questions about motive, race, and punishment.
Much of the response to Guyger’s sentence has been frustration around what many feel is leniency because of her whiteness and authority as a former member of law enforcement.
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Prosecutors requested that Guyger be sentenced to 28 years based on the age Jean would have been had she not killed him. One juror, however, said she got 10 instead because he didn’t think Botham “would want to take harsh vengeance.” He went on to say, “I think he would want to forgive her.”
The jury, made up of 8 women and 4 men, was diverse but their decision unanimous. A Black woman juror said she couldn’t “give her 28 years” and said this killing shouldn’t be compared to other police killings. Yet, that reasoning is not enough for the many who have protested the killing of Jean - because he WAS killed and it WAS by the hands of a police officer.
This is an event that happens regularly to Black people at a disproportionate rate, which greatly exceeds Black America’s white counterparts.
Jurors making media appearances and talking about the sympathy they felt for Amber Guyger haven’t stopped the waves of frustration. People are still asking, “Would they have this sort of compassion if Guyger wasn’t a white police officer?” But officials like Judge Kemp, who oversaw the case, have been quick in their attempts to dismiss any claims that Guyger was shown preferential treatment.
Judge Kemp even became emotional in a recent interview and responded to the ongoing uneasiness about her hugging Guyger: “Frankly, I don’t think I would be getting this criticism if Miss Guyger were a Black woman. I hate that we limit our compassion to one race.”
Botham’s father mentioned that though he didn’t want to see her “rot in hell” in prison, he expected a tougher sentence. “We expected a conviction, and I felt the sentence may not have been sufficient based on the crime. I think it could’ve been a little more. But the jury has spoken.”
Botham is gone - no one can truly know what he would have said about the outcome of his killer’s trial. What’s not gone is the racial inequality that causes these debates to happen in the first place. But disproportionate sentencing, arrests, and killings of Black people at the hands of the criminal justice system exposes the racist contradictions at the heart of it all. 
The trial of Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer who killed Botham Jean in his own apartment, has ended in a ten-year conviction. Yet, the troubling story isn’t over now that one key witness was gunned down and another threatened and harassed.
The murder of witness Joshua Brown has raised the ire of Black activists who already felt the trial was compromised by police proximity and power. His death appears to have confirmed those suspicions for many.
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The Dallas Police Department says that it has identified suspects in the killing of Brown, who was an important witness for the prosecution. Many don’t trust those findings. In fact, initial reports of his killing were also met with Black skepticism surrounding the timing and circumstances.
Since Brown gave emotional testimony as a neighbor of Botham Jean, people worried that his life may have been in danger. Now, his murder presents one troubling question that people are waiting to see if time will answer: was his execution retaliation by police or white supremacists?
Another witness, who captured the video of Guyger after the fatal shooting, also faced disturbing consequences. “Bunny,” as she prefers to be called, received various death threats, was fired from her job, and labeled a Black “extremist” when her identity was leaked to the public.
In an interview, Bunny questioned the validity of the narrative put forth by Guyger about what happened that night. Though she wasn’t at liberty to reveal extensive details, what she did express was doubt about how anyone could kill someone in the wrong apartment on accident.
Now that Brown is dead, concerns have been raised about her safety.
The entire case has raised issues around trust and suspicion between the Black community and the police, especially since Botham Jean was indeed murdered by a police officer in his own home. Though Guyger has made claims that she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own, it doesn’t take away from the reality that “Black people are more than twice as likely to be killed by the police than white people.”
For now, concerns remain that the police are retaliating against witnesses and that racist vigilantes may be seeking revenge. Brown’s murder has even led activists and experts to call for an independent and objective authority to investigate; with numerous people suspecting police involvement, their investigative efforts are not trusted in determining the truth about this tragedy.
The Guyger case may have ended, but the ongoing problems it’s exposed certainly have not.
The Amber Guyger trial pushed a slew of details about her personal and professional life into public view. Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of this case, though, is the relationship between her and her former police partner, Officer Martin Rivera.
It was quickly revealed that Guyger and Rivera’s relationship went far beyond the bounds of professionalism. The two were involved in an ongoing affair. In fact, on the night Guyger killed Botham Jean, the police partners shared an intimate exchange of text messages. However, details of their text thread are murky to some extent, partially because Rivera deleted the messages from his phone after the killing, leaving many questioning his integrity.
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Guyger also sent texts where she made several remarks about Black people leading up to her killing of Botham Jean.
CBS 11 reported that Guyger shared “racially insensitive text messages… with other officers – including her former partner and extramarital lover Sgt. Martin Rivera.” One of the messages referenced during the trial was about the 2018 Martin Luther King Day parade. When one of Guyger’s coworkers asked, “When does this end lol,” Guyger responded with a text message that stated: “When MLK is dead… oh wait…”
The Texas Tribune revealed other texts from March 9, 2018, which exposed her and her partner’s perspective on the work ethic of Black coworkers:
Rivera: Damn I was at this area with 5 different black officers !!!
Rivera: Not racist but damn.
Guyger: Not racist but just have a different way of working and it shows.
Rivera’s participation in such racist exchanges via text led to many critiques of him and his troubling past.
Rivera has had encounters with race and policing before. Local activists and family members are calling for the reopening of a case where he killed an unarmed Black man. The Dallas News stated that “[o]n March 22, 2007, Rivera shot 20-year-old Brandon Washington outside a Pleasant Grove convenience store, where the man was eating an allegedly stolen candy bar.” Rivera, having been on the force well over a decade, kept his job after killing the unarmed young man.
Guyger’s partner and the relationship they shared with race only served to reinforce the points that many made during her trial. The narrative that the shooting of Botham Jean was completely an accident was compromised by the evidence presented.
Aside from being partners on the job, now both Guyger and her former partner share the experience of having killed unarmed Black men. This fact is one that will stain any relationship law enforcement claims to want with the Black community in Dallas. 
For Black Americans, having a Black teacher in school - especially during the crucial elementary school years - can be life-changing. Research has consistently shown that it has a significant impact.
According to a study done by the Institute of Labor Economics, “if a low-income black male student in third, fourth, or fifth grade has a black teacher, he is 39 percent less likely to drop out of high school. And if a low-income black male or female student of the same age has a black teacher (especially of the same gender), they are more likely to plan to attend a four-year college.”
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The effect is even more profound when they have at least two Black teachers. But teachers of color represent only 18% of all teachers in America - and Black men only 2% - despite the fact that nearly half of all students in the United States are children of color.
That’s why it’s so significant that Rodney Robinson, a Black man, has been named 2019 Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief State School Officers. He teaches Social Studies in Richmond, VA, at the Richmond Juvenile Justice Center - a school for young people who are moving through the criminal justice system.
Robinson is passionate about working with “the most vulnerable in society,” addressing the school-to-prison pipeline, increasing access to mental health services for young people, and restorative rather than punitive justice.
He’s been described by Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the president of the National Education Association, as “a beacon of light” and “a mentor, a leader and a role model in the fight for racial and social justice in education.”
When asked to describe his priorities, Robinson explained: “This year I hope to be the voice for my students and all students who feel unseen, unheard, unappreciated and undervalued in America.”
Having a Teacher of the Year who explicitly advocates for social and racial justice, and holds low-income, justice system-impacted youth of color as his priority may inspire people with similar priorities to join the profession.
An analysis by The Undefeated has shown that “the percentage of teachers of color in the workforce grew at twice the rate of white teachers from 1987 to 2012.” This is great news - but further analysis has shown that despite these gains, Black teachers still leave the profession at much higher rates than white teachers.
Time will tell if Rodney Robinson’s prominence throughout 2019 will affect the shortage of Black male teachers in America.