Urban Thought Collective

One of the many things that Queen Latifah loves about her new movie, “The Secret Life of Bees,” is that it offers a gentler vision of life in the Jim Crow south than we may be used to seeing onscreen.

For one thing, the Oscar-nominated actress is excited to play a character that was ahead of her time but was also like a lot of unsung sisters who created lives of love, happiness and prosperity in the midst of segregation. “I just love her! She’s so loving and nurturing and confident. She owns her own business and owns property in the south,” Latifah gushes about August Boatwright, the motherly bee keeper who invites a runaway white teen (Dakota Fanning) and her black nanny (Jennifer Hudson) into the big pink house she shares with her siblings (Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo) in 1960s South Carolina.

Racist violence is part of the Bees storyline, but it isn’t the focus of the plot. Latifah finds that refreshingly real. “It wasn’t like people were running around all day going, ‘Kill the niggers!’ and ‘Kill whitey!’” she points out. “With this movie you get to see what normal life was like. (But) when you hit that line of anger and violence of bigotry and racism you see it. It’s very clear. But you also see that there were a lot of people who didn’t like it to be that way and wanted it to change.”

Change is a word we’re hearing a lot during these politically historic days. Queen Latifah believes that Barack Obama’s candidacy is a clear sign that many Americans are ready to confront the racial and cultural issues that have kept us divided over the generations. “I think, ultimately, that we are Americans and (although) we’re not all the same we fundamentally do want our country to be prosperous. Some disagree on the way we have to get to that point but I think it’s something that we generally desire.”

That’s why Latifah is down with Barack Obama. “I hope he wins because I think it will continue to usher in the types of positive connections that we need to make with one another and sort of the old way of doing things will move out to a new way of communicating and working with each other in the future,” she says.

Speak on it, Queen! Our country still has a lot of growing up to do when it comes to race relations but I truly believe most rank-and-file Americans would like to live in a world where we at least get along and where everybody has a shot.

“The Secret Life of Bees” opens in theaters this Friday (October 17).

Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents.

THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!

Cameron Turner is a Los Angeles-area native whose editorials, entertainment news features and audio documentaries have appeared on national radio networks, online and in print for over 20 years.