I got the need to resurrect Step N Fetchit for a quick minute. This past Saturday my boy Reggie Coleman and I went to see a play called CONFESSIONS OF STEP N FETCHIT, written by the late Matt Robinson [of Sesame Street fame] twelve years ago. Reggie is an amazingly intelligent and compassionate film editor who would move a mountain if somebody let him discuss African-Americans in early Hollywood. It's his passion. He emailed me three times before I finally committed to attending the play with him. But I let him know if it was wack, me and him were going to dook it out in the lobby of the theater. Anyway... CONFESSIONS was... dare I say, interesting. For the record, I consider myself one of those brothers who's able to discourse on blackness rather it be the the don'ts of pork to who's who in black REGRESSION. But Step N Fetchit... I never thought about more than two minutes. He was a fool. And whenever some old black and white movie would pop on the boob tube [my mother loved the Classics] and Step N Fetchit would show up scratching and lazy, she would switch the channel and say, We don't have time for that Silliness. Needless to say, Step N Fetchit became as abominable as watching the Brady Bunch in our house.

Reggie and I sat center. One row behind a group of three women who introduced themselves as Mable, her sister Mae and the Old Geezer, who were out that night to be entertained and to think. And I was like, Cool. 'Cause I love vibrant and intelligent seniors. They reaffirm brilliance ain't got to shrivel up after retirement. The play started and so did my angst. CONFESSIONS felt like a cry for acceptance. Matt Robinson apparently interviewed Lincoln Perry aka Step N Fetchit and regurgitated a speech on Why I Was a Fool And You Better Love Me. Don't get me wrong, I was eating up the info. Step was born in the Keys off the coast of Florida. His father was an entertainer. He joined a circus. His real name was Lincoln Perry. And the moniker Step N Fetchit originated from a dance where you smoothly double step to the left then turn around quick to fetch your hat from the floor. But the big revelation was when a Hollywood Movie Studio put out a casting call for a Lazy Dimwitted Black Man with long-term contract possible, and Step showed up, certain he would land the gig. And he did. When the studio execs saw him sitting under a tree, eyes bugged, lips poked, looking lost, well... the rest is cinematic history.

Many claim Step was a comedic genius. I don't doubt that. The details and specifics of his character were breath-taking. But in the play, Step claims the root of his character comes from the slave community. That since the slaves realized they'd never be rewarded for hard labor, in order to avoid it, they'd act "lazy". And that enslaved people would entertain themselves with re-enactments of a lazy slave being lazy. That made as much sense as the Devil had a Wife. The "reward" for NOT working was a beating, being sold, no food. And I can't imagine enslaved southerners deciding to be lazy and then comedy coming out of that. And if so, that requires some legit chit-chat on self-hatred inspired by enslavement in a play about one of the most talked about "bafoons" of our time.

What I was hoping for was an archeological dig into the mind of a man who DECIDED to play the part of this Lazy Lost character. And for the play to claim those were the only parts for Black folk back then is... interesting. And I'm up for that kind of conversation. But what about the indie films of Oscar Micheaux? What about actors challenged by seeking success in Hollywood or just "doing film"? What about capitalism being so dictative that the only option for black actors, if they wanted to eat well and put a roof over their heads, would be to play "stereotypical" parts? What about this not being about option at all, but simply about choice. And does any of that show up in black actors and their decision-making today? I would have liked to meditate on that. Kicked in the side with that! Because I left that play feeling cheated. Unrattled. Either Matt Robinson was unwilling to probe deeper into Step's contradictions, or Step wouldn't relinquish.

I guess the one thing I was left with was: Step N Fetchit [aka Lincoln Perry] was a self-proclaimed educated Catholic who made a clear decision to play the part of the Lazy Dimwitted Black Man which made him a movie star, and in his words that's what he wanted more than anything. Oh, and I was reminded by Mae and her siser Mable that the elderly do seek entertaining and intellectual stimulation.

Until next time,

Keith