Zaki-Hassan
There is Always Room for Improvement
Chris Tucker, in his essay “Different Stories”, reveals a more personal side screening his concerns as an entertainer and a black actor. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, he was the youngest of six siblings. He boasts that he was raised in a spiritual home where God and the Church had a major influence on him. Chris tucker defines Hollywood as materialistic: it is a struggle for money, from both ends. The producer is trying to get a hit, while the actor is trying to get the role of his life. Even though it is tough to succeed in Hollywood, it is even tougher for black actors: “Its hard for everyone but its harder if you’re black” (Tucker 140). But a trip to Ethiopia made Tucker aware of the other lives in this world that don’t have much money or food, but what they do have, they share. What surprised him the most is that they overall they are happy: “Be broke on the street, still royal!” (Tucker 139). An additional matter that Tucker sheds light on is that black history is too focused on slavery, which is not the only history that black people have. “It’s time to for us to look forward and start inspiring ourselves to greater heights—but never forget” (Tucker 141).Movies fail to parade the black success stories that should be put on television. Chris Tucker emphasizes that America needs to show more black successful people in movies and that should be a motivation for other black entertainers to arise. He utters these inspiring words of his hopes for the future” black history—goes back thousands and thousands of years, and I think black America is gonna tell stories like those”(Tucker 142).
