Brother To Brother

The movie Brother to Brother is about a young African American gay men named Perry. In the movie you see all the struggles Perry phases at school and within the black community for being gay. In the movie Perry also meets an old man name Bruce Nugent a gay writer and poet from the Harlem Renaissance. Throughout the film you see Perry and Bruce become very close. Bruce shares all his stories from when he was young. Bruce also tells Perrry about how he worked with very famous artist and tried to create a magazine where they told stories about their black community that lived in Harlem. And he tells him how their worked got turned down because it didn't speak to the white community


In the movie the publisher liked Thurman and Hurston's work but he wanted them to make minor changes in order for him to publish their work. He wanted them to make adjustments to their writing to make it more marketable "the public wants danger, sex and violence from Harlem stories." the publisher tells Thurman. He also tells Thurman that the white community sees Harlem as a dark place and he should maintain this image and that "a good writer has to make concessions to what the public wants" in order for their work to be successful.  But Thurman rejects this offer because he wants to stay true to his black community. Additionally the publisher tells Hurston that she needs to rewrite her work so that the white audience would understand it. "You are not writing in easy to read English that people can understand. How do you expect people to get it?” She tells him that this is English and that the people that she is writing to would understand it, "I am not speaking for these people, I am these people." Hurston say and she also refuses to change her work because she says she is not trying to write for the white community, she is writing for African Americans that live in Harlem.

The publisher wants them both to write to the white audience.  He knows that that is where they will make more money.  Hurston and Thurman refuse because they are not trying to write to the white audience and they want to stay true to their story the black community.  I think that the writers were right to refuse to make these concessions to their writing. They were not trying to write to the white audience, they were trying to write to the people that knew what Harlem was like and who live there. Even though they could of went far with their writing if they would have changed it, they didn't and I respect them for that.

In my opinion neither the writers nor the publisher were wrong. I feel that the publisher was only trying to help them become successful and go far with their writing. Sometimes for someone to accomplish where they want to be in life they have to make sacrifices. In this case the publisher felt that Hurston and Thurman should change their work for it to published, and that would be their sacrifice. Its not that the publisher was racist nor he disliked their work, but he felt that their work wasn't what the audience that would buy it wanted. However I completely understand Hurston and Thurman, they weren't trying to change their stories just so that the white audience would like it or understand it. They weren’t trying to speak to white people; they were speaking to people like them, African Americans from Harlem.